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Special Issue "New Analytical Strategy in Food Safety"

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Analytical Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 16090

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Luca Campone

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor

1 Department of Agriculture, Food Chemistry, Safety and Sensoromic Laboratory (FoCuSS Lab) University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Via Melissari, 89124 Reggio Calabria, RC, Italy
2 Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy
Interests: extraction; sample preparation; validation; xenobiotic; HPLC-MS/MS
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Luca Rastrelli

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Guest Editor

Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy
Interests: natural products; food chemistry and analytical chemistry; clinical nutrition; phytochemistry and phytotherapy; supplement and nutraceutical formulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the past decade, toxicant residues in food have been constantly increasing as a consequence of environmental pollution, industrial development, and new agricultural practice. Foods and food products may be contaminated by several toxic compounds (pesticides, toxins, xenobiotics, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) at various stages of production, packaging, storage, and distribution. This contamination negatively influences both food quality and human health; therefore, the control of residues and contaminants is one of the most important issues in food safety. For these reasons, public and private organizations have made huge efforts in order to minimize risks in food contamination. Currently, the conventional techniques used to analyze contaminants in foods require complex sample treatment protocols involving multi-step processes. These procedures present notable drawbacks which make them expensive in terms of time and material consumption, introduce errors and use large amounts of toxic solvents. Therefore, in order to overcome the main limitations of conventional methods and allow the simultaneous determination of several contaminants and residues in food, there is a growing demand for analytical methods that allow sensitive and accurate identification and quantification of these toxic compounds while simultaneously increasing sample throughput.

In this Special Issue，we invite authors to submit original research and review articles on the most recent sample preparation and instrumental methods in the food safety analysis.

Dr. Luca Campone
Prof. Luca Rastrelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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

food analysis
emerging pollutants
mycotoxins
xenobiotics
pesticides
toxins
heavy metals
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
sample preparations
on-line SPE
HPLC
GC
mass spectrometry

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Determination of Chloramphenicol in Honey Using Salting-Out Assisted Liquid-Liquid Extraction Coupled with Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry and Validation According to 2002/657 European Commission Decision

and

Molecules 2020, 25(15), 3481; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25153481 - 31 Jul 2020

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2913

Abstract

Honey is a natural food widely consumed due to its high content in nutrients and bioactive substances. In order to prevent hive infections, xenobiotics such as pesticides and antibiotics are commonly used. Chloramphenicol (CAP) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used to treat honeybee larvae diseases. However, CAP has toxic and nondose-dependent effects in sensitive subjects; for this reason, its use has been prohibited in food-producing animals, such as the honeybee. In this study, we proposed a rapid, simple, and cheap analytical method, based on salting-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction coupled with UHPLC MS/MS detection for the accurate determination of CAP in honey to be used in routine analyses. The parameters that influence the extraction efficiency have been optimized using an experimental design in order to maximize the recovery of the analyte by reducing the matrix effects. Therefore, the developed method was internally validated according to the 2002/657/EC Decision guidelines and applied to the analysis of 96 honey samples. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Analytical Strategy in Food Safety)

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Open AccessArticle

Indirect Competitive Determination of Tetracycline Residue in Honey Using an Ultrasensitive Gold-Nanoparticle-Linked Aptamer Assay

Yan-Mei Sheng

Jian Liang

and

Jing Xie

Molecules 2020, 25(9), 2144; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25092144 - 04 May 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2879

Abstract

Tetracycline residue in honey has become an increasingly important food safety problem. In this work, an ultrasensitive gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)-linked aptamer assay was developed to determine the tetracycline residue in honey. First, a tetracycline–bovine serum albumin conjugate coating was applied to a microplate. Then, with the incubation of AuNPs-linked aptamer, the fixed tetracycline in the microplate competed for the limited aptamer with the free tetracycline in the sample. Higher amounts of free tetracycline in the sample were associated with more competitive binding of aptamer-AuNPs, and the aptamer-AuNPs binding with tetracycline-BSA was lower. Finally, as a kind of nanozyme, AuNPs exhibited peroxidase activity and oxidized 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine, transforming it from colorless to blue, and achieving the measurement at 652 nm. The analytical performance—including linearity, limit of detection, selectivity, precision, repeatability, and accuracy—has been investigated. It was successfully applied to the determination of tetracycline in honey samples with high accuracy and sensitivity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Analytical Strategy in Food Safety)

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Open AccessArticle

Simultaneous Analysis of Fenthion and Its Five Metabolites in Produce Using Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Jonghwa Lee

and

Jeong-Han Kim

Molecules 2020, 25(8), 1938; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25081938 - 22 Apr 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2132

Abstract

A simultaneous analytical method for the organophosphorus insecticide fenthion and its five metabolites (fenthion oxon, fenthion oxon sulfoxide, fenthion oxon sulfone, fenthion sulfoxide, and fenthion sulfone) was developed based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Five matrices (brown rice, chili pepper, orange, potato, and soybean) were selected to validate the method. The target compounds were analyzed using positive electrospray ionization in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. For the best sensitivity in regard to the detector response, water and methanol containing formic acid (0.1%) were selected as the mobile phase. The optimum extraction efficiency was obtained through a citrate-buffered QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) method. Recovery tests were carried out at three spiking levels (n = 3). At all fortification levels, the accuracy and precision results were between 70% and 120% with a relative standard deviation of ≤15%. The limit of quantitation was 0.01 mg/kg, and the correlation coefficients (r²) of the matrix-matched calibration curves were >0.99. Significant signal suppression in the detector responses were observed for all matrices, suggesting that a compensation method, such as matrix-matched calibration, is required to provide accurate quantitative results. The applicability of the presented method was confirmed for the simultaneous analysis of fenthion and its metabolites in various crops. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Analytical Strategy in Food Safety)

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Review

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Open AccessReview

Rapid Multi-Residue Detection Methods for Pesticides and Veterinary Drugs

and

Molecules 2020, 25(16), 3590; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25163590 - 07 Aug 2020

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4963

Abstract

The excessive use or abuse of pesticides and veterinary drugs leads to residues in food, which can threaten human health. Therefore, there is an extremely urgent need for multi-analyte analysis techniques for the detection of pesticide and veterinary drug residues, which can be applied as screening techniques for food safety monitoring and detection. Recent developments related to rapid multi-residue detection methods for pesticide and veterinary drug residues are reviewed herein. Methods based on different recognition elements or the inherent characteristics of pesticides and veterinary drugs are described in detail. The preparation and application of three broadly specific recognition elements—antibodies, aptamers, and molecular imprinted polymers—are summarized. Furthermore, enzymatic inhibition-based sensors, near-infrared spectroscopy, and SERS spectroscopy based on the inherent characteristics are also discussed. The aim of this review is to provide a useful reference for the further development of rapid multi-analyte analysis of pesticide and veterinary drug residues. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Analytical Strategy in Food Safety)

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Open AccessReview

Pre-Concentration and Analysis of Mycotoxins in Food Samples by Capillary Electrophoresis

Raffaella Colombo

and

Adele Papetti

Molecules 2020, 25(15), 3441; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25153441 - 29 Jul 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2448

Abstract

Mycotoxins are considered one of the most dangerous agricultural and food contaminants. They are toxic and the development of rapid and sensitive analytical methods to detect and quantify them is a very important issue in the context of food safety and animal/human health. The need to detect mycotoxins at trace levels and to simultaneously analyze many different mycotoxin types became mandatory to protect public health. In fact, European Commission regulations specified both their limits in foodstuffs and official sample preparation protocols in addition to analytical methods to verify their presence. Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) includes different separation modes, allowing many versatile applications in food analysis and safety. In the context of mycotoxins, recent advances to improve CE sensitivity, particularly pre-concentration techniques or miniaturized systems, deserve remarkable attention, as they provide an interesting approach in the analysis of such contaminants in complex food matrices. This review summarizes the applications of CE combined with different pre-concentration approaches, which have been proposed in the literature (mainly) in the last ten years. A section is also dedicated to recent microchip–CE devices since they represent the most promising CE mode for this application. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Analytical Strategy in Food Safety)

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