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Max Rubner Conference 2011 to Food Metabolomics
International and scientifically highly challenging was this year's Max Rubner Conference on "Food Metabolomics", under the scientific organization of Prof. Sabine Kulling, director of the Institute of Safety and Quality of Fruit and Vegetables at the Max Rubner Institute, took place from October 2011 , Scientists from 12 countries came to Karlsruhe to know the current state of science in the young and ambitious research field.
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Test in the latest edition of the Greenpeace magazine
Many shopping receipts contain hazardous chemicals bisphenol A or S. This is the result of an investigation on behalf of Greenpeace magazine. The Berlin Pica Institute found the toxins in seven of eight till receipts. In the receipts of Edeka, Galeria Kaufhof and Deutsche Post, the laboratory showed the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA).
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GS1 Germany launches new service to the market, which tests operating systems for traceability. Food wholesaler passes the first company in Germany the audit.
"Formfleisch" is on everyone's lips: What has long been known and discussed in the case of cooked ham is now increasingly being used in raw ham products such as salmon ham or nut ham. Some of these products were also tested as part of the international ham & sausage quality test carried out by the DLG (German Agricultural Society) test center for food in February 2011 in the Erfurt exhibition center. Now it is a matter of proactively providing information about the innovative technologies that are used in the meat industry today and educating consumers that molded meat can be high-quality products. Consumers must, however, be given the opportunity to differentiate more clearly between traditional piece goods and an assembled product. This is currently not the case. That is why new regulations for the designation are absolutely necessary. They should be included in the guidelines for meat and meat products.
The trend is clear: meat products, which are offered in self-service packs (SB), are in the favor of consumers at the forefront. Especially with SB-packed ham slices and -würfeln consumers expect today in shape and size equalized, that is, look-alike products. "Consumers also want bindegewebsarme and lean ham and slice dice" reports Prof. Dr. Achim Stiebing holding the scientific management of DLG Quality Test for raw meat products. This development leads to the situation that in the modern manufacturing large hams that were marketable for themselves, be disassembled to be freed from fat and connective tissue. Then the pieces are put back together. "The cohesion of the individual items in the final product can be achieved by various methods (binding systems) reach. To use access structure-forming enzymes such as, for example, transglutaminase. This is an enzyme that occurs naturally in the human organism. Other technologies operate in the manner the raw sausage maturing to achieve a bond between the pieces of meat. After sufficient maturation / drying are then cut from the large pieces slices or cubes.
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completed BfR research project on the uptake of heavy metals and dioxins
The final report of the research project "Foodborne exposure to environmental contaminants" (LExUKon) is present. The project scientists of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), together with colleagues from the Research and Consultancy Institute for Hazardous Substances (FoBiG) and the University of Bremen have calculated the quantities of cadmium, lead, mercury, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) consumers usually take with food. Main source of cadmium intake are therefore vegetables and cereals. Lead take consumers on primarily drinks and cereals. Methylmercury is mainly contained in fish, while mainly dairy products and meat are essential for dioxins and PCBs. "These findings are important for the risk assessment of high importance", said BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "Thus, we can estimate the extent of the potential health hazards caused by contaminated food better." The project report was published as a booklet and the BfR available.
About food take people to not only valuable substances such as vitamins and minerals, but also undesirable substances that can harm in certain amounts of health, such as so-called environmental contaminants. These include heavy metals and dioxins, which can reach about contamination of air, water and soil in food. In order to assess the risks of such substances, the question arises, in what quantities they occur in foods and in what quantities consumers eat these foods. This was the focus of the project LExUKon. Here standardized methods for evaluation of consumption data and data content of foods have been developed and applied to environmental contaminants.
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International experts discussed at the conference "Contaminants and Residues in Food" The Akademie Fresenius on risk assessment and mitigation strategies
Pharmaceutical residues in water, lead in food, Melamine in milk and food - contaminants lurk everywhere. Therefore corresponding load and risk assessments are indispensable in the production and sale of food. About this and other important topics discussed representatives of the European Agency for Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission and various national authorities as well as experts from research institutes, industry and trade on the 7. International Fresenius Conference on "Contaminants and Residues in Food" on 22. and 23. November 2010 in Cologne.
The Chinese dairy industry is still struggling with the consequences of the melamine crisis in two years ago, so the latest report of the international information network of agriculture (GAIN). Melamine is a chemical compound which is mainly used in the production of resins. These in turn are for example in coatings, plastic and kitchen utensils (Melaware).
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Drinking water is one of the most strictly monitored food. Nevertheless, the grid does not prevent accidents, wear and tear or targeted attacks is immune. A minute rapid alert system for toxins and other harmful substances in the water could continue to beat alarm immediately when there is danger.
Colourless it supposed to be cool, odorless and tasted perfectly. It must not contain pathogens and health do not harm. Drinking water is therefore subjected at regular intervals a series of screenings. In addition to these tests is currently under construction in the project »AquaBioTox" a system for constant monitoring of drinking water in real time.
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Can Nano sicken? - Monitoring sufficient for users?
Modern materials play more often in the nano-League. Whether surface coatings or electronics, ultrafeine- or nanoparticles are an integral part of production processes. Invisible and respirable particles make this an uncertain risk for people who look after it,. A targeted monitoring of particulate pollution should play for OSH a major role in order to effectively protect workers and scientists in handling such substances can. Especially for cancer are the micro-small substances as triggers suspected. "Compliance and reporting thresholds is an important part of health and safety," explains Suzanne Depiereux TSI (www.tsiinc.de). Modern particle measurement technology also extends to the UFP - ultrafine particles - not halt. With the portable electrometer AeroTrak 9000 TSI offers a real-time measurement of nanoparticles, which are ideal for load measurements at workplaces and for extended measurements in working areas and research studies.
Critical, responsible-defined thresholds can with the AeroTrak 9000 - be entered - category winner of the Industry Award 2010. An integrated alarm warns initiate can overload to the right action. The device determines not only the mass concentration of the particles in the air, but also gives the surface size. The determination is based on the deposition curves for the ICRP trachiobronchiale and alveolar regions of the lung. A data storage and the possibility of reuse measurement data to a computer to facilitate the monitoring of the particles. The measurable quantities of AeroTrak 9000 are between ten and 1000 nanometers (0,01 1 to microns).
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Max Planck Innovation licenses analysis technology for metabolites
The Max Planck Innovation GmbH, the technology transfer organization of the Max Planck Society, has awarded an exclusive license for the analysis software TagFinder to Metabolomic Discoveries GmbH, a service provider of biochemical research. The new technology is part of an innovative procedure with virtually all chemical substances can be measured and interpreted within a biological sample. In this way, processes in industrial biotechnology and food quality can be improved specifically.
The quality of biological products such as fruits and vegetables depends not only on the genes strongly on the internal metabolic processes. So are metabolites, ie certain metabolites such as sugars, amino acids, hormones, etc., among others, for their taste and nutritional responsible. Metabolites are for research in the food and agriculture industry is of great interest. Only by knowing the exact material composition products can improve quality programs. Moreover, metabolites play an important role in industrial biotechnology. Thus, they are important precursors of fine chemicals, enzymes, vaccines or recombinant proteins which are produced with the aid of microorganisms or cell cultures in bioreactors. The optimization of production processes through the analysis of metabolic processes and the identification of bottlenecks allows more efficient and faster production of these substances.
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The quality of organic convenience foods can be improved.
Organic foods have a good reputation. But the quality of organic processed foods can be further improved. Critical issues in the production of such foods was to identify target a European research project, participated in the Ecological among other scientists of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Kassel.
"The European Union regulates the cultivation of organic food very accurate, but says almost nothing about the correct processing", explains Dr. Johannes Kahl from Department of Organic Food Quality and Food Culture in Witzenhausen, near Kassel: "An EU regulation indeed requires efficient practices for food production, but does not define what that is. "
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Overview allows companies easy search of counter-sample analysis laboratories
The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has published together with the federal states an overview of all registered in Germany crosschecks experts on the BVL website. Thus traders is the first time a nationwide list of approved crosschecks experts available.
The supervisory authorities of the countries in taking a sample committed a portion of the sample to leave in the controlled companies according to § 43 the Food and Feed Code (LFGB). So the producers of the sampled product may cause at his own expense a counter-analysis, which makes a plant approved by the competent national authorities of private experts.
