Search Results (832)

The plant-based oil industry contributes significantly to food waste/by-products in the form of underutilized biomass, including oil pomace, cake/meal, seeds, peels, wastewater, etc. These waste/by-products contain a significant quantity of nutritious and bioactive compounds (phenolics, lignans, flavonoids, dietary fiber, proteins, and essential minerals) with proven health-promoting effects. The utilization of them as natural, cost-effective, and food-grade functional ingredients in novel food formulations holds considerable potential. This review highlights the potential of waste/by-products generated during plant-based oil processing as a promising source of bioactive compounds and covers systematic research, including recent studies focusing on innovative extraction and processing techniques. It also sheds light on their promising potential for valorization as food ingredients, with a focus on specific examples of food fortification. Furthermore, the potential for value creation in the food industry is emphasized, taking into account associated challenges and limitations, as well as future perspectives. Overall, the current information suggests that the valorization of plant-based oil industry waste and by-products for use in the food industry could substantially reduce malnutrition and poverty, generate favorable health outcomes, mitigate environmental concerns, and enhance economic profit in a sustainable way by developing health-promoting, environmentally sustainable food systems. Full article

Beef fat injection technology, used to enhance the perceived quality of lower-grade meat, often results in artificially marbled beef that mimics the visual traits of Wagyu, characterized by dense fat distribution. This practice, driven by the high cost of Wagyu and the affordability of fat-injected beef, has led to the proliferation of mislabeled “Wagyu-grade” products sold at premium prices, posing potential food safety risks such as allergen exposure or consumption of unverified additives, which can adversely affect consumer health. Addressing this, this study introduces a smart sensing system integrated with handheld mobile devices, enabling consumers to capture beef images during purchase for real-time health-focused assessment. The system analyzes surface texture and color, transmitting data to a server for classification to determine if the beef is artificially marbled, thus supporting informed dietary choices and reducing health risks. Images are processed by applying a region of interest (ROI) mask to remove background noise, followed by partitioning into grid blocks. Local binary pattern (LBP) texture features and RGB color features are extracted from these blocks to characterize surface properties of three beef types (Wagyu, regular, and fat-injected). A support vector machine (SVM) model classifies the blocks, with the final image classification determined via majority voting. Experimental results reveal that the system achieves a recall rate of 95.00% for fat-injected beef, a misjudgment rate of 1.67% for non-fat-injected beef, a correct classification rate (CR) of 93.89%, and an F1-score of 95.80%, demonstrating its potential as a human-centered healthcare tool for ensuring food safety and transparency. Full article

Accurate monitoring of rice-planting areas underpins food security and evidence-based farm management. Recent work has advanced along three complementary lines—multi-source data fusion (to mitigate cloud and spectral confusion), temporal feature extraction (to exploit phenology), and deep-network architecture optimization. However, even the best fusion- and time-series-based approaches still struggle to preserve fine spatial details in sub-meter scenes. Targeting this gap, we propose an HRNet-CA-enhanced DeepLabV3+ that retains the original model’s strengths while resolving its two key weaknesses: (i) detail loss caused by repeated down-sampling and feature-pyramid compression and (ii) boundary blurring due to insufficient multi-scale information fusion. The Xception backbone is replaced with a High-Resolution Network (HRNet) to maintain full-resolution feature streams through multi-resolution parallel convolutions and cross-scale interactions. A coordinate attention (CA) block is embedded in the decoder to strengthen spatially explicit context and sharpen class boundaries. The rice dataset consisted of 23,295 images (11,295 rice + 12,000 non-rice) via preprocessing and manual labeling and benchmarked the proposed model against classical segmentation networks. Our approach boosts boundary segmentation accuracy to 92.28% MIOU and raises texture-level discrimination to 95.93% F1, without extra inference latency. Although this study focuses on architecture optimization, the HRNet-CA backbone is readily compatible with future multi-source fusion and time-series modules, offering a unified path toward operational paddy mapping in fragmented sub-meter landscapes. Full article

Background: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD) encompasses a range of conditions that can profoundly impact quality of life and intimate relationships. The primary classifications of FSD include female sexual interest and arousal disorder (FSIAD), genitopelvic pain and penetration disorder (GPPPD), female orgasmic disorder (FOD), and substance or medication-induced sexual dysfunction (SM-ISD). Despite its prevalence, FSD is often underdiagnosed and undertreated. Objectives: This scoping review follows Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to evaluate the existing literature on both U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved and off-label pharmacotherapies for FSD by study type, outcomes, and limitations. Eligibility Criteria: Eligible studies comprised randomized controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews, and cohort studies involving adult women (≥18 years) with any subtype of FSD. These studies assessed pharmacologic interventions against a comparator and reported at least one treatment efficacy outcome. Studies outside this scope were excluded. Sources of Evidence: A 25-year literature search was conducted using PubMed/MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, reference lists of relevant articles, academic handbooks, and targeted journals. Charting Methods: Three independent reviewers screened and extracted data. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Findings were organized into summary tables and categorized by pharmaceutical agent, pertinent study information, outcomes, and limitations. Results: A total of 44 human-based pharmacologic studies met inclusion criteria. FDA-approved agents were the most thoroughly studied pharmacotherapies. Hormonal, topical, and adjunctive agents demonstrated less robust evidence. Heterogeneity in outcome measures and inadequate long-term data were common limitations. Conclusions: Pharmacologic treatment for FSD shows promise but requires further research. Individualized, multifaceted care is essential for optimizing FSD outcomes. Full article

Humulus lupulus, commonly known as hop, is a climbing plant whose female cones impart beer’s characteristic bitterness and aroma and also serve as a preservative. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the antimicrobial activity of hop compounds and extracts against various microorganisms by statistically synthesizing minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values. From the 2553 articles retrieved from the comprehensive literature search, 18 provided data on MIC values for six hop compounds, and three extract types tested against 55 microbial strains’ MIC values corresponded to 24 and 48 h incubation periods with compounds or extracts. The results indicate that xanthohumol (a flavonoid) and lupulone (a bitter acid) exhibit potent antimicrobial activity against most tested microorganisms, particularly food spoilage bacteria [21.92 (95%CI 9.02–34.83), and 12.40 (95%CI 2.66–22.14) μg/mL, respectively, for 24 h of treatment]. Furthermore, hydroalcoholic extracts demonstrated greater efficacy compared to supercritical CO₂ (SFE) extracts, which showed limited antimicrobial effects against both probiotic and non-probiotic strains. These findings underscore the need for standardized, evidence-based protocols—including uniform microbial panels and consistent experimental procedures—to reliably evaluate the antimicrobial properties of hop-derived compounds and extracts. Taken together, our findings ultimately chart a path toward evidence based antimicrobial tests that could inform food-preservation strategies and inspire the development of plant-based antimicrobials. Full article

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are powerful techniques that have been employed to analyze foodstuffs comprehensively. These techniques offer in-depth information about the chemical composition, structure, and spatial distribution of components in a variety of food products. Quantitative NMR is widely applied for precise quantification of metabolites, authentication of food products, and monitoring of food quality. Low-field ¹H-NMR relaxometry is an important technique for investigating the most abundant components of intact foodstuffs based on relaxation times and amplitude of the NMR signals. In particular, information on water compartments, diffusion, and movement can be obtained by detecting proton signals because of H₂O in foodstuffs. Saffron adulterations with calendula, safflower, turmeric, sandalwood, and tartrazine have been analyzed using benchtop NMR, an alternative to the high-field NMR approach. The fraudulent addition of Robusta to Arabica coffee was investigated by ¹H-NMR Spectroscopy and the marker of Robusta coffee can be detected in the ¹H-NMR spectrum. MRI images can be a reliable tool for appreciating morphological differences in vegetables and fruits. In kiwifruit, the effects of water loss and the states of water were investigated using MRI. It provides informative images regarding the spin density distribution of water molecules and the relationship between water and cellular tissues. ¹H-NMR spectra of aqueous extract of kiwifruits affected by elephantiasis show a higher number of small oligosaccharides than healthy fruits do. One of the frauds that has been detected in the olive oil sector reflects the addition of hazelnut oils to olive oils. However, using the NMR methodology, it is possible to distinguish the two types of oils, since, in hazelnut oils, linolenic fatty chains and squalene are absent, which is also indicated by the ¹H-NMR spectrum. NMR has been applied to detect milk adulterations, such as bovine milk being spiked with known levels of whey, urea, synthetic urine, and synthetic milk. In particular, T2 relaxation time has been found to be significantly affected by adulteration as it increases with adulterant percentage. The ¹H spectrum of honey samples from two botanical species shows the presence of signals due to the specific markers of two botanical species. NMR generates large datasets due to the complexity of food matrices and, to deal with this, chemometrics (multivariate analysis) can be applied to monitor the changes in the constituents of foodstuffs, assess the self-life, and determine the effects of storage conditions. Multivariate analysis could help in managing and interpreting complex NMR data by reducing dimensionality and identifying patterns. NMR spectroscopy followed by multivariate analysis can be channelized for evaluating the nutritional profile of food products by quantifying vitamins, sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, and other nutrients. In this review, we summarize the importance of NMR spectroscopy in chemical profiling and quality assessment of food products employing magnetic resonance technologies and multivariate statistical analysis. Full article

Tocopherols, due to their antioxidant properties, are valuable compounds in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The present study compares the glyceride oil content and tocopherol profile of seeds of 49 plant species from 39 families of Bulgarian wild flora to identify their potential industrial and nutritional applications. The oils were extracted using the Soxhlet apparatus, and the tocopherol and tocotrienol composition was established by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to group the plants based on their tocopherol profile. The results show high variability in the content of glyceride oils (ranging from 0.5% to 40.6%) and tocopherol profiles among species, even among plants within the same family. Four clusters were identified, each of which was characterized by the dominance of one of the tocopherol or tocotrienol isomers, i.e., α-tocopherol or γ-tocopherol, and reflected the chemical diversity of the examined plants. The statistical analysis confirmed that tocopherols and tocotrienols are significant factors influencing cluster grouping. The results reflect natural variability among species grown under field conditions, influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. This study provides valuable preliminary information for identifying wild species with promising tocopherol profiles for future functional research. Full article

A timely and accurate distribution of crop types and cropping patterns provides a crucial reference for the management of agriculture and food security. However, accurately mapping crop types and cropping patterns in subtropical hilly and mountainous areas often face challenges such as mixed pixels resulted from fragmented patches and difficulty in obtaining optical satellites due to a frequently cloudy and rainy climate. Here we propose a crop type and cropping pattern mapping framework in subtropical hilly and mountainous areas, considering multiple sources of satellites (i.e., Landsat 8/9, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-1 images and GF 1/2/7). To develop this framework, six types of variables from multi-sources data were applied in a random forest classifier to map major summer crop types (singe-cropped rice and double-cropped rice) and winter crop types (rapeseed). Multi-scale segmentation methods were applied to improve the boundaries of the classified results. The results show the following: (1) Each type of satellite data has at least one variable selected as an important feature for both winter and summer crop type classification. Apart from the endmember variables, the other five extracted variable types are selected by the RF classifier for both winter and summer crop classifications. (2) SAR data can capture the key information of summer crops when optical data is limited, and the addition of SAR data can significantly improve the accuracy as to summer crop types. (3) The overall accuracy (OA) of both summer and winter crop type mapping exceeded 95%, with clear and relatively accurate cropland boundaries. Area evaluation showed a small bias in terms of the classified area of rapeseed, single-cropped rice, and double-cropped rice from statistical records. (4) Further visual examination of the spatial distribution showed a better performance of the classified crop types compared to three existing products. The results suggest that the proposed method has great potential in accurately mapping crop types in a complex subtropical planting environment. Full article

Background/Objectives: High sodium consumption increases the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Although food remains the primary source of intake, elevated sodium levels in drinking water can further contribute to excessive intake, particularly in populations already exceeding recommendations. This review examines the extent to which national drinking water standards account for sodium-related health risks and aims to inform discussion on the need for enforceable, health-based sodium limits. Methods: National standards for unbottled drinking water in 197 countries were searched for using the WHO 2021 review of drinking water guidelines, the FAOLEX database, and targeted internet and AI searches. For each country, data were extracted for the document name, year, regulatory body, regulation type, sodium limit (if stated), and rationale. Socio-geographic data were sourced from World Bank Open Data. A descriptive analysis was conducted using Microsoft Excel. Results: Standards were identified for 164 countries. Of these, 20% (n = 32), representing 30% of the global population, had no sodium limit. Among the 132 countries with a sodium limit, 92% (n = 121) adopted the WHO’s palatability-based guideline of 200 mg/L. Upper limits ranged from 50 to 400 mg/L. Only twelve countries (9%) cited health as a rationale. Three countries—Australia, Canada, and the United States—provided a separate recommendation for at-risk populations to consume water with sodium levels below 20 mg/L. Conclusions: Globally, drinking water standards give inadequate attention to sodium’s health risks. Most either lack sodium limits or rely on palatability thresholds that are too high to protect health. Updating national and international standards to reflect current evidence is essential to support sodium reduction efforts. Health-based sodium limits would empower communities to better advocate for safe water. Amid rising water salinity, such reforms must be part of a broader global strategy to ensure universal and equitable access to safe, affordable drinking water as a basic human right. Full article

Cuscutae Semen (CS), a traditional herb recognized as a nutraceutical food in China, has been widely utilized in managing aging-related diseases throughout history. However, whether this mechanism is associated with mitochondrial stress tolerance remains unclear. In the present study, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) was used to investigate the effects of CS on their longevity. The data demonstrated that CS prolonged the average lifespan of the nematodes by 15.26%, reducing lipofuscin accumulation by 61.46%, as well as improving spontaneous motility. CS treatment significantly enhanced the resistance of C. elegans to hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress and 37 °C induced heat stress, reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by 71.45%. Additionally, membrane potential (MMP) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were increased by 354.72% and 69.64%, respectively. However, mitochondrion-specific ROS and calcium flux were significantly reduced to 45.86% and 63.25%, respectively, in C. elegans treated with CS. Consistently, the polymerase chain reaction data revealed that CS significantly up-regulated the expressions of the antioxidant-related genes skn-1, ctl-1, sod-3, and gst-4; the heat shock gene hsp-16.2; and the autophagy-related genes lgg-1 and bec-1. Considering the crucial role of the silent information regulator sirtuin 1 (SIR-2.1/SIRT1) in aging-related mitochondrial oxidative stress, we examined its expression and transcriptional activity. As expected, treatment with CS induced SIRT1 expression, and isorhamnetin identified from CS extract significantly enhanced SIRT1 transcriptional activity in HEK293T cells. Collectively, our results provided evidence that CS prolonged the lifespan of C. elegans by ameliorating oxidative stress damage and mitochondrial dysfunction via SIRT1. Full article

Agricultural pest detection is critical for crop protection and food security, yet existing methods suffer from low computational efficiency and poor generalization due to imbalanced data distribution, minimal inter-class variations among pest categories, and significant intra-class differences. To address the high computational complexity and inadequate feature representation in traditional convolutional networks, this study proposes MA-YOLO, an agricultural pest detection model based on multi-scale fusion and attention mechanisms. The SDConv module reduces computational costs through depthwise separable convolution and dynamic group convolution while enhancing local feature extraction. The LDSPF module captures multi-scale information via parallel dilated convolutions with spatial attention mechanisms and dual residual connections. The ASCC module improves feature discriminability by establishing an adaptive triple-weight system for global, channel, and spatial semantic responses. The MDF module balances efficiency and multi-scale feature extraction using multi-branch depthwise separable convolution and soft attention-based dynamic weighting. Experimental results demonstrate detection accuracies of 65.4% and 73.9% on the IP102 and Pest24 datasets, respectively, representing improvements of 2% and 1.8% over the original YOLOv11s network. These results establish MA-YOLO as an effective solution for automated agricultural pest monitoring with applications in precision agriculture and crop protection systems. Full article

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical global health threat, with AMR Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strains being a major foodborne pathogen. Integrons, a type of mobile genetic element, capture and transfer resistance genes, thereby playing a role in the spread of AMR. Objectives: This study aimed to characterize the locations of integrons carrying AMR genes within the whole genomes of 32 Salmonella Typhimurium isolates collected from dairy cattle by two U.S. Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories between 2009 and 2012. Methods: Class I integrons were sequenced from PCR-amplified products. DNA was extracted, quantified, barcoded, and sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform. Whole genome sequences were trimmed and assembled using the SPAdes assembler in Geneious Prime^®, and plasmids were identified with the PlasmidFinder pipeline in Linux. Integron locations were determined by aligning their sequences with whole genome contigs and plasmids, while AMR genes were identified through BLAST with the MEGARes 3.0 database and confirmed by alignment with isolate, plasmid, and integron sequences. Statistical analysis was applied to compare the proportions of isolates harboring integrons on their chromosome versus plasmids and also to examine the associations between integron presence and AMR gene presence. Results: Seven plasmid types were identified from all isolates: IncFII(S) (n = 14), IncFIB(S) (n = 13), IncC (n = 7), Inc1-I(Alpha) (n = 3), and ColpVC, Col(pAHAD28), and Col8282 (1 isolate each). Of the 32 isolates, 16 (50%) carried at least one size of integron. Twelve of them carried both 1000 and 1200 bp; 3 carried only 1000 bp and 1 carried 1800 bp integrons. Of the 15 isolates that carried 1000 bp integron, 12 harbored it on IncFIB(S) plasmids, 2 on IncC plasmids, and 1 on the chromosome. The 1200 bp integrons from all 12 isolates were located on chromosomes. There were significant positive associations between the presence of integrons and the presence of several AMR genes including sul1, aadA2, blaCARB-2, qacEdelta1, tet(G), and floR (p < 0.05). AMR genes were located as follows: aadA2 on IncFIB(S) and IncC plasmids; bla_CMY-2 on IncC plasmid; qacEdelta1 on IncFIB(S), IncC, and chromosome; bla_CARB-2, floR, tet(A) and tet(G) on the chromosome. Conclusions: The findings highlight the genomic and plasmid complexity of Salmonella Typhimurium which is impacted by the presence and location of integrons, and this study provides genomic insights that can inform efforts to enhance food safety and protect both animal and public health. Full article

Previously, we reported that Lactobacillus paragasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) activates plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and induces interferon alpha (IFN-α) in vitro. Our clinical trial suggested that LG2055 intake may enhance pDC activity, supporting immune maintenance and reducing subjective common cold symptoms. However, the precise mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated how LG2055 engages with pDCs to stimulate IFN-α production. We evaluated LG2055-induced pDC activation using flow cytometry, ELISA, and phagocytosis assays. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were stimulated with LG2055 and its components to evaluate immune responses. An in vitro M cell model was used to examine LG2055 translocation. We found that DNA extracted from LG2055 activated pDCs and enhanced IFN-α production via Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9). Phagocytosis assays demonstrated that LG2055 DNA was internalized by PBMC-derived pDCs, enabling TLR9-mediated signaling. Additionally, LG2055 translocated across M cells in vitro, suggesting potential transport into Peyer’s patches, where it may interact with pDCs. These findings demonstrate that intestinal LG2055 can translocate across M cells, interact with pDCs, and exert immune-stimulatory effects to enhance host antiviral immunity. This study provides mechanistic insight into how dietary components support immune health and could inform the development of novel functional foods or therapeutic strategies. Full article

Traditional clustering methods are often ineffective in extracting relevant features from high-dimensional, nonlinear near-infrared (NIR) spectra, resulting in poor accuracy of detecting lactose-free milk adulteration. In this paper, we introduce a clustering model based on Gram angular field and convolutional depth manifold (GAF-ConvDuc). The Gram angular field accentuates variations in spectral absorption peaks, while convolution depth manifold clustering captures local features between adjacent wavelengths, reducing the influence of noise and enhancing clustering accuracy. Experiments were performed on samples from 2250 milk spectra using the GAF-ConvDuc model. Compared to K-means, the silhouette coefficient (SC) increased from 0.109 to 0.571, standardized mutual information index (NMI) increased from 0.696 to 0.921, the Adjusted Randindex (ARI) increased from 0.543 to 0.836, and accuracy (ACC) increased from 67.2% to 88.9%. Experimental results indicate that our method is superior to K-means, Variational Autoencoder (VAE) clustering, and other approaches. Without requiring pre-labeled data, the model achieves higher inter-cluster separation and more distinct clustering boundaries. These findings offer a robust solution for detecting lactose-free milk adulteration, crucial for food safety oversight. Full article

The exploitation of underutilised resources is critical for achieving a sustainable society, and non-edible seaweeds are promising candidates. This study focused on the red alga Portieria hornemannii from Okinawa, Japan, a seaweed with a distinctive aroma, and determined its volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and halogenated secondary metabolites using headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) at various extraction temperatures. HS-SPME-GC-MS analysis revealed 52 VOCs in Okinawan P. hornemannii, including predominant compounds α-pinenyl bromide (IUPAC name: 2-bromomethyl-6,6-dimethylbicyclo [3.1.1]hept-2-ene; halogenated monoterpene), myrcene disulfide (3-(6-methyl-2-methylidenehept-5-enylidene)dithiirane), and 5,6-dimethyl-1H-benzimidazole, the content of which in the extract increased with increasing extraction temperature from 30 to 60 °C. On the other hand, the β-myrcene (7-methyl-3-methyleneocta-1,6-diene) content, which likely contributes majorly to the distinct fresh odour of the algae, declined as the temperature increased. Furthermore, the proportion of β-myrcene obtained using SPME was significantly higher than that extracted using solvent liquid extraction (SLE) (7.20% in SPME at 30 °C vs. 0.09%, respectively). However, SLE-GC-MS provided a different P. hornemannii volatile profile, allowing for the acquisition of more furan-, alcohol-, ester-, and carboxylic acid-containing compounds. These data provide valuable information, such as a systematic analytical framework for volatiles profiling in the marine macroalgae P. hornemannii, with potential applicability in the development of food and fragrance products. Full article