Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Advanced analysis methods for food safety assessment
Coordinator
The task includes evaluation of safety parameters in traditional and novel foods through the development of: a) chemical sensors and immunosensors for the selective detection of algal and plant toxins, and trace allergens; b) portable devices based on laser photoacoustic spectroscopy (LPAS) and other spectroscopy techniques; c) Ambient Desorption Ionisation methods with High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (DESI-HRMS); e) use of rt-PCR and digital droplet-PCR to evaluate new and (re)-emerging foodborne pathogenic species; f) metabolomics and proteomics strategies coupled to pathway analysis to evaluate the effects of emerging and re-emerging contaminants; d) analytical techniques, i.e., spectroscopic and MS-based, to determine biogenic amines, pesticides, veterinary drug residues, mycotoxins and processing toxicants; and g) new Matrix-Reference Materials to be characterised for food safety parameters will be developed, including preparation of test-lots, their characterization and homogeneity and stability studies.
Safety assessment of traditional and novel foods through targeted and untargeted methodologies (M36)
Report on rapid methods to detect foodborne pathogenic species and their metabolites (M36)
Safety risks deriving from new and (re-) emerging foodborne pathogenic, toxic or undeclared species in food matrices are important issues for producers and consumers, as well as for public-health and food-safety authorities. Thus, there is a need to innovate control strategies, by developing robust, effective, and sensitive analytical techniques to provide rapid assessments. DNA-based techniques have already been applied in safe contexts, thus proving their usefulness. Therefore, emerging risks can be evaluated and prevented by developing a new and rapid molecular pipeline of analysis.
The activities will include selecting new and specific primer pairs to rapidly identify the presence of new and (re-) emerging foodborne pathogenic species, as well as toxic or undeclared species in different food of animal origin. For each target species representing the potential risk in a specific food matrix, reference sequences available in public repositories will be downloaded and a bioinformatics pipeline will be applied to select the molecular region and to design a list of candidate primers. After DNA extraction from food products, such candidates will be tested by real time-PCR and/or digital droplet-PCR. Analyses of results will allow their performances to be evaluated and best practices to be generated for each matrix.
For each food matrix and different safety risks, the protocols obtained will be innovative and rapid tools to help protect consumers. Indeed, their routine application by producers and food safety authorities will provide fast, effective strategies able to monitor and prevent public health risks. Such strategies may even be included by authorities in future European legislation. Moreover, the above information will be integrated with chemical data providing an innovative overall vision of food safety.
