Assessment of radioactivity in Italian baby food.

A set of measurements have been conducted to determine the activity-level of natural and artificial radionuclides in some baby foods commercialized in Italy. The measurements have been carried out using liquid scintillation, gamma, alpha and mass spectrometry. The activity concentrations ranged from 0.005 to 0.238, from 0.0082 to 1.65, from 0.0003 to 0.015 and from <13.6 to 233.3 Bq kg-1 for 210Po, 238U, 232Th and 40K respectively, whereas they are below the detection limit for 137Cs and 226Ra. The annual effective dose due to intake of 210Po, 238U, 232Th and 40K ranged from 280 and 800 µSv y-1 for infant 1 year old. These values lie well within the typical worldwide range of dose due to the ingestion of all natural radiation reported by UNSCEAR and they are below the internationally recommended level. This indicates that the baby food available in Italy would not pose any significant radiological impact to infant.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance-Based Metabolic Comparative Analysis of Two Apple Varieties with Different Resistances to Apple Scab Attacks.

Apple scab, caused by the fungus Venturia inaequalis, is the most serious disease of the apple worldwide. Two cultivars (Malus domestica), having different degrees of resistance against fungi attacks, were analyzed by (1)H and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Aqueous and organic extracts of both apple flesh and skin were studied, and over 30 metabolites, classified as organic acids, amino acids, carbohydrates, phenolic compounds, lipids, sterols, and other metabolites, were quantified by means of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) NMR experiments. The metabolic profiles of the two apple cultivars were compared, and the differences were correlated with the different degrees of resistance to apple scab by means of univariate analysis. Levels of metabolites with known antifungal activity were observed not only to be higher in the Almagold cultivar but also to show different correlation patterns in comparison to Golden Delicious, implying a difference in the metabolic network involved in their biosynthesis.