Investigating the Impact of Tillage and Crop Rotation on the Prevalence of phlD-Carrying Pseudomonas Potentially Involved in Disease Suppression.

Winter oilseed rape (OSR) is becoming an increasingly popular crop in rotations as it provides a cash crop and reduces the incidence of take-all fungal disease (caused by Gaeumannomyces graminis) in subsequent wheat production. The exact mechanism of this inhibition of fungal pathogens is not fully understood; however, the selective recruitment of bacterial groups with the ability to suppress pathogen growth and reproduction is thought to play a role. Here we examine the effect of tillage practice on the proliferation of microbes that possess the phlD gene involved in the production of the antifungal compound 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (2,4-DAPG), in the rhizospheres of both winter oilseed rape and winter wheat grown in rotation over a two-year period. The results showed that conservation strip tillage led to a significantly greater phlD gene copy number, both in the soil and in the roots, of oilseed rape and wheat crops, whereas crop rotation of oilseed rape and wheat did not increase the phlD gene copy number in winter wheat.

Food inauthenticity: Authority activities, guidance for food operators, and mitigation tools.

Historically, food fraud was a major public health concern which helped drive the development of early food regulations in many markets including the US and EU market. In the past 10 years, the integrity of food chains with respect to food fraud has again been questioned due to high profile food fraud cases. We provide an overview of the resulting numerous authoritative activities underway within different regions to counter food fraud, and we describe the guidance available to the industry to understand how to assess the vulnerability of their businesses and implement appropriate mitigation. We describe how such controls should be an extension of those already in place to manage wider aspects of food authenticity, and we provide an overview of relevant analytical tools available to food operators and authorities to protect supply chains. Practical Application: Practical Application of the provided information by the food industry in selecting resources (guidance document, analytical methods etc.).

Natural Co-Occurrence of Multiple Mycotoxins in Unprocessed Oats Grown in Ireland with Various Production Systems.

The natural co-occurrence of 42 mycotoxins was investigated in unprocessed oat grains grown in Ireland. The sample set included a total of 208 oat crops harvested during 2015-2016 and produced using conventional, organic, or gluten free farming systems. A range of different toxins was identified, including the major type A (neosolaniol, HT-2 and T-2 toxins, T-2 triol, and T-2-glucoside, co-occurring in 21 samples) and B trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, and deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside), enniatins (B1, B, and A1, co-occurring in 12 samples), as well as beauvericin, alternariol, mycophenolic acid, and sterigmatocystin. The influences of sowing season, year, and production system were investigated, eventually indicating that the latter factor may have a higher impact than others on the production of certain mycotoxins in oats. The most frequently quantified compounds were HT-2 (51%) and T-2 (41%) toxins, with gluten free oats containing significantly lower concentrations of HT-2 compared to conventionally produced oats. Although the prevalence and concentrations of mycotoxin found in oat samples in this study should be substantially reduced by processing. However, as mycotoxin occurrence is clearly influenced by multiple factors, controlled field trials should be carried out to define optimal agronomic practices and mitigate mycotoxin production. Furthermore, this work highlights the need for regularly testing cereal-based foods with multi-residue analytical methods with wider specificities than the traditionally screened and regulated toxins, to generate knowledge on the occurrence of several mycotoxins that are, to date, rarely investigated.

Genetic Analysis Using a Multi-Parent Wheat Population Identifies Novel Sources of Septoria Tritici Blotch Resistance.

Zymoseptoria tritici is the causative fungal pathogen of septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) that continuously threatens wheat crops in Ireland and throughout Europe. Under favorable conditions, STB can cause up to 50% yield losses if left untreated. STB is commonly controlled with fungicides; however, a combination of Z. tritici populations developing fungicide resistance and increased restrictions on fungicide use in the EU has led to farmers relying on fewer active substances. Consequently, this serves to drive the emergence of Z. tritici resistance against the remaining chemistries. In response, the use of resistant wheat varieties provides a more sustainable disease management strategy. However, the number of varieties offering an adequate level of resistance against STB is limited. Therefore, new sources of resistance or improved stacking of existing resistance loci are needed to develop varieties with superior agronomic performance. Here, we identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) for STB resistance in the eight-founder "NIAB Elite MAGIC" winter wheat population. The population was screened for STB response in the field under natural infection for three seasons from 2016 to 2018. Twenty-five QTL associated with STB resistance were identified in total. QTL either co-located with previously reported QTL or represent new loci underpinning STB resistance. The genomic regions identified and the linked genetic markers serve as useful resources for STB resistance breeding, supporting rapid selection of favorable alleles for the breeding of new wheat cultivars with improved STB resistance.

International Survey of Food Fraud and Related Terminology: Preliminary Results and Discussion.

The food industry is advancing at a rapid pace and consumer sensitivity to food safety scares and food fraud scandals is further amplified by rapid communication such as by social media. Academia, regulators, and industry practitioners alike struggle with an evolving issue regarding new terms and definitions including food fraud, food authenticity, food integrity, food protection, economically motivated adulteration, food crime, food security, contaminant, adulterant, and others. This research addressed some of the global need for clarification and harmonization of commonly used terminology. The 150 survey responses were received from various food-related workgroups or committee members, communication with recognized experts, and announcements to the food industry in general. Overall food fraud was identified as a "food safety" issue (86%). The food quality and manufacturing respondents focused mainly on incoming goods and adulterant-substances (<50%) rather than the other illegal activities such as counterfeiting, theft, gray market/diversion, and smuggling. Of the terms included to represent "intentional deception for economic gain" the respondents generally agreed with food fraud as the preferred term. Overall, the preference was 50% "food fraud," 15% "economically motivated adulteration" EMA, 9% "food protection," 7% "food integrity," 5% "food authenticity," and 2% "food crime." It appears that "food protection" and "food integrity" are terms that cover broader concepts such as all types of intentional acts and even possibly food safety or food quality. "Food authenticity" was defined with the phrase "to ensure" so seemed to be identified as an "attribute" that helped define fraudulent acts. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Food Fraud-illegal deception for economic gain using food-is a rapidly evolving research topic and is facing confusion due to the use of different terms and definitions. This research survey presented common definitions and publication details to gain insight that could help provide clarity. The insight from this report provides guidance for others who are harmonizing terminology and setting the overall strategic direction.

Food fraud data collection needs survey.

This research project was conducted to understand the data collection needs when addressing food fraud prevention. The foundation for an understanding of the fraud opportunity utilizes a holistic and all-encompassing information sharing system. The anonymous online survey was distributed first to a targeted group of food fraud leaders from manufacturer or brand owner companies and then to a public group. From the 96 survey responses, first, regarding "data" there is generally "enough" and "good enough" data to meet the current assessments and compliance needs. Second, regarding the process, there is a need for more guidance or harmonization on vulnerability assessments, strategy development and management, and correlation to all other enterprise-wide risks (ERM/COSO). Third, there is the general activity of conducting food fraud vulnerability assessments, but there is a lack of clarity or direction on the scope (all types of fraud) and confidence in the conclusions (a clear insight or diagnosis of root-cause). This survey suggests there is a need for more definition and formality of the method and process for addressing food fraud. Finally, a focus on harmonizing terms, vulnerability assessment methods, and then of common policy/strategy will enable the risk assessors to define their future data collection requirements and needs. Further research should explore the specifics of the data collection needs and expand to other stakeholders such as regulators and enforcement.

Global perspectives on food fraud: results from a WHO survey of members of the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN).

This survey of International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) members regarding food fraud prevention, management, education, and information sharing included 166 WHO member states that resulted in 175 responses. The respondents engage in food fraud prevention (70%) or are responsible for food fraud incident response (74%). Nearly all respondents acknowledged a desire for more guidance and information on best practices in managing the full range of "food safety events involving food fraud" (97%), but also for prevention of such events (97%), indicating a need to provide technical support beyond acute incident response. The scope of food fraud covered in the survey comprised the full range of fraudulent activities, including the addition of adulterant-substances, tampering (including mislabeling), theft, smuggling, gray market/diversion, and counterfeiting (intellectual property rights). Key needs included: capacity-building/education; a platform for information sharing; and utilization of INFOSAN as an interagency/intergovernmental collaboration point.

Crop Establishment Practices Are a Driver of the Plant Microbiota in Winter Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus).

Gaining a greater understanding of the plant microbiota and its interactions with its host plant heralds a new era of scientific discovery in agriculture. Different agricultural management practices influence soil microbial populations by changing a soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. However, the impact of these practices on the microbiota associated with economically important crops such as oilseed rape, are still understudied. In this work we investigated the impact of two contrasting crop establishment practices, conventional (plow based) and conservation (strip-tillage) systems, on the microbiota inhabiting different plant microhabitats, namely rhizosphere, root and shoot, of winter oilseed rape under Irish agronomic conditions. Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequence profiling showed that the plant associated microhabitats (root and shoot), are dominated by members of the bacterial phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes. The root and shoot associated bacterial communities displayed markedly distinct profiles as a result of tillage practices. We observed a very limited 'rhizosphere effect' in the root zone of WOSR, i.e., there was little or no increase in bacterial community richness and abundance in the WOSR rhizosphere compared to the bulk soil. The two tillage systems investigated did not appear to lead to any major long term differences on the bulk soil or rhizosphere bacterial communities. Our data suggests that the WOSR root and shoot microbiota can be impacted by management practices and is an important mechanism that could allow us to understand how plants respond to different management practices and environments.

Application of Endophytic Pseudomonas fluorescens and a Bacterial Consortium to Brassica napus Can Increase Plant Height and Biomass under Greenhouse and Field Conditions.

Plant associated bacteria with plant growth promotion (PGP) properties have been proposed for use as environmentally friendly biofertilizers for sustainable agriculture; however, analysis of their efficacy in the field is often limited. In this study, greenhouse and field trials were carried out using individual endophytic Pseudomonas fluorescens strains, the well characterized rhizospheric P. fluorescens F113 and an endophytic microbial consortium of 10 different strains. These bacteria had been previously characterized with respect to their PGP properties in vitro and had been shown to harbor a range of traits associated with PGP including siderophore production, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase activity, and inorganic phosphate solubilization. In greenhouse experiments individual strains tagged with gfp and Kmr were applied to Brassica napus as a seed coat and were shown to effectively colonize the rhizosphere and root of B. napus and in addition they demonstrated a significant increase in plant biomass compared with the non-inoculated control. In the field experiment, the bacteria (individual and consortium) were spray inoculated to winter oilseed rape B. napus var. Compass which was grown under standard North Western European agronomic conditions. Analysis of the data provides evidence that the application of the live bacterial biofertilizers can enhance aspects of crop development in B. napus at field scale. The field data demonstrated statistically significant increases in crop height, stem/leaf, and pod biomass, particularly, in the case of the consortium inoculated treatment. However, although seed and oil yield were increased in the field in response to inoculation, these data were not statistically significant under the experimental conditions tested. Future field trials will investigate the effectiveness of the inoculants under different agronomic conditions.

Food Fraud Prevention: Policy, Strategy, and Decision-Making - Implementation Steps for a Government Agency or Industry.

This paper addresses the role of governments, industry, academics, and non-governmental organizations in Food Fraud prevention. Before providing strategic concepts for governments and authorities, definitions of Food Fraud are reviewed and discussed. Next there is a review of Food Fraud activities by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), the Elliott Review in the United Kingdom, the European Commission resolution on Food Fraud, and the US Food Safety Modernization Act including the Preventative Controls Rule. Two key concepts for governments or a company are: (1) formally, and specifically, mention food fraud as a food issue and (2) create an enterprise-wide Food Fraud prevention plan. The research includes a case study of the implementation of the concepts by a state or provincial agency. This analysis provides a foundation to review the role of science and technology in detection, deterrence and then contributing to prevention.

Detection of Zymoseptoria tritici SDHI-insensitive field isolates carrying the SdhC-H152R and SdhD-R47W substitutions.

BACKGROUND: Succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicides are important in the management of Zymoseptoria tritici in wheat. New active ingredients from this group of fungicides have been introduced recently and are widely used. Because the fungicides act at a single enzyme site, resistance development in Z. tritici is classified as medium-to-high risk. RESULTS: Isolates from Irish experimental plots in 2015 were tested against the SDHI penthiopyrad during routine monitoring. The median of the population was approximately 2 times less sensitive than the median of the baseline population. Two of the 93 isolates were much less sensitive to penthiopyrad than the least sensitive of the baseline isolates. These isolates were also insensitive to most commercially available SDHIs. Analysis of the succinate dehydrogenase coding genes confirmed the presence of the substitutions SdhC-H152R and SdhD-R47W in the very insensitive isolates. CONCLUSION: This is the first report showing that the SdhC-H152R mutation detected in laboratory mutagenesis studies also exists in the field. The function and relevance of this mutation, combined with SdhD-R47W, still needs to be determined. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

The effect of succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor/azole mixtures on selection of Zymoseptoria tritici isolates with reduced sensitivity.

BACKGROUND: Combining fungicides with different modes of action is regarded as one of the most effective means of slowing the selection of resistance. Field trials were used to study the effects of such mixtures on selection for Zymoseptoria tritici with reduced sensitivity to the succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHIs) and azole fungicides. The SDHI isopyrazam and the azole epoxiconazole were applied individually as solo products, and together in a preformulated mixture. All fungicide treatments were included at both full and half the recommended doses. RESULTS: Compared with using epoxiconazole alone, mixing epoxiconazole with isopyrazam led to an increase in epoxiconazole-sensitive isolates. In contrast, all treatments containing isopyrazam reduced the sensitivity of Z. tritici to isopyrazam compared with those without. Reducing doses to half the recommended rate had no effect on sensitivity of isolates to either active ingredient. In a subgroup of isolates least sensitive to isopyrazam, non-synonymous mutations were found in the SdhC and SdhD subunits, but their presence was unrelated to sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Mixing an azole and SDHI was clearly beneficial for the azole, but not for the SDHI component. This dynamic might change if strains conferring reduced sensitivity to the SDHIs were to arise. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

Introducing Food Fraud including translation and interpretation to Russian, Korean, and Chinese languages.

This paper introduces the topic of Food Fraud with translations to Russian, Korean, and Chinese. The concepts provide a system-wide focus leading to prevention. The goal is not to detect Food Fraud but to adjust entire food supply chains to reduce fraud opportunities. Food Fraud is a recently defined area of Food Protection between Food Safety (such as Salmonella or pesticide residue), and Food Defense (malicious intent to harm such as terrorism). Food Fraud is intentional with no intent to harm but only for economic gain. As with improving Food Safety and Food Defense, preventing Food Fraud is good for society and the economy. Society benefits through fewer public health threats from unauthorized acts. Society also benefits from increased consumer satisfaction and harmony. Food Security is increased through the production of more, higher-value products for consumers, commerce, and exporting. Food Fraud can reduce economic output because sickened citizens cannot work and it also reduces consumer confidence leading to less commerce.

The wheat-Septoria conflict: a new front opening up?

In the utopic absence of abiotic and/or biotic stressors, attaining the predicted increase (up to 70%) in wheat demand by 2050 in response to global population trends is a challenge. This objective becomes daunting, however, when one factors in the continuous constraint on global wheat production posed by Septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease. This is because, despite resistant loci being identified, a deficit of commercially relevant STB-resistant wheat germplasm remains. The issue is further compounded for growers by the emergence and prevalence of fungicide-resistant/insensitive strains of the causative pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici (formerly known as Mycosphaerella graminicola/Septoria tritici). However, biotechnology-based research is providing new opportunities in this struggle. As the exome response of wheat to STB attack begins to be deciphered, genes intrinsic to resistant and susceptible phenotypes will be identified. Combined with the application of genome-editing techniques and a growing appreciation of the complexity of wheat's and the dynamism of Z. tritici's genome, the generation of resulting STB-resistant wheat varieties will counter the prevalent threat of STB disease in wheat-production systems.

Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) of food: common characteristics of EMA incidents.

Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) of food, also known as food fraud, is the intentional adulteration of food for financial advantage. A common form of EMA, undeclared substitution with alternative ingredients, is usually a health concern because of allergen labeling requirements. As demonstrated by the nearly 300,000 illnesses in China from melamine adulteration of infant formula, EMA also has the potential to result in serious public health consequences. Furthermore, EMA incidents reveal gaps in quality assurance testing methodologies that could be exploited for intentional harm. In contrast to foodborne disease outbreaks, EMA incidents present a particular challenge to the food industry and regulators because they are deliberate acts that are intended to evade detection. Large-scale EMA incidents have been described in the scientific literature, but smaller incidents have been documented only in media sources. We reviewed journal articles and media reports of EMA since 1980. We identified 137 unique incidents in 11 food categories: fish and seafood (24 incidents), dairy products (15), fruit juices (12), oils and fats (12), grain products (11), honey and other natural sweeteners (10), spices and extracts (8), wine and other alcoholic beverages (7), infant formula (5), plant-based proteins (5), and other food products (28). We identified common characteristics among the incidents that may help us better evaluate and reduce the risk of EMA. These characteristics reflect the ways in which existing regulatory systems or testing methodologies were inadequate for detecting EMA and how novel detection methods and other deterrence strategies can be deployed. Prevention and detection of EMA cannot depend on traditional food safety strategies. Comprehensive food protection, as outlined by the Food Safety Modernization Act, will require innovative methods for detecting EMA and for targeting crucial resources toward the riskiest food products.

Defining the Public Health Threat of Dietary Supplement Fraud.

Adverse health events resulting from dietary supplement fraud (DSF)-fraud conducted for economic gain using dietary supplements-have received increased recognition from agencies and industry. There is a growing awareness that this issue represents a significant public health threat. With increasing consumption of supplements, there are increasing consequences-good and bad-for food science and food safety. "Dietary supplements" are a special category of food that consists of finished products (for example, a vitamin D tablet) that contain 1 or more dietary ingredients. "Dietary ingredients" are the components of those finished products (for example, vitamin D added to a food product such as breakfast cereal). Due to a number of factors, potentially harmful dietary supplements reach-and often remain-in the market. DSF is a type of product fraud, as is food fraud, which is often classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as Economically Motivated Adulteration (EMA). Since the adulterants are unconventional, DSF may represent an even greater public health threat than traditional dietary supplement safety issues (though it is important to note that adulteration is only one type of fraud). Criminology concepts such as situational crime prevention and the crime triangle deepen understanding of the relationship of fraud opportunity as it relates to fraudsters and established hurdles to fraud. The purpose of this research is to provide a comprehensive overview on the public health threat of DSF, and to focus on altering current intervention and response-based approaches that are prevention-based.

Dietary supplement fraud, including the more defined subcategory of economically motivated adulteration, is a food protection threat that has not been defined or holistically addressed. One autonomous food protection category is food defense-protection from attack-which became a public and private priority after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. There is growing awareness that attacks for economic gain is growing in awareness and regulatory focus to the point that product fraud may also become an autonomous concept. This research establishes a starting point for defining dietary supplement fraud and identifying the public health risks.

Development and application of a database of food ingredient fraud and economically motivated adulteration from 1980 to 2010.

UNLABELLED: Food ingredient fraud and economically motivated adulteration are emerging risks, but a comprehensive compilation of information about known problematic ingredients and detection methods does not currently exist. The objectives of this research were to collect such information from publicly available articles in scholarly journals and general media, organize into a database, and review and analyze the data to identify trends. The results summarized are a database that will be published in the US Pharmacopeial Convention's Food Chemicals Codex, 8th edition, and includes 1305 records, including 1000 records with analytical methods collected from 677 references. Olive oil, milk, honey, and saffron were the most common targets for adulteration reported in scholarly journals, and potentially harmful issues identified include spices diluted with lead chromate and lead tetraoxide, substitution of Chinese star anise with toxic Japanese star anise, and melamine adulteration of high protein content foods. High-performance liquid chromatography and infrared spectroscopy were the most common analytical detection procedures, and chemometrics data analysis was used in a large number of reports. Future expansion of this database will include additional publically available articles published before 1980 and in other languages, as well as data outside the public domain. The authors recommend in-depth analyses of individual incidents. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This report describes the development and application of a database of food ingredient fraud issues from publicly available references. The database provides baseline information and data useful to governments, agencies, and individual companies assessing the risks of specific products produced in specific regions as well as products distributed and sold in other regions. In addition, the report describes current analytical technologies for detecting food fraud and identifies trends and developments.

Defining the public health threat of food fraud.

UNLABELLED: Food fraud, including the more defined subcategory of economically motivated adulteration, is a food risk that is gaining recognition and concern. Regardless of the cause of the food risk, adulteration of food is both an industry and a government responsibility. Food safety, food fraud, and food defense incidents can create adulteration of food with public health threats. Food fraud is an intentional act for economic gain, whereas a food safety incident is an unintentional act with unintentional harm, and a food defense incident is an intentional act with intentional harm. Economically motivated adulteration may be just that-economically motivated-but the food-related public health risks are often more risky than traditional food safety threats because the contaminants are unconventional. Current intervention systems are not designed to look for a near infinite number of potential contaminants. The authors developed the core concepts reported here following comprehensive research of articles and reports, expert elicitation, and an extensive peer review. The intent of this research paper is to provide a base reference document for defining food fraud-it focuses specifically on the public health threat-and to facilitate a shift in focus from intervention to prevention. This will subsequently provide a framework for future quantitative or innovative research. The fraud opportunity is deconstructed using the criminology and behavioral science applications of the crime triangle and the chemistry of the crime. The research provides a food risk matrix and identifies food fraud incident types. This project provides a starting point for future food science, food safety, and food defense research. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Food fraud, including the more defined subcategory of economically motivated adulteration, is a food protection threat that has not been defined or holistically addressed. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led to the development of food defense as an autonomous area of study and a new food protection discipline. As economically motivated adulteration grows in scope, scale, and awareness, it is conceivable that food fraud will achieve the same status as an autonomous concept, between food safety and food defense. This research establishes a starting point for defining food fraud and identifying the public health risks.