Simulating Large-Number Bulk-Product Sampling to Improve Food Safety Sampling Plans

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Drawing an accurate conclusion about whether a food ingredient or product is safe based on the result of a test is important to the evaluation and management of food safety risk. It is critical that sampling plans maximize the probability of finding a target hazard in an ingredient or a finished product, particularly with non-uniform and low level contamination. Sample collection in bulk ingredients is typically done manually in the food industry, but manual sampling is time-consuming and laborious, and often results in sampling inconsistency. Therefore, a different approach is needed for rapid and efficient collection of representative samples of these products. The goal of this project is to build a validated and ready-to-use simulation model of bulk product sampling to improving sampling plans.

Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Principal Investigator: Matthew Stasiewicz, PhD
Year Awarded: 2018

Read more: Evaluation of the Impact of Skewness, Clustering, and Probe Sampling Plan on Aflatoxin Detection in Corn

Access the bulk product simulation model

View instructional videos on how to use the model:

View this project on the Center for Open Science’s Open Science Framework.

Learn more about the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.

Assessing Human Health Impacts of Global Adoption of Codex Deoxynivalenol (DON) Guidelines

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Due to climate change, there has been an increase in occurrence of mycotoxins in food and food ingredients. Multiple strategies have been developed to reduce mycotoxin risks before harvest (in the field), after harvest (in storage, transportation, or processing), and in diets. Developed nations have stricter limits for mycotoxins as compared to developing nations. Strict mycotoxin standards mean that developing nations will export their best quality foods and keep more heavily contaminated foods for domestic consumption, resulting in higher mycotoxin exposure in developing countries. Using Deoxynivalenol (DON, vomitoxin) as a case study, this research project will shed light on the potential human health impacts of the new Codex DON regulations on wheat trade worldwide.

Institution: Michigan State University
Principal Investigator: Felicia Wu, PhD
Year Awarded: 2018

Read more: Risk Assessment of Dietary Deoxynivalenol Exposure in Wheat Products Worldwide: Are New Codex DON Guidelines Adequately Protective?

Learn more about the IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee.

Identification And Quantitation Studies of Migrants from BPA Alternative Food-Contact Metal Can Coatings

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Different compounds may enter the food supply, by intentional or unintentional addition, at various stages of the food chain. Advancements in analytical methodologies are allowing for progressively lower detection limits, resulting in unexpected and known substances being detected in food and food packaging matrices. Currently, there is no harmonized analytical methodology for the identification of known and unknown substances in food packaging materials. This study is the first step in the overall multi-step risk assessment process for unknown substances in food packaging, and will also be a step towards harmonization & validation of analytical methodology for food packaging materials. The objective of this study is to develop a robust core set of analytical methods that can be utilized for a wide range of food packaging materials to identify known chemicals and potential unknown substances.

Institution: Rutgers University
Principal Investigator: Thomas Hartman, PhD
Year Awarded: 2017

Identification And Quantitation Studies Of Migrants From BPA Alternative Food-Contact Metal Can Coatings

Learn more about the IAFNS Food Packaging Safety Committee.

Evaluation of the Dose-Response for Peanut Allergen

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Due to the potentially severe nature of the response and absence of approved treatments, allergic individuals have been advised to avoid the food of concern, and food allergens must be included in the ingredients lists of packaged food. However, with statements such as "may contain allergen X" or "also packaged in a facility that contains allergen Y," it is difficult for consumers, food manufacturers and public health authorities to understand and manage the potential risk of exposures in the food supply. The 2016 National Academy of Sciences Report on Food Allergies provided a series of recommendations, including that regulatory agencies adopt a risk-based approach to identify threshold-based RfDs (Reference Doses) for food allergens. The aim of this project is to to use available data from controlled clinical trials of peanut allergen to conduct a risk-based dose-response analysis to enable establishment of RfDs for peanut allergen.

Institution: University of Cincinnati
Principal Investigator: Lynne Haber, PhD
Year Awarded: 2017

View this project on the Center for Open Science's Open Science Framework.

Learn more about the IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee.

Evaluating the Applicability of Read-Across Tools and High-Throughput Screening Data for Food Relevant Chemicals

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The IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee invests in the training and education of future scientists and leaders in the fields of food and chemical safety and food toxicology by supporting a Summer Fellowship Program for doctoral students. This project focused on Evaluating the Applicability of Read-Across Tools and High-Throughput Screening Data for Food Relevant Chemicals.

Institution: University of Wisconsin Madison
Summer Fellow: Jalissa Wynder, PhD
Year Awarded: 2017

Learn more about the IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee.

Survival and Inactivation of Bacterial and Viral Pathogens in Model Low-Moisture Foods

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Low-moisture food (LMF) products are often ingredients (e.g. nuts, dried fruits, cereal products, and chocolate) used in the manufacture of many food products. Because of this, they carry significant potential for the amplification of outbreaks and recalls over a wide variety of products. There has been worldwide recognition of the need to more seriously manage the microbiological hazards associated with these products. The aim of this project is to understand the survival of pathogens (Salmonella spp., L. monocytogenes, and viruses) in the dry food manufacturing environment and in low water activity products.

Institution: University of Guelph
Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Farber, PhD
Co-Investigators: Sabah Bidawid, PhD, Nathalie Corneau, Neda Nasheri, PhD (Health Canada); Sophia Kathariou, PhD (North Carolina State University); Keith Warriner, PhD (University of Guelph)
Year Awarded: 2016

Read more: Identification of Novel Genes Mediating Survival of Salmonella on Low-Moisture Foods Via Transposon Sequencing Analysis

Learn more about the IAFNS Food Microbiology Committee.

Comparison and Analysis of Toxcast Data with In Vivo Data for Food-Relevant Compounds Using The Risk21 Approach

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The IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee invests in the training and education of future scientists and leaders in the fields of food and chemical safety and food toxicology by supporting a Summer Fellowship Program for doctoral students. This project focused on Comparison and Analysis of Toxcast Data with In Vivo Data for Food-Relevant Compounds Using The Risk21 Approach.

Institution: Michigan State University
Summer Fellow: Alex Turley, PhD
Year Awarded: 2016

Read more: Incorporating New Approach Methodologies in Toxicity Testing and Exposure Assessment for Tiered Risk Assessment Using the RISK21 Approach: Case Studies on Food Contact Chemicals

Learn more about the IAFNS Food and Chemical Safety Committee.

Listeria monocytogenes Thermal Resistance in Low-Moisture Foods: Role of Water Activity or Food Matrix

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Low moisture foods (e.g., cocoa powder, dried milk powder, flour) have been increasingly involved in foodborne outbreaks. Foodborne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes can survive in low moisture foods and dry food processing environments for months, and even for years. However, there is a general lack of knowledge related to the behavior of L. monocytogenes in these foods. The aim of this study is to comprehensively evaluate L. monocytogenes survival in low moisture foods in heat processing, and examine factors impacting their resistance.

Institution: Washington State University
Principal Investigator: Meijun Zhu, PhD
Year Awarded: 2016

Read more: Thermal Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes in Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder Under Different Water Activity

Read more: Stability of Listeria monocytogenes in Non-Fat Dry Milk Powder During Isothermal Treatment and Storage

Read more: Listeria monocytogenes in Almond Meal: Desiccation Stability and Isothermal Inactivation

Learn more about the IAFNS Microbiology Committee.

Assessing Dietary Exposure to Caffeine From Beverages in the U.S. Population Using Brand-Specific Versus Category-Specific Caffeine Values

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Systematic Review of the Health Effects Associated with Consumption of Caffeine in Humans

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To date, one of the most heavily cited assessments of caffeine safety in the peer-reviewed literature is that issued by Health Canada (Nawrot et al., 2003). Since then, >10,000 papers have been published related to caffeine. An update to this review will serve the public health by providing an updated based on all the literature published over the past 12+ years. A systematic review of data on potential adverse effects of caffeine published from 2001 to June 2015 will be conducted.

Institution: ToxStrategies, Inc.
Principal Investigator: Candace Doepker, PhD
Years Awarded: 2014

Read the systematic review.
Access the Caffeine Systematic Review Resource Page.
View Key Findings and Implications of Caffeine Systematic Review.

Learn more about the IAFNS Caffeine Committee.