Eggs are sources of protein, fats and micronutrients that play an important role in basic nutrition. However, eggs are traditionally associated with adverse factors in human health, mainly due to their cholesterol content. Nowadays, however, it is known that the response of cholesterol in human serum levels to dietary cholesterol consumption depends on several factors, such as ethnicity, genetic makeup, hormonal factors and the nutritional status of the consumer. Additionally, in recent decades, there has been an increasing demand for functional foods, which is expected to continue to increase in the future, owing to their capacity to decrease the risks of some diseases and socio-demographic factors such as the increase in life expectancy. This work offers a brief overview of the advantages and disadvantages of egg consumption and the potential market of functional eggs, and it explores the possibilities of the development of functional eggs by technological methods.

Salmonella is a major foodborne pathogen with a complex nomenclature. This genus is composed of two species, S. enterica and S. bongori. S. enterica is divided into six subspecies. S. enterica subspecies enterica is composed of more than 1500 serotypes with some of great importance, such as S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis. S. enterica subsp. enterica is responsible of more than 99% of human salmonellosis and therefore it is widely studied. However, the non-enterica subspecies of S. enterica have been little studied. These subspecies are considered to be related to cold-blooded animals and their pathogenicity is very limited. Phenotype and genotype information generated from different studies of non-enterica subspecies reveal poor ability to invade host cells and the absence or modification of important virulence factors. Also, the great majority of human infections due to non-enterica subspecies are related to a previous depressed immune system. Therefore, we propose to treat these subspecies only as opportunistic pathogens. For establish this premise, the present review evaluated, among other things, the genomic characteristics, prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and reported human cases of the non-enterica subspecies.

Gut bacteria play an important role in several metabolic processes and human diseases, such as obesity and accompanying co-morbidities, such as fatty liver disease, insulin resistance/diabetes, and cardiovascular events. Among other factors, dietary patterns, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, antibiotics, and non-dietary factors, such as stress, age, exercise, and climatic conditions, can dramatically impact the human gut microbiota equilibrium and diversity. However, the effect of minor food constituents, including food additives and trace contaminants, on human gut microbiota has received less attention. Consequently, the present review aimed to provide an objective perspective of the current knowledge regarding the impacts of minor food constituents on human gut microbiota and consequently, on human health.

A new reliable, fast, and simple method for the detection of aflatoxigenic Aspergillus strains, consisting of the addition of a cyclodextrin (a methylated ␤-cyclodextrin derivative) to common media used for testing mycotoxin production ability, was developed. We propose the use of this compound as an additive for fungal culture media to enhance the natural fluorescence of aflatoxins. The production of aflatoxins coincided with the presence of a bright blue or blue-green fluorescent area surrounding colonies when observed under longwavelength (365-nm) UV light after 3 days of incubation at 28°C. The presence of aflatoxins was confirmed by extracting the medium with chloroform and examining the extracts by high-pressure liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection.Aflatoxins are mycotoxins with highly toxic and carcinogenic properties produced by some strains of Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus, and Aspergillus nomius. These fungi are frequently found in foodstuffs and animal feeds. However, not all strains are able to produce aflatoxins, and this has encouraged the use of screening for their aflatoxin production abilities. The methodology commonly used for this survey involves the culture of strains in a suitable liquid or solid medium and their later extraction and analysis for the presence of aflatoxins by chromatographic techniques. Yeast extract-sucrose (YES) medium (3) and natural media with wheat, rice, or peanut (9) have been used for this purpose. Testing large numbers of isolates on a variety of substrates with this procedure is tedious and time-consuming. For this reason, several screening methods for direct visual determination of aflatoxin production have been developed. These methods use more or less complicated culture media containing additives to enhance the production of aflatoxins in order to achieve direct visual determination of a bright blue or blue-green fluorescent area surrounding colonies under UV radiation. Thus, a complex agar medium containing sucrose, various salts, and an aqueous extract of aflatoxin-free peanuts (5); a modified Czapek agar medium containing corn steep liquor, named aflatoxin-producing ability (APA) medium (9); media containing coconut, named coconut agar medium (4, 13), coconut extract agar (11,12), and coconut cream agar (6); the synthetic liquid medium of Adye and Mateles (1); and a silica gel medium (15) are currently in use.The natural fluorescence of aflatoxins arises from their oxygenated pentaheterocyclic structure. The cyclodextrins (cyd) are molecules formed by the action of the enzyme cyd-transglycolase on dextrans and have different sizes [they contain from six to eight units of glucose in an ␣(1-4) configuration, according to which they are called ␣-, ␤-, or ␥-cyd]. They are available commercially, and their physical and chemical properties have been described in the literature (14). These oligomers are able to include a large number of organic and inorganic species in their cavities, and in this work, excitation of the natural fluorescen...

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Human gut microbiota plays an important role in several metabolic processes and human diseases. Various dietary factors, including complex carbohydrates, such as polysaccharides, provide abundant nutrients and substrates for microbial metabolism in the gut, affecting the members and their functionality. Nowadays, the main sources of complex carbohydrates destined for human consumption are terrestrial plants. However, fresh water is an increasingly scarce commodity and world agricultural productivity is in a persistent decline, thus demanding the exploration of other sources of complex carbohydrates. As an interesting option, marine seaweeds show rapid growth and do not require arable land, fresh water or fertilizers. The present review offers an objective perspective of the current knowledge surrounding the impacts of seaweeds and their derived polysaccharides on the human microbiome and the profound need for more in-depth investigations into this topic. Animal experiments and in vitro colonic-simulating trials investigating the effects of seaweed ingestion on human gut microbiota are discussed.

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