Pesticides in Food: Beyond the Surface

08-Aug-2024 - Pesticides and herbicides are critical to ensuring food security worldwide, but these substances can present a safety risk to people who unwittingly ingest them. Protecting human health, therefore, demands sensitive analytical methods to identify even trace levels of potentially harmful ...

Chocolate’s tasty flavors might pose a risk in other desserts

Genotoxic substances in baked sweets?

03-Jun-2024 - What makes chocolate taste and smell so delicious? Chemistry, of course! A variety of molecules work together to create that unmistakable aroma, but those same molecules might carry some unwanted health effects if there are too many around. According to research published in ACS’ Journal of ...

Toward a fully edible sensor showing if frozen food has previously thawed

17-Oct-2022 - When you’re standing in the frozen food aisle, it’s nearly impossible to know whether that Salisbury steak has thawed and refrozen — a process with potentially harmful consequences. So, researchers reporting in ACS Sensors have designed a food-grade device from edible materials, including table ...

Revealing meat and fish fraud with a handheld 'MasSpec Pen' in seconds

01-Apr-2021 - Meat and fish fraud are global problems, costing consumers billions of dollars every year. On top of that, mislabeling products can cause problems for people with allergies, religious or cultural restrictions. Current methods to detect this fraud, while accurate, are slower than inspectors would ...

Handy pen lights up when exposed to nerve gas or spoiled food vapors

15-Feb-2021 - Exposure to some odorless, colorless and tasteless gases, such as nerve agents, can be toxic or even lethal. And having the ability to detect other types of vapors could save people from eating spoiled or rotten food. Easy-to-use portable devices could, therefore, go a long way toward protecting ...