Jozef Golian

STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE RAT TESTIS CAUSED BY DIAZINON AND SELENIUM

The aim of this study was to find the structural changes in the rat testis after a diazinon, selenium and their combined administration. The testis structural changes after the diazinon intraperitoneal administration of 20 mg/kg b.w., selenium 2 mg/kg b.w. and both diazinon 20 mg/kg b.w. and selenium 2 mg/kg b.w. were evaluated by histological and morphometric methods in light microscopy. 36 hours after the diazion i.p. administration, the vacuolization of the seminiferous epithelium, evacuation of germ cells into the tubule lumen, epithelium necrosis and disintegration, interstitium extension and fibrotization were observed. The germ cells released from the basal lamina and subsequently they were visible in the tubule lumen. Blood vessels were damaged and morphometric analysis have shown their significant dilatation (P<0.05). Diazinon causes the damage of the germinal epithelium in the testes leading to the spermatogenesis failure. The infertility can then appear. In selenium treated group disintegration of cellular associations in the seminiferous epithelium, damaged and separating spermatids lines, reduced spermatogenesis and significant vacuolization of seminiferous epithelium (P<0.0001) were observed. Similar changes as in selenium threated group occured, significant vacuolization of seminiferous epithelium (P<0.05) was seen. In combined diazinon and selenium treated group protective effects of selenium in seminiferous epithelium and interstitium were noticed. Further investigation of diazinon and selenium is needed to practical use this results. doi:10.5219/44

Application of principal component analysis method for characterization chemical, technological, and textural parameters of farmed and pastured red deer

ABSTRACT Sixteen male red deer (age <1.5 year), both farm reared and pastured in Slovakia, were assessed with an emphasis on the variability of pH, chemical, structural, and textural parameters of their Musculus longissimus thoracis et. lumborum. Pastured deer had a higher pH than farmed deer. Regarding chemical compounds, meat from pastured deer contained less protein, fat, and ash, and regarding technological parameters, drip loss and cooking loss was higher when fried at 80°C. Meat cohesiveness was quite similar for both groups, while shear force was lower in pastured deer after being roasted in an oven and being fried, and it had less coefficients of variation than hardness. The total variation higher than 85% was explained by the first five principal components for pH, chemical, and technological parameters, and 86% for textural parameters. The principal component analysis illustratively divided the pastured and farmed deer according to the assessed parameters.

Determination of Ketchup Sensory Texture Acceptability and Examination of Determining Factors as a Basis for Product Optimization

The aim of this study was to examine possible usage of instrumental determination of selected texture parameters to estimate sensory texture acceptability of ketchups. Likewise, the authors focused on examination whether the consumer’s perception of texture acceptability is connected to the selected factors related to the ingredients and production technology. Yet another aim was to describe the selected textural parameters of ketchups available in the European market. Within the frame of this study, 29 samples of ketchups were analyzed by means of instrumental and sensory texture analysis. Further, a survey research was carried out with the results showing that the texture was the second most significant parameter for the consumer’s choice of a particular product. The average evaluation of sensory texture acceptability reached the values from 3.78 to 7.67. Analysis of the evaluation results of textural parameters based on the values of Pearson’s correlation coefficient confirmed a high correlation (p < 0.05) between instrumental and sensory determined viscosity and density. However, none of these partial textural parameters affected the sensory acceptability of the texture separately. Thus, using the instrumental analysis for estimation of the sensory texture acceptability of ketchups is not possible. For the optimization and control of ketchup texture in practice, sensory analysis is essential.

Identification of differences in chemical composition among whole stick and sliced Nitran salamis trough principal component analysis

The subject of this work was to examine differences in chemical composition of sliced and whole stick Nitran salamis, purchased from various manufacturers. Nitran salamis are traditional dry fermented meat products of Slovak origin. Taking into account variations in raw materials, production process and potential adulteration, differences in chemical composition within one brand of salami from different manufacturers might be expected. Ten salamis were determined for basic chemical composition attributes and Principal Component Analysis was applied on data matrix to identify anomalous ones. It has been shown that six attributes, namely: protein without collagen of total protein, total protein, total meat, total fat, collagen of total protein and NaCl, were the most important for salamis as first two Principal Components together explained 70.16% of variance among them. Nitran D was found to be the most anomalous salami, as had the lowest value of protein without collagen of total protein (14.14% ±0.26%), total protein (17.42% ±0.44%), total meat (120.29% ±0.98%) and the highest one of total fat (50.85% ±0.95%), collagen of total protein (18.83% ±0.50%) and NaCl (9.55% ±1.93%), when compared to its whole stick variant Nitran C and other samples. In addition to collagen of total protein content, Nitran D together with Nitran A, F and H did not satisfied the legislatively determined criterion, which is ≤16%. This suggested that extra connective tissues were added to intermediate products, which resulted in high variability and inferior quality of final products. It is a common practice in the meat industry to increase the protein content or water binding properties of meat products.

Comparison of the sensitivity of determining soyeabean allergens by ELISA method and SYBR green I

Normal 0 false false false SK JA X-NONE The aim of this study was to compare the suitability of two methods for detecting defatted soybean powder; SYBR Green I Real-time PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Analysis of 20 artificially contaminated samples prepared by simple dilution with wheat flour revealed that both techniques were able to detect defatted soybean powder, although there were significant differences between the two methods. Wheat flour contamination with defatted soybean powder was detected in samples 1-5, (0.012 %; 120 mg.kg -1 ), but not in samples with lower contamination with soybean powder saples 6-20 using SYBR Green I real-time PCR. Samples 1-10 could not be quantified by ELISA as the absorbance values were greater than the detection limit, and while samples 11-20 were measured, only the values of samples 16, 17 and 18 were within the guaranteed quantification range specified by the ELISA kit manufacturer. Defatted soybean powder contamination was detected in samples 19 and 20, but absorbance values were highly similar to those of the negative control sample.

The effect of UV-C irradiation on grape juice turbidity, sensoric properties and microbial count

In this work, we investigated the effect of UV-C radiation (254 nm) on turbidity, microbial count and sensoric properties of the grape juices treated or not treated with sulphur dioxide. The UV-C radiation is considered to be germicidal against microorganisms. This technology is routinely used to treat drinking water. Application of this method for the purpose of treating the wine was tested in few studies. These studies have shown a positive effect on the inactivation of microorganisms, but they not dealt in detail with the sensory properties of grape juice after the treatment. The main idea of using this method appears to eliminate the sulphur dioxide from wine making technology. There are people who have a genuine allergy to sulfites, and these allergies are often linked with asthma. These people have an rapid onset of symptoms when drinking liquids like wine treated with sulphur dioxide. In our work we have found that the application of this method of treating the grape juice is problematic. Intensity of UV-C radiation increases the turbidity of grape juices. This effect was observed in all grape juices with or without addition of sulphur dioxide and also in clarified or not clarified grape juices. We found that UV-C radiation negatively affect the sensory properties of grape juices. This effect was more pronounced in grape juices treated with SO2. The smell and taste were significantly negatively changed. Exposure of grape juice treated with sulphur dioxide to UV-C radiation can probably lead to arising the sulphur compounds, which affects the smell and taste of grape juices. Also, it is very likely that the negative change in taste and smell may affect the quality of produced wines. For this purpose, we do not recommend to use UV-C treatment for the grape juice treatment. It will be interesting to conduct a detailed analysis of the grape juices composition before and after UV-C radiation treatment.

Food safety from consumer perspective: health safety

Food industry along with agriculture constitute a major economy sector in most countries, because in addition to water intake and oxygen availability, food is another basic determinant for functioning of the human organism. For the proper functioning of human body, it is imperative that the customer chooses food so that the daily diet includes all the necessary nutrients in a reasonable proportion. At present, however, it is becoming more and more common that foodstuffs do not meet strict standards, are not properly stored, the packaging is damaged, or hygiene standards are not being adhered to, and therefore, in addition to health benefiting substances, they also contain harmful ones. According to the World Health Organization, the death of up to 2 million people a year around the world is caused by foods harmful to human health. The main objective of this report was to assess how consumers perceive the health safety of food in Slovakia and to find out whether some types of food are considered as potentially harmful to health. Primary data were obtained through a questionnaire survey conducted from October to December 2017 on a sample of 478 respondents. Respondents answered to 12 factual, and 9 classification questions, which were consequently analyzed using the Friedman test, Nemenyi test and Chi-Square test of Independence. Survey results showed that the majority of respondents had concerns about the health harming effects of food only occasionally and they trust the hygienic level of the restaurant facilities (60.5%), fast food (53%) and frozen food (49.2%) with few reservations. As the most hazardous foods are considered poultry meat, eggs and mayonnaise. If the consumers health is endangered by food, the guilty party should be punished by ban (61.9%) or by suspension (19.5%).

Authentication of caprine milk and cheese by commercial qPCR assay

The objective of the study was to investigate potential adulteration of commercial caprine milks and cheeses with bovine milk using commercial qPCR assay. The assay comprised of bovine-, ovine- and caprine-specific primers and TaqMan probe and mammalian internal control. Specificity, sensitivity, linearity, reproducibility and efficiency of the bovine assay were tested as well. Specificity was verified by running reaction on the DNA of other milk-producing species (caprine and ovine) and made-up bovine-caprine (v/v) milk mixes. In both experiments, a bovine DNA fragment was amplified whereas no amplification was obtained from the other species. Sensitivity, linearity, reproducibility and efficiency were tested on 10-fold dilution series of 10 ng bovine DNA. The assay has shown good linearity (R 2 = 0.983) within whole range, with efficiency of 86% and excellent reproducibility (SD around the C T for the technical replicates <0.5). The sensitivity was adequate, as calculated LOD and LOQ were 1.44 pg and 2.94 pg of bovine DNA, respectively. Finally, the assay was used to authenticate 5 caprine milk samples and 5 caprine cheese samples, purchased from local supermarkets. Totally, 1 milk sample has shown the fluorescence signal, which exceeded baseline in cycle 39.01 ±0.69. However, the signal was above LOD and LOQ suggesting that there could not be unambiguously declared any adulteration with bovine milk. Amplification of bovine-specific DNA was not observed in the other samples indicating products were not adulterated. The commercial qPCR assay has proved that real-time PCR assays, as well as DNA-based techniques in a general, are the excellent and reliable tools for fighting with frauds in the food industry and protecting the public health. Normal 0 21 false false false SK X-NONE X-NONE

Preparation of malts for production of special beers

The article deals with production of various malts intended for manufacture of special types of beer. The malts were used to brew samples of beer with alcoholic strength ranging between 8 - 12% EPM. The above range of original wort content was chosen due to its suitability for sensory evaluation and properties; in stronger types of beer, (more than 12% EPM), nature of the beverage can be drown by mashy flavour. In the experimental samples, the actual residual extract oscillated between 4.0 - 6.5%. The content of ethanol corresponded to the degree of fermentation and thereby also to the residual actual extract in balance equilibrium specifying that higher residual extract corresponds to lower content of alcohol by volume. It ranged between 2.5 - 5.0%. The sample 1 contained the highest amount of ethanol by mass (3.9%) and the sample 13 showed the lowest one (1.9%); alike trend of ethanol content by volume was revealed (5 and 2.44%, respectively). The highest content of actual and apparent extract was found in the sample 2 (6.6 and 5.2%, respectively); the sample 13 showed the lowest levels (4.0 and 3.1%, respectively). The original wort extract content averaged 9.9% in most of the samples; the sample 1 showed distinctly higher value (12.6%) and, on the contrary, the sample 13 demonstrated the lowest one (7.4%). The highest relative density was revealed in the sample 2 (1.02%) and the lowest one in the sample 13 (1.01%). Considering differences in osmotic pressure, the sample 1 exhibited the highest value (1045 mOs) and the sample 13 the lowest one (551 mOs). The highest level of fermentation was found in the sample 19 (61.7%), the lowest one was proved in the sample 19 (44.0%). Sensory analysis corresponded to originality and characteristics of each sample. The sample of beer made from spring barley was evaluated to be the best one.

Effect of thermal treatment on rutin content in selected buckwheat products using calcium as an internal tracer

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was used for rutin (quercetin-3-rutinoside) determination in selected buckwheat products (whole meal flour, broken seeds, seed hulls, herbs and baked cereal breads). The effect of various thermal procedures on content of rutin was evaluated using calcium as an internal tracker to correct changes in mass and composition of the buckwheat products. These factors are very seldom taken into account. The results show non-significant changes in rutin levels obtained in whole meal flour and broken seed samples after thermal treatment up to 150°C. Higher temperature already caused sudden fall in the observed rutin concentrations. The evaporation of some volatile compounds and degradation products can decrease the mass of the samples and formally increase the content of rutin (35.5 ±4.7 mg per 100 g for whole meal flour and 10.2 ±0.4 mg per100 g for broken seeds at 150°C). Serious decrease of rutin contents at elevated temperatures (>150°C) can be explained by its degradation (by breaking off the C-C bond in quercetin-3-rutinoside moiety) and/or evaporation (24.3 ±1.4 mg per 100 g for whole meal flour and 3.06 ±0.3 mg per100 g for broken seeds at 180°C). In case of baked cereal breads the level of rutin changed in dependence on the ratio between buckwheat and corn flour. Longer time leaching and higher temperature implicate higher rutin content in infusions prepared from buckwheat seed hulls and herbs.