Many of food products and agricultural crops are contaminated with mycotoxins. Aflatoxins are the secondary metabolites of certain fungi such as Aspergillus flavus which have the ability to be toxigenic, carcinogenic and mutagenic agents. Hence many chemical compounds have been used in feed to prevent the fungal growth and aflatoxin formation. Organic acids have been used to prevent the growth reproduction of harmful fungi and secreting of aflatoxins. The effect of eight organic acids as antifungal agents on the growth of four fungi were studied. Acetic acid (10%) showed the highest inhibition effect on A. flavus growth being 45.21% while tartaric acid (5%) and citric acid (5%) gave the lowest inhibition effect of 0.42%. Formic, acetic and propionic acids had the highest inhibition effect on A. flavus growth. All Different organic acids under present study reduced aflatoxin B1 (AB1) secretion. The highest inhibition (50%) was observed for Rhizopus nigricans in the presence of formic acid (10%)

In this study, we present a successful simple method for printing and finishing of polyester and cotton fabrics using gold and silver nanoparticles (Au-NPs and Ag-NPs, respectively) as stable, fast colorants and functional components.

Different kinds of fish products namely canned, salted, smoked, and frozen fish were collected from local markets in Damietta Governorate. The aim of this study was to report if these fish products were in compatible with Egyptian standard specifications or not. Subsequently, be ensure that these fish products highly consumed in Damietta Governorate were safe foods for human or not. Total viable bacterial count, aerobic spore forming bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, coliform group, Clostridium spp. and anaerobic spore formers producing H2S were studied. Finally, from the obtained results it could be reported that all studied fish products were compatible with their standard specifications from chemical and microbiological view except salted fish products (salted sardine and salted mullet named Feseikh) did not agree with their standard specification from microbiological aspects and may be harmful for consumers.

The imported frozen (Mackerel) Scomber scombrus was evaluated for the changes of its quality during freezing storage at -18ºC for four months and its compliance with the Egyptian standard specifications. It was found that the protein, lipid and ash contents decreased during the storage period. Furthermore, moisture slightly increased during the storage period. The results also indicated that the samples did not exceed the permissible limits of total nitrogen as determined by the Egyptian Organization for Standardization and the quality of production. Microbiological examination showed a significant decrease [P˂0.05] in the total bacterial count between the first and fourth months of storage. Staphylococcus spp. was detected in the first and the second months of surface examination, being 104.70 cfu×10 3 /g and 2.74 cfu×10 3 /g, respectively. In addition, Salmonella was detected in the first month of surface examination. E. coli and Clostridium were absent in all examined samples. Fourteen different bacterial isolates were isolated from all samples. Twelve isolates were isolated from staph 110 medium and two isolates were found on the SS agar medium. Twelve isolates were coccoid shaped bacteria and 2 isolates were spore forming long rods. All isolates were gram positive. Two isolates were spore forming and twelve isolates were non-spore forming. Six isolates were considered as Staphylococcus sp. and another six isolates were considered as Micrococcus sp. the last two isolates were considered as Bacillus sp.

T HIS RESEARCH aims to utilize microwave energy and nanotechnology to improve the printability and performance of cotton prints via screen printing technique. Each cotton sample was individually pre-treated by microwave power ranged from 300 to 700 watts and for a period ranged from 1 to 9 min. Afterwards the optimum sample was printed by printing paste containing Remazol™ reactive dye and silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with different concentrations. The printed samples were fixed using microwave energy then were subjected to steaming or thermo-fixation. The obtained results clarified that, the prints obtained using microwave and Ag-NPs were found to have better color strength, fastness properties, antibacterial behavior and surface morphology when they were compared to the conventional techniques using thermo-fixation and steaming.