Foodborne Toxins and Public Health

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Bacterial Toxins".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2024) | Viewed by 4939

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
National Reference Laboratory for Coagulase-Positive Staphylococci Including Staphylococcus Aureus, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy
Interests: food microbiology; food safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Reference Laboratory for Coagulase-Positive Staphylococci Including Staphylococcus Aureus, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d’Aosta, Via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy
Interests: food safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As in common thinking food must be safe, so from the point of view of authorities, researchers and manufacturers, safety must be a fundamental prerequisite. However, data on foodborne diseases in Europe and around the world suggest that regulations are not always duly respected in the agri-food chain (production, transport, storage or home preparation).

Foodborne toxins include bacterial toxins, toxins occurring in poisonous mushrooms, marine biotoxins, plant toxins, etc. This Special Issue in Toxins aims to collect the latest investigations on the toxins responsible for food poisoning, by addressing the topic from multiple points of view and by considering the various stakeholders involved in food safety and in the ongoing FBO (foodborne outbreak) investigations.

We are particularly interested in contributions describing:

- Laboratory methods for the detection, identification and quantification of toxins responsible for food poisoning that can be applied to official controls, HACCP plans or ongoing FBO investigations.

- Studies of the factors favoring the synthesis of toxins and reliable methodologies suitable for implementation in industries for HACCP plans, and process management to reduce the risk of toxin production.

- Investigation tools and epidemiological models to be applied in the case of  foodborne toxins outbreak and epidemiological investigations.

- Safe food production strategies with reference to the control of toxins responsible for foodborne disease.

- Case report describing collaboration between private and public stakeholders in order to identify the source, reduce the risk for consumer and guarantee public health.

- Description of public-health system, competent authority network and academics cooperating together in different countries to manage food safety to limit food poisoning.

Dr. Daniela Manila Bianchi
Dr. Lucia Decastelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • foodborne toxins
  • food safety
  • toxins production
  • method validation
  • quality control/quality assurance
  • foodborne outbreak investigation
  • public-health system

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 590 KiB  
Article
Histamine in Fishery: A Five-Year Survey in Northern Italy
by Sara Morello, Samantha Lupi, Elisa Barcucci, Sandra Fragassi, Elena Torres, Davide Dosio, Chiara Marchese, Tabata Bezzo Llufrio, Marilena Gili and Daniela Manila Bianchi
Toxins 2024, 16(11), 456; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins16110456 - 25 Oct 2024
Viewed by 519
Abstract
Histamine is a biogenic amine and an indicator of fishery product freshness and hygienic quality. The European Regulation EC 2073/2005 sets the standards for fish sample collection and establishes quantitative levels of histamine in fishery products to ensure consumer health and safety. This [...] Read more.
Histamine is a biogenic amine and an indicator of fishery product freshness and hygienic quality. The European Regulation EC 2073/2005 sets the standards for fish sample collection and establishes quantitative levels of histamine in fishery products to ensure consumer health and safety. This retrospective study presents data on histamine monitoring in fish and fishery products collected in northern Italy between 2018 and 2022. A total of 138 samples were analysed via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and then confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD). Four samples found positive contained histamine levels above the legal limit. Monitoring via ELISA and HPLC-DAD can efficiently detect histamine in fish and fishery products and protect consumers’ health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foodborne Toxins and Public Health)
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15 pages, 2455 KiB  
Article
Development of a Rapid and Sensitive CANARY Biosensor Assay for the Detection of Shiga Toxin 2 from Escherichia coli
by Christina C. Tam, Yangyang Wang, Wen-Xian Du, Andrew R. Flannery and Xiaohua He
Toxins 2024, 16(3), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins16030148 - 14 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2028
Abstract
Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) causes a wide spectrum of diseases including hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The current Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) testing methods for STEC use the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM) protocol, which includes [...] Read more.
Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) causes a wide spectrum of diseases including hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The current Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) testing methods for STEC use the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM) protocol, which includes enrichment, cell plating, and genomic sequencing and takes time to complete, thus delaying diagnosis and treatment. We wanted to develop a rapid, sensitive, and potentially portable assay that can identify STEC by detecting Shiga toxin (Stx) using the CANARY (Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risks and Yields) B-cell based biosensor technology. Five potential biosensor cell lines were evaluated for their ability to detect Stx2. The results using the best biosensor cell line (T5) indicated that this biosensor was stable after reconstitution with assay buffer covered in foil at 4 °C for up to 10 days with an estimated limit of detection (LOD) of ≈0.1–0.2 ng/mL for days up to day 5 and ≈0.4 ng/mL on day 10. The assay detected a broad range of Stx2 subtypes, including Stx2a, Stx2b, Stx2c, Stx2d, and Stx2g but did not cross-react with closely related Stx1, abrin, or ricin. Additionally, this assay was able to detect Stx2 in culture supernatants of STEC grown in media with mitomycin C at 8 and 24 h post-inoculation. These results indicate that the STEC CANARY biosensor developed in this study is sensitive, reproducible, specific, rapid (≈3 min), and may be applicable for surveillance of the environment and food to protect public health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foodborne Toxins and Public Health)
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16 pages, 2271 KiB  
Article
Quantitative Rapid Magnetic Immunoassay for Sensitive Toxin Detection in Food: Non-Covalent Functionalization of Nanolabels vs. Covalent Immobilization
by Alexey V. Orlov, Sergey L. Znoyko, Juri A. Malkerov, Artemiy M. Skirda, Denis O. Novichikhin, Alexandra S. Rakitina, Zoia G. Zaitseva and Petr I. Nikitin
Toxins 2024, 16(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins16010005 - 20 Dec 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1817
Abstract
In this study, we present a novel and ultrasensitive magnetic lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) tailored for the precise detection of zearalenone, a mycotoxin with significant implications for human and animal health. A versatile and straightforward method for creating non-covalent magnetic labels is proposed [...] Read more.
In this study, we present a novel and ultrasensitive magnetic lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) tailored for the precise detection of zearalenone, a mycotoxin with significant implications for human and animal health. A versatile and straightforward method for creating non-covalent magnetic labels is proposed and comprehensively compared with a covalent immobilization strategy. We employ the magnetic particle quantification (MPQ) technique for precise detection of the labels and characterization of their functionality, including measuring the antibody sorption density on the particle surface. Through kinetic studies using the label-free spectral phase interferometry, the rate and equilibrium constants for the binding of monoclonal antibodies with free (not bound with carrier protein) zearalenone were determined to be kon = 3.42 × 105 M−1s−1, koff = 7.05 × 10−4 s−1, and KD = 2.06 × 10−9 M. The proposed MPQ-LFIA method exhibits detection limits of 2.3 pg/mL and 7.6 pg/mL when employing magnetic labels based on covalent immobilization and non-covalent sorption, with dynamic ranges of 5.5 and 5 orders, correspondingly. We have successfully demonstrated the effective determination of zearalenone in barley flour samples contaminated with Fusarium graminearum. The ease of use and effectiveness of developed test systems further enhances their value as practical tools for addressing mycotoxin contamination challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foodborne Toxins and Public Health)
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