• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.367-375
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• 2010

The bacteriological and physiochemical analysis of sea water and sediments in Tongyeong harbor was conducted to evaluate sanitary conditions. The samples were collected at 8 stations established once a month from June, 2008 to May, 2009. During the study period, the range of temperature was from 6.7 to $25.2^{\circ}C$, transparency ranged from 1.2 to 2.6 m, chemical oxygen demand ranged from 1.90 to 2.92 mg/L, dissolved oxygen ranged from 6.2 to 10.5 mg/L, dissolved nitrogen ranged from 0.052 to 0.098 mg/L, phosphate ranged from 0.044 to 0.065 mg/L, respectively. Seafood, if eaten raw, carries the risk of food poisoning. Seafood poisoning is often cause by pathogenic microorganism originating from fecal contamination, such as Salmonella sp., Shigella sp. and norovirus. Fecal coliforms are an important indicator of fecal contamination. Therefore, data on fecal coliform are very important for evaluating the safety of fisheries in coastal areas. So, we investigated the sanitary indicate bacteria. The coliform group and fecal coliform MPN's of sea water in Tongyeong harbor were ranged from < 1.8~22,000/100 mL (GM 164.9 MPN/100 mL) and < 1.8~7,900 MPN/100 mL (GM 33.7 MPN/100 mL), respectively. Total coliform were detected 97.0% in 96 of samples and 68.9% of total coliforms were fecal coliforms. These results similar to another seawater detection ratio of total coloforms and fecal coliforms. The Vibrios was isolated and identified with VITEK system. Four hundred eighty strains that were obtained from sea water samples in Tongyeong harbor Detection ratio Vibrio alginolyticus, 34.2%, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, 13.8%, Vibrio vulnificus 10.0%, and V. mimicus 12.5% respectively. Vibrio cholerae O1, was not detected. During the study period, the ranges of water content, ignition loss, COD, and acid volatile sulfates in sediments in Tongyeoung harbor were 41.0~57.4%, 7.8~10.5%, 6.51~9.30 mg/g, 0.04~0.09 mg/g, respectively. Heavy metals in sediment of Tongyeoung harbor were Cd, $0.10{\pm}0.05$; Cu, $4.79{\pm}8.20$; As, $1.95{\pm}0.17$; Hg, $0.10{\pm}0.07$; $Cr^{6+}$, $0.34{\pm}0.12$; Zn, $125.33{\pm}16.40$; Ni, $16.43{\pm}1.93$ mg/kg.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.459-467
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• 2020

In this study, we investigated the changes in both ambient temperature and microbial contamination of fresh convenience foods (FCFs) caused by the behavior of consumers after purchase. According to consumer survey results, it took 0.5 to 3 h put the purchased FCF in a home refrigerator or consume it. Only aerobic bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus (below maximum permitted limit) were detected in FCFs obtained from a local market. During storage of FCFs in a vehicle trunk for up to 3 h. the external and internal temperatures of FCFs were found to be 19 and 18.5℃ in spring, 44 and 42℃ in summer, 31.3 and 29.2℃ in autumn, and 17.6 and 16.8℃ in winter, respectively. Changes in contamination levels of aerobic bacteria on FCFs stored in a vehicle trunk for up to 3 hours are as follows: 2.72 → 3.41 log CFU/g in spring, 3.11 → 4.32 log CFU/g in summer, 3.08 → 3.81 log CFU/g in autumn, 2.71 → 3.36 log CFU/g in winter. S. aureus exceeding the tolerance was detected even when the FCFs were stored in a vehicle trunk for 1 h in summer and autumn and 2 h in spring and winter. Among three boxes (corrugated box, styrofoam box, and corrugated box coated with an aluminum film), the styrofoam box maintained the lowest temperature and showed the lowest growth rate of microorganisms on FCF after storage for 3 h in the vehicle trunk depending on whether ice was added. These results indicated that the possibility of food poisoning occurs when FCFs are exposed to the external environment. It is necessary to provide guidelines regarding storage temperature and allowable time for safe consumption of FCFs after purchase.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1465-1475
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• 2016

In order to secure safe meals, the hazards of microorganisms associated with food poisoning accident should be monitored and controlled in real situations. It is necessary to determined the correlation between existing common bacteria number (aerobic plate count; APC) and RLU (relative light unit) in cookware. In this paper, we investigate the correlation between ATP (RUL) and APC (CFU) by using three types of transform (inverse, square root, log transforms) of raw data in two steps. Among these transforms, the log transform at the first step has been found to be optimal for the data of cutting board, knife, soup bowl (stainless), and tray (carbon). The square root-inverse and the square root-square root transform at the second step have been shown to be optimal respectively for the cup and for the soup bowl (carbon) data.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.509-514
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• 2011

This study was conducted to investigate the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of Korean isolates of Cronobacter spp. (Enterobacter sakazakii). A total of 43 Cronobacter spp., including 5 clinical isolates, 34 food isolates, 2 environmental isolates, and 2 reference strains (C. sakazakii ATCC 29004 and C. muytjensii ATCC51329) were used in this study. Korean isolates of Cronobacter spp. were divided into 11 biogroups according to their biochemical profiles and 3 genomic groups based on the analysis of their 16S rRNA gene sequences. Biogroups 1 and 2 contained the majority of isolates (n=26), most of which were contained in 16S rRNA cluster 1 (n=34). Korean isolates of Cronobacter spp. showed diverse biochemical profiles. Biogroup 1 contained C. sakazakii GIHE (Gyeonggido Research Institute of Health and Environment) 1 and 2, which were isolated from babies that exhibited symptoms of Cronobacter spp. infection such as gastroenteritis, sepsis, and meningitis. Our finding revealed that Biogroup 1, C. sakazakii, is more prevalent and may be a more pathogenic biogroup than other biogroups, but the pathogenic biogroup was not represented clearly among the 11 biogroups tested in this study. Thus, all biogroups of Cronobacter spp. were recognized as pathogenic bacteria, and the absence of Cronobacter spp. in infant foods should be constantly regulated to prevent food poisoning and infection caused by Cronobacter spp.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.147-152
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• 2008

The variety of functional plants has an attention for new natural food preservation and natural antiseptic development. The extracts from functional plants with various methods (ethanol extraction, hot water extraction and supercritical fluid extraction) tested antimicrobial activity against 10 strains including the pathogenic and food poisoning bacteria, the yeast and fungi. The antimicrobial activities of supercritical fluid extracts were shown higher than ethanol extract and hot water extract when tested with disc-diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Antimicrobial activity of supercritical fluid extract was two times higher than ethanol extract in Cinnaonomum cassia. In addition, the supercritical fluid extractions of Chamaecyparis obtuas and the C. cassia showed the higher yield than Origanum vulgare and Scutellariae baicalensis. The supercritical fluid extract of C. cassia showed an antimicrobial activity against all strains tested. The supercritical fluid extract of S. baicalensis showed strong antimicrobial activity on Listeria monocytogenes. Supercritical fluid extraction of O. vulgare and C. obtuas showed strong antimicrobial activity on Salmonella typhimuriium. In MIC test, C. obtuas was shown the best natural material for the preparation of natural antimicrobial agent by supercritical fluid extraction. In conclusion, these results suggest that supercritical fluid extraction technique was effective to obtain functional ingredient with higher antimicrobial activity in the development of new antimicrobial reagent from natural materials.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.77-92
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• 2014

Fermented foods have often been implicated as causative agents in poisoning due to toxic levels of biogenic amines. Cheese, a milk-based fermented food, is the product most likely to contain potentially harmful levels of biogenic amines, such as tyramine, histamine, putrescine, and so on. Recently, the risk awareness of a dietary uptake of high loads of biogenic amines has increased. Hence, we here review the published literature on several factors known to affect the biosynthesis of biogenic amines and their accumulation in milk-based foods. Furthermore, with regard to risk analysis, we discuss the control of factors related to the synthesis and accumulation of biogenic amines as a means to reduce their incidence in milk-based products, and thus to increase food safety.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 2022

Recently, the purchase of fresh-cut produce and meal kits has increased. Ready-to-eat (RTE) fresh-cut products have potentially hazard of cross-contamination of various microorganisms in the processes of peeling, slicing, dicing, and shredding. There are frequent cases of protozoa food poisoning, such as Cyclospora and Cryptosporidium, caused by fresh-cut products. The objective of the study is to investigate the microbiological qualities of various types of RTE fresh-cut products in the domestic on/offline markets. RTE fresh-cut fruits cup (n=100), fresh-cut vegetables (n=50), and vegetables in meal kits (Vietnamese spring rolls and white radish rolls kits, n=50) were seasonally analyzed. The contamination levels of hygienic indicator organisms, yeast and mold (YM), and foodborne pathogens (Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Escherichia coli O157:H7) were monitored. Overall, the lowest microbiological qualities of meal kits vegetables were observed, followed by RTE fresh-cut fruits cup and fresh-cut vegetables. Contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria, coliforms, and YM in meal kits vegetables were 5.91, 3.90, and 4.71 logs CFU/g, respectively. From the qualitative analysis, 6 out of 200 RTE fresh-cut products (3%) returned positive result for S. aureus. From the quantitative analysis, the contamination levels of S. aureus in purple cabbage from a meal-kit and fresh-cut pineapple were below the acceptable limit (100 CFU/g). Staphylococcus enterotoxin seg and sei genes were detected in RTE fresh-cut celery and red cabbage from meal-kits, respectively. S. aureus contamination must be carefully controlled during the manufacturing processes of RTE fresh-cut products. Neither Cyclospora cayetanensis nor Cryptosporidium parvum was detected in the samples of RTE fresh-cut products and vegetables from meal-kits from the Korean retail markets.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.82-87
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• 2007

This research was performed to investigate chemical and microbiological hazards of Ready-to-eat(RTE) compound foods which uses the by-product of meat. For this experiment, 51 samples of RTE compound foods in by-product of meat distributed in Incheon from January to December 2006 were tested. The contents of heavy metals in the main ingredient of RTE compound foods were in the range of $0.073{\sim}0.112ppm$ for lead (Pb), $0.006{\sim}0.013ppm$ for cadmium (Cd) and $0.746{\sim}0.978ppb$ for mercury (Hg). The concentrations of residual ABS(alkyl benzene sulfate) in the small intestine which is a main ingredient of Gopchang-casserole were $$0.8ppm{\sim}57.6ppm$ (Ave. 10.3ppm). Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 11 samples (21.6%) among 51 main ingredients of RTE compound foods. The isolation rates of Salmonella spp. and Clostridium perfringens were 2.0% (1/51) and 5.9% (2/51), respectively. By types of main ingredient, the small intestine was showed the highest isolation rate as 35.3% (12/34), ham and the sausage which are main ingredients of the Budae-pot stew were 25% (2/8) and other meat products were 20% (1/5). Food poisoning bacteria was not found in the blood of pig which is a main ingredient of the Sunji-pot stew. 28.4% (27/95) of sauce included in each RTE compound foods were coliform bacteria positive. Pesticide residues were found in four of 45 vegetables which are the additional ingredient of RTE compound foods. The concentrations of pesticide were chlorothalonil 2.8 ppm, EPN 10.3 ppm, chlorpyrifos 0.4ppm and indoxacarb 0.7ppm. In 33 bean sprout samples, captan and carbendazim were not detected.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.317-323
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• 1994

Nine plant foods (persimmon leaf, perilla seed, Chinese quince, ginger root, walnut, mugwort leaf, arrowroot, buckwheat and sorghum) rich in phenolic substances were examined for their effects on the digestive enzymes, food-poisoning bacteria and mutagenicity/antimutagenicity by Ames test. Among tested samples, Chinese quince significantly inhibited the $\alpha-amylase$ activity (97%), exhibiting an uncompetitive inhibition type. Protease activity was inhibited by Chinese quince (86%), persimmon leaf (51%) and mugwort leaf (20%), in which mugwort extract exhibited a noncompetitive type. Lipase was activated >50% by all samples. The inhibition of $\alpha-amylase$ was highly correlated with the content of condensed tannin (r=0.89) and the inhibition of protease, with total phenolic content (r=0.84). Total phenolies fraction of tested samples showed the growth inhibition toward E. coli. Streptococcus faecalis and Salmonella enteritidis, in which the effect of perilla, sorghum and arrowroot was the highest for E. coli. Standard phenolics and food samples did not show any mutagenicity toward Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100. Tannic acid inhibited the mutation of the two strains by benzo[a]pyrene whereas total phenolics fractions of Chinese quince and walnut exhibited antimutagenicity to a lesser extent.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2007

The DY1 strain of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria was isolated from the soil sample collected from Daeam mountain, Korea. The culture filtrate of DY1 strain showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity on various pathogenic and food poisoning enteric bacterial species tested in vitro. It showed significant growth-inhibitory effect on Salmonella enterica sp., Shigella sp., pathogenic Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahemolyticus, and Yersinia enterocolitica. For the identification of the DY1 strain, morphological, biochemical and molecular phylogenetic approaches were performed. The DY1 strain was found to be a member of the genus Paenibacillus on the basis of morphological and biochemical analyses. The 16S rDNA of DY1 showed the highest pairwise identity with Paenibacillus polymyxa with 99.79% (1,413 bp/1,416 bp). The antimicrobial entity from DY1 looked different from preciously reported ones and seems to have a great potential to be further studied as a candidate of new antibiotics to control multi-drug resistant pathogens.