• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.873-883
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• 2008

In this study, we assessed consumers' recognition of frozen foods via a survey study, and monitored the contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria and Escherichia coli in imported and domestic frozen seafoods obtained from five whole sale markets in Seoul. A questionnaire used to assess the perception of frozen food safety and the attitude towards frozen food usage was developed and distributed to 350 adults. A total of 324 questionnaires were subjected to frequency analysis and a chi-square test, using SPSS for Windows. The results of our survey study demonstrated that 44.6% of the respondent consumed frozen processed foods two to three times per month, with dumplings being the most frequently purchased. 70.5% of the respondents selected "convenient cooking" as the principal reason for their frozen food purchases. 58% of the respondents believed that frozen processed food is not safe to eat as the result of food additives and changes in quality during the shelf life period. Consumers most profoundly preferred frozen seafood originating from America, and preferred that from China least profoundly (81.2%). Microbiological analyses demonstrated that the aerobic plate counts of frozen seafood, regardless of origin, fulfill the standard requirements except for one frozen clam (6.6 Log CFU/g), which was a heated-frozen domestic product. In addition, E. coli was isolated from frozen cooked mussels, frozen raw clams and squids, thus indicating that more strict hygienic regulation for frozen seafoods will be necessary to protect the consumer in both domestic and foreign markets.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.64-68
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• 2001

This paper presents an innovative prototype of a new conceptual electromagnetic induction heated type far infrared rays radiant heating appliance using the voltage-fed edge-resonant ZVS-PWM high frequency inverter using IGBTs for food cooking and processing which operates under a constant frequency variable power regulation scheme. This power electronic appliance with soft switching high frequency inverter using IGBTs has attracted special interest from some advantageous viewpoints of safety, cleanliness, compactness and rapid temperature response, which is more suitable for consumer power electronics applications.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.343-349
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• 2017

tWith the development of the third-generation gene scissors, CRISPR-Cas9, concerns are being raised about ethical and social repercussions of the new gene-editing technology. In this situation, this article explores the legislation and interpretation of the positive laws in South Korea. The BioAct does not specify and regulate 'gene editing' itself. However, assuming that genetic editing is used in the process of research and treatment, we can look to the specific details of the regulations for research on humans as well as gene therapy research in order to see how genetic editing is regulated under the BioAct. BioAct differentiates the regulation between (born) humans and embryos etc. and the regulation differ entirely in the manner and scope. Moreover, due to the fact that gene therapy products are regarded as drugs, they fall under different regulations. The Korean Pharmacopoeia Act put stringent sanctions on clinical trials for gene therapy products and the official Notification "Approval and Examination Regulations for Biological Products, etc." by Food and Drug Safety Administration may be applied to gene editing for gene therapy purposes.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.123-130
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• 2023

Salmonella spp. are prevalent foodborne pathogens that are infective at relatively low concentrations, thus posing a serious health threat, especially to young children and the elderly. In several countries, the management and regulation of Salmonella spp. in food, including seafood, adhere to a negative detection standard. The risk of infection is particularly high when seafood is consumed raw, which underscores the importance of timely detection of pathogenic microorganisms, such as Salmonella. Accordingly, this study aimed to develop a combined pre-treatment and detection method that includes pre-culture and DNA extraction in order to detect five species of Salmonella at concentrations below 10 CFU/mL in seafood. The effectiveness of the proposed method was assessed in terms of the composition of the enrichment (pre-culture) medium, minimum incubation time, and minimum cell concentration for pathogen detection. Furthermore, a practical DNA extraction method capable of effectively handling high salt conditions was tested and found to be successful. Through polymerase chain reaction, Salmonella spp. Were detected and positively identified in shellfish samples at cell concentrations below 10 CFU/g. Thus, the proposed method, combining sample pre-treatment and cell culture with DNA extraction, was shown to be an effective strategy for detecting low cellular concentrations of harmful bacteria. The proposed methodology is suitable as an economical and practical in situ pre-treatment for effective detection of Salmonella spp. in seafood.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.117-125
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• 2008

Recently, obesity has become a worldwide public health concern and the use of anorectic drugs has drastically increased. In this study, sibutramine and phendimetrazine, representative marketed anorectics, were repeatedly administered per os on a daily basis into C57BL/6 mice and the effects of these drugs on food intakes, body weight changes and gene expression profiles were monitored for up to following 7 days. Methamphetamine, which has a potent anorectic effect, was used as a positive control. Anorectic effects were sustained only for two days by phendimetrazine or methamphetamine, but for six days by sibutramine. The modulations of gene expressions in the hypothalamus and the striatum were investigated using microarrays on day 2 and day 7 post-administration, which corresponded to the anorectic period and a return of appetite respectively, for all three drugs tested. Differences in overall gene expression profiles in the stratum on day 2 for sibutramine and phendimetrazine seems to reflect difference between the two in terms of the onsets of drug tolerance. According to microarray findings, the Ankrd26 gene appears to have an important anorectic role, whereas the up-regulation of the olfaction system appeared to be involved in the drug tolerance of anorectics. The microarray data presented in this study demonstrates the usefulness of gene expression analysis for gathering information on the efficacy and safety of anorectic drugs.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.241-246
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• 2022

Antibiotic resistance is a serious problem to food safety as well as human healthcare. To avoid this, there are several approaches for a new class of antibiotic agents that target only production of virulence factors such as biofilm without bacterial growth defect. The objective of this study was to investigate the antibiofilm activity of tuberostemonine in Staphylococcus aureus. Tuberostemonine significantly reduced the biofilm formation (26.07-47.02%) in the crystal violet assay whereas there were no effect on S. aureus growth. The dispersion in preformed biofilm was also observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Quantification real-time PCR revealed that the icaA and agrA expression having an important role in biofilm production of S. aureus were strongly affected with tuberostemonine. These results suggest that tuberostemonine has potential for controlling biofilm formation and dispersion by effect on virulence regulation of S. aureus.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2008

This study was performed to improve of Health Functional Food(HFF) through investigating the label system. The logo on HFF to increase the reliance, understanding and quality warranty for consumers was developed through competition. In order to investigate the consumer's awareness about HFF label system a nationwide survey was conducted in metropolitan areas (6 cities) and middle-sizes cities (6 cities). The subjects was 2000(male 519, female 1481) adults aged 20 over, and information was collected by in-person interviews. The major results were as follows. 63.0% of consumer responded they need certification mark for HFF and trust function information of text/graphic format than text format. 85.3% of consumers chose the long claim including the mechanism because 38% reported that they could confide the information, 36% reported it is easy to understand and 26% reported that they thought it is more effective than short claim. As 58.8% of the total consumers answered that the manufacturers marked the nutrition function claim without the permit of the KFDA, a reliable certification mark developed by this research is expected to contribute in improving the label system of HFF, rising reliability and perception of consumer.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.542-549
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• 2017

To evaluate bacteriological and toxicological safety, the hygienic indicator bacterium and paralytic and diarrhetic shellfish toxins in the shellfish produced in the Kamakman Area from 2012 to 2016 were investigated. Fecal coliforms and E. coli of all 194 oyster samples tested did not exceed 230 MPN/100 g. The geometric mean of the fecal coliform analyzed with the oyster samples of harvesting period was 19.6 MPN/100 g, which was more stable than the non-harvesting period (26.5 MPN/100 g). For the toxicological evaluation of the Kamakman Area, 77 oyster samples and 350 mussel samples as an indicator were analyzed. Paralytic shellfish toxins were detected very low in the range of $40{\sim}46{\mu}g$/100 g in 13 mussel samples during late April and early June, but not in oyster samples. Diarrhetic shellfish toxin was detected in 2 of 180 samples, but it was found to be below the regulation value (0.16 mg OA equ./kg). Based on the bacteriological studies, it was confirmed that the shellfish produced in Kamakman area meets the standard of shellfish hygiene of the Food Sanitation Act and meets the Grade A of the shellfish production area of EU. As the results of the paralytic and diarrhetic shellfish toxin evaluation, it was confirmed that the Kamakman Area is also toxicologically safe for shellfish production.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.357-366
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• 2015

Quorum sensing (QS) is involved in the process of cell-to-cell communication and as a gene regulatory mechanism, which has been implicated in bacterial pathogenicity. Bacteria use this QS system to control a variety of physiological processes. In this study, pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peel extract (PPE) was first screened for its ability to inhibit QS in bio-reporter strains (Chromobacterium violaceum and C. violaceum CV026). Next, the ability of PPE to inhibit swimming motility and biofilm formation was examined in Y. enterocolitica. Additionally, changes in the expression of specific genes involved in the synthesis of the N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs; yenI and yenR) and in the flagellar regulon (fliA, fleB and flhDC) were evaluated by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. The results show that PPE specifically inhibited and reduced QS-controlled violacein production by 78.5% in C. violaceum CV026, and decreased QS-associated biofilm formation and swimming motility in Y. enterocolitica without significantly affecting bacterial growth. These inhibitory effects were also associated with the down-regulation of gene expression involved in the synthesis of AHLs and in motility. Our results suggest that PPE could be a potential therapeutic agent to prevent enteropathogens in humans, as well as highlight the need to further investigate the in vivo properties of PPE for clinical applications.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.333-341
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• 2001

The actual overall migration data obtained from plastic food packaging materials into food simulants under high temperature testing conditions as described in the regulations of European Union, USA, and Korea or Japan were compared. Overall migration values(OMVs) with non-fatty food simulants under high temperature conditions were observed to be generally below 2.5 mg/dm$^2$ except polyamides(CPA and PA 6,6) which were tested at 121$^{\circ}C$ for 2 hrs. As for the fatty food simulants, the OMVs with soybean oil were higher than other simulants. Among the films tested, PVC wrap showed higher OMVs ranging between 23.9 and 54.6 mg/dm$^2$than others. The OMVs were measured at higher level with the elevation of contact temperature and the extension of contact time, and in fatty food simulants rather than in non-fatty simulants. Under similar testing temperature and time conditions. the OMVs tended to be increased in polar films like PA with polar simulants, and contrarily in non-polar films like PO with non-polar simulants. It is noteworthy that a discrepancy with regard to the result of OMVs was observed for some films as a result of different migration testing methods and conditions of each country areas.