Journal of Food Quality and Hazards Control
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Mar 2016

In recent decades, biotechnologists have striven to improve the quantity and quality of food supply. Producing genetically modified (GM) foods is one of the main goals and many countries all over the world have approved the distribution and consumption of the labeled GM foods in their own regions. However, there is still few groups having concerns about allergenicity of GM foods. This review highlights the pathways to ensure food safety of GM foods from view point of absence of allergens and also describes the risk assessment procedures, including bioinformatics assays, biochemical procedures, immunological assessments and animal models. According to present published database, there are few studies demonstrated that GM foods have some slight allergic effects. In this regard, the authors concluded that, at the present, producing GM foods in response to the enormous need of the universal population could be a good solution; yet assessing the allergenicity of these foods is an approach to ensure the highest safety of GM foods. On the other hand, considering important role of GM foods in decreasing hunger and achieving food security in the world, possible allergenicity of GM foods is preventable by strict regulation and extensive laboratory testing before distribution in local and global markets. Finally, according to literature review, it seems probably that there is no serious risk about allergenicity of GM foods produced and consumed until now in the world.

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a toxic compound that could be found in milk and dairy products. AFM1 is the principle hydroxylated derivative of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), formed in liver and excreted into the milk in the mammary glands of both human and lactating animals that have been fed with AFB1 contaminated diet. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report on stability of AFM1 during production of Iranian traditional kashk (ITK). This study designed to assess the effect of ITK processing on AFM1 content of cow’s milk artificially contaminated with AFM1.
ITK making consisted of production of yogurt and strained yogurt, boiling the strained yogurt to make a curd and drying the resultant curd, according to common native procedure in Iran. AFM1 content of initial yogurt, strained yogurt and dried kashk was determined using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Statistical analyses were performed by Student’s t-test and ANOVA using the SPSS 16.0 software package program.
'The mean concentration of AFM1 in final ITK was determined as 0.118 µg/kg which was significantly (p This study showed that ITK processing can effectively degrade AFM1 presented in initial raw milk and could be useful for minimizing AFM1 content of highly contaminated raw milk in dairy industries.

One of the adulterant practice in dairy industry is the use of a less costly type of milk such as cow and goat milk instead of more expensive ones especially sheep milk. The aim of the present study was to assess fraud identification of undeclared milk species in composition of sheep yogurt and cheese offered as “pure sheep” in Iranian local markets.
Samples of sheep yogurt (n=40) and cheese (n=40) were purchased randomly from supermarkets in Ahvaz, Iran. According to the information provided by the vendors, all samples contained pure sheep milk. Using species-specific primers, a multiplex PCR assay was performed to detect the fraudulent addition of cow’s or goat’s milk into the sheep products.
In the molecular assay, the limit of detection of cow’s or goat’s milk in sheep yogurt was 2%, while this limit was 4% in sheep cheese. Only 27.5% of the yogurt samples and 20% of the cheese samples contained pure sheep milk. Adulterant presences of cow’s and goat’s milk were detected in 37.5% and 22.5% of the yogurt and 35% and 17.5% of the cheese samples, respectively.
We showed high level of adulteration in the retail trade of sheep dairy products in Ahvaz, Iran. Therefore, continual surveillance on the production and sale of these products should be considered. Also, it was found that the multiplex PCR method used in this study is a useful and straightforward approach for the detection of low levels of cow’s or goat’s milk in sheep products.

Listeria monocytogenes is an important Gram-positive disease-causing bacterium existing in milk and dairy products. Inhibitory effects of the Mentha pulegium essential oil at concentrations of 0.03, 0.015, and 0.0075% on growth of L. monocytogenes were studied in Iranian white cheese during 60 days of storage.
Essential oil of M. pulegium plant, collected from north of Iran, was extracted by Clevenger apparatus and analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The antibacterial effects of the oil were evaluated by growth of the microorganism in control and treatment cheese samples. Also, sensory properties of the cheese samples containing different concentration of M. pulegium were determined. Statistical analyses were performed by ANOVA and Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD) procedure using SPSS 16.0 software.
GC/MS analysis showed that the major compounds of M. pulegium essential oil were pulegone (36.68%), piperitenone (16.88%) and 1,8 cineole (14.58%). In control group, L. monocytogenes grew in 7 days and then their growth decreased gradually during 60 days. But, in all treated samples there is a log reduction in bacterium count while the maximum growth lasted for 14 days with a significant difference (p M. pulegium essential oil not only can improve organoleptic properties of cheese but also can reduce and postpone the growth of L. monocytogenes in this product.

Given the importance of vegetables in the food pyramid, their safety is very important from view point of public health. Vegetable contamination by heavy metals can lead to bioaccumulation of these toxic and disease-causing elements in the body of consumers. Therefore, in this study, the concentration of some heavy metals, including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) in edible vegetables distributed in Shiraz, Iran was investigated.
During spring 2014, a total of 184 vegetable samples, including basil, mint, parsley, torre, tarragon, purslane, and lettuce were randomly taken from markets of Shiraz, Iran. After sample preparation, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used for determination of heavy metals concentrations. SPSS software version 16.0 with the significance level of 0.01 was used to analyze the data.
The mean concentrations of Zn, Cu, Pb, and Cd in vegetables were 59, 51, 0.17 and 0.032 mg/kg, respectively. Mean values of heavy metals concentrations of different vegetable types were significantly (p The results of sample analysis and their comparison with standard values showed that the average concentration of all of the heavy metals in the studied vegetables was below the standard levels of the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization and they had acceptable conditions for human consumption. However, considerable attention should also be paid to the potential health risk of heavy metals via other exposure pathways and other region of this country.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated originally from sourdough are probably the best candidates as biopreservatives, because they are well adapted to the non-aseptic conditions in sourdough fermentation. The aim of the present study was to study antifungal properties of a dominant endogenous LAB isolated from whole barley sourdough.
Whole barley flour from a mixture of barley varieties was purchased from a local market. The pure and single colonies obtained from streak plate of these bacteria, were subjected to species specific PCR. By sequencing of the PCR products, the dominant LAB isolate was identified. Antifungal activity of mentioned isolate and its cell-free culture filtrate (CCF) were evaluated against Aspergillus flavus and A. niger based on overlay method and fungal spore spot on mixture of medium-CCF, respectively. Statistical analyzing was performed by ANOVA and by post hoc Tukey using SAS-9.1 software.
The dominant LAB isolate was identified as Pediococcus pentosaceus that had significant (p It was concluded that the secondary metabolites of P. pentosaceus were more effective than the primary metabolites in antifungal properties. Also, its antifungal activity in neutral pH indicated this isolate produced some antifungal compounds in both logarithmic and stationary phases. Therefore, P. pentosaceus with antifungal potential would be a proper candidate as biopreservative starter or adjunct culture in sourdough bread processing.

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) as a carcinogenic and toxic compound has considerable significance from public health viewpoint. The aim of this study was to determine the level of AFM1 in pasteurized and UHT milk in West-Azerbaijan province of Iran.
A total of 360 commercial milk samples including 220 pasteurized milk and 140 ultra-high-temperature (UHT) milk were purchased randomly from large supermarkets and retail shops in seven different cities of West-Azerbaijan province of Iran. Concentration of AFM1 in the samples was investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS version 11.5.
From total of 360 samples, 77.7% (n = 280) were contaminated to AFM1 with a mean of 75.8 ± 9.2 ng/l. Seventy percent (n=154) of pasteurized milk and 54.2% (n=76) of UHT milk, exceeded the limits recommended by European Commission (EC) regulations (50 ng/l). Besides, 2.27% of pasteurized milk (n=5) and 2.1% of UHT milk (n=3) exceeded the prescribed limit of institute of standards and industrial research of Iran (ISIRI) and US food and drug administration (FDA) regulations (500 ng/l). Mean content of AFM1 in contaminated pasteurized and UHT milk samples were 76.2 ± 8.4 and 72.6 ± 7.2 ng/l, respectively with no significant difference (p>0.05).
We found high presence of AFM1 in milk samples which may pose a serious health hazard to local people. Therefore, milk and dairy products should be monitored continuously for this issue. Also, it is necessary to educate dairy farmers about effective ways to reduce aflatoxin contamination.