Effect of implementing school meals compared with packed lunches on quality of dietary intake among children aged 7-13 years.

Strategies are needed to improve the dietary habits of children. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of implementing a school food programme on the dietary quality of lunches consumed by school children aged 7-13 years compared with packed lunches brought from home. A secondary objective was to investigate if a possible effect would differ between the younger children and the older.

Alcohol-related breast cancer in postmenopausal women - effect of CYP19A1, PPARG and PPARGC1A polymorphisms on female sex-hormone levels and interaction with alcohol consumption and NSAID usage in a nested case-control study and a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Alcohol consumption is associated with increased risk of breast cancer (BC), and the underlying mechanism is thought to be sex-hormone driven. In vitro and observational studies suggest a mechanism involving peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) in a complex with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α (PGC-1α) and interaction with aromatase (encoded by CYP19A1). Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) may also affect circulating sex-hormone levels by modifying PPARγ activity.

Vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in pork and their relationship to vitamin D status in pigs.

The content of vitamin D in pork produced in conventional systems depends on the vitamin D concentration in the pig feed. Both vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) are essential sources of dietary vitamin D; however, bioavailability assessed by serum 25(OH)D3 concentration is reported to be different between the two sources. Furthermore, the relationship between serum 25(OH)D3 level and the tissue content of vitamin D3 and 25(OH)D3 is unknown.

Improving the diet of employees at blue-collar worksites: results from the 'Food at Work' intervention study.

Objective: To examine the impact of a 6-month participatory and empowerment-based intervention study on employees' dietary habits and on changes in the canteen nutrition environment.

Design: Worksites were stratified by company type and by the presence or absence of an in-house canteen, and randomly allocated to either an intervention group (five worksites) or a minimum intervention control group (three worksites). The study was carried out in partnership with a trade union and guided by an ecological framework targeting both individual and environment levels.

Collaborative validation of a rapid method for efficient virus concentration in bottled water.

Enteric viruses, including norovirus (NoV) and hepatitis A virus (HAV), have emerged as a major cause of waterborne outbreaks worldwide. Due to their low infectious doses and low concentrations in water samples, an efficient and rapid virus concentration method is required for routine control. Three newly developed methods, A, B and C, for virus concentration in bottled water were compared against the reference method D: (A) Convective Interaction Media (CIM) monolithic chromatography; filtration of viruses followed by (B) direct lysis of viruses on membrane; (C) concentration of viruses by ultracentrifugation; and (D) concentration of viruses by ultrafiltration, for each methods' (A, B and C) efficacy to recover 10-fold dilutions of HAV and feline calicivirus (FCV) spiked in bottles of 1.

Diagnostic PCR: comparative sensitivity of four probe chemistries.

Three probe chemistries: locked nucleic acid (LNA), minor groove binder (MGB) and Scorpion were compared with a TaqMan probe in a validated real-time PCR assay for detection of food-borne thermotolerant Campylobacter. The LNA probe produced significantly lower Ct-values and a higher proportion of positive PCR responses analyzing less than 150 DNA copies than the TaqMan probe. Choice of probe chemistry clearly has an impact on the sensitivity of PCR assays, and should be considered in an optimization strategy.

Use of fly screens to reduce Campylobacter spp. introduction in broiler houses.

Fly screens that prevented influx of flies in 20 broiler houses during the summer of 2006 in Denmark caused a decrease in Campylobacter spp.-positive flocks from 51.4% in control houses to 15.

Prothrombin fragment 1+2 in urine as an indicator of sustained coagulation activation after total hip arthroplasty.

Purpose: Prothrombin fragment 1+2 measured in spot urine (uF1+2) is an indicator of thrombin generation. We examined whether measured levels of uF1+2 can be used to differentiate between patients who do and do not acquire sustained coagulation activation after total hip arthroplasty (THA).

Methods: We performed two separate studies in patients undergoing THA.

25-hydroxyvitamin D3 affects vitamin D status similar to vitamin D3 in pigs--but the meat produced has a lower content of vitamin D.

In food databases, the specific contents of vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in food have been implemented in the last 10 years. No consensus has yet been established on the relative activity between the components. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to assess the relative activity of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 compared to vitamin D3.

Freezing at -800 degrees C distorts the DNA composition of bacterial communities in intestinal samples.

Terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) was used to evaluate how to store intestinal specimens for bacterial community analysis. Bacterial communities are increasingly often described by means of DNA-based methods and it is common practice to store intestinal or faecal specimens either at -20 degrees C or -80 degrees C. In this study, samples of intestines from five different pigs were stored at -80 degrees C and -20 degrees C, respectively and a thawing and freezing procedure was carried out three times for each intestinal per pig per temperature.

The effect of slaughter operations on the contamination of chicken carcasses with thermotolerant Campylobacter.

To evaluate the effect of specific slaughter operations on the contamination of broiler carcasses with naturally occurring thermotolerant Campylobacter, experiments were carried out in two Danish commercial slaughter plants (Plant I and Plant II). Six broiler flocks determined Campylobacter positive prior to slaughter were investigated at four sampling locations within each slaughter plant. Quantification of thermotolerant Campylobacter in 30 neck skin samples per flock per sampling location showed that the evisceration operation in Plant I led to a significant increase in the Campylobacter concentration of 0.

A model of hygiene practices and consumption patterns in the consumer phase.

A mathematical model is presented, which addresses individual hygiene practices during food preparation and consumption patterns in private homes. Further, the model links food preparers and consumers based on their relationship to household types. For different age and gender groups, the model estimates (i) the probability of ingesting a meal where precautions have not been taken to avoid the transfer of microorganisms from raw food to final meal (a risk meal), exemplified by the event that the cutting board was not washed during food preparation, and (ii) the probability of ingesting a risk meal in a private home, where chicken was the prepared food item (a chicken risk meal).

Principles, application areas and an example of risk assessment conducted at the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research.

The Department for Epidemiology and Risk Analysis at the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research (DFVF) is concerned with risk analyses in the areas of food safety, zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) list A and B diseases. The DFVF is responsible for the risk assessment component of the risk analysis process and provides advice and support for the risk management and risk communication component, which is generally under the auspices of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA). The paper presents guidelines for the conduct of risk assessments at the DFVF.

Quantitative risk assessment of human campylobacteriosis associated with thermophilic Campylobacter species in chickens.

A quantitative risk assessment comprising the elements hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization has been prepared to assess the effect of different mitigation strategies on the number of human cases in Denmark associated with thermophilic Campylobacter spp. in chickens. To estimate the human exposure to Campylobacter from a chicken meal and the number of human cases associated with this exposure, a mathematical risk model was developed.

Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) induced developmental toxicity but not antiandrogenic effects in pre- and postnatally exposed Wistar rats.

Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) has replaced the phthalates in thin plasticized polyvinyl chloride films used for food packaging, mainly because some phthalates induce testis toxicity and antiandrogenic effects. A dose-range finding study followed by a dose-response/effect study in Wistar rats investigated whether pre- and postnatal DEHA doses of 0, 800, or 1200mg/kg/day body weight and doses of 0, 200, 400, or 800mg/kg/day (main study) elicited developmental toxicity including antiandrogenic effects. In the main study, DEHA induced a prolonged gestation period (800mg/kg/day) and a dose-related increase in postnatal death (400 and 800mg/kg/day).

In vitro and in vivo invasiveness of different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis types of Listeria monocytogenes.

The virulence of different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) types of Listeria monocytogenes was examined by monitoring their ability to invade Caco-2 cells. Strains belonging to seven different PFGE types originating from both foods and humans were included. No significant differences in invasiveness were detected between strains isolated from humans and those isolated from food.