• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.534-541
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• 2019

his study assessed microbial contamination of leeks and leek-cultivated soil. Leeks and leek-cultivated soil were collected in A and B regions and accounted for 39 and 33 samples, respectively. All of the samples were analyzed for the presence of sanitary indicator bacteria (total aerobic bacteria, coliforms and Escherichia coli), Salmonella spp., E. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus cereus. In A and B region, the total aerobic bacteria was in the range of 5.87-8.78 log CFU/g for leeks and 5.94-8.45 log CFU/g for leek-cultivated soil. The coliform in leeks and leek-cultivated soil was in the range of 1.20-7.36 log CFU/g and 2.45-5.87 log CFU/g, respectively. B. cereus was detected from some of the samples while other pathogens were not detected. This study provides important background information on the microbiological safety of fresh vegetable cultivation environments.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.324-329
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• 2013

This study investigated and evaluated contamination levels of bacteria on tomatoes at farms stage to evaluate potential hazards associated with fresh tomatoes. A total of 170 samples, 90 samples from 5 sampling sites from 18 farms and 80 samples from 1 sampling site from 4 farms every month for four months, were analyzed to enumerate aerobic bacterial counts, coliforms, E. coli, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and Listeria monocytogenes. Aerobic bacterial counts ranged from 0.48 to 6.15 Log CFU/g, with the lowest and the highest bacterial cell counts recorded for A site and E site, respectively. Thirty five percent of the samples from the E site contained more than 2 Log CFU/g. Six samples (6.6%) of 90 samples contained B. cereus less than 1 Log CFU/g. In addition, the contamination level of indicator bacteria and B. cereus in tomatoes were higher on March than on April, May and June (P < 0.05). S. aureus, E. coli, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes were not detected in the tomato samples. The microbial contamination levels of tomatoes determined in this study may be used as the data for microbiological risk assessment.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.435-443
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• 2012

This study investigated soil carbon storage and microbial activities influenced by different management practices in rice paddies and pastures. Soils under a single-crop farming of rice (CON) and rice-Italian ryegrass rotation farming (IRG) were compared in Jangheung, Jeollanam-do, Seocheon and Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do. Soils from pastures were analyzed to investigate the effect of duration period (P1, P2, P3) in Namwon, Jeollabuk-do and Seosan, Chungcheongnam-do. In rice paddy, total and particulate carbon (PC) concentrations in the IRG soils were significantly higher than those in the CON soils both in Jangheung and Seocheon where the IRG has been established for three years, whereas carbon concentrations were not significantly different in Cheonan where IRG planting history is only one year. In rice paddy soils, PC was suggested as an early indicator to monitor changes in soil carbon storage followed by adopting different management practices. In pasture, total and PC concentrations increased with duration period especially in the 0-5 cm soils. Contrary to the rice paddy soils, the magnitude of change in PC concentration is not as great as that in total carbon concentration, implying that there is a need to develop a new early indicator other than PC using different fractionation scheme. The soil carbon storage in pasture also increased with years since establishment and the increasing rate was significantly greater in the early stage (0-5 yrs) than the later one (> 5 yrs). Microbial activities measured from fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis analysis were significantly lower in the IRG soils than CON soils, whereas no difference was observed in the pastures of different ages. This shows that FDA activity is not a sensitive indicator to differentiate soil qualities influenced by management practices if it is used by itself.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.415-418
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• 2008

The application of sludge wastes into agricultural fields has been increasing annually in Korea. In particular, sewage sludge application has been widely accepted in decades. Sewage sludge application aid in the recycling of essential nutrients and act as a source of organic matter improving the structure and water-holding properties of the soil. The efficient use of sludge wastes, however, requires an individual assessment of waste products. This study assessed the biological characteristics of organic waste-treated lysimeter soils and develop its indicator to assess the soil health of organic waste-treated lysimeter soils. Several analytical techniques more recently developed such as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA), and community level substrate utilization (CLSU) fingerprints allow for detailed analyses of soil microbial communities. PLFA and RFLP was, therefore, used in the study to characterize the microbial communities in soil without the need to isolate individual fungi and bacteria. PLFA, RFLP and CLSU have been utilized to assess microbial characteristics of the lysimeter soils with four different sludge wastes for eight consecutive years. Each of these methods was analyzed for a different aspect of soil microbial characteristics. The study would disclose those methods yielded highly reproductive results for each soil and allow distinguishing the soils based on the structures of specific geneand PLFA-pools more than CLSU fingerprints. PLFA methods, especially, revealed the same relative similarities of the treated soils based on cluster analysis of the biological characteristics. Pig manure compost-treated soil, however, was only the same relative resemblance among the three methods. These results indicated that PLFA easily assessed the biological soil characterization.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.617-629
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• 2007

To ensure the microbiological safety of food items prepared after cooking process, this study was aimed to identify the hazards related with cooked foods donated to foodbanks through quantitative microbial analysis. Five foodbanks located in Incheon and Gyeonggi area among government-dominant foodbanks were surveyed from February to June, 2007. Manager, recipient, donator, type and quantity of donated foot and facility and equipment were examined for the general characteristics of foodbank. The time and temperature of food md environment were measured at steps from after-production to before-distribution, and the microbial analysis was performed mainly with indicator organism and major pathogens. The amount of cooked foods donated to each foodbank was about 20 to 30 servings and consisted of 80% of total donated foods. Only three foodbanks had separate offices for foodbank operation and four institutions had at least one temperature-controlled vehicle. The flow of donated foods was gone through the steps; production, meal service and holding at donator, collection by foodbank, transport (or holding after transport) and distribution to recipients. It took about 3.8 to 6.5 hours at room temperature from after-production to before-distribution. Only aerobic plate counts (APC) and coliforms were found in microbial analysis. The APC after production were relatively high in $8.2{\times}10^5,\;7.4{\times}10^5,\;6.9{\times}10^5$ and $4.2{\times}10^5 CFU/g$ while $2.8{\times}10^6, \;9.4{\times}10^5,\;1.0{\times}10^6$ and $5.4{\times}10^5CFU/g$ before distribution in mixed Pimpinella brachycarpa, mixed chard mixed amaranth and mixed spinach, respectively. The levels of coliforms in mixed chard and mixed spinach were complied with the standards of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Management The level of APC in boiled pork was increased from $< 1.0{\times}10 CFU/g$ to $4.0{\times}10^2 CFU/g$. One of delivery vessels was shown $6.2{\times}10^3 CFU/100 cm^2$ in APC, which was over the standards for environment. One of serving tables also showed the high level of $1.2{\times}10^3 CFU/100 cm^2$ in APC and $6.6{\times}10^2 CFU/100 cm^2$ in coliforms. These results suggest the sanitary management of holding at donator and the time-temperature control are key factors to ensure the safety of cooked foods donated to foodbank.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.319-323
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to investigate the microbial contamination levels of ginseng and ginseng products distributed in markets. A total of 81 ginseng and ginseng products samples (fresh ginseng 37, white ginseng 15, red ginseng 15, red ginseng beverage 14) were tested to analyze sanitary indicator bacteria (total aerobic bacteria, coliforms and Escherichia coli), major foodborne pathogens, and fungi. The contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria and coliforms were in the range of 3.19 to 7.02 log CFU/g for fresh ginseng, 0.25 to 7.31 log CFU/g for white ginseng, 0 to 2.89 log CFU/g for red ginseng and 0 to 1.70 log CFU/mL for red ginseng beverage. In case of major foodborne pathogens, B. cereus was detected at levels of 0.50 to 2.41 log CFU/g in samples except red ginseng beverage. Fungi was detected at levels of 2.41 log CFU/g in fresh ginseng, the contamination levels of the other ginseng products samples were lower than 1 log CFU/g or mL. These results indicate that the ginseng and ginseng products were comparatively safe with respect to microbiological hazard.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.307-311
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• 2014

2,3,5-Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) is used as a redox indicator in culture media. It is colorless in the oxidized form and is reduced to formazan, an insoluble pigment, by dehydrogenases in actively growing microbial cells. The aim of this study was to assess by microbial test of the pathogenic microorganisms using TTC reduction. The pathogenic microorganisms were reduced in medium by dehydrogenase to produce insoluble red formazan. We observed that the optimization method of TTC allowed more than 12 h incubation in 0.04% concentration. Also, the growth of microorganisms with media was increased formazan production. We confirmed that microorganisms were quickly observed to grow colonies cultured red color without affecting the growth of microorganisms. It is suggested that the microbial test using TTC can provide better and quicker test method in cosmetics development.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.254-261
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• 2019

BACKGROUND: Agricultural water is known to be one of the major routes in bacterial contamination of fresh vegetable. However, there is a lack of fundamental data on the microbial safety of agricultural water in Korea. METHODS AND RESULTS: We investigated the density of indicator bacteria in the surface water samples from 31 sites collected in April, July, and October 2018, while the groundwater samples were collected from 20 sites within Jeollabuk-do in April and July 2018. In surface water, the mean density of coliform, fecal coliform, and Escherichia coli was 2.7±0.55, 1.9±0.71, and 1.4±0.58 log CFU/100 mL, respectively, showing the highest bacterial density in July. For groundwater, the mean density of coliform, fecal coliform, and E. coli was 1.9±0.58, 1.4±0.37, and 1.0±0.33 log CFU/ 100mL, respectively, showing no significant difference between sampling time. The survival of E. coli O157:H7 were prolonged in water with higher organic matter contents such as total nitrogen (TN), and nitrate-nitrogen (NO₃-N). The reduction rates of E. coli O157:H7 in the water showed greater in order of 25, 35, 5, and 15℃. CONCLUSION: These results can be utilized as fundamental data for prediction the microbiological contamination of agricultural water and the development of microbial prevention technology.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2010

Water quality and the distribution of ammonia oxidizing bacteria were characterized in constructed wetland of Shihwa lake. Both physico-chemical parameters and fecal indicator microorganisms including total coliforms, E.coli, Enterococcus spp. were measured. In addition, denaturant gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was carried out after PCR amplification of amoA gene from input, output, and wetland sites of the Banwol, Donghwa, and Samhwa stream in Shihwa lake area. Physico-chemical parameters were in proper range for typical nitrifying bacteria to grow and perform their biological activities. Average concentrations of fecal indicator microorganisms of wetland samples were lower than those of input sites. These results suggested that microbial water quality improved by the process of constructed wetland. According to phylogenetic information obtained from DGGE from study sites, distribution of nitrifying bacteria from each of input, output, and wetland were generally distinctive one another. In addition, distribution of nitrifying bacteria between Banwol and Donghwa streams showed higher similarity (52.6%) than this of Samhwa stream (15.2%). These results indicated that characteristics of ammonia oxidizing bacteria in Samhwa were unique in comparison with those of Banwol and Donghwa stream.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2019

Microbial community and composition in stormwater runoff from mixed land use land cover (LULC) catchment with ongoing land development was diverse across the hydrological stage due different environmental parameters (hydrometeorological and physicochemical) and source of runoff. However, limited studies have been made for bacterial composition in this catchment. Therefore, this study aims to: (1) quantify the concentration of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), stormwater quality and bacterial composition and structure according to hydrological stage; and (2) determine their correlation to environmental parameters. The 454 pyrosequencing was used to determine the bacterial community and composition; while Pearson's correlation was used to determine the correlation among parameters-FIB, stormwater quality, bacterial composition and structure-to environmental parameters. Results demonstrated that the initial and peak runoff has the highest concentration of FIB, stormwater quality and bacterial composition and structure. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were dominant bacteria identified in this catchment. Furthermore, the 20 most abundant genera were correlated with runoff duration, average rainfall intensity, runoff volume, runoff flow, temperature, pH, organic matter, nutrients, TSS and turbidity. An increase of FIB and stormwater quality concentration, diversity and richness of bacterial composition and structure in this study was possibly due to leakage from septic tanks, cesspools and latrines; feces of domestic and wild animals; and runoff from forest, destroyed septic system in land development site and urban LULC. Overall, this study will provide an evidence of hydrological stage impacts on the runoff microbiome environment and public health perspective.