Why chlorate occurs in potable water and processed foods: a critical assessment and challenges faced by the food industry.

Recently, reports have been published on the occurrence of chlorate mainly in fruits and vegetables. Chlorate is a by-product of chlorinating agents used to disinfect water, and can be expected to be found in varying concentrations in drinking water. Data on potable water taken at 39 sampling points across Europe showed chlorate to range from < 0.

Why semicarbazide (SEM) is not an appropriate marker for the usage of nitrofurazone on agricultural animals.

A comprehensive global database on semicarbazide (SEM) in foodstuffs and food ingredients is presented, with over 4000 data collected in foods such as seafood (crustaceans, fish powders), meat (beef, chicken powders), dairy products (e.g. raw milk, milk powders, whey, sweet buttermilk powder, caseinate, yoghurt, cheese), honey and other ingredients.

N,N-dimethylpiperidinium (mepiquat) Part 2. Formation in roasted coffee and barley during thermal processing.

Previous work in model systems has demonstrated that mepiquat can be formed under typical roasting conditions from the amino acid lysine via the Maillard reaction and trigonelline, the latter alkaloid serving as a methyl donor. This study shows for the first time that mepiquat is formed in low mg kg(-1) amounts during the coffee roasting process and consequently can be detected in roast and ground as well as soluble coffee up to levels of 1.4 mg kg(-1).

Formation of vinylogous compounds in model Maillard reaction systems.

The thermal degradation over temperature and time of selected amino acids (Asp, Gln, and Glu) in the presence of reducing sugars was investigated in low moisture model systems. Copyrolysis of glucose-Asp mixtures led to the release of acrylic acid, attaining >5 mmol/mol Asp at 230 degrees C after 5 min. Spurious amounts of 3-butenamide were detected upon heating Gln together with a carbonyl source.