Betsy Jean Yakes

Dietary supplements in the United States are a distinct category of foods intended to increase the intake of certain dietary substances, including vitamins, minerals, and botanicals (U.S. Food and ...

In this review we discuss various applications of portable vibrational spectroscopy in food adulteration analyses and authentication confirmation. These applications generally involve the adulteration of a food product with materials which may be of lesser monetary value and may also be detrimental to human health. Portable spectroscopic testing for food authentication opens potential for rapid and on-site analyses of food products at various stages in the food production chain. These portable techniques also require the development of data analysis methods for each individual application, which will also be discussed in this review. Specific food safety applications for portable spectroscopy to be discussed include adulteration detection and evaluation of authenticity. Adulteration detection examples focus on the commonly adulterated milk powder and spice commodities, as well as the potential for component substitution (e.g., artificial sweeteners). For authentication, examples from marine oil dietary supplements, olive oils, honeys, coffees, and grains are presented along with examples of speciation (e.g. fish) and growth conditions (bell peppers).

In this work, we evaluate two commercially available portable Raman spectrometers for their ability to accurately determine the presence of ortho-phthalate ester plasticizers, hereafter referred to as phthalates, in poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) food contact production line tubing. Further, we aim to identify individual plasticizer compounds in the PVC tubing from a panel of multiple components with portable Raman spectroscopy. This is accomplished through library spectral matching of unknown tubing samples with on-instrument library Raman spectra. This library matching methodology functions via the comparison of Raman spectra between unknown food contact tubing samples and a panel of previously scanned, known tubing samples. In both known and unknown tubing, the samples are also analyzed via established gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and direct analysis in real time-MS (DART-MS) methodologies to confirm the plasticizer identity and evaluate the accuracy of the Raman spectroscopic methods. In addition to food contact tubing, the developed methodology is applied to plasticizer analysis in bottle cap gaskets. Portable detection of phthalates in food contact materials is important, as it alleviates the need for high cost and time-consuming laboratory-based testing while allowing for rapid, on-site detection of plasticizers. This work may provide information regarding the prevalence of various plasticizers currently used in food contact production line tubing and bottle cap gaskets. The results from the spectrometers investigated in this work show that the technologies hold potential as a valuable plasticizer screening tool for the food industry and regulators.

Plasticisers are commonly used to increase the flexibility of a wide variety of food contact materials including the plastic tubing, liners, and gaskets used in the dairy industry. In recent years, some classes of plasticisers have come under scrutiny due to the potential for transfer of these compounds into the milk itself, which can then be further processed into foods such as powdered milks and cheeses, infant formula, and baked goods. One such set of plasticisers that is being evaluated for frequency of use, potential routes of exposure, and risk to consumers is ortho-phthalates, hereafter referred to as phthalates. In order to better understand the actual use of phthalate versus non-phthalate plasticised tubing, a robust, rapid, and portable analytical method is necessary for on-site screening. Laboratory Raman and near-infrared spectrometers have been used extensively for polymer and additive evaluation, and advances in portable/hand-held technology could lead to feasible plasticiser evaluation in the field. This research overviews efforts to evaluate six portable spectroscopy devices for their ability to identify phthalate versus non-phthalate plasticised polyvinyl chloride (PVC) dairy tubing, liners, and gaskets. The most successful method, a hand-held Raman spectrometer along with a plasticiser spectral library or a chemometric model, can rapidly and accurately identify phthalate containing PVC and has the potential to be employed as a future field screening technique for regulators and the dairy industry.

This study evaluated an electronic‐nose (e‐nose) sensor in combination with support vector machine (SVM) modeling for predicting the decomposition state of four types of fish fillets: mahi‐mahi, croaker, red snapper, and weakfish. The National Seafood Sensory Expert scored fillets were thawed, 10‐g portions were weighed into glass jars which were then sealed, and the jars were held at approximately 30°C to allow volatile components to be trapped and available for analysis. The measurement of the sample vial headspace was performed with an e‐nose device consisting of nanocomposite, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS), electrochemical, and photoionization sensors. Classification models were then trained based on the sensory grade of each fillet, and the e‐nose companion chemometric software identified that eight MOS were the most informative for determining a sensory pass from sensory fail sample. For SVM, the cross‐validation (CV) correct classification rates for mahi‐mahi, croaker, red snapper, and weakfish were 100%, 100%, 97%, and 97%, respectively. When the SVM prediction performances of the eight MOS were evaluated using a calibration‐independent test set of samples, correct classification rates of 93–100% were observed. Based on these results, the e‐nose measurements coupled with SVM models were found to be potentially promising for predicting the spoilage of these four fish species. Practical Application: This report describes the application of an electronic‐nose sensor as a potential rapid and low‐cost screening method for fish spoilage. It could provide regulators and stakeholders with a practical tool to rapidly and accurately assess fish decomposition.

Domoic acid (DA)-producing harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been present at unprecedented geographic extent and duration in recent years causing an increase in contamination of seafood by this common environmental neurotoxin. The toxin is responsible for the neurotoxic illness, amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), that is characterized by gastro-intestinal distress, seizures, memory loss, and death. Established seafood safety regulatory limits of 20 μg DA/g shellfish have been relatively successful at protecting human seafood consumers from short-term high-level exposures and episodes of acute ASP. Significant concerns, however, remain regarding the potential impact of repetitive low-level or chronic DA exposure for which there are no protections. Here, we report the novel discovery of a DA-specific antibody in the serum of chronically-exposed tribal shellfish harvesters from a region where DA is commonly detected at low levels in razor clams year-round. The toxin was also detected in tribal shellfish consumers’ urine samples confirming systemic DA exposure via consumption of legally-harvested razor clams. The presence of a DA-specific antibody in the serum of human shellfish consumers confirms long-term chronic DA exposure and may be useful as a diagnostic biomarker in a clinical setting. Adverse effects of chronic low-level DA exposure have been previously documented in laboratory animal studies and tribal razor clam consumers, underscoring the potential clinical impact of such a diagnostic biomarker for protecting human health. The discovery of this type of antibody response to chronic DA exposure has broader implications for other environmental neurotoxins of concern.