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Foods
Special Issues
Food Contamination: Threats, Impacts and Challenges to Food Security
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Food Contamination: Threats, Impacts and Challenges to Food Security

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Toxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 February 2026 | Viewed by 948

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ge Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
Interests: food quality and safety; immunoassay; DNA bio-barcode; DNA nanostructure; trace detection;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Donghui Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Vegetables Quality and Safety Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: analytical methods and risk assessment of contaminants in vegetables; identification and evaluation technology for nutritional and functional components in vegetables
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Lin Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Food Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Interests: mycotoxins and heavy metals detection; ELISA; immunochromatographic lateral flow strips; electrochemical sensors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food contaminants and residues pose a threat to human health. Contaminants and their residues, such as mycotoxins, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metal ions, illegal additives, pesticide residues, and veterinary drug residues, are present in food, presenting a great threat to the quality and safety of food. With the increasing awareness of health care and food safety, understanding the threats, impacts and challenges of food contaminants is a hot topic in ensuring food security. These demands have prompted food safety-focused researchers to develop advanced analytical technologies for food contaminants.

With this Special Issue, we hope to present recent developments in the use of novel detection technologies to monitor food contaminants and residues, and exploration of the relationships among the threats, impacts and challenges of food contaminants to promote the monitoring of food contaminants and residues. We are highly interested in manuscripts related to the threats, impacts and challenges of food contaminants in food security. Original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and other article types will be considered.

Dr. Ge Chen
Prof. Dr. Donghui Xu
Dr. Lin Xu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • food quality
  • food safety
  • food contaminants
  • residues
  • detection technology
  • nanomaterials

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1598 KB  
Article
Matrix Interference of Vegetable on Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Parathion Residue Detection
by Linglong Chen, Ge Chen, Xing Zhang, Qinghuan Wu, Guangyang Liu, Xiaomin Xu, Yanguo Zhang, Lingyun Li, Lin Qin, Jing Wang, Maojun Jin and Donghui Xu
Foods 2025, 14(19), 3414; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14193414 - 3 Oct 2025
Viewed by 414
Abstract
Complex matrix of vegetable severely interferes with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) accuracy, limiting its application in parathion residue detection. This study investigated the interference mechanism of vegetable matrix, including chlorophyll, perilla protein, glucose, fructose, and sucrose, on ELISA. Furthermore, we validated the vegetable [...] Read more.
Complex matrix of vegetable severely interferes with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) accuracy, limiting its application in parathion residue detection. This study investigated the interference mechanism of vegetable matrix, including chlorophyll, perilla protein, glucose, fructose, and sucrose, on ELISA. Furthermore, we validated the vegetable matrix interference on parathion residue ELISA by comparing the matrix interference index (Im) and recovery rate of vegetable samples before and after acetic acid-treatment. The results demonstrate that the addition of vegetable matrix significantly interferes with ELISA, with the antibody–IgG-HRP binding being subject to the most pronounced interference. Compared to the Im (16–26%) of non-acetic acid treatment, the Im (10–13%) was significantly reduced after the acetic acid treatment. Concomitantly, spiked recovery experiments of acid-treated samples yielded satisfactory average recovery rate (80–113%) as the matrix interference was minimized. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the mechanism of vegetable matrix interference on ELISA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Contamination: Threats, Impacts and Challenges to Food Security)
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24 pages, 4945 KB  
Article
Quantitative Analysis and Health Risk Assessment of Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines in Plant-Based Milk Beverages
by Alejandro Mandelli, Adriana Bochetto, María Guiñez and Soledad Cerutti
Foods 2025, 14(19), 3295; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14193295 - 23 Sep 2025
Viewed by 371
Abstract
Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) are mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic compounds formed during the thermal processing of protein- and sugar-rich foods, yet their occurrence in plant-based milk alternatives remains largely unexplored. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report [...] Read more.
Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) are mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic compounds formed during the thermal processing of protein- and sugar-rich foods, yet their occurrence in plant-based milk alternatives remains largely unexplored. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report on the presence of HAAs in plant-based milk beverages. The aim of this study was to develop a robust and environmentally friendly µSPE–UHPLC–MS/MS method for the quantification of ten HAAs in plant-based milk beverages and to assess the potential health risks associated with their formation under varying thermal treatment conditions. A novel analytical method was applied to both commercially available and homemade beverages prepared from almonds, soy, cashews, and peanuts, including pasteurized and unpasteurized variants with and without added sugar. Chemometric tools were used to optimize retention and enrichment strategies. Detection limits ranged from 0.01 to 0.04 µg L−1, while quantification limits ranged from 0.01 to 0.05 µg L−1. Recovery rates ranged between 84% and 100%, with enrichment factors spanning 43 to 50. HAA concentrations varied from 0.09 to 13.66 µg L−1, with significantly higher levels observed in beverages subjected to thermal treatment, particularly those with added sugar and higher protein content. The health risk assessment indicated that the cumulative incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) values were below the unacceptable threshold (10−4), though some scenarios approached 10−5, suggesting a moderate risk for frequent consumers of plant-based milk alternatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Contamination: Threats, Impacts and Challenges to Food Security)
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