Application of Genomic Data for PCR Screening of Bet v 1 Conserved Sequence in Clinically Relevant Plant Species

Bet v 1 is a highly immunogenic protein, which is the main cause of sensitivity to birch pollen and is described as the main birch allergen. Despite the structural similarity, Bet v 1 homologs show different properties and immunoreactivity. Here, the bioinformatic algorithms were applied for known Bet v 1 homologous nucleic acids sequences to find homology and conserved regions. Genomic sequences of PR proteins of two different fruit species, which allergens belong to PR proteins of the same type as Bet v 1, were selected to design degenerate primers. Subsequently, screening of the presence of Bet v 1 conserved genomic sequence was performed in 45 clinically relevant plant species

Analysis of selected determinants of alimentation hygiene of school children

The aim of the work was an analysis of nutriotion and hygienic habits of students while staying at school as well as analysis of catering hygiene in the school catering establishment. Method for obtaining information, a questionnaire was developed for this purpose (355 respondents, aged 7 – 15 years). We have focused on the awareness of the issues of healthy nutrition, the observance of the principles of personal hygiene, prioritising certain dishes and drinks, the food, the overall level of quality of the knowledge of the risk and the overall level of hygiene of catering in the school meals catering establishment. The results have shown that it is necessary to increase the awareness and education in the areas of healthy eating and hygiene principles and achieve the mutual cooperation of students, families, and schools

Investigation of abundant treated sea sand (ATSS) with different percentages in concrete brick making ratio 1:3

This study is to investigate the Abundant Treated Sea Sand (ATSS) with different percentages as material replacing in concrete brick making ratio 1:3. The abundant means that it is supplies are more than sufficient. By relating to this study, the ATSS is same as normal sea sand but it was located far away from sea water exposure. The field of studies covers crucial parameters in determining the flexural and drying shrinkage. A total of 200 ATSS concrete bricks with dimensions of 225 mm in length, 105 mm in width, and 75 mm in depth were prepared and been divided into two group with an equal numbers according to different type of testing. Every of 100 ATSS concrete brick in each of the test had five different replacements of ATSS percentages. There were 20%, 15%, 10%, 5% and 0% as the control mixture. All the samples were only cured under water curing for 7 and 28 days before testing. The water to cement ratio of 0.40 and cement to aggregates ratio 1:3 were applied to all of the sample mixtures. In accordance to the drying shrinkage testing, the 10% ATSS mixture shows the highest drying shrinkage strain compared to other mixture at indoor condition while 0% ATSS mixture shows the greatest drying shrinkage strain reading than other mixture at outdoor condition. By according to the BS 6073, it requires 0.65 MJa as a minimum flexural strength for the building materials to be used in structural applications. The final result representated that the control sample did not achieved the minimum flexural strength and the ATSS mixtures also did not meet or exceed the flexural strength of control mixtures. The study finally demonstrated that the period of abundant sea sand treated must be extended due to get the lower chloride content

COMPARISON OF THE QUALITY OF VEGETABLE OILS DESIGNED FOR THE FRYING FOOD

The object of the research was to investigate the quality of vegetable oils for cooking food. The analysis used two types of oils - oil Fritol and Promienna. Both oils were purchased commercially. Oil changes were observed at frying French fries. At the same changes were observed oil stored at room temperature and the temperature in the refrigerator. The determined parameters included the measurement of polar materials in oil with electronic device Testo 265 for measuring the quality of cooking oil. Determination of change in the texture of oil during the oil deterioration by device Texturometer TA.XT Plus and determination the peroxide value by STN EN ISO 3960:2007. The work is also evaluating the results of the studied parameters. In all compared cases based on the content of the TPM showed higher heat resistance oil Fritol and sample of oil stored in the refrigerator.https://doi.org/10.5219/21

Verification of the food safety management system in deep frozen food production plant

In work is presented verification of food safety management system of deep frozen food. Main emphasis is on creating set of verification questions within articles of standard STN EN ISO 22000:2006 and on searching of effectiveness in food safety management system. Information were acquired from scientific literature sources and they pointed out importance of implementation and upkeep of effective food safety management system.

Evaluation of elisa method to detection of cow β-lactoglobulin in sheep milk and sheep milk products

The aim of work was to optimalize the ELISA method to detect the adulteration of sheep milk and sheep milk products by cow milk in the laboratory. We have focused on laboratory testing of ELISA kit (β-Lactoglobulin ELISA Set, SEDIUM R&D) for detection of cow β-Lg in sheep milk order to obtain high-quality, reliable and economically advantageous method suitable for routine use in practice. The results shown that for the quality of adulteration determination  it is necessary to verify the sensitivity of applied kit by the samples dilution in accordance with the producer declared quantification range contained in the manual ELISA kit. The starting point for obtaining of relevant data was to create separate regression curves with high deter­mination coefficient, which allowed to quickly and easily detect the cow milk additions in sheep milk, cloddish sheep and Slovak sheep cheese

A thaumatin-like genomic sequence identification in Vitis vinifera l., stormy wines and musts based on direct pcr

Direct polymerase chain reaction method was use to amplify a thaumatin-like sequence of Vitis vinifera L. in grapes as well as in stormy wines and musts. Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) of Vitis vinifera possess beside its function in abiotic and biotic stress response another one - they are able to cause protein haze in wine unless removed prior to bottling. Direct PCR is an approach where omission of DNA extraction is typical prior the amplification of the target site of plant genome. Crude extract or small pieces of plant tissues are used in the analysis directly without steps of extraction and purification of gDNA. The biological material that was used in analysis was collected during August - October 2017 in local stores and winery Sabo and comprises from cultivars Iršai, Muškát, Savignon Blanc, Svätovavrinecké, Dornfelder and Pálava. Direct PCR was performed by a cutted piece of grape tissue and a dilution buffer was use in 1:2 for stormy wine or must, respectively. Direct amplification of thaumatin-like protein sequence of Vitis vinifera was performed along with the control reactions with the primers for conserved region of plant chloroplast. Possitive amplification of thaumatin-like allergen sequence resulted in 570 bp amplicon. The most abundant amplicons were amplified in stormy wines, followed by musts and the amplicons from grapes were weaker when comparing them to others. The amplicon specificity checking of obtained PCR product of thaumatin-like allergen was performed by restriction cleavage by Psi I and resulted in restriction amplicons of the 80 bp, 81 bp, 94 bp and 315 bp in length. Confirmation of the amplicon specificity by restriction cleavage support the potential of direct PCR to become a reproducible method that will be fully applicable in routine analysis of not only plant genomes in the future, but it was demonstrated, that it works in liquids, too.

Selected parameters of quality and safety of herbal tea

The aim of this work was to assess the heavy metal presence and possible microbiological contamination in herbal teas. Evaluation of selected tea products was performed from Nitra locality during years 2009 - 2013. Microscopic filamentous fungi detection, bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. were compared to requirements given in the Codex Alimentarius of Slovakia. The highest permissible limit for microscopic filamentous fungi was not exceeded (in 32 observed herbal tea samples). For incidence of Escherichia coli, 93 samples were investigated and for Salmonella spp., 91 herbal tea samples. No sample showed the presence of Salmonella spp., and at E. coli maximum permitted presence was detected below limit. Among chemical parameters, cadmium, lead and mercury content were monitored. The highest amount of lead and mercury was found in year 2012. In 2009, the highest cadmium content was found. The average content of lead in all 100 inspected herbal tea samples was 0.784 mg.kg-1 so all the samples met requirements defined in the legislation. The mean content of mercury (98 investigated herbal tea samples) was 0.0161 mg.kg-1 so all samples met the requirements as well. Average cadmium content was 0.1702 mg.kg-1 while the highest permitted limit for cadmium is 1.0 mg.kg-1. All herbal tea samples were in accordance with the legislation except one (white willow bark tea) with a very high content of cadmium (4.36 mg.kg-1)

Microbiological quality of fresh and heat treated cow's milk during storage

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the microbiological quality of raw milk from milk vending machine and heat treated milk during storage. There were analyzed 120 samples of milk (30 samples of fresh milk, 30 samples of raw milk stored 4 day at 4 °C, 30 samples of heat treated milk - 70 °C  stored 4 day at 4 °C and 30 samples of heat treated milk - 100 °C stored 4 day at 4 °C). Total viable counts (TVC), coliform bacteria (CB) and microscopic filamentous fungi (MFF) were determined by microbiological analysis. Plate dilution method were used for microbiological analysis. The number of total viable counts (TVC) in fresh milk ranged from 4.08 log KTJ.mL-1 to 4.89 CFU.mL-1. TVC in raw milk after storage ranged from 5.31 log CFU.mL-1 to 6.81 log CFU.mL-1. TVC in heat treated milk with temperature 70 °C after storage ranged from 3.89 log CFU.mL-1 to 4.45 log CFU.mL-1 and TVC in heat treated milk with temperature 100 °C after storage ranged from 2.96 log KTJ.mL-1 to 3.91 log KTJ.mL-1 in heat treated milk with temperature 100 °C after storage. The number of CB were in range from 1.49 log CFU.mL-1 to 1.89 log CFU.mL-1 in fresh milk, from 1.99 log CFU.mL-1 to 2.61 log CFU.mL-1 in raw stored milk. Coliform bacteria were not present in heat-treated milk samples. The values of MFF ranged from 0 log CFU.mL-1 to 2.01 log CFU.mL-1 in fresh milk, from 1.43 log CFU.mL-1 to 3.98 log CFU.mL-1 in raw milk after storage, from 1.33 log CFU.mL-1 to 3.41 log CFU.mL-1 in heat treated milk with temperature 70 °C after storage and from 1.30 log CFU.mL-1 to 3.32 log CFU.mL-1 in heat treated milk with temperature 100 °C after storage

The prevalence of Salmonella infections in laying hen flocks producing eggs and their impact on the public health

Since 2008, Slovakia has implemented the National control program of Salmonella infections in laying hen flocks. This program requires the farm operators to monitor and investigate the invasive types of Salmonella (S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium) according to STN ISO 6579. The aim of this study was to perform a microbiological examination of dust and chicken droppings samples of laying hens in the Trenčín region for the presence of Salmonella by Horizontal method according to STN ISO 6579: 2002, to compare results with the statistics across Slovakia and selected EU countries and to evaluate the impact of official controls of salmonellosis in animals and humans.  In the years 2009 - 2013 in the Trenčín region, 730 samples of dust from the conveyor belts and droppings of laying hens were taken to determine the prevalence of Salmonella in individual rearings. In these years, the incidence of positive samples was found from 0% to 29.17%. For the period from 2009 till 2013 was reported 22833 salmonellosis cases in human population of Slovakia, while in the Trenčín region it was 2636. Five-year EU-trend (2009 - 2013) showed a statistically significant decrease of salmonellosis occurence (with a mean reduction of 12% per year). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed in order to provide in-depth epidemiological assessment of salmonellosis cases in Trenčin region in relation to selected characters: etiological agens, transmission mechanism, age, location as well as seasonality of infection