Rapid Analytical Methods for Food Integrity Analysis: A Short Review

In modern society, the quality and safety of food plays an important role. To ensure these significant indicators, it is necessary to create an effective system of state control. Such a system has been most successfully implemented in countries and associations such as the European Union, the United States of America and Japan. Successful attempts are also being made in Ukraine's neighboring countries to establish a system of coordination and control over the quality and safety of food products. In addition, many countries implemented sanitary control system based on HACCP and policy from farm to consumer and the system of rapid alerts on threats to food and animal feed. The European Union supervision of compliance requirements and standards, which aim to guarantee food safety engaged in the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. The basic principles of regulating the system of compliance with the quality and safety of food are contained in the Law On Food, Regulation of the European Parliament and the EU Council №178 / 2002 EU. In the United States, food safety is monitored by a number of government agencies at various levels: federal, state, and local. At the federal level, 15 agencies collectively administer at least 30 food safety laws. In Japan, food safety is regulated by the Food Sanitation Act. According to the Act responsibility for ensuring safe food is shared by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. In the Republic of Belarus, the main legal act in the field of food security is the Law On the quality and safety of raw materials and food for human life and health. Confirmation of the quality and safety of food products can be obtained at the Republican Unitary Enterprise Scientific and Practical Center of Hygiene. The National Agency for Food Safety has been established on the territory of the Republic of Moldova to effectively solve the tasks of ensuring and controlling the quality and safety of food products. It operates jointly with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and the Environment, and the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure.

The food industry is advancing at a rapid pace and consumer sensitivity to food safety scares and food fraud scandals is further amplified by rapid communication such as by social media. Academia, regulators, and industry practitioners alike struggle with an evolving issue regarding new terms and definitions including food fraud, food authenticity, food integrity, food protection, economically motivated adulteration, food crime, food security, contaminant, adulterant, and others. This research addressed some of the global need for clarification and harmonization of commonly used terminology. The 150 survey responses were received from various food-related workgroups or committee members, communication with recognized experts, and announcements to the food industry in general. Overall food fraud was identified as a "food safety" issue (86%). The food quality and manufacturing respondents focused mainly on incoming goods and adulterant-substances (<50%) rather than the other illegal activities such as counterfeiting, theft, gray market/diversion, and smuggling. Of the terms included to represent "intentional deception for economic gain" the respondents generally agreed with food fraud as the preferred term. Overall, the preference was 50% "food fraud," 15% "economically motivated adulteration" EMA, 9% "food protection," 7% "food integrity," 5% "food authenticity," and 2% "food crime." It appears that "food protection" and "food integrity" are terms that cover broader concepts such as all types of intentional acts and even possibly food safety or food quality. "Food authenticity" was defined with the phrase "to ensure" so seemed to be identified as an "attribute" that helped define fraudulent acts. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Food Fraud-illegal deception for economic gain using food-is a rapidly evolving research topic and is facing confusion due to the use of different terms and definitions. This research survey presented common definitions and publication details to gain insight that could help provide clarity. The insight from this report provides guidance for others who are harmonizing terminology and setting the overall strategic direction.

Introduction. People’s satisfaction with food safety and quality is an important component of overall satisfaction with a sanitary-epidemiological situation on a given territory. It is based on consumer criteria of quality and safety, which do not have the same significance. The aim of this study was to assess satisfaction with food quality and safety in population in Russian megacities determined relying on consumer criteria. Materials and methods. The study involved accomplishing a formalized survey, which was conducted in Novosibirsk and Perm among people aged 18 years and older (river sampling, quotas per age, sex and place of residence). Data were collected over the period between October 6, 2024 and November 6, 2024. A specifically designed survey tool was used in the process, which enabled calculating an integral index of satisfaction for each respondent. Results. Several key criteria were named by consumers to detect a product quality for all product groups such as ‘freshness; expiration date has not been reached’ (this criterion is among top five for all product groups suggested for evaluation); ‘pleasant taste’; ‘conforms to State Standards (GOST), quality standards’. Safety criteria determined by consumers included ‘storage under proper conditions’; ‘absence of any strange taste’; ‘expiration date has not been reached’. Significance of these criteria varied depending on consumers’ sex, age, family situation and economic status. The lowest level of consumer satisfaction with product quality, according to the integral index estimation, was identified for soft drinks (21.4 % of consumers were unsatisfied, the index value was ≤0.4) and vegetables (19.7%); the lowest level of satisfaction with food safety was identified for eggs (27.9% of consumers unsatisfied, the index value was ≤0.4), bread and bakery products (26.6%), poultry (23.9%), meat and meat products (23.8%), milk and milk products (22.6%). Satisfaction with food safety is a) lower than satisfaction with quality, b) is different in various socio-demographic groups. Limitations. The research object was represented by people who live in cities with their population exceeding 1 million; a sample was created by using non-random techniques and this resulted in its deviation from a total population per several social and demographic parameters (this deviation was partially compensated for by using the weighting procedure). Conclusion. It is important to consider consumers’ satisfaction with food quality and safety when developing activities aimed at communications with executive regional and local authorities in RF regions as well as with population as regards the existing sanitary-epidemiological situation. Various managerial actions have been recommended depending on how people are distributed per categories of satisfaction, which were created using the results obtained by estimations based on the integral index.

Barcoding animal species

The article examines regulatory legal acts and other documents and literary sources regarding state control of food safety and quality in Great Britain, Germany, France, the USA and Japan. The health of every nation largely depends on the quality and safety of food products. In any country, at the state level, requirements for product safety and quality are regulated and their compliance is ensured. One of the methods of such provision is state control. The article analyzes the practices of controlling the quality and safety of food products in the USA, Germany, France, Great Britain and Japan. It was revealed that there are both common and special rules in the practice of controlling the quality and safety of food products in the studied countries. In all countries, control over the quality and safety of food products is carried out by state bodies. In all countries, during control, special attention is paid to the reliability of product labeling. Improper labeling entails banning the sale of products, removal from circulation or destruction of particularly dangerous products, and even criminal liability in France and the USA. The main responsibility for dangerous food products in all countries is borne by the manufacturers or suppliers of the products who put them into circulation. In the USA and Japan, information about the presence of allergens in a food product must be included in the labeling. In the USA, in order for the manufacturer's products to be able to be supplied for a government order, the enterprise must implement a quality management system in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001, and in Japan, in order to obtain a permit for the manufacture of food products, it is necessary to prove that proper sanitary and hygienic control is ensured by implementing HACCP system. In Germany, Great Britain, and Japan, quality and safety control is entrusted to local self-government bodies. In Germany, there is a product safety monitoring program throughout the territory, which makes it possible to monitor the appearance of dangerous products on the market, as well as to check the effectiveness of the established MPC of dangerous substances. The presence of "passports" for ready-made food products is checked only in France, although such a document is mandatory in EU countries. In France and Japan, exceptional importance is attached to the education of schoolchildren on food safety issues.

Online exhaled gas measurements for radiotherapy patients by proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry

This article presents an in‐depth review of the role of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in food authentication, an area of increasing importance due to the rising complexity of food fraud cases. The inherent and unique profiles of VOCs in different food products serve as chemical fingerprints, enabling the differentiation of authentic food products from fraudulent ones across various food categories such as dairy, fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, beverages, and grains. The review begins with an overview of the chemical properties and characteristics of VOCs, emphasizing their diversity and significance in the sensory experience of food products. The article explores VOCs' application in food authentication, providing valuable information on origin, variety, quality, ripening stage, and potential adulterations. Advancements in detection and analytical techniques, such as gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS), proton transfer reaction‐mass spectrometry (PTR‐MS), selected ion flow tube‐mass spectrometry (SIFT‐MS), electronic noses (E‐noses) etc., are discussed. The article also addresses the challenges and limitations in VOC‐based food authentication, including variability in VOCs profiles, technical limitations, and regulatory considerations. In conclusion, the review underscores the potential of VOCs as indicators in food integrity, predicting that continued technological advancements and interdisciplinary collaboration will enhance food safety, quality, and traceability.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a central role in plant communication and ecology, acting as a chemical language that mediates interactions with other organisms and responses to environmental stimuli. Analyzing changes in the plant volatilome enables the effective differentiation between biotic and abiotic stresses. Consequently, monitoring VOC emissions offers valuable insights into plant signaling pathways and health status. These insights position this approach as a promising strategy for improving crop protection. Direct infusion (DI) online analytical techniques, such as proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) and adduct ionization mechanism mass spectrometry (AIM-MS), have been developed to detect and characterize VOCs in real time. Here, we evaluated the suitability of PTR-MS and AIM-MS for monitoring VOC emissions in pea plants (Pisum sativum L.). Comparative analysis revealed that AIM-MS, a recently developed technology, detected a higher number of distinct signals than PTR-MS. Annotation of detected and significant AIM-MS signals indicated a predominance toward those that were putative lipids-derived and amino acids-derived, whereas PTR-MS signals were primarily associated with putative phenolic compounds. These findings suggest that the newly developed AIM reactor offers a broader detection range and may enhance our ability to monitor plant VOC emissions. Consequently, AIM-MS emerges as a promising tool for the real-time assessment of pea plant health and stress responses. Further efforts are needed to improve the portability of DI-MS techniques and to integrate them with GC-MS techniques. Overall, these efforts will allow this technology to be exploited for plant protection in compromised environments.

The Food Safety Quality System. (SQF) is a critical tool for ensuring the safety and quality of food products. However, its application goes beyond the food industry. The Food Quality System (SQF) is a necessary tool to ensure the safety and quality of food products. Therefore, this study focuses on the investigation of SQF in the specific context of plastic cap manufacturing. The unique challenges faced by this sector in terms of food safety, product quality, and regulatory compliance are examined, and a practical framework for implementing SQF in plastic cap manufacturing operations is proposed, with the goal of improving product safety and customer satisfaction. It is concluded that the Food Quality System (SQF) is essential to guarantee food safety and quality in the manufacture of plastic lids, helping to mitigate contamination risks, improve processes and meet consumer expectations. However, there is variability in SQF compliance among companies, with some showing high compliance and others requiring improvements, a clear correlation between SQF compliance and product quality indicates that rigorous standards result in higher quality products and customer satisfaction; The choice of rigorous, standardized criteria to assess compliance and quality is essential. Despite the good performance in implementing the SQF, there are always opportunities for continuous improvement through the identification of critical areas and the adoption of corrective actions.

Quality and safety of food product – Current assessment, issues, and metabolomics as a way forward

Olfactory mucosa (OM) can metabolise odorant volatile organic compounds through various enzymatic mechanisms to produce odorous or non-odorous metabolites. Preliminary ex vivo studies using headspace-gas chromatography (HS-GC) revealed the formation of metabolites when odorant molecules were injected in the headspace above a fresh explant of rat olfactory mucosa. However, this method did not allow accessing the data during the first 5min of contact between the odorant and the mucosa; thus limiting the olfactory biological significance. Using a direct-injection mass spectrometry technique with a proton transfer reaction instrument (PTR-MS), we have been able, for the first time, to investigate the first moments of the enzymatic process of the metabolic capacity of ex vivo rat olfactory mucosa in real time. Using ethyl acetate as a model volatile odorous substrate, we demonstrated here for the first time that this odorant could be metabolised by an ex vivo olfactory mucosa within seconds, producing ethanol as metabolite.

Proton transfer reaction - mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) has become a reference technique in environmental science allowing for VOC monitoring with low detection limits. The recent introduction of time-of-flight mass analyzer (PTR-ToF-MS) opens new horizons in terms of mass resolution, acquisition time, and mass range. A standard procedure to perform quantitative VOC measurements with PTR-ToF-MS is to calibrate the instrument using a standard gas. However, given the number of compounds that can be simultaneously monitored by PTR-ToF-MS, such a procedure could become impractical, especially when standards are not readily available. In the present work we show that, under particular conditions, VOC concentration determinations based only on theoretical predictions yield good accuracy. We investigate a range of humidity and operating conditions and show that theoretical VOC concentration estimations are accurate when the effect of water cluster ions is negligible. We also show that PTR-ToF-MS can successfully be used to estimate reaction rate coefficients between H(3)O(+) and VOC at PTR-MS working conditions and find good agreement with the corresponding nonthermal theoretical predictions. We provide a tabulation of theoretical rate coefficients for a number of relevant volatile organic compounds at various energetic conditions and test the approach in a laboratory study investigating the oxidation of alpha-pinene.

Shelf-life is defined as the time that a product is acceptable and meets the consumers expectations regarding food quality. It is the result of the conjunction of all services in production, distribution, and consumption. Shelf-life dating is one of the most difficult tasks in food engineering. Market pressure has lead to the implementation of shelf-life by sensory analyses, which may not reflect the full quality spectra. Moreover, traditional methods for shelf-life dating and small-scale distribution chain tests cannot reproduce in a laboratory the real conditions of storage, distribution, and consumption on food quality. Today, food engineers are facing the challenges to monitor, diagnose, and control the quality and safety of food products. The advent of nanotechnology, multivariate sensors, information systems, and complex systems will revolutionize the way we manage, distribute, and consume foods. The informed consumer demands foods, under the legal standards, at low cost, high standards of nutritional, sensory, and health benefits. To accommodate the new paradigms, we herein present a critical review of shelf-life dating approaches with special emphasis in computational systems and future trends on complex systems methodologies applied to the prediction of food quality and safety.

Handheld NIR spectroscopy for real-time on-site food quality and safety monitoring.

Urban air measurements using PTR-MS in Tokyo area and comparison with GC-FID measurements