Despite reports that food-borne parasitic infections have been increasing worldwide, the methodologies employed to detect food contamination by helminths are still largely based on methodologies used to detect these pathogens in feces and water. This study sought to improve the diagnosis of parasitic contaminants in lettuce by standardizing a method for detecting helminth eggs and larvae and estimating their percentage of recovery. Sanitized lettuces were artificially contaminated with different amounts of Ascaris suum and hookworm eggs and larvae. To standardize the method, we tested liquid extractors, vegetable washing steps, and spontaneous sedimentation times. Higher percentages of egg and larvae recovery were obtained using 1 M glycine as the liquid extractor, manual shaking for 3 min and 2 h of sedimentation. Five different levels of artificial contamination (ten replicates each; n = 50) were tested using these standardized conditions, yielding an average recovery of 62.6 % (±20.2), 51.9 % (±20.0), and 50.0 % (±27.3) for A. suum eggs, hookworm eggs, and larvae, respectively. Tests were performed with a different matrix to evaluate the performance of the method. Furthermore, collaborative analytical studies performed by different laboratories produced satisfactory results. The method for the identification of helminth eggs and larvae proposed in this study proved to be simpler and more efficient than previously published procedures, thereby demonstrating its potential contribution to health surveillance and epidemiological studies.
A ausência de Boas Práticas de Fabricação durante a colheita, processamento e manuseio da pimentado-reino pode acarretar a contaminação do produto com sujidades microscópicas e microrganismos.Foram analisadas 227 amostras de pimenta-do-reino, comercializadas em Minas Gerais, coletadas entre2008 e 2018, quanto à presença de fragmentos de pelo de roedor e de insetos, coliformes a 45°C ouEscherichia coli e Salmonella spp. Para verificar se havia correlação entre os contaminantes, foi empregadométodo estatístico de regressão linear múltipla. As análises microscópicas evidenciaram presença defragmentos de pelo de roedor e de insetos em 26,0% e 30,5% das amostras, respectivamente, em valoressuperiores ao limite tolerado pela RDC 14/2014. Quanto às análises microbiológicas, 10% das amostrasapresentaram coliformes a 45°C ou E. coli acima dos limites tolerados pela RDC 12/2001 e em 8,8% dasamostras foi detectada presença de Salmonella spp. A avaliação estatística mostrou que houve correlaçãoentre presença de fragmentos de insetos e de pelos de roedor e a contaminação por Salmonella spp. empimenta-do-reino. Os resultados demonstraram a importância das análises microscópica e microbiológicasimultaneamente para detecção dos contaminantes presentes bem como das possíveis relações existentesentre eles e a melhor compreensão dos fatores que favorecem as contaminações.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.