Microbial pathogens are the cause of many foodborne diseases after the ingestion of contaminated food. Several preservation methods have been developed to assure microbial food safety, as well as nutritional values and sensory characteristics of food. However, the demand for natural antimicrobial agents is increasing due to consumers’ concern on health issues. Moreover, the use of antibiotics is leading to multidrug resistant microorganisms reinforcing the focus of researchers and the food industry on natural antimicrobials. Natural antimicrobial compounds from plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, algae and mushrooms are covered. Finally, new perspectives from researchers in the field and the interest of the food industry in innovations are reviewed. These new approaches should be useful for controlling foodborne bacterial pathogens; furthermore, the shelf-life of food would be extended.

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Background: Zinc is an essential nutrient for all forms of life and its deficiency affects the normal growth and development of human beings. Objective: The main aim was to investigate zinc nutritional status by serum zinc concentration (SZC) and dietary zinc intake and their association in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in CF patients. Anthropometric measurements and respiratory and pancreatic tests were conducted. Hypozincemia was determined by SZC while using atomic absorption spectrophotometry and dietary zinc deficiency by prospective 72-h dietary surveys. Results: Mean SZC (87.2 ± 16.7 μg/dL) and dietary zinc intake (97 ± 26.9% Dietary Reference Intake) were normal. Three of 17 patients with CF (17.6%) had hypozincemia and four (23.5%) had a dietary zinc deficiency. No patient with dietary zinc deficiency had hypozincemia. A positive and significant association was observed between SZC and Z-score of BMI-for-age (p = 0.048) and weight-for-height (p = 0.012) and between dietary zinc intake and energy intake (EI, p = 0.036) and Z-score of weight-for-high (p = 0.029). Conclusion: SZC was associated with the nutritional status, expressed as BMI (Body Mass Index) and weight-for-height Z score, and dietary zinc intake with EI and weight-for-height Z-score. No patient with hypozincemia had dietary zinc deficiency. This situation should alert us to a marginal zinc deficiency and it may explain why there were no overlapping cases between the two groups. We suggest that probably 41% of the cases in this study would be at elevated risk of zinc deficiency and a zinc supplementation may be considered.

University students are characterized by having inadequate eating habits, along with an unhealthy lifestyle, which, among other factors, can affect the perception they have of their state of health. The aim of the study was to evaluate the health perception of a group of university students according to lifestyle. A cross-sectional observational study was carried out on 214 university students from different universities and branches of knowledge. Anthropometric data were collected. Three questionnaires were administered: PREDIMED (Mediterranean Diet (MD) adherence), SF-36 (perception of health state) and GPAQ (physical activity (PA)). The differences between variables were analyzed using Student-t or Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson Chi-Square tests. Statistical significance was reached at p < 0.05. Most students were found to be normal weighted. The subjects presented an moderate MD adherence, this being better in Health Sciences students. 75.7% practiced light PA. The health perception is worse for most of the subscales analyzed than that of the reference population (except physical-function, physical-role, and emotional-role). There is an association between PA and health perception: students with intense PA have less body pain and better physical function; the less active, the less vitality. The more physically active subjects the greater MD adherence. Lifestyle and eating habits of health sciences students are healthier than that of students from other branches of knowledge. The physically active subjects have a better perception of quality of life-related to health and greater MD adherence.

In clinical practice, geriatric nutritional assessment usually includes nutritional screening, a simple anthropometric assessment, measurement of various biochemical parameters, such as serum albumin, and sometimes (not always) body composition analysis (BCA). However, there is a high prevalence of undiagnosed malnutrition in patients with dementia. Several factors contribute to this situation; probably, the most notable is the methodology used to assess body composition (BC). In this regard, for BCA, techniques are needed that are noninvasive, affordable, safe, simple and that require the minimum possible collaboration by the elderly patient. Consequently, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are widely used as indicators of overall and central adiposity, respectively; however, there is no consensus on the cutoffs for the elderly, and changes in BC (especially muscle-mass depletion) are masked by normal values of BMI and WC. Bioimpedance analysis is a simple, cost-effective and precise method for BCA, provided that cross-validated equations are used. Its main disadvantage is that it is highly sensitive to changes in body water (overhydration or dehydration), leading to substantial errors in BC estimates. However, using Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis errors are minimized, as there is no need for the subject to be normally hydrated and it does not require the use of predictive models.

IntroductionBMI is the most commonly used indicator to evaluate overweight and obesity, but it cannot distinguish changes in body composition. Over recent years, it has been demonstrated that bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a more accurate method for analyzing body composition. Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) has revealed its effectiveness as an indicator of nutritional status and hydration.ObjectiveTo assess the usefulness of bioimpedance analysis on the study of body composition in a group of children with overweight and obesity.Materials and methodsCross-sectional observational study. The anthropometric parameters of 167 (79 were older than 12 years) overweight and obese children were recorded. Their body composition was analyzed using BIA and BIVA, and was classified based on different criteria. Concordance was analyzed (intraclass correlation coefficient, Bland-Altman analysis and weighted Kappa coefficient). The BIVA of the subgroups was compared using the Mahalanobis distance and Hotelling’s T2. Statistical significance was considered for p<0.05.ResultsThe BMI revealed that the majority of the assessed subjects were obese, although 12% had a normal percentage of fat mass (%FM). The classification by Z-BMI and Z-%FM significantly discriminate between subjects with different levels of adiposity. In children over the age of 12, the classification of fat mass index also discriminates significantly between obesity and non-obesity. As anticipated, in the tolerance ellipses, most of the individual vectors were situated in the left lower quadrant.ConclusionsBIVA reflects differences in the bioelectric patterns of children who are classified as being overweight or obese (BMI) and who have different levels of %FM and FMI. BIVA permits a fast and easy monitoring of the evolution of the nutritional state and changes associated with body composition, and it identifies those children whose body compartments may be precisely estimated using traditional BIA methods.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients require a stable and sufficient supply of micronutrients. Since copper is an essential micronutrient for human development, a cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate the serum copper levels, serum copper/zinc (Cu/Zn) ratios, and their relationship with nutritional indicators in a group of CF patients. Anthropometric, biochemical, and dietary measurements, an abdominal ultrasound, and respiratory and pancreatic tests were conducted. Seventeen CF patients were studied (10 females, 59%), 76.5% of whom were ∆F580. Their mean serum copper (113 ± 23 μg/dL) was normal, and there was only one teenager with hypocupremia (6%) and two children with hypercupremia (18%). A significant association between serum copper and zinc levels was discovered. The Cu/Zn ratio was higher than 1.00 for 94% of patients, which is an indicator of an inflammation status. There was no significant correlation between the serum copper concentrations and respiratory and pancreatic function, respiratory colonization, and the results of the abdominal ultrasound. Linear regression analysis showed that serum copper had a positive association with both the Z-score body mass index (BMI) and mean bone conduction speed (BCS). Therefore, since 94% of CF patients had a Cu/Zn ratio > 1.00, this factor must alert us to consider the risk of zinc deficiency and high inflammatory response. The measurement of serum zinc alone does not show one’s zinc status. However, the Cu/Zn ratio may be an indicator of zinc deficiency and the inflammatory status of CF patients.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) is increasingly used in clinical research to assess soft tissue hydration. It Q2 is known that physical characteristics of electrodes, such as low intrinsic impedance, low electrode/skin contact impedance and type of gel, affect the reliability of noninvasive bioimpedance assessments. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of intrinsic impedance of electrode on the bioimpedance vector displacement in RXc graph. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The intrinsic impedance is measured in nine pregelled disposable Ag/AgCl electrodes usually used for bioimpedance measures. The BIVA method is performed on 35 healthy volunteers using a 50 kHz phase-sensitive bioimpedance analyzer (BIA 101 Anniversary) with the lowest intrinsic impedance electrode and highest. The individual bioimpedance vector is plotted on the bivariate normal interval of reference population. The differences in the mean bioimpedance vectors obtained with each electrode are plotted, with their 95% confidence ellipses, on the dRXc graph. The paired one-sample Hotelling's T 2 -test is used to compare the differences of the mean bioimpedance vectors. RESULTS: We found large variability in intrinsic resistance (11-665 Ω) and reactance (0.25-2.5 Ω) values of the electrodes analyzed and significant displacement (P o0.05) of bioimpedance vector positions in healthy adults according to the paired one-sample Hotelling's T 2 -test. CONCLUSIONS: A robust study of all physical characteristics of commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes is necessary to reach consensus on pregelled Ag/AgCl electrodes valid for bioimpedance measurement. This information will enable BIVA users to avoid systemic errors when performing BIVA assessments, specifically when these measurements are used for clinical interpretations.