• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2002

With the incidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria there is increasing interest in natural products such as herb extract and probiotics to control antibiotic resistant bacteria. This study was focused on the determination of antimicrobial activity of Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten against Salmonella enetrica serovar Enteritidis (S. enterifidis), S. enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) DT 104 and Escherichia coli 0157:H7. Though bactericidal effect of 0. ficus-indica var. saboten was not observed, it had significant inhibitory activity against Salmonella spp. and E. coli O157:H7 on the Moulter Hinton agar containing its solution dissolved in deionized water. To investigate the antimicrobial activity in vivo, mice were challenged with 5. Typhimurium DT104 (3.7$\times$108 cfu/mouse) after pre-feeding 0. ficus-indica var. saboten solution. The fecal shedding of S. Typhimurium DT104 was more dramatically decreased and not detectable in feces and intestines 3 days after challenge in mice fed with 0. ficus-indica var. saboten. Antibody responses of the intestinal IgA were also significantly increased in mice fed with 0. ficus-indica var. saboten. These findings suggest that Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten decreased the shedding of S. Typhimurium DT104 in vitro and also in the gastrointestinal tract in mice. In addition, administration of the product might enhance the mucosal immune response against S. Typhimurium DT 104. In conclusion, Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten might be useful to control antibiotic resistant bacteria in vivo and in vitro.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2014

Many community gardens in large cities worldwide grow vegetables; however, no information regarding the levels of sanitary indicator bacteria and prevalence of foodborne pathogens in vegetables grown in urban community gardens is available. To evaluate the microbiological quality of vegetables from urban community gardens in Korea, 530 samples (nine types of vegetable, including Chinese cabbage, lettuce, radish leaves, spinach, mustard leaves, crown daisy, leek, Korean cabbage, and chicory) were collected at 11 urban community gardens in Seoul, Korea from September through October 2012. The levels of total aerobic bacteria, Escherichia coli, total coliforms, Salmonella spp. Listeria monocytogenes, and E. coli O157:H7 were evaluated quantitatively and/or qualitatively. The mean numbers of total aerobic bacteria and coliforms were 6.3 log CFU/g (range 3.8-8.1 log CFU/g) and 4.3 log CFU/g (range 2.1-6.4 log CFU/g), respectively. Total coliforms were detected on 67% of whole vegetables. Chicory showed the highest number of total aerobic bacteria and coliforms, whereas the lowest number of coliforms was detected on leeks. E. coli was detected on 2.3% of whole vegetables, including lettuce, radish leaves, mustard leaves, and chicory; however, foodborne pathogenic bacteria were not detected on any of the vegetable samples using this highly sensitive and validated procedure. Based on these findings, the presence of coliforms and E. coli demonstrates that opportunity for improvement of microbiological safety exists throughout the produce production chain, although no major foodborne pathogens were present in vegetables grown in urban community gardens.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.217-226
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• 2015

This study was conducted to establish a standardized process for developing food safety health indicators. With this aim, we proposed a standardized process, accessed the validity of the suggested process by performing simulations, and provided a method to utilize the indicators. Developing process for domestic environmental health indicators was benchmarked to propose a standardized process for developing food safety health indicators, and DPSEEA framework was applied to the development of indicators. The suggested standardized process consists of an exploitation stage and a management stage. In the exploitation stage, a total of 6 procedures (initial indicators suggestion, candidate indicators selection, data availability assessment, feasibility assessment, pilot study, and final indicator selection) are conducted, and the indicators are routinely calculated and officially announced in the management stage. The exploitation stage is operated by an interaction between a task force team who manages the overall process, and an advisory committee (minimum of 4 in academia, 2 in research, 4 in specialists of Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) who reviews and performs evaluations on the indicators. The standardized process was simulated with 45 initial indicators, and total of 4 indicators (17 detailed indicators) were selected: 'Proportion of domestic fruit/vegetable receiving 'acceptable' in the evaluation of pesticide/herbicide residues', 'Food-borne disease outbreaks', 'Food-borne legal infectious disease incidence', 'Salmonellosis incidence'. Synthetic food safety health index was derived by calculating percent difference with the data from 2010 to 2012. Results showed that when comparing the year 2010 to 2011, and 2011 to 2012, the overall food safety status improved by 10.37% and 9.87%, respectively. In addition, the contribution of indicators to the overall food safety status can be determined by looking into the individual indicators, and the synthetic index may be illustrated to enhance the ease of interpretation to the public and policy makers. In overall, food health safety indicators can be useful in many ways and therefore, attention should be drawn to conduct further studies and establish related legislations.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.227-235
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• 2015

Food-Health indicators have been developed and utilized internationally in the 'Food' domain of environment and health indicators. In Korea, however, Food Safety Health Indicators which are in the introductory stage had been developed separately from Environmental Health Indicators. The aim of the current study is to suggest feasible applications of the domestic Food Safety Health Indicators as a case study. We introduced 3 possible applications which are as follows: 1) production of two types of Integrated Food Safety Health Index; 2) conduction of correlation analysis between the Integrated Food Safety Health Index and Food Safety Health Indicators; 3) conduction of regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between the Integrated Food Safety Health Index and socioeconomic status. As a result, we provided the calculated Integrated Food Safety Health Index I and Integrated Food Safety Health Index II, which represents the regional food safety level in relative and absolute terms, respectively. Integrated Food Safety Health Index I was significantly correlated with the outbreaks of food-borne diseases (caused by Campylobacter jejuni, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella spp. and unknown cause) and incidence of E.coli infections. Integrated Food Safety Health Index II significantly decreased as the proportion of foreigners and women increased, and increased as the population density increased. Utilization of such Integrated Food Safety Health Indicators may be helpful in understanding the overall domestic food safety level and identifying the indicators which must be considered with priorities to enhance the food safety levels regionally and domestically. Furthermore, analyzing the association between Integrated Food Safety Health Index and factors other than food safety could be useful in conducting risk management and identifying susceptible populations. Food Safety Health Indicators can be useful in other applications, and may serve as a supporting material in establishing or modifying policy plans to enhance food safety. Therefore, keen interests by researchers accompanied by further studies on food safety health indicators are needed.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.281-288
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• 2015

Vibrio is a genus of Gram-negative, curved, halophilic, and non-spore-forming bacteria. Some of the Vibrio species, such as V. cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus, often contaminate seafood products and occasionally cause human diseases when the seafood products are ingested. A total of 24 Vibrio strains were isolated from shrimp samples on Thiosulphate citrate bile salt sucrose (TCBS) media in this study. All of the 24 isolates were confirmed to belong to the genus Vibrio by using 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. Vitek 2 system and species-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods were used to further identify a total of 29 Vibrio strains at the species level, including the 24 shrimp Vibrio isolates and five Vibrio reference strains. The specificities of the two methods to identify Vibrio strains at the species level were compared in this study. The species-specific PCR method was designed to detect five different Vibrio species, such as Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio alginolyticus, and Vibrio mimicus. From the 24 Vibrio shrimp isolates, the Vitek 2 system method could identify 15 (62.5%) strains as Vibrio species and 7 (29.2%) strains as non-Vibrio species, but could not identify the rest 2 (8.3%) strains. But species-specific PCR method could identify 16 (66.7%) strains as Vibrio species and could not identify the rest 8 (33.3%) strains. Among the 24 Vibrio shrimp strains, these two methods could unanimously identify 7 (7/24, 29.2%) strains (2 V. parahaemolyticus, 4 V. alginolyticus, and 1 V. mimicus). Considering that such different identification results were obtained using the two different methods in this study, identification method for Vibrio species must be carefully chosen.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.420-426
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to identify control points through microbiological hazard analysis in the manufacturing processes of starch noodles. Samples were collected from the ingredients, manufacturing processes, equipment and environment. Microbiological hazard assessments were performed using aerobic plate counts (APC), Enterobacteriaceae (EB), E. coli and five pathogens including B. cereus, E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and S. aureus. The APC levels in raw materials were from 2.12 to 3.83 log CFU/g. The contamination levels after kneading were 4.31 log CFU/g for APCs and 2.88 log CFU/g for EB counts. APCs decreased to 1.63 log CFU/g and EB were not detected after gelatinization, but their levels slightly increased upon cooling, cutting, ripening, freezing, thawing, and separating. The reuse of cooling and coating water would be a critical source of microbial increase after cooling. After drying, APCs and EB counts decreased to 5.05 log CFU/g and 2.74 log CFU/g, respectively, and the levels were maintained to final products. These results suggest that the cooling process is a critical control point for microbiological safety, and the cooling water should be treated and controlled to prevent cross contamination by pre-requisite program.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.366-374
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• 2012

Recently pathogenic E. coli is one of the main foodborne pathogens resulting in many patients in Korea. To understand the characteristics of pathogenic E. coli outbreaks in Korea, the epidemiological investigation reports of pathogenic E. coli outbreak in 2009 (41 reports) and in 2010 (27 reports) were collected in the web site of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reviewed and analysed in this study. The main places of the pathogenic E. coli outbreaks were food catering service area (64.8%) and restaurants (25.0%). The main type of the pathogens were EPEC (44.7%) and ETEC (34.2%). EAEC and EHEC was responsible for 10.5 and 9.2%, respectively. Eight of 68 outbreak cases were caused by more than 2 types of pathogenic E. coli which implicates the complicated contamination pathways of pathogenic E. coli. The incidence rate of pathogenic E. coli was $33.6{\pm}30.5%$ and the main symptoms were diarrhea, stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, and fever etc. The two identified food sources were identified as frozen hamburger pattie and squid-vegetable mixture. To improve the food source identification by epidemiological investigation, food poisoning notification to the agency should not be delayed, whole food items attributed the outbreak should be collected and detection method of the various pathogenic E. coli in food has to be improved. In conclusion, the characteristics between the EHEC outbreaks in the western countries and the EPEC or ETEC outbreaks in Korea needs to be distinguished to prepare food safety management plan. In addition, the development of the trace back system to find the contamination pathway with the improved detection method in food and systemic and cooperative support by the related agencies are necessary.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.340-346
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• 2014

In this study, the detection method was developed using real-time PCR to distinguish 4 species (bovine, porcine, horse, and chicken) of raw meats. The genes for distinction of species about meats targeted at 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA parts in mitochondrial DNA. Probes were designed to have a 5' FAM and a TAMRA at the 3' end. This study is to develop 4 species-specific primer and probes about raw materials and real-time PCR on 10 strains to observe the products of non-specific signal for similar species. As a result, any non-specific signal were not detected among each other. Real-time PCR method was developed for quantitation and identification of intentional and unintentional mixture in ground mixed meat (The difference of $C_T$ value between intentional mixture and 100% meat: $${\leq_-}$$ cycles, The difference of $C_T$ value between unintentional mixture and 100% meat: $${\geq_-}$$ cycles). The detection and differentiation of intentional and unintentional mixture in this study would be applied to food safety management for eradication of adulterated food distribution and protection of consumer's right.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.268-277
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• 2014

This study assessed microbiological hazards at postharvest stage of dropwort farms (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I) located in 4 different areas in Korea. The samples were assessed for sanitary indication bacteria (total aerobic bacteria, coliform, and Escherichia coli) and pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus). Total aerobic bacteria and coliform in 9 dropwort farms were detected at the levels of 0~7.00 and 0~4.25 log CFU/g, mL, of $100cm^2$. In particular, microbial contamination in worker's hand showed higher than cultivation environment factors. Escherichia coli was detected in several farms of soil, irrigation water, washing water and worker's hand and also, dropwort in these farms was contaminated with E. coli (positive reaction). In case of pathogenic bacteria, B. cereus was detected at the highest levels in soil. S. aureus was detected qualitatively from only one sample of dropwort washed by water. E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes were not detected. Although dropwort pass through 2 process (trimming and washing), the microbial contamination was not differ significantly before and after which indicates that current washing system was not effect on reduction of microorganism. From these results, the postharvest environment and workers have been considered as cross-contamination factors. Thus, processing equipments and personal hygiene should be managed to reduce the microbial contamination of dropwort. Accordingly management system such as good agricultural practices (GAP) criteria is needed for the safety of dropwort

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.477-484
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• 2017

This study was conducted to investigate the content of sulfur dioxide, carotenoids and the degree of contamination of Bacillus cereus in 33 kinds of dried sweet potato from domestic mainly dried agricultural products in Korea. According to the characteristics of dried sweet potato samples, it was classified into four clusters and as a result of analyzing the contents of sulfur dioxide, carotenoids and the degree of contamination B. cereus was no significant difference among the clusters. The detection ranges of residual sulfur dioxide from 33 dried sweet potatoes ranged from 0.38 to 28.16 mg/kg, three cases (9.09%) were detected at the reference level of 10 mg/kg or more. But no samples exceeding 30 mg/kg, the tolerance level of sulfur dioxide in dried sweet potatoes were detected. Since dried sweet potato does not have a standard for carotenoids, when comparing the national and international standards of carotenoids, the range of detection of carotenoids in dried sweet potato was $46{\sim}2,663{\mu}g$/100 g, which was within the reference range of $0{\sim}9,826{\mu}g$/100 g. In principle colonies suspected to be B. cereus in dried sweet potato were not detected. In 7 cases (21.21%), there were detected in the range of 0.05~1.59 log CFU/g but not more than 3 log CFU/g as the reference value. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data to establish quality standard for dried sweet potatoes. In order to control the quality of dried sweet potatoes in domestic market, raw materials, drying method and packaging after distribution, it is necessary to maintain and maintain the process steadily.