Impact of Partitioning in Short-Term Food Contact Applications Focused on Polymers in Support of Migration Modelling and Exposure Risk Assessment

Food contact materials (FCMs) can transfer chemicals arising from their manufacture to food before consumption. Regulatory frameworks ensure consumer safety by prescribing methods for the assessment of FCMs that rely on migration testing either into real-life foods or food simulants. Standard migration testing conditions for single-use FCMs are justifiably conservative, employing recognized worst-case contact times and temperatures. For repeated-use FCMs, the third of three consecutive tests using worst-case conditions is taken as a surrogate of the much shorter contact period that often occurs over the service life of these items. Food contact regulations allow for the use of migration modelling for the chemicals in the FCM and for the partitioning that occurs between the FCM and food/simulant during prolonged contact, under which steady-state conditions are favored. This study demonstrates that the steady-state is rarely reached under repeated-use conditions and that partitioning plays a minor role that results in migration essentially being diffusion controlled. Domains of use have been identified within which partitioning does not play a significant role, allowing modelling based upon diffusion parameters to be used. These findings have the potential to advance the modelling of migration from repeated-use articles for the benefit of regulatory guidance and compliance practices.

Expert Networking and International Governance: Questions of Democracy

Networks of experts coordinated or orchestrated by international bodies have become so widespread and influential that they are said to shape a new world order. Standards for consumer safety, investor protection, and environmental sustainability are governed by appeals to the epistemic authority of experts. Typically, formal international organizations orchestrate cross-border constellations of public–private collaborations between groups that are deemed to have relevant knowledge. This trend is part of a depoliticization of decision-making; policy issues are framed as technical problems that should be kept at a distance from party politics. The question here is how to conceptualize and assess this development in democratic terms. In political theory, three kinds of approach have evolved in response to this trend. At one extreme, the argument is that governance beyond the state cannot be legitimate until it has implemented modes of representation and contestation familiar from the domestic context. At the other extreme, the argument is that legitimacy beyond the state should be decoupled from democratic concerns and be legitimated on technocratic grounds. Between these two poles is the argument that democracy does not have to resemble the domestic model in organizational terms and can fruitfully be reconceived or reinterpreted in the international context. Versions of the reinterpretive approach are currently popular under different theoretical labels. It is fruitful to use it as a model for considering questions of democratic legitimacy for the expert networks that constitute or interact with international organizations. In following the reinterpretive route, a natural starting point is to consider what the key evaluative dimensions of democracy are. At an abstract level, democracy is about three main considerations: 1. Authorization: The people are the rightful principals of public action. It is necessary to consider how people can be empowered to challenge and potentially veto opinions that flow from expert networks. 2. Attitude: Democratically justified institutions express the right kind of concern for people as equals. There are important questions about how the technical rationalities of expert networks can show consideration for a reasonable pluralism of perspectives and how “soft law” can address subjects with appropriate respect for citizens’ claim to justification and rule of law. 3. Area: The authority of democratically legitimate institutions must be matched by a defined sphere of answerability. For the area of expert networks, this issue concerns both the scope of expert mandates and whether there is a fit between mandate and actual practice. The task for an assessment of the democratic legitimacy of expert networks is to consider more fully what each of these evaluative dimensions imply in the relevant context.

Consumer approach intentions amid COVID-19: the role of safety compliance and perceived risk

Purpose This study aims to investigate how employee and other-consumer safety compliance amid the COVID-19 outbreak influences a focal consumer’s intention to approach a service establishment. The study also examines the three-way interaction effect of employee compliance, other-consumer compliance and perceived threat associated with COVID-19 on approach intentions. Design/methodology/approach This study uses an experimental approach with a 2 (employee safety compliance: low vs high) × 2 (other-consumer safety compliance: low vs high) × 2 (consumer perceived threat from COVID-19: low vs high) between-subjects design. Students were trained to recruit a convenience sample of 827 consumers in Qatar and data were analyzed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Findings Employee safety compliance has a positive impact on the consumer’s approach intentions. Employee safety compliance has a bigger impact on approach intentions if other consumers in the service environment are also compliant with safety measures and even a greater effect when the perceived threat from COVID-19 is high. The effect of the interaction between employee and other-consumer safety compliance is significantly different under two levels of perceived threat. Practical implications To enhance approach intentions, managers should start by establishing and maintaining safety compliance among employees and then achieving compliance among consumers. Achieving compliance among employees and consumers has a positive impact on approach intentions despite the focal consumer’s perceived risk associated with COVID-19. Originality/value This is the first study to investigate how the safety compliance of employees and other consumers jointly affects consumers’ approach intentions during a global pandemic, and it is among very few attempts to manipulate dimensions of the social servicescape.

Development, Optimization, Characterization, and Application of Electrochemical Biosensors for Detecting Nickel Ions in Food

Nickel is naturally present in drinking water and many dietary items, which expose the general population to nickel ingestion. This heavy metal can have a variety of harmful health effects, causing allergies and skin disorders (i.e., dermatitis), lung, cardiovascular, and kidney diseases, and even certain cancers; therefore, nickel detection is important for public health. Recent innovations in the development of biosensors have demonstrated they offer a powerful new approach over conventional analytical techniques for the identification and quantification of user-defined compounds, including heavy metals such as nickel. We optimized five candidate nickel-biosensing receptors, and tested each for efficiency of binding to immobilization elements on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs). We characterized the application of nickel-detecting biosensors with four different cultivated vegetables. We analyzed the efficiency of each nickel-detecting biosensor by potentiostat and atomic absorption spectrometry and compared the results from the sample analytes. We then analyzed the performance characteristics and responses of assembled biosensors, and show they are very effective at measuring nickel ions in food, especially with the urease-alginate biosensor affixed to silver SPEs, measured by cyclic voltammetry (sensitivity—2.1921 µA Mm−1 cm−2 and LOD—0.005 mg/L). Given the many advantages of biosensors, we describe an optimization pipeline approach to the application of different nickel-binding biosensors for public health, nutrition, and consumer safety, which are very promising.

Behavioral Biases and the Law

Empirical and experimental evidence shows that individuals exhibit behavioral biases in their decision-making processes that depart from the full rationality paradigm. This paper discusses the effectiveness of alternative debiasing strategies, designed to induce socially preferable outcomes. Following Jolls, C. and Sunstein, C.R. (2006). Debiasing through law. J. Leg. Stud. 35: 199–242, this paper examines legal strategies that aim at “debiasing through law”, attempting to reduce or eliminate boundedly rational behavior. Alternatively, policymakers can implement “insulating” legal strategies that separate the outcome from the biased behavior, without attempting to eradicate behavioral biases from the decision-making process. This paper compares these strategies in many areas, such as tort law, consumer safety law, and property law.

Evolution of the Ergot Alkaloid Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Results in Divergent Mycotoxin Profiles in Claviceps purpurea Sclerotia

Research into ergot alkaloid production in major cereal cash crops is crucial for furthering our understanding of the potential toxicological impacts of Claviceps purpurea upon Canadian agriculture and to ensure consumer safety. An untargeted metabolomics approach profiling extracts of C. purpurea sclerotia from four different grain crops separated the C. purpurea strains into two distinct metabolomic classes based on ergot alkaloid content. Variances in C. purpurea alkaloid profiles were correlated to genetic differences within the lpsA gene of the ergot alkaloid biosynthetic gene cluster from previously published genomes and from newly sequenced, long-read genome assemblies of Canadian strains. Based on gene cluster composition and unique polymorphisms, we hypothesize that the alkaloid content of C. purpurea sclerotia is currently undergoing adaptation. The patterns of lpsA gene diversity described in this small subset of Canadian strains provides a remarkable framework for understanding accelerated evolution of ergot alkaloid production in Claviceps purpurea.

Τemporal Variation in Pesticide Residues in Citrus Fruits from Chios, Greece, before and after the Development of an Integrated Pest Management Strategy (IPMS): A Five-Year Study (LIFE13 ENV GR/000414)

The temporal variation in pesticide residues in Kampos, of Chios Island, in Greece, was determined between June 2014 and October 2019. Monitoring of residues took place before and after the development of an Integrated Pest Management Strategy (IPMS) for the sustainable control of the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) based on mass trapping with the non-toxic and environmentally friendly attractant Biodelear. A total of 1252 samples of citrus fruits, collected from 12 experimental citrus orchards, were analyzed for the presence of 353 active substances and metabolites of pesticides. A modified QuEChERS method and sensitive chromatographic techniques were used. During preparatory monitoring for the project, the most frequently detected pesticides were the insecticides chlorpyrifos, deltamethrin and spirotetramat; the fungicides propamocarb, dimethomorph and mepanipyrim; and the synergist piperonyl butoxide. The implementation of the IPMS to address medfly resulted in a dramatic reduction in the pesticides detected in citrus fruits during confirmatory monitoring, with no detectable residues—which may cause serious problems to human health—in any of the samples analyzed at the end of the project, thus enhancing consumer safety.

Microbiological Quality of Food and Ready Meals Sold in Fast Food Restaurants on the Campus of NANGUI ABROGOUA University in Abidjan (Ivory coast)

The objective of this study was to analyze the microbilogical quality of foods sold in fast food restaurants on the campus of NAGUI ABROGOUA University (UNA). The detection and enumeration of total mesophilic aerobic bacteria, total and fecal coliforms, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, sulfite-reducing anaerobes (ASR) and Clostridium perfringens were carried out according to the standard methods in force. In 3 months, 36 samples of ready meals from 7 sites were collected and analyzed. The results obtained revealed that the germ loads (colony forming unit : CFU) vary according to the nature of the germ, its origin and the nature of the food sampled. The charges in GAM vary from 9.4 108 ± to 1.5 108 CFU/g to 6.3 101 ± 4.5 101 CFU/g. Overall, attiéké-garba and its condiments contain most of the germs sought with the exception of Salmonella which are absent in all the dishes analyzed. Thus, in terms of microbiological quality, 60 %, 33.3 %, 25 % and 13.3 % of the samples taken respectively from the school office aera, IREN - market and fixed restaurant sites are of non-microbiological quality satisfying the standards. This non-compliance is more attributable to attiéké-garba and its condiments contaminated with coliform strains, in particular Escherichia coli and strains of Staphylococcus aureus. It is therefore necessary to improve the hygienic quality of meals served in fast food restaurants on the campus of NANGUI ABROGOUA University (UNA), in particular attiéké-garba condiments and curdled milk to ensure better consumer safety.

Mitigating Patient and Consumer Safety Risks When Using Conversational Assistants for Medical Information: Exploratory Mixed Methods Experiment

Background Prior studies have demonstrated the safety risks when patients and consumers use conversational assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa for obtaining medical information. Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate two approaches to reducing the likelihood that patients or consumers will act on the potentially harmful medical information they receive from conversational assistants. Methods Participants were given medical problems to pose to conversational assistants that had been previously demonstrated to result in potentially harmful recommendations. Each conversational assistant’s response was randomly varied to include either a correct or incorrect paraphrase of the query or a disclaimer message—or not—telling the participants that they should not act on the advice without first talking to a physician. The participants were then asked what actions they would take based on their interaction, along with the likelihood of taking the action. The reported actions were recorded and analyzed, and the participants were interviewed at the end of each interaction. Results A total of 32 participants completed the study, each interacting with 4 conversational assistants. The participants were on average aged 42.44 (SD 14.08) years, 53% (17/32) were women, and 66% (21/32) were college educated. Those participants who heard a correct paraphrase of their query were significantly more likely to state that they would follow the medical advice provided by the conversational assistant (χ21=3.1; P=.04). Those participants who heard a disclaimer message were significantly more likely to say that they would contact a physician or health professional before acting on the medical advice received (χ21=43.5; P=.001). Conclusions Designers of conversational systems should consider incorporating both disclaimers and feedback on query understanding in response to user queries for medical advice. Unconstrained natural language input should not be used in systems designed specifically to provide medical advice.