• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.233-246
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• 2012

In this study, we investigated the applicability of the photostimulated luminescence(PSL), thermoluminescence(TL) and electron spin resonance(ESR) methods for various foods which are not allowed to be irradiated in Korea. All 15 foods including sesame, almond, peanut, cocoa powder etc. were analyzed. Samples were irradiated at 1~10 kGy using a $^{60}Co$ gamma-ray irradiator. In PSL study, the photon counts of all the unirradiated samples showed negative(lower than 700). The photon counts irradiated(1 kGy) dried shrimp, roasted peanut and seasoned peanut showed positive(higher than 5,000) and the other samples were negative or intermediate(> 700 and < 5,000). In TL analysis, results showed that it is possible to apply TL method to all foods containing minerals. In ESR measurements, the ESR signal(single-line) intensity of irradiated foods was higher than non-irradiated foods. In particular, the specific ESR signals of irradiation-induced crystalline sugar, cellulose and bone radical were detected in dried plum, raisin, dried cherry, mango(dried, frozen), rambutan, cocoa(powder), cinnamon, parsley, carrot, broccoli, dried arrow squid, dried pollack and dried shrimp. According to the results, PSL, TL and ESR methods were successfully applied to detect the irradiated foods because TL method is not able to detect the irradiated foods rarely composed of minerals. ESR is also a difficult method to detect the changes of ESR signal patterns of food. It is concluded that TL analysis or ESR assay is suitable for detection of irradiated samples and a combined method is recommendable for enhancing the reliability of detection results.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.124-130
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• 2018

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) is amending its test methods for the use of health functional foods (dietary food supplement), in order to establish regulatory standards and specifications in Korea. In this regard, we continue to pursue and perform our research on the analytical method development for the items being researched and reviewed. In this study, we have developed a sensitive and selective test method that could simultaneously separate and determinate six major bioactive flavonolignans in silymarin, which are based on the use of a liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The standard calibration curves presented a linearity effect with the correlation coefficient ($r^2$) > 0.999. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantitation (LOQs) were in the range of $0.3{\sim}9.0{\mu}g/L$ and $0.8{\sim}27.3{\mu}g/L$, respectively. The recovery results ranged between 96.2~98.6% at 3 different concentration levels, and its relative standard deviations (RSDs) were less than 5% as noted in this study. The proposed analytical method was characterized with a noted high resolution of the individual silymarin constituents, and the assay was fully validated as well. Our research can provide a significant scientific evidence that can be useful to amend the silymarin test method for the Health Functional Food Code.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2011

Although the South Korean organic food market is in the infancy compared to other industrialized countries, Korean consumers'interest in organic food and retail stores devoting space to organic products have been rapidly increasing. Despite the fact of organic food popularity, the term "organic" is interpreted differently by individuals. As opposed to the US, Japan and the EU where have operated an integrated organic food labelling system, Korea has adopted complex organic labelling systems regulated by several different government bodies. As a result, complicated food labelling standards make consumers confused when purchasing organic foods. Furthermore, in terms of country of origin (COO), it is argued by a lot of researchers that COO effects vary from product to product and from country to country; moreover, other informational cues such as brand and price can influence COO effects. In modern society, COO labelling has been complicated, due to the sourcing, manufacturing and market locations of merchandise spread over the world. Accordingly, the evaluation of COO effects has become complex. In order to examine these issues, a quantitative research was selected to classify the commonfeatures of organic food consumers and construct statistics such as the extent to which people are aware of organic food and COO labellingvia a questionnaire which took place in two cities in Korea with a cluster sample of 161 organic food purchasers. As for the data analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), T-tests, bivariate crosstatulations with Cramer's V were conducted,depending on the characteristics of variables and the assumptions the research data need to fit. It has been concluded that in general, Korean organic consumers comprehend the term "organic"in a closer way to the general concept rather than technical term, thus people do not appreciate environmentally labels which include organic food labels, although marital status influence the degree of label awareness, regardless of gender, age, education level and so on. Regarding COO effects on organic food, home organic products were Korean consumers'first choice over those from industrialized countries and developing nations. Specifically, in processed organic product category, domestically cultivated and processed organic products were absolutely preferred to leading national brands produced with imported ingredients and international brands. However, due to a lack of checks of ingredients' COO, consumers tend to purchase a leading national organic food brand, believing that it is a pure organic food sourced domestically. As a consequence, this research has suggested some important managerial implications and future research directions. In order to prevent consumer confusion when buying organic foods, it should be noted that consumers do not comprehend the organic food certifications, due to complicated labelling systems for organic produce and processed organic foods. Therefore, government bodies related to organic food distribution have to know consumers' perception of organic food labels and the significance of customer-oriented labels and reestablish labelling standards. Similarly, public advertising should be followed to raise public awareness of the labelling to enable customers to have the correct information. In addition, not only international marketers but also domestic marketers need to understand COO images and also the influence COO of ingredients has on the image of an organic product.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.645-654
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• 2009

Recently there have been increasing consumers' interests in the geographical origin of foods, due to the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) in the global market. Especially, in Korea, in relation to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), it is considered to be urgent to develop analytical techniques for distinguishing the geographical origin of beef. Korea is facing conclusion of FTA with many countries, and there is a deep national concern about the distinction of the geographical origin of food. Diverse analytical techniques have been used in many of recent researches to obtain data for distinguishing the geographical origin of foods produced in various countries. In this paper, we reviewed national and international researches about tracing of geographical origin and food authentication using stable isotopes. Improvement of the isotopic techniques and their numerous application have been provided useful information of their geographical origin in food products. Furthermore, we expect that this study could be detecting of many frauds and illegal transaction of food products. We look forward to active progressing research of detecting food origin using isotope analysis and numerous application about imported food products.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.168-180
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• 2022

Ephedra is a genus of the Ephedraceae family and is found in temperate regions, such as Central Asia and Europe. Among the various ephedra species, Ma Huang (Ephedra herb) is derived from the aerial parts of Ephedra sinica S tapf, Ephedra equisetina Bunge, and Ephedra intermedia Schrenk & C.A. Mey. Ma Huang contains various ephedra alkaloids, including (-)-ephedrine, (+)-pseudoephedrine, (-)-norephedrine, (+)-norpseudoephedrine, (-)-methylephedrine, and (+)-methylpseudoephedrine, which are found naturally as single enantiomers, although they can be prepared as racemates. Although the use of Ma Huang in foods is prohibited in Korea, products containing Ma Huang can be imported, and so it is necessary to develop a suitable analytical technique for the detection of Ma Huang in foods. Herein, we report the development of analytical methods for the detection of ephedra alkaloids in products containing Ma Huang. Following sample purification by solid phase extraction, quantitative analysis was performed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Additionally, the enantiomers were successfully separated using HPLC-DAD. We successfully analyzed various food samples, where the ephedra alkaloids were qualitatively and quantitatively determined, and the enantiomers were separated. It is expected that these methods may contribute toward preventing the distribution of illegal products containing Ma Huang.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.586-592
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• 1999

The objective of this study was to investigate the fundamental characteristics of proteins effecting on Korean wheat flour quality. Mixing properties and protein contents of Eunpa, Allgreu, and Woori showed soft wheat characteristics. Tapdong had strong dough stability and high protein content like hard wheat flour. However, even though Greu had a high protein content, the dough strength was very weak like soft wheat flour. No major difference was observed in protein solubility with water, 0.1N NaCl, 70% ethyl alcohol, 0.1 N acetic acid solution and in sulfur and disulfide contents between Korean wheat flours and imported flours. However, DNS (Dark Norther Spring) had more contents of acid insoluble and SDS insoluble proteins compared with Korean wheat varieties. PAGE pattern of Tapdong was very similar to imported wheat flours at the high molecular weight regions and characteristic high molecular weight glutenin subunits were observed over 116 kD protein molecular weight region from 4 Korean wheat flours such as Eunpa, Woori, Allgreu, and Greu.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2016

Background: Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) that is used as a food material has antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. Recently the demand for functional foods and drugs has increased. The present study was carried out to determined of contents of residual sulfur dioxide, heavy metals, ash, acid insoluble ash and curcuminoids in turmeric from the Seoul Yak-ryeong market. Methods and Results: A total of 31 samples were obtained. Residual sulfur dioxide was not detected in any samples. Heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury) were analyzed by ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer) and a mercury analyzer and were detected in the ranges of 0.00 - 0.28, 0.00 - 0.07, 0.00 - 0.29 and 0.002 - 0.027mg/g respectively. No significant difference were observed between the average heavy metal contents of domestic and imported tumeric. However, average content of ash in domestic samples (7.8%) were significantly higher than that in imported samples (6.1%), whereas that of curcuminoids was significantly higher in imported samples (47.6mg/g) than in domestic samples (11.2mg/g). The average content of acid insoluble ash was not significantly different between two sample types (0.9% in each). Conclusions: There are no specific standards for turmeric used as food materials. Therefore, this study can be provided as basic data for the establishment of quality standards for turmeric.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.339-345
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• 2011

BACKGROUND: Recently in Korea, the import of agricultural products is rising due to the increasing amount of trade. Unregistered pesticides, allidochlor, propachlor, propham, cycloate, diallate and pebulate are widely used as pesticides for rice cultivation in foreign countries, while they are not registered in Korea. Therefore, the residue amount of imported agri-foods should be verified using the proper official analytical method for each of them that has not registered in Korea. METHODS AND RESULTS: This work was conducted to apply the official method of Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA) for determining multi class pesticide multiresidues in agricultural commodities. Brown rice and orange which have different characteristics as a matrix were selected as representative samples for residue analysis. The recoveries of cycloate, diallate and pebulate by GC/MS in fortified brown rice and orange with levels of 0.04~0.4 mg/kg were ranged from 82.8% to 110.3%. The quantification limits of three pesticides in brown rice and orange were 0.04 mg/kg. CONCLUSION: As a result, this method can surely be used as an official method for routine analysis of unregistered pesticides in Korea for imported agri-food.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.125-131
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• 2009

Korea is representative of a country that consumes herbal medicines; most of the herbal medicines circulating in South Korea have been imported from developing countries in Southeast Asia, such as China and Indonesia. Recently, domestic hygiene and safety are issues that have come to the forefront, because herbal medicines currently in circulation could possibly contain contaminants or residues. Furthermore, the appearance or discovery of harmful new species due to environmental and industrial developments is becoming a social problem. Therefore, it may be necessary to consider and investigate these matters on a continual basis. Recently, mycotoxin contaminations in such foods as cereals, nuts, and powdered red pepper have been reported. They have become a problematic issue; the possibility of contamination in herbal medicines has also been considered. Nevertheless, recognition of and research into mycotoxin contamination in herbal medicines has been scarce because herbal medicine is used in only a few nations. In this research, we identified contamination by aflatoxin which is known to be the most potent mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic mycotoxin in Thujae Semen, a herbal medicine. We also found co-contaminations involving other mycotoxins, including ochratoxin A and zeraleanone.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.377-382
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• 2010

This study was conducted to establish a method to analyze biurea decomposed from azodicarbonamide in processed foods such as wheat flour and bread. New method was developed using high performance liquid chromatography mass/mass spectrometry to determine biurea in wheat flour and bakery products. The recovery rate was 94.3-112.5%. The limit of detection for biurea was 0.003 mg/kg, and the limit of quantification was 0.01 mg/kg. The monitoring results for biurea content using established methods showed that biurea was detected at 2.76 mg/kg in the azodicarbonamide-detected flour (detection rate, 2%). The detection rate in processed foods such as baked goods was 27% (16/59). The detection range was 0.19-18.01 mg/kg (average, 3.79 mg/kg). However, it was thought that the detection level was safe due to much lower values than the standard (45 mg/kg). As a result, the newly established biurea analytical method will contribute to the management of azodicarbonamide in processed foods such as wheat flour and bakery products.