Journal of Food Quality and Hazards Control

2

Authors: Dr. M. Majidinia1, Dr. A. Kazemi2*, M. Kazemi3

Nutrigenomics is a specialized topic investigating the role of nutrition on gene expression, and overlapping subject between two fields of nutrition and genetics. It studies some aspects of the expression and function of genes which is affected by diet. Due to the vast and notable effect of diet on the growth, health and wellbeing of children and infants (and people with specific diseases like metabolic syndrome, diabetes, etc.), nutrigenomics has a wide range of study within this group of the human society (Dang et al., 2014). In fact, nutrigenomics is a subset of epigenomics which are the investigation of changes in gene action that are mitotically and/or meiotically heritable and that do not implicate an alterna-tion in DNA sequence. Consequently, nutrigenomics is a field of science which studies the impacts of diet on genome. This science includes the effects of maternal nutrition on the human fetus during pregnancy; the breast-feeding phase and also the effects of the quality and composition of food on new-born and children after infancy. Regarding to the documents from Hap Map project, Personalized Medicine, and Human Genome Project, nutrigenomics follows some fundamental goals. The first is elevation of the understanding of the effects of nutritional factors on biochemical, metabolic, physiologic mechanisms, homeostasis regulations and may be their decomposition mechanism, assessing diet-related disorders and diseases (e.g. food allergies or intolerance to certain foods) and the occurrence of these diseases with respect to the sensitivity of the particular genotype to nutritional factors. The second goal is the interventional targeting of dietary protocols and nutrition to restitute normal homeostasis aimed at prohibition nu-trition-associated disorders (Muller and Kersten, 2003). Type 2 diabetes, a usually more prevalent in obese and sedentary individuals and certain minor groups, is a clear example of the interplay between genotype and diet. Its symptoms discount by elevating mobility and declining in the caloric intake, particularly through fat intake and changing the type of fat intake (Frayling, 2007), which shows the effects of metabolic stress on the metabolic syndrome (Furukawa et al., 2004). It is well documented that the centralization of nutrigenomics on infant feeding will make a new scientific area and therefore, will lead to further achievements on the science of pregnant and lactating women’s nutrition during the neonatal period and infancy. On the other hand, it will make impressive development in the field of nutrition-based interventions (not drugs) in children with nutritional and metabolic disorders, and food allergies (Dang et al., 2014). From the molecular genetics point of view, diet affects DNA methylation, histone modification, incorporation of several histones into nucleosomes, nucleosome modifica-tion, adenosine 5-triphosphate dependent chromatin alternation, usage of non-coding RNAi/RNA pathways, chromatin bivalency via epigenetic and eventually leads to a change in gene function without altering the DNA sequence (Bird, 2002). Changes in the expression of pluri-potency factors can control the function of certain genes which indicate the role of epigenetic factors in changing the gene arrange-ment and expression as are related with methylation or demethylation of lysine 4 and 27 of histone H3. The maintenance of epigenetic memory as the impact of nutritional status on the genome can be evaluated in two forms, limited and sustained response of genes and ge-nomes to nutritional conditions (Ling et al., 2012) Changes in gene expression due to nutritional condi-tions can remain in the cell memory for a long time. It is clear that those factors like 5AZac and valproic acid are inhibitors of DNA methylation, chromatin remodeling factors (ISWI and Brg1) and are involved in the planning and rearrangement of nucleus of somatic cells. Based on the above discussion, it is concluded that nutrigenomics has many relationships and overlapping fields of study with specialized branches of genetics such as lipidomics, glycomics, pharmacogenomics, toxicogenomics, metabo-lomics, cytomics and finally, the biological systems. Nutrigenomics emphasizes that diet ingredients are effective signals on receptors and sensitive systems of receiving these signals in the genome and also cell components which affect gene expression. Consequently,cytokines, hormones, interleukins, antibodies, antigens, structural proteins’ production and finally all cellular and metabolic processes are influenced (Corthesy-Theulaz et al., 2005). The main fundamental assumptions of nutrigenomics about relationship between genetics and nutrition, includes a) the importance of single nucleotide polymorphisms and point mutation of genes in the metabolism of nutrients, metabolic pathways bioactivity, and biochemical and metabolic mediators, b) food and particularly micronutrient importance in gene expression according to the genetic background of each individual, c) the important of diet role on health (according to the unique genetic background of each individual, d) food and particularly micronutrients can lead to a significant effect on the regulation of gene expression and on its impact on the different aspects of diseases, especially food allergies, metabolic and chronic diseases, e) the importance of nutritional intervention and regulation of nutritional conditions regarding to the each particular genotype to prohibit, mitigate or cure diseases (Muller and Kersten, 2003). In conclusion, the possibility of changes in gene expression makes a critical debate in terms of practical use in medicine that might be the true realization of "food as medicine". In addition, using "food as medication", especially in children, infants and pregnant women as food based medical intervention and treatment protocols (not drugs) according to the elements of nutrigenomics charts, may make a very desirable prospect for the future of medical sciences and the field of nutrition. So, it seems that more detailed studies should be designed by researches for acquiring comprehensive data in this regard in the future.

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Authors: A. Sadeghi1, M. Hashemi2, F. Jamali-Behnam3*, A. Zohani3, H. Esmaily4, A.A. Dehghan5

Background: Considering high importance of heavy metals residue from view point of food safety, this study was conducted to determine the contents of chromium (Cr), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in different tissues (liver, heart and muscle) of marketed chickens in Mashhad, Iran. Methods: Chicken tissues were collected from four popular brands distributed in different markets in Mashhad, followed by preparing through acidic digestion and analyzing using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. All statistical significant differences were defined at p<0.05 using SPSS v. 16.0. Results: Mean concentration (± standard deviation) of heavy metals in the liver, heart and muscle of chicken samples were 3.87 ± 3.94, 3.77 ± 2.77 and 2.27 ± 1.07 mg/kg (for Cr), 3.79 ± 3.64, 2.65 ± 1.88 and 1.65 ± 1.09 mg/kg (for Pb) as well as 0.37 ± 0.09, 0.32 ± 0.1 and 0.28 ± 0.07 mg/kg (for Cd), respectively, indicting higher heavy metals levels in liver and heart samples compared to those of muscle ones (p<0.05). Conclusion: The contents of some heavy metals in chicken samples are warning that highlights its public health risk in this region of Iran. Therefore, more effective monitoring procedures and surveillance programs should be applied by the authorities of regional veterinary organization.

6

Authors: N. Mollakhalili Meybodi1,2, M.A. Mohammadifar3*

Extracellular polymeric substances are defined as high molecular weight compounds secreted by the microorganisms in the surrounding area. Since these extracellular substances are mainly polysaccharide, they are named exopolysaccharide. Microbial exopolysaccharides composed of sugar residue have growing interest as a new class of microbial products which can be used in food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries. Microbial derived exopolysaccharides are considered as either good substitute of other synthetic or natural polymers or novel biopolymers which are used in food for thickening, suspending and gelling function. However, microbial derived compounds have a versatile reputation and the numbers of published articles in this area are increas-ing, only three exopolysaccharides xanthan, gellan and dextran have been survived the industrial competition. Considering the extensive function of microbial exopoly-saccharides and the importance of physical properties and chemical structure in func-tionality determination, the function and application of microbial exopolysaccharides are discussed with the emphasis on physical properties and chemical structure in this review.

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Authors: S. Maktabi1*, M. Zarei1, M. Chadorbaf2

Background: In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in using food addi-tives from natural sources to improve taste and also extend shelf life of semi-preserved food. The aim of this paper was to examine chemical and microbiological changes pro-moted by a traditional marinating process in rainbow trout fillets during frozen storage. Methods: Fish fillets were immersed in traditional marinades and stored at -18 °C for 56 days. Some chemical and microbial characteristics like total volatile basic nitrogen (TVN), thiobarbituric acid (TBA), water holding capacity (WHC), pH, mesophilic, and psychrophilic bacterial count were performed with 7 days interval. The results were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA test using SPSS v. 16.0 software. Results: Data showed that although the value of TVN, TBA and, WHC in marinated samples were higher than control ones, but the differences were not significant (p>0.05). The numbers of bacteria in marinated samples were lower than control groups and for psychrophilic bacteria was significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that rainbow trout flesh could be marinated and stored at -18 ˚C for at least 56 days with no major unfavor-able changes.

2

Authors: R. Salehi

Recent studies revealed that some risk factors in adult chronic diseases like cancer, obesity and related disorders are associated with the maternal nutritional condition (Crowe and Allison, 2015; Waterland and Jirtle, 2004; Wolff et al., 1998). In mammalians, fetal development is in close relation with maternal nutrition (nutrigenomics), and the genome of the preimplantation mammalian embryo undergoes vast methylation, demethylation and remethylation epichanges that are extremely susceptible to metabolic and environmental factors (Feng et al., 2010). Lipotropes are of methyl group-containing essential nutrients (folate, vitamin B12 and methionine) affecting extensively one-carbon metabolism. Prolong impacts of high-dose maternal dietary intake of lipotropes (five folds higher than in the control diet) on the development and progression of mammary tumors in rat offspring during adulthood is well known. Tumor incidence was significantly decreased among the off-spring born from mothers fed high-dose lipotropes (Cho et al., 2012). In humans, consumption of soy genistein or some other bioactive food components during infancy reduces later breast cancer risk, although the benefit may be considerably limited if consumed during adulthood. So, food ingredients may be more effective in decreasing of cancer risk in some periods of life span than others. Several dietary exposures can modify fetal and postnatal hormonal environment, including changing concentra-tions of estrogens, leptin, etc. The changes in hormonal concentration then may induce insistent epigenetic changes by affecting gene promoter CpG island regions or by bringing histone modifications that influencing chromatin transcription (Hilakivi-Clarke, 2007). The xenoestrogen bisphenol A (BPA) exposure caused higher amounts of pro-activation histone H3K4 trimethylation at the transcription initiation stage of the alpha-lactalbumin gene at post natal day 4, concurrently increasing expres-sion of this gene. These results show that fetal BPA ex-posure triggers changes in the postnatal and adult mam-mary gland epigenome and changes gene expression mo-dality (Chango and Pogribny, 2015). These events may provide deriving force for development of neoplastic lesions that evident during adulthood (Dhimolea et al., 2014). Therefore, the great concerns developed in recent years about uncontrolled and rapid incidence of cancers worldwide including Iran, may, at least partly, stem from the fetal period in response to fetal environmental nutrients and hormones quantity and quality. So, it would be a vise strategy to shift our cancer preventive measures, instead of postnatal period to fetal life with simple intervention in nutritional aspects of pregnant women. References Chango A., Pogribny I.P. (2015). Considering maternal dietary modulators for epigenetic regulation and programming of the fetal epigenome. Nutrients. 7: 2748-2770. Cho K., Mabasa L., Bae S., Walters M.W., Park C.S. (2012). Maternal high-methyl diet suppresses mammary carcinogene-sis in female rat offspring. Carcinogenesis. 33: 1106-1112. Crowe K.M., Allison D. (2015). Evaluating bioactive food compo-nents in obesity and cancer prevention. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 55: 732-734. Dhimolea E., Wadia P.R., Murray T.J., Settles M.L., Treitman J.D., Sonnenschein C.,

4

Authors: S. Boughattas1,2, A. Bouratbine2*

Background: Toxoplasmosis is one of the most important food-borne diseases distributed worldwide. In order to determinate the involvement of poultry meat in clinical toxoplasmosis, this study aimed to genetic characterization of Toxoplasma gondii in tissue samples of serologically positive chickens of Tunisia using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Methods: Trail of isolation of local T. gondii chicken strains through bioassay of the suspected infected chicken tissues in mice was carried out and the isolated strains were typed using PCR-RFLP targeting the marker AK69. Data analysis was performed by SPSS 16.0. Results: Out of 40 seropositive chickens, 15 were positive by AK69 gene PCR. RFLP analysis showed high prevalence of type II T. gondii in infected poultry meats in Tunisia. Conclusion: It seems that chicken meat of this region is not a risk factor of congenital toxoplasmosis. However, direct genotyping approach and deeper analysis should be investigated to have clearer idea about the epidemiology of the parasite and its transmission routs in Tunisia.

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Authors: N. Mollakhalili Meybodi1, 2, M.A. Mohammadifar2*, E. Feizollahi2

Celiac disease is the inability of the small intestine to tolerate some cereal prolamin with sequence specific oligopeptide. Wheat gliadin, rye secalins and barley hordenine are the main proteins involved in the disease mechanisms and may provoke an inflammatory process to damage the small intestine. There are different methods to overcome the problems for such patients; one of them is using gluten-free diet. Bread has the main role in the human diet and gluten is its main structure forming component. Gluten-free breads are produced by either cereals like wheat, barley and rye with removed prolamin or no prolamin containing ingredients. Considering the fact that gluten is the main protein in the formation of dough viscoelastic network, which is necessary to create the high quali-ty bread, the aim of this review article is studying different factors with ability to im-prove quality of gluten-free bread produced for consumption of the vulnerable persons.

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Authors: Z. Delshadian1, M.J. Eivani2*, P. Haratian3, A.M. Mortazavian3

Background: Physical characteristics of crops play an important role in designing the required machinery and apparatus for planting, harvesting, transport, processing and also storing. The aim of this study was to determine physical characteristics of some native rice varieties cultivated in northern Iran, namely Gerde, Shafagh, Tarom-e-Hashemi, Shiroodi and Keshvari. Methods: Some geometrical, gravimetrical and frictional characteristics of the five varieties were determined by standard methods at their initial wet basis moisture content ranging between 10-11% (w.b.). Data analysis was carried out by SPSS software (ver. 16.0) using one-way ANOVA. Results: Among all the five studied rice varieties, the highest length, width and thick-ness values were measured as 8.06 mm, 3.59 mm and 2.87 mm, belonging to Shafagh, Gerde and Shiroodi varieties, respectively which each of them had significance difference (p<0.05) with the other varieties from point of view of the mentioned characteristics. Also, Shafagh and Keshvari revealed maximum and minimum values of volume, equivalent diameter and surface area, respectively. Shafagh had also the highest rate of weight of thousand grains (25.06 g). Gerde was found to be the most spherical variety and revealed the highest bulk density (0.82 kg/m3) and angle of repose (45.57º) while having minimum true density (1.41 kg/m3). Conclusions: There were significant differences among the examined varieties in the case of physical properties and most of these properties were related to each other. These data could be useful for resolving some problems associated with design, development and analysis of behavior of products during post-harvest processing.

1

Authors: Dr. A. Ezzaher

Dear Editor As we know, food-borne illness is one of the health prob-lems worldwide especially in developing countries. The suitable and powerful analytical methods for detection of hazards in food are necessary in order to reduce the risk of the disease. One of the key issues for rapid detection could be based on development of receptors with high affinity with the target (food hazards). This method would have high sensitivity and specificity comparison of current ana-lytical chemistry methods. Aptamer could play an important role as a receptor. It is a nucleic acid fragment with especial secondary structure with high affinity to the target. The most important charac-teristics of aptamers include the low cost, labeling with different reporter molecules and high affinity, sensitivity and specificity. The Aptamers can apply for detection of various food hazards such as pathogens, allergens and toxins. It is cru-cial to design new aptamers for detection of hazardous that can be found in food. In this field, considering the issues for rapid and ease of sample preparation is another chal-lenge that recommend for scientist to focus on it. Finally, it is recommended to design and optimize espe-cial aptamers as a commercial kit for detection of food-borne pathogens especially for using in developing coun-tries where high prevalence of these kinds of illnesses is observed.

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Authors: A. Heshmati*

Antibacterial drugs used in animal might result in deposition of residues in meat, milk and eggs. The presence of antimicrobial residues in animal-originated food is critical problem in many countries over the years. Because, drug residues might result in various health hazards, both actual incidence of reactions and potential hazards perceived by the public, the most countries assess residue occurrences in food to provide a safe food sup-ply and forbid importation of unwholesome foods from exporting countries. Stability of antibacterial drug residues under cooking conditions is an important research field, which provides valuable information related to health safety aspects and is very im-portant from a safety and toxicological point of view. It has been stated that drug resi-dues in animal based foods may be decreased due to cooking. Stability of antibacterial residues during heating is different. In this article, the changes of antibacterial drug resi-dues during different cooking procedures are reviewed. Ordinary cooking procedures degrade a number of antibacterial drug residues, depending on the amount of heat treat-ment involved. Cooking time and temperature are two main factors which affect on anti-biotic residues. In some cooking procedures, sufficient heating temperature and time can reduce several antibacterial drug residues although it does not generally provide an addi-tional margin of safety for consumers.

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Authors: F. Moulodi1*, P. Qajarbeigi1, K. Rahmani2, A. Haj Hosseini Babaei3, A. Mohammadpoorasl1

Background: Fatty acids are the main compounds in edible oils. Oil thermal stability depends on the composition of fatty acids. So, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of fatty acid composition on the oxidative stability of extra virgin olive oil dur-ing heating process. Methods: Totally, eight virgin olive oil samples, including five imported oils from mar-ket place of Mahabad and three local ones from Qazvin were analyzed to evaluate their thermal stability. Samples were heated at 120 °C for 4 h. Sampling was carried out in 2 h intervals, then fatty acid composition, peroxide, anisidine and totox values were assessed according to Iran national standards. All determinations were carried out in triplicates, and data were subjected to analysis of compare means (t test) and spearman correlation coefficients using SPSS 16.0. Results: Results show that there is a significant correlation between palmitoleic acid and totox index in 2 h (r=0.786) and 4 h (r=0.762), and the same result is observed between linoleic and totox index in 2 h (r=0.643) and 4 h (r=0.786). But, there is an inverse rela-tionship between oleic acid and totox index in 4 h (r=-0.833). Conclusion: Results indicated that linoleic acid and palmitoleic acid have a reducing ef-fect on thermal stability of extra virgin olive oil in 2 h, but oleic acid increases it in 4 h.

5

Authors: S. Mason1, B. Hajimohammadi2, M.H. Ehrampoush2, F. Khabiri2, M. Soltani2

Background: Aflatoxins are found in the most types of foods such as corn, peanuts, pis-tachio, rice, milk, and etc. These toxins may cause several adverse health effects, notably cancer. The main aim of this study was to evaluate excretion level of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), as a biomarker of aflatoxin B1 exposure, in urine samples of Iranian population. Also, relationship between diet and urinary excretion of AFM1 has been discussed. Methods: From June to August 2014, this study was carried out among 70 staffs from Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. From each participant, 72-h dietary recall was asked and recorded. Then, urine samples were collected separately in the sterile plastic falcon and transferred immediately to the labor-atory and stored at -20 °C. AFM1 was assessed in each sample using ELISA procedure. The data were analyzed by Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance test using SPSS software (16.0). Results: AFM1 was detected in 15 of 70 (21%) urine samples. The mean levels of con-tamination in faculty members and non-faculty members were 0.6 and 1.7 pg/ml, respec-tively. There was a significant difference between the excretion of AFM1 and consump-tion of nuts as well as Iranian traditional confection (p<0.05). No relationship was found between the demographic factors and excretion of AFM1 (p>0.05). Conclusions: Considering adverse health effect, aflatoxin exposure in this Iranian popu-lation should be reduced. So, comprehensive training of the people is one of the most practical and useful methods for reducing aflatoxin health risks

7

Authors: S. Azadmard-Damirchi1*, M. Torbati2

Vegetable oils and fats have a big contribution in our diet as cooking or frying oil, salad oil or in food products formulation. They are important from nutritional and economical point of views. Their authenticity is a serious issue since old time. Some edible oils and fats such as olive oil, cocoa butter and milk fat are so expensive which makes tempting to adulterate them with other lower price vegetable oils and fats to achieve more profit. The need for authentication is a necessity of the food industry. Today, adulterations are more sophisticated. Therefore, it is necessary to use advanced and suitable methods to detect adulteration. Adulteration can cause several problems in edible oils application and industry. To detect edible oils and fats adulteration, it is possible to use both major and minor components as detection tool. Since each oil and fat may have an especial component at a known level, their presence and amounts should be considered as a de-tection tool. This paper is a brief review on adulteration of edible oils and fats and their detection methods. Several methods have been used to check the purity of edible oils and fats. There is a necessity for food related organization to develop and utilize reliable methods to detect such adulterations, which can make consumers and markets more cer-tain on authenticity and purity of edible oils and fats.

2

Authors: C.A. Carrasco Lopez

Functional food is a food that beyond the normal benefits for health could also reduce the risk of a disease. There are several methods to produce functional food, including re-duction of food components or the complete elimination of it, addition of components as supplements such as probiot-ics and antioxidants, replacing a component, and/or in-creasing food stability. It is important to have a deep knowledge about the safety of these added compounds and the real benefits of their addition. Nevertheless, as compound assimilation by the body during nutrition is a complex process, the common biochemical and physiological methodologies are usually limited to describing the great complexity of the effects from a genomics point of view. Nutrigenomics, one of the new fields in the "omics" branches, could be able to ex-plore the broader spectrum of the effects of these added compounds and, therefore, help in the design of functional foods based on individual health/genome profiles with the aim of reducing the risk of specific diseases (Keijer et al., 2010). Also, with this new field, scientists can develop specific and individualized nutrient rich diets as a key tool to help or “cure” certain health problems. Nutrigenomics, derived from the words "nutrition" and "genomics", analyzes the interaction between nutrient’s bioactive components and the genome, describing the in-fluences of genetic variation on nutrition by a direct corre-lation between the nutrient’s absorption, gene expression and metabolism (Kato, 2008). The quality and safety of food certainly have a huge ef-fect on health, but genetics also play an important role in different type of diseases, including inheritance or health problems derived from gene-environment interactions. A variety of environmental signals can change the gene ex-pression profiles, and as a consequence, generate health problems. Nutrition is one of the main components of the environmental conditions, which can change the pheno-type. Some of the important diseases that could be caused by changing the gene expression patterns include cancer, cardiovascular problems, digestive and inflammatory dis-eases, allergies and diabetes among others (Jones and Baylin, 2002; Multhaup et al., 2015; Prescott and Saffery, 2011). Therefore, nutrigenomics can certainly contribute to personalized medicine. Personalized nutrition along with detailed individual ge-nome information enables researchers using nutrigenomics to predict cellular and molecular events after consuming food and these results can be used to reduce the hazards associated with some compounds (Fenech et al., 2011). Any processed food can result in various patterns of gene expression and therefore different metabolite production. Nutrigenomics describes these different patterns and pre-sents them as a dietary signature that is specific for each cell, tissue and organism. All of these changes can influ-ence homeostasis and metabolic pathways (Muller and Kersten, 2003). So, it could enable us to design supple-mented food and food processing systems to prevent chron-ic diseases such as obesity and type-2 diabetes. Nutrigenomics has different phases including finding the effective markers related to food compounds, intervention, seeking the gene expression profile and recommendation of a personalized diet for a patient. In complementary alternative medicine (CAM) treatment, such as consumption of herbal preparations, addition of dietary supplements and etc., we could use nutrigenomics (Richardson et al., 2000) to predict the effects of each compound on gene expression and therefore metabolic pathway in an individual. Therefore, information about the interaction mechanisms of food components on gene expression would help pa-tients not only to avoid consumption of certain food as prevention but also to include compounds into the food that will definitely improve their lives. In addition, knowing the necessary nutrients would positively help scientists to manage the disease outcome in patients (Muller and Kersten, 2003; Ouhtit, 2014).

4

Authors: M. Hashemnia1*, Y. Shahbazi2, E.A. Afshari Safavi3

Background: Bovine cysticercosis is one of the most important parasitic diseases caused by the metacestode stage of the human tapeworm Taenia saginata. The public health and eco-nomic consequences of this parasite may be considerable due to downgrading and the con-demnation of carcasses. Therefore, this survey was designed to estimate the prevalence, economic losses and food safety importance of cattle cysticercosis at Kermanshah abattoir, west of Iran. Methods: This study is a retrospective survey covering a period from March 2006 to March 2013. All daily condemnation records for cattle in the municipal abattoir of livestock ani-mals in Kermanshah (the capital of Kermanshah province, west of Iran) were used as the sources of data. As part of an ongoing surveillance system, each slaughtered animal was ex-amined individually by official meat inspectors. Statistical analysis was carried out using software SPSS version 16.0. Results: From a total of 361787 cattle examined during this period, 284 (0.078%) were found infected with Cysticercus bovis; among those 183 (0.05%) of carcasses were treated and 101 (0.028%) of carcasses were condemned. Seasonal analysis revealed significantly higher (p<0.05) prevalence in summer. The rejected carcasses and infected organs were val-ued at 112302 USD over this period. Conclusion: The findings obtained from this epidemiological investigation could be useful in order to design a comprehensive disease control strategy for cattle cysticercosis in this re-gion of Iran.

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Authors: M.R. Koushki1, M.H. Azizi2*, P. Koohy-Kamaly1, M. Azizkhani2

Background: Edible films and coatings have potential benefits for food packaging, particu-larly meat products. These coatings prevent weight loss and texture changes during shelf life by reducing moisture loss in fresh and frozen meat products. In this study, effect of calcium alginate edible coating on microbial and chemical properties of refrigerated lamb meat over a period of 5 days was investigated. Methods: The control and coated samples were analyzed for microbial properties including total microbial count, psychrophilic bacteria count and chemical characteristics such as total volatile nitrogen (TVN) and moisture content. The experiments were conducted in triplicates and data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16.0) by two-way ANOVA and gen-eral linear model with repeated-measurements. Results: There was a significant (p<0.05) difference between the samples coated with cal-cium alginate and control samples in total microbial count during 5 days; but, there was no significant difference in psychrophilic bacteria count and moisture content. Besides, a sig-nificant reduction (p<0.05) was observed for the coated and control samples in TVN content on day 3. After 5 days of storage at 4±1 °C, TVN levels did not exceed the maximum stan-dard limit (16.5 mg/100 g) in all coated samples. Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed effectiveness of calcium alginate in im-proving the microbial and chemical properties and shelf life extension of lamb meat

6

Authors: A. Jebelli Javan1*, A. Nikmanesh2, K. Keykhosravy3, S. Maftoon2, M. Amin Zare4, M. Bayani3, M. Parsaiemehr1, M. Raeisi5

Background: White button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) is a sensitive agricultural crop whose antioxidant properties are decreased during post-harvest storage. In this study, the ef-fect of citric acid dipping treatment on bioactive components and antioxidant properties of sliced button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) was investigated. Methods: Fresh mushrooms soaked in chilled citric acid solution at different concentrations (1%, 3% and 5% w/v) for 10 min were categorized as treatment groups and those dipped in chilled distilled water were considered as control. Bioactive components and antioxidant properties of sliced button mushroom were assessed on each designated day (every 5 days up to 15 days) of storage using chemical evaluations including total phenolics, chelating power, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay as well as assessment of reducing power. The significance of differences among treatments was determined by one-way analy-sis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey tests using Sigma Stat software (version 2.03). Results: Incorporation of 3% w/v citric acid treatment effectively maintained bioactive components and antioxidant properties [with 4.89 mg/g, 304.31 μg/ml (EC50) and 1.69 mg/ml (EC50) in total phenolic, DPPH and reducing power assays, respectively] at higher levels compared to control [with 3.12 mg/g, 420.42 μg/ml (EC50) and 2.23 mg/ml (EC50) in the mentioned evaluations] at the last day of the experiment (p<0.05). No significant differ-ence was observed between 3% and 5% w/v citric acid solution treated samples (p>0.05). Conclusion: These results showed that dipping in citric acid solution prior to storage can maintain bioactive components and antioxidant properties of sliced button mushrooms dur-ing storage