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Foods
Special Issues
Species Authentication and Pathogen Identification in Seafood
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Species Authentication and Pathogen Identification in Seafood

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Foods of Marine Origin".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (12 November 2021) | Viewed by 7556

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Tiziana Pepe

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production, University Federico II, 80137 Naples, Italy
Interests: food biotechnology; food safety; food hygiene
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

European regulations on the common organization of the market in fishery and aquaculture products require the traceability and species identification of seafood. Mislabelling of fish as less valuable species that are sold under the names of more expensive ones is a growing problem in the production and distribution chain. Indeed, fishery products have different organoleptic properties that correlate with a wide variety of retail prices in the market. For consumer protection and safety, competent national authorities responsible for monitoring and enforcing could improve and make full use of the available technology, including DNA testing. Genetic diversity or variations and their measurement enable molecular methods to be considered one of the most suggested solutions to aliud pro alio frauds. Molecular methods could also be applied to foodborne pathogen identification in seafood, as these pathogens are responsible for outbreaks and serious illness all over the world. The use of molecular methods, including PCR, may overcome some of the problems encountered in the identification of foodborne pathogen species (bacteria, viruses, etc.) and increase our understanding of epidemiology. This Special Issue is dedicated to DNA techniques applied to seafood to discriminate between species and to identify foodborne pathogens, in order to guarantee the authenticity of the label and the safety of products.

Regards,

Prof. Dr. Tiziana Pepe
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • food safety
  • food control
  • fish fraud
  • foodborne pathogens
  • biotechnology
  • food microbiology
  • mtDNA
  • virulence genes

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 527 KiB  
Article
Efficiency of DNA Mini-Barcoding to Assess Mislabeling in Commercial Fish Products in Italy: An Overview of the Last Decade
by Laura Filonzi, Marina Vaghi, Alessia Ardenghi, Pietro Maria Rontani, Andrea Voccia and Francesco Nonnis Marzano
Foods 2021, 10(7), 1449; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10071449 - 22 Jun 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2555
Abstract
The problem of fish traceability in processed products is still an important issue in food safety. Major attention is nowadays dedicated to consumer health and prevention of possible frauds regulated by national and international laws. For this reason, a technical approach is fundamental [...] Read more.
The problem of fish traceability in processed products is still an important issue in food safety. Major attention is nowadays dedicated to consumer health and prevention of possible frauds regulated by national and international laws. For this reason, a technical approach is fundamental in revealing mislabeling at different levels. In particular, the use of genetic markers has been standardized and DNA barcoding is considered the gold-standard strategy to examine and prevent species substitution. Considering the richness of available DNA databases, it is nowadays possible to rapidly reach a reliable taxonomy at the species level. Among different approaches, an innovative method based on DNA mini barcoding has recently been proposed at an international level. Starting from this evidence, we herein illustrate an investigation dealing with the evolution of this topic in Italy over the last decade. The molecular analysis of 71 commercial fish samples based on mini-COI sequencing with two different primer sets reached an amplification success rate of 87.3 and 97.2%. The investigation revealed four major frauds (5.8%) and four minor ones (5.8%). Results highlighted a decrease in incorrect labeling in Italy from 32% to 11.6% over the last decade, although a recurrent involvement of “endangered” species sensu IUCN was still observed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Authentication and Pathogen Identification in Seafood)
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10 pages, 3571 KiB  
Article
Dentex dentex Frauds: Establishment of a New DNA Barcoding Marker
by Marina Ceruso, Celestina Mascolo, Pasquale De Luca, Iolanda Venuti, Elio Biffali, Rosa Luisa Ambrosio, Giorgio Smaldone, Paolo Sordino and Tiziana Pepe
Foods 2021, 10(3), 580; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10030580 - 10 Mar 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 1898
Abstract
The common dentex (Dentex dentex (Linnaeus, 1758)) is an iconic fish in the Mediterranean diet. Due to its commercial and organoleptic importance, this sparid is highly appreciated in European markets and is often subjected to species substitution frauds. Comparative mitogenomics is a [...] Read more.
The common dentex (Dentex dentex (Linnaeus, 1758)) is an iconic fish in the Mediterranean diet. Due to its commercial and organoleptic importance, this sparid is highly appreciated in European markets and is often subjected to species substitution frauds. Comparative mitogenomics is a suitable approach for identifying new and effective barcode markers. This study aimed to find a molecular tag useful for unequivocally discriminating the sparid species D. dentex. The comparison of the complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of 16 sparid species allowed us to highlight the potential of the NAD2 gene for direct identification purposes. Common dentex-specific primers were created and successfully evaluated by end-point and real-rime PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) for several fish species, achieving amplification only in the D. dentex. The method proposed in this study appears fast, simple, and inexpensive and requires affordable instrumentation. This approach provides unambiguous results for the common dentex authentication without the sequencing step. The presence/absence assay for D. dentex can be executed in a few hours of lab work. Therefore, national authorities responsible for food safety and traceability could apply and make full use of DNA-testing methods for deterring operators from false seafood declarations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Authentication and Pathogen Identification in Seafood)
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15 pages, 4591 KiB  
Article
A Rapid Method for the Identification of Fresh and Processed Pagellus erythrinus Species against Frauds
by Marina Ceruso, Celestina Mascolo, Pasquale De Luca, Iolanda Venuti, Giorgio Smaldone, Elio Biffali, Aniello Anastasio, Tiziana Pepe and Paolo Sordino
Foods 2020, 9(10), 1397; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9101397 - 2 Oct 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2687
Abstract
The commercialization of porgies or seabreams of the family Sparidae has greatly increased in the last decade, and some valuable species have become subject to seafood substitution. DNA regions currently used for fish species identification in fresh and processed products belong to the [...] Read more.
The commercialization of porgies or seabreams of the family Sparidae has greatly increased in the last decade, and some valuable species have become subject to seafood substitution. DNA regions currently used for fish species identification in fresh and processed products belong to the mitochondrial (mt) genes cytochrome b (Cytb), cytochrome c oxidase I (COI), 16S and 12S. However, these markers amplify for fragments with lower divergence within and between some species, failing to provide informative barcodes. We adopted comparative mitogenomics, through the analysis of complete mtDNA sequences, as a compatible approach toward studying new barcoding markers. The intent is to develop a specific and rapid assay for the identification of the common pandora Pagellus erythrinus, a sparid species frequently subject to fraudulent replacement. The genetic diversity analysis (Hamming distance, p-genetic distance, gene-by-gene sequence variability) between 16 sparid mtDNA genomes highlighted the discriminating potential of a 291 bp NAD2 gene fragment. A pair of species-specific primers were successfully designed and tested by end-point and real-time PCR, achieving amplification only in P. erythrinus among several fish species. The use of the NAD2 barcoding marker provides a rapid presence/absence method for the identification of P. erythrinus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Species Authentication and Pathogen Identification in Seafood)
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