Özlem Çağındı

Health importance of arsenic in drinking water and food

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid of global concern. It usually originates geogenically but can be intensified by human activities such as applications of pesticides and wood preservatives, mining and smelting operations, and coal combustion. Arsenic-contaminated food is a widespread problem worldwide. Data derived from population-based studies, clinical case series, and case reports relating to ingestion of inorganic arsenic in drinking water, medications, or contaminated food or beverages show the capacity of arsenate and arsenite to adversely affect multiple organ systems. Chronic arsenic poisoning can cause serious health effects including cancers, melanosis (hyperpigmentation or dark spots, and hypopigmentation or white spots), hyperkeratosis (hardened skin), restrictive lung disease, peripheral vascular disease (blackfoot disease), gangrene, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and ischemic heart disease.

Safety Considerations of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods

“Let food be the medicine and medicine be the food” was embraced 2,500 years ago by Hippocrates, the father of medicine, and therefore the conception that foods might provide therapeutic benefits is not new. Recent knowledge, however, supports the hypothesis that, besides fulfilling nutrition needs, diet may modulate various functions in the body and may exhibit detrimental or beneficial roles in some diseases (Hasler 2002).

Fatty Acid Composition of Turkey Meat Sucuk (Soudjuck), Salami, and Sausages

In this paper, the fatty acid composition of turkey meat sucuk (soudjuck), salami, and sausages were determined and compared with each other. The fatty acids methyl esters of each product were identified by capillary gas chromatography. Most of the fatty acids in sucuk (soudjuck) samples were monosaturated; however in salami and sausages samples most of were mono and di-unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids in sucuk (soudjuck) samples followed, having the palmitic and stearic acids as their major components and had a range of 229.7-385.2 g kg-1 and 87.6-215.9 g kg-1. In salami and sausages samples, unsaturated fatty acids, the oleic and linoleic acids were the major components and had a range of 170.0-542.0 g kg-1 and 151.5-353.0 g kg-1. PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) were found for sausages in the highest amount with linoleic acids concentration. Turkey meat salami and sausages presented a higher content of unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids than turkey meat sucuk (soudjuck).

Aflatoxins in mesir paste

ABSTRACT In this research, 42 mesir paste samples produced by a limited number of manufacturers in Manisa, Turkey, were analysed for aflatoxin content by high-performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector after pre-separation using immunoaffinity columns. A good correlation was found with good performance in terms of precision for the method. Limit of detection-limit of quantitation of AFG2-AFB2 and AFG1-AFB1 were 0.05/0.15 and 0.03/0.09 µg/kg, respectively. AFG2, AFG1 and AFB1 were detected in 29%, 71% and 52% samples, whereas AFB2 was not detected in any sample. AFtotal, AFG2, AFG1 and AFB1 content varied between 0.04/10.20 µg/kg, 0.07/0.42 µg/kg, 2.02/10.11 µg/kg and 0.04/0.11 µg/kg, respectively. About 9.5% of samples were found to be above the maxium limit (ML) for AFtotal (10 µg/kg), but none of samples exceeded the ML for AFB1 (5 µg/kg) as set by the European Union for spices. According to the results, it was concluded that traditional products like mesir paste which contains different types of spices should be examined in terms of aflatoxins.