• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.269-276
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• 2010

Total mercury and methylmercury concentrations were determined in 15 commonly consumed aquatic food species using total mercury analyzer and gas chromatography with electron capture detector. The mean total mercury and methylmercury concentrations (mg/kg) were 0.088 and 0.034 in mackerel, 0.061 and 0.016 in hair tail, 0.030 and 0.005 in yellow croaker, 0.032 and 0.008 in Alaska pollock, 0.059 and 0.023 in eastern catfish, 0.110 and 0.045 in snakehead, 0.030 and 0.011 in Japanese common squid, 0.026 and 0.009 in common octopus, 0.035 and 0.008 in swimming crab, 0.009 and not detected (ND) in oyster, 0.011 and ND in shortneck clam, 0.008 and ND in mussel, 0.018 and ND in sea mustard, 0.007 and ND in nori, and 0.019 and ND in sea tangle, respectively. The total weekly dietary intakes of total mercury and methylmercury were estimated, respectively, using food consumption data from diet surveys and the concentrations of total mercury and methylmercury from this study. They were $0.178\;{\mu}g/kg$ body weight (b.w.)/week (3.57% of provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI)) and $0.052\;{\mu}g/kg$ b.w./week (3.34% of PTWI) respectively, and all were within their respective PTWI set by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Therefore, considering that the main contributor to mercury intake in the diet is aquatic foods and that the 15 aquatic food species examined in this study are highly consumed, it is concluded that the mercury levels in the foods measured in this study do not present a concern for consumer health.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.259-265
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• 2002

Phthalate analogues are a plasticizer and solvent used in industry. Phthalates were reported to be a potential carcinogen classified in the category of suspected endocrine disruptors. Most common human exposure to these compounds may occur with contaminated food. They may migrate into food from plastic wrap or may enter food from general environmental contamination. Since these substances are not limited to the original products, and enter the environment, they have become widespread environmental pollutants, thus leading to a variety of phthalates that possibly threaten the public health. Concern about their use has been mounting. To screen and elucidate the endocrine disrupting activity and their mechanism of phthalate analogues, first of all, E-screen assay was performed in MCF7 human breast cancer cells with seven phthalate analogues. In this cell proliferation assay, only dibutyl phthalate (DBP) showed weak estrogenic activity. Also the yeast-based transcription assay to assess the interactions of DBP with the estrogen, androgen, and progesterone receptors was conducted. DBP in the concentration ranges from 10$^{-16}$ to 10$^{-11}$ M was active in the estrogen transcriptional assay, but it did not show the effect on $\beta$-galactosidase activity in the progesterone and androgen transcriptional assays. These data indicate that DBP shows estrogenic potential and can be classified as weak and/or suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.143-149
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• 2007

Inadequate dietary intakes and poor health behaviors are of concern among rural residents in Korea. This study is conducted to compare dietary intakes, dietary diversity score (DDS), mean nutrient adequacy ratio (MAR) and health related behaviors by rural, factory and urban areas in Asan. A total of 930 adults (351 men and 579 women) were interviewed to assess social economic status (SES), health related behaviors and food intakes by a 24-hour recall method. Mean age was 61.5 years with men being older (64.8 years) than women (59.3 years, p<0.001). Men in the factory area were older than rural or urban men while urban women were the youngest. Education and income of urban residents were higher than other area residents. There were more current drinkers in urban area while smoking status was not different by regions. Physical activity was significantly higher in rural or factory areas, whilst urban residents exercised more often (p<0.05). Rural or factory area residents considered themselves less healthy than others while perceived stress was lower than urban residents. Energy intakes were higher in urban residents or in men, however, after SES was controlled, energy intake did not show any differences. Energy-adjusted nutrient intakes were significantly higher in the urban area (p<0.05) for most nutrients except for carbohydrate, niacin, folic acid, vitamin $B_6$, iron and fiber. Sodium intake was higher in factory area than in other areas after SES was controlled. DDS of rural men and MAR of both men and women in the rural area were significantly lower when SES was controlled. In conclusion, dietary intakes, diversity, adequacy and perceived health were poor in the rural area, although other health behaviors such as drinking and perceived stress were better than in the urban area. In order to improve perceived health of rural residents, good nutrition and exercise education programs are recommended.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.265-269
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• 1999

Paralytic shellfish poison threatens public health most seriously from April to early May every year and gives adverse effects on export of these products. Major shellfish products exported were canned oyster, Crassostrea gigas and blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. Toxicities of canned shellfishes with toxin of low levels were mostly inactivated during the processing; in contrast, residual toxicity was of great concern with canned products from highly toxic shellfishes. This study was to provide basic data to establish food safety measure by evaluating the changes of toxicity during 2 year storage of canned products with toxic blue mussel and oyster. Any significant difference was not observed between two samples. Boiled can and smoked can showed inactivation of toxicity to some extent, whereas acidified can did not show reduction of toxicity even after 2 year storage. In case the initial toxicity of shellfish was high long term storage could not inactivate the toxicity of the canned product.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.93-116
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• 2002

Through a questionnaire survey of 607 respondents over 20 years old currently residing in Seoul, general conditions, items and amount of daily diet, preference of dining-out and instant food, and concern for health were surveyed and the results are as follows. A large portion of respondents, at 36.2% of all respondents, were 20 years old, 57.7% of them graduated from high school or over, and most of them(61.9%) were over middle-class level of living standard. More than half (50.9%) of whom paid less than 10% for dining-out took breakfast as a rule, and 38.3% of whom regularly took meals and 37.3% of them took their regular daily routines. But among whom spent more than 31% for dining-out 46.2% of them took snacks between meals every day. Also, among whom spent more then 31% for dining-out, about 25.6% of them usually dined out every day. On concerns for health, among whom spent less than 10% of dining-out expense, 53.9% of them took exercise almost every day and 32.8% for 30 minutes, and 34.6% of them were generally healthy and 67.5% of them had normal blood pressure. But among whom spent more than 31% for dining-out expenses, 10.3% of them were not healthy, 15.4% had higher blood pressure and 20.5% had lower blood pressure, thus those portion were relatively higher compared with the former group. From those research results, therefore, group who spent lower dining-out expenses were older people with lower educational and living level but regularly took breakfast and exercise. Thus, their daily schedules were routine and took regular meals with healthy condition. The group with lower dining-out expense took right food pattern and kept healthy condition, and, therefore, it implied that dining-out gave significant influence to food pattern of grown-ups. Therefore, nutrition education for grown-ups might be necessary again and our foods as a diet should be re-evaluated and re-highlighted. To formulate the practical nutrition education in early childhood, practical, systematic, and continuous nutrition education might be required and effective and multidimensional education programs should be developed. In addition, various menus of breakfast with diverse materials, wide range of nutrition, and being convenient and time-saving must be studied in the near future.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.788-797
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• 2001

The usefulness of three PCR methods were evaluated for the epidemiological typing of Staphylococcus aureus: an enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR), repetitive extragenic palindromic element PCR (REP-PCR), and 16S-23S intergenic spacer PCR (ITS-PCR). The analysis was performed using a collection of S. aureus strains comprised of 6 reference and 79 isolates from patients with various diseases. Among the 85 S. aureus strains tested, 6 references and 6 isolates were found to be susceptible to methicillin, whereas the remaining 73 isolates were resistant to it. PCR methods are of special concern, as conventional phenotypic methods are unable to clearly distinguish among methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains. The ability of the techniques to detect different unrelated types was found to be as follows: ERIC-PCR, 19 types; REP-PCR, 36 types; and ITS-PCR, 14 types. On the basis of combining the ERIC, REP, and ITS fingerprints, the 85 S. aureus strains were grouped into 56 genetic types (designated G1 to G56). The diversities for the 85 S. aureus strains, calculated according to Simpson\`s index, were 0.88 for an ERIC-PCR, 0.93 for a REP-PCR, and 0.48 for an ITS-PCR, and the diversity increased up to 0.97 when an ERIC-PCR and REP-PCR were combined. The above discrimination indices imply that the genetic heterogeneity of S. aureus strains is high. Accordingly, this study demonstrates that DNA sequences from highly conserved repeats of a genome, particularly a combination of ERIC sequences and REP elements, are a convenient and accurate tool for the subspecies-specific discrimination and epidemiologic tracking of S. aureus.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.653-682
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• 2007

In this study, multi-sectoral partial equilibrium and computable general equilibrium models of Taiwan are used to investigate the direct and indirect effects of energy price increases on overall economies and agro-food sector in Taiwan. The results suggest that agricultural prices, production cost would increase between 0.27% to 1.88%, and a reduction in GDP around 0.39% to 0.54 %. The negative impact on livestock sector is slightly higher than that on the crop sector. Negative impacts are also observed in the employment and wages. The rising oil price has the potential to discourage production of energy-intensive activity because of the possibility of substitution and adaptations. The growth rate of real GDP will shrink by 0.64% to 1.06% and CPI will increase by 1.17% to 1,95%. Both the agriculture and non-agricultural sector also respond by raising output prices by 0.80% to 1.33%. The rising international oil price has urged the government to take policy actions like using alternative fuels such as biodiesel, bioethanol, and adopting measures to cut down on energy consumptions mainly in transportation sectors in response to public concern over economic shocks.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.69-83
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• 2008

The self-supply rate of Korea in 2006 was approximately 27.3 % by importing 13.99Mt for 19.79Mt of demanded amount. Among the imported crops, wheat, corn, and soybean consumed 95 % for the total imported amount, and wheat, corn, and soybean were 3.5Mt(Table use : 0.22Mt; Feed stuff : 0.13Mt), 8.7Mt(Table use : 0.19Mt; Feed stuff : 0.68Mt), and 1.2Mt (Table use : 0.03Mt; Feed stuff : 0.09Mt), respectively. On the other hand, our government has prepared the strategies for a great fear of food according to sharp price rise of the international crops by maintaining the self-supply rate of 5 % excluding 5.23Mt of rice in Korea. Also concern for recycled energy known as future energy for era of high oil price and global warming due to green house gas is rapidly growing. Therefore, our country which has relied on import of the whole oil needed in Korea and has to keep Kyoto Agent to request reduction of green house gas fully support research and practical use for agricultural products as resource of alternate energy. At first, we have to develop the mass production technology in order to secure a program of self-supply of food for bioenergy production utilizing agricultural product in Korea. But we assume that this matter is difficult to achieve under the current agriculture system that more emphasizes the environment conservation such as environmentally-friendly agriculture than production of food.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.247-260
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• 2014

The impact of folate on health and disease, particularly pregnancy complications and congenital malformations, has been extensively studied. Mandatory folic acid fortification therefore has been implemented in multiple countries, resulting in a reduction in the occurrence of neural tube defects. However, emerging evidence suggests increased folate intake may also be associated with unexpected adverse effects. This literature review focuses on contemporary issues of concern, and possible underlying mechanisms as well as giving consideration the future direction of mandatory folic acid fortification. Folate fortification has been associated with the presence of unmetabolized folic acid (PteGlu) in blood, masking of vitamin $B_{12}$ deficiency, increased dosage for anti-cancer medication, photo-catalysis of PteGlu leading to potential genotoxicity, and a role in the pathoaetiology of colorectal cancer. Increased folate intake has also been associated with twin birth and insulin resistance in offspring, and altered epigenetic mechanisms of inheritance. Although limited data exists to elucidate potential mechanisms underlying these issues, elevated blood folate level due to the excess use of PteGlu without consideration of an individual's specific phenotypic traits (e.g. genetic background and undiagnosed disease) may be relevant. Additionally, the accumulation of unmetabolized PteGlu may lead to inhibition of dihydrofolate reductase and other enzymes. Concerns notwithstanding, folic acid fortification has achieved enormous advances in public health. It therefore seems prudent to target and carefully monitor high risk groups, and to conduct well focused further research to better understand and to minimize any risk of mandatory folic acid fortification.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.771-779
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• 2023

Biofilms are a significant concern in the food industry. The utilization of plant-derived compounds to inactivate biofilms on food contact surfaces has not been widely reported. Also, the increasing negative perception of consumers against synthetic sanitizers has encouraged the hunt for natural compounds as alternatives. Therefore, in this study we evaluated the antimicrobial activities of ethanol extracts, acetone extracts, and essential oils (EOs) of seven culinary herbs against Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium and Listeria innocua using the broth microdilution assay. Among all tested extracts and EOs, the ethanol extract of Piper betle L. exhibited the most efficient antimicrobial activities. To evaluate the biofilm inactivation effect, S. Typhimurium and L. innocua biofilms on pitted and smooth stainless steel (SS) coupons were exposed to P. betle ethanol extract (12.5 mg/ml), sodium hypochlorite (NaClO; 200 ppm), hydrogen peroxide (HP; 1100 ppm), and benzalkonium chloride (BKC; 400 ppm) for 15 min. Results showed that, for the untreated controls, higher sessile cell counts were observed on pitted SS versus smooth SS coupons. Overall, biofilm inactivation efficacies of the tested sanitizers followed the trend of P. betle extract ≥ BKC > NaClO > HP. The surface condition of SS did not affect the biofilm inactivation effect of each tested sanitizer. The contact angle results revealed P. betle ethanol extract could increase the surface wettability of SS coupons. This research suggests P. betle extract might be utilized as an alternative sanitizer in food processing facilities.