Aly El Sheikha

University of Ottawa · School of Nutrition Sciences

Although various inhibitors have been employed to react with phenylacetaldehyde to form adducts and thus interrupt the formation of 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), high concentrations of PhIP remain in the final system. It remains unknown whether other critical aldehyde or ketone intermediates are involved in the generation...

Worldwide aquaculture production is increasing, but with this increase comes quality and safety related problems. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop potent technologies to extend the shelf life of fish. Xanthan gum is commonly used in the food industry because of its high-water solubility, stability of its aqueous solutions in a wide pH rang...

This study was to assess the nutritional quality and bioactive properties of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) seeds and oil commonly found in the Chinese market. The results showed that black cumin seeds contain 5.02, 21.07, 39.02, 3.02, 6.01, and 25.86% moisture, crude proteins, crude fat, ash, fiber, and carbohydrates, respectively. It also contai...

: Recently, the demand for composite edible coatings has increased significantly as a new trend to confront the serious processing and storage problems that always arise regarding chicken meat. We aim to develop a carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) coating containing various concentrations (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4%) of an ethanolic propolis extract (EPE) to m...

In this study, the volatile compound profiles of gurum seed oil were determined using two methods: supercritical CO2 extraction (SFE) and the screw press process (SPP). For volatile compounds extraction and identification, headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) and GC–MS were used, respectively. A total number of 56 volatile compounds wer...

The objective of the present study was to illustrate the changes in physicochemical properties in ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk packed into a pouch and Tetra Brik during storage. UHT milk samples were kept at 5 and 25 °C for 3 months and regularly analyzed monthly. During storage, significant increases ( p < 0.05) in titratable acidity (TA), wa...

Ganoderma lucidum has a long history of medicinal uses in the Far East countries of more than 2000 years due to its healing properties. Recently, G. lucidum has come under scientific scrutiny to evaluate its content of bioactive components that affect human physiology, and has been exploited for potent components in the pharmacology, nutraceuticals...

Recently, the use of biostimulants as natural and eco-friendly fertilizers has received increasing attention because of their efficiency in terms of improving crops’ qualitative and quantitative parameters, i.e., growth, yield, and chemical composition. We studied the effect of four biostimulants—humic acid (20 g/L), vermicompost tea (15 mL/L), mor...

Recently, the use of biostimulants as natural and eco-friendly fertilizers has received increasing attention because of their efficiency in terms of improving crops’ qualitative and quantitative parameters, i.e., growth, yield, and chemical composition. We studied the effect of four biostimulants—humic acid (20 g/L), vermicompost tea (15 mL/L), mor...

Dealing with horticultural waste has become an urgent issue that coincides with the keen desire of the world today to achieve sustainable development, but the question arises: How and what is the appropriate tool? The answer will be provided by this review, through which it will focus on the possibility of benefiting from solid-state fermentation (...

With serious processing and storage problems arising always of chicken meat, there is a paramount demand for composite edible coatings as novel trend. Our aim is to develop CMC coating containing various concentrations (0, 1, 2, 3, 4%) of EEP to improve quality and extend shelf life of chicken meat stored at 2 °C for 16 days. Influence of CMC and E...

Edible bird's nest (EBN) swiftlet existed naturally 48,000 years ago in caves as their natural dwellings. Nowadays, edible bird's nest has become a very important industry due to its high nutritional, medicinal and economic value. Additionally, edible bird's nest has a long quality guarantee period. Obviously, the nutritional components and medicin...

Over the past decades, several tools have been developed for food pathogen detection, including proteomics, metabolomics, immunological, biosensor, and nucleic acid-based approaches. Although these techniques are reliable and precise, they are time-consuming, technically challenging, and costly. Hence, it is necessary to develop rapid techniques fo...

Authentication of food has been a significant concern for all members of the food system chain, including consumers, producers, and regulators since ancient times. Due to increasing public awareness regarding food quality and safety. Food authenticity is rapidly growing. This chapter critically presents the techniques which are used for authenticit...

Annual losses in both agricultural and economic sectors have increased dramatically because of insect pests; hence, the effects of these pests pose a major global threat. In addition, some control methods currently used to combat insect pests are no longer as effective due to the continuous evolution in resistance and to the serious damage of these...

A novel species, Distoseptispora longispora , from submerged wood in Yunnan Province, China, is described and illustrated. The fungus is characterized by macronematous, mononematous, septate conidiophores with monoblastic, integrated, determinate, terminal conidiogenous cells that produce acrogenous, solitary, obclavate, elongated, distoseptate con...

Westerdykella aquatica, isolated from rice field mud and as an endophyte from Acorus calamus, is described as a new species. The fungus is characterized by its globose cleistothecia, globose to subglobose, persistent, 8-spored asci, and cylindrical, 3-septate, light brown ascospores. A phylogenetic tree based on ITS, LSU, and β-tubulin sequences wa...

Historically, pickling is one of the oldest preservation methods of several foodstuffs such as vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat. Pickling imparts unique and desirable changes in flavor, texture and color that take place over time in fermented pickles. Microorganisms (mainly lactic acid bacteria, Micrococcaceae, Bacilli, yeasts, and filamentous fu...

Fermented foods were likely to have been the first among all types of processed foods consumed by human beings. The role that fermented food plays is not only related to the development of civilizations and cultural relationships between countries but also related to the nutritional importance of its population. Of course, the early manufacturers o...

BACKGROUND The growth of halal food consumption worldwide has resulted in an increase in the request for halal authentication. DNA‐based detection using powerful real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique has been shown to be highly specific and sensitive authentication tool. The efficient DNA extraction method in terms of quality and quan...

Insects are among the greatest pests of agriculture, horticulture and forestry worldwide, inflicting damage and economic costs both directly and by transmitting plant viruses. Many kinds of insects are now resistant or cross‐resistant to pesticides. To combat the insect pest as well as better understanding its biology (e.g., insect population dynam...

Adulteration in food is a menace, which all of us face since the beginning of civilization, as it not only decreases the quality of food products but also results in a continuing problem with significant consequences for human health and economic damage. Hence, the detection of food adulteration became an essential requirement for ensuring both the...

Phytic acid is the main reservoir of phosphorous in plants and accounts for more than 80% of the total phosphorous in cereals. It is well known to possess anti-nutritional behavior because it has bound positively charged proteins and multivalent cations or minerals in foods. Therefore, phytic acid and its salts have been considered as a threat in t...

Insect movement in the landscape remains often poorly known and in some cases does not make it possible to understand the role of the different cultivated and wild habitats in the dynamics of useful and pest insects. Insects are among the greatest pests of agriculture, horticulture and forestry worldwide, inflicting damage and economic costs both d...

Among the toxin-producing microbes, those that produce mycotoxins are especially problematic due to their broad distribution in the environments and in foods. Several species of Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium are sources of potent mycotoxins such as aflatoxins, ochratoxins, patulin, deoxynivalenol, and fumonisins. It is, therefore, vital th...

Mushrooms became one of the most popular food resources worldwide that are very appreciated by consumers. Fresh produce properties including mushrooms are obviously varied based on their geographical origins. In view of the significant increase in the world's production of mushrooms, this will be accompanied by the increasing attention of all actor...

Genetic engineering promises to bring important and rapid leaps in food production. It will affect all steps of the production chain, from farm to final food processing. As a biotechnological practice, it has the potential to be used as an effective tool to address the various problems in food and society. Nowadays, our production-to-consumption fo...

Background: The pharmaceutical industry has boosted the gelatin consumption worldwide. This is supported by the availability of cost-effective gelatin production from porcine by-products. However, cross-contamination in gelatin materials where porcine gelatin was unintentionally included in the other animal sources of gelatin that caused significa...

Fermentation is one of the oldest technologies of food preservation. Due to the fermentation approach increasing the shelf-life of food, it remains economically significant in several regions of the world. The fermentation process has also remained strongly tied to culture and tradition around the world for centuries. The artisan technology was the...

With the continuous increase in the world's population, lactic acid fermentation plays a significant role in preserving foodstuffs for feeding humanity, especially in developing countries. However, several fermented fruit and vegetable products have a long history in human nutrition and are associated with different communities. Detection, differen...

Molecular Techniques in Food Biology: Safety, Biotechnology, Authenticity & Traceability explores all aspects of microbe-food interactions, especially as they pertain to food safety. Traditional morphological, physiological, and biochemical techniques for the detection, differentiation, and identification of microorganisms have severe limitations....

Determination of the geographical origin of food produce has been a growing issue over the past decades for all countries around the world. This is largely due to the consumers concern about the authenticity of the food that they eat. This was mainly due to the food safety crises that have occurred in the last several years. The primary objective o...

As the second most important traded raw material in the world after oil, coffee accounts for 4% of world trade in food products and is a major source of income of foreign exchange and employment for many developing countries. In international coffee trade, one of the required safety’s indicators is the absence of ochratoxin A (OTA), a toxic seconda...

With the continuous increase in the world's population, LA fermentation plays a significant role in preserving the fruits and vegetables and other foodstuffs for feeding humanity, especially in developing countries. However, several fermented fruits and vegetables products have a long history in human nutrition from ancient ages and are associated...

Fermentation is one of the oldest technologies of food preservation. Due to the fermentation approach increasing the shelf life of food, it remains economically significant in several regions of the world. The fermentation process has also remained strongly tied to culture and tradition around the world for centuries. The artisan technology was the...

Food fingerprinting approaches are expected to become a very potent tool in authentication processes aiming at a comprehensive characterization of complex food matrices. In this chapter, we provide a critical view on the emerging molecular fingerprinting techniques including elemental, foodomics and microbial fingerprints. Among these, molecular bi...

Food is possibly the area where processing anchored in biological agents has the deepest roots. Enzymes are ubiquitous in fresh and processed food and are consumed every day. The industrial production of enzymes for use in food processing dates back to 1874, when Danish scientist Christian Hansen extracted rennin (chymosin) from calves’ stomachs fo...

Food authenticity and safety are major concerns for researchers, consumers, and particularly the meat industry. Meat products are targets for species substitution and adulteration due to their market value. Presently, the demand for halal products is witnessing a substantial increase. Therefore, it is essential to use appropriate science-based meth...

Recently, I invented a novel molecular diagnostic method for rapid and accurate detecting and identifying pathogenic Candida species (US provisional patent application NO° US 62/529,707). This patent opens up new avenues to such as the differentiation between drug-resistant and drug- sensitive strains of infectious fungi within the same species.

To date, medicinal plants form the backbone of primary healthcare for 70–95% of the population of the developing world. Therefore, medicinal plants help in alleviating human suffering and are widely used for traditional remedies, pharmaceutical materials, and trade. Cancer patients numbers are increasing worldwide, ranking this disease as the secon...

The aquaculture sector is among the most significant and fastest-growing sectors of the global agrifood system. The production of aquaculture is not only increasingly important as a primary protein source to feed the world's population, but also of enormous importance as a trade good in global commerce. However, the industry faces many challenges t...

Highlights - Traceability is a tool that when applied to ‘food inspection’ provides protection for consumers from health hazards and counterfeits food products. - Reliable traceability system ensures high-quality food inspection. - Growing demand to develop simple and rapid geo-traceability techniques to deliver safer food for customers.

Oral Presentation

Background: Poor quality and quantity of DNA extracted from gelatin and gelatin capsule often cause failure in animal species determination using PCR. Gelatin, which is mainly derived from porcine and bovine, has been a matter of concern among customers in order to fulfill religious obligation and safety precaution against several transmissible in...

Background: Porcine blood is potentially being utilized in food as a binder, gelling agent, emulsifier or colorant. However, for certain communities, the usage of animal blood in food is strictly prohibited due to religious concern and health reason. This study reports the development of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against heat treated soluble pr...

ABSTRACT Traceability of seafood is a much needed service for the seafood industry. Current ways of tracing seafood are minimal while tracing of shellfish is nearly nonexistent. Tracing fish and shellfish are necessary for indicating where the fish and shellfish were fished from, farmed and packed from. This study reviews history of traceability of...

Traceability of foods is undertaken primarily at the administrative level, and the use of advanced analytical tools is rare. Nevertheless, the determination of geographical origin is a demand of the traceability system for the import and export of foodstuffs (UE regulation 178/2002). It is hypothesised that foodstuffs can be traced at source by ana...

Food borne outbreaks have become a major challenge in food safety, in general, and for safer food supply chains, in particular. In Saudi Arabia, food poisoning is becoming a very important health problem, Salmonella species is the most important pathogen, but due to the extensive effort carried by the health authorities to prevent or eradicate comm...

There is evidence that unleavened bread existed 9,000 years ago. Later (around 3,500 BC) the ancient Egyptians made the bread. From that time the heritage of bread, its economical, political and religious importance has persisted worldwide. Bread has changed in many ways since our ancestors, going from grainy fl at bread to an aerated texture. Brea...

Through the years, grain millers found removing bran led to more desirable flour. Taste became milder and less susceptible to oxidation as rancidity-prone oils were no longer present. Removal of the grain’s bran and germ, however, left the flour short on naturally occurring vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.

Mold is a term used to commonly describe the wooly growth that occurs on damp or decaying organic matter caused from the growth of fungi. There are more than a million species of fungi. Fungi are plant-like organisms that lack chlorophyll. Since fungi do not produce chlorophyll for food, fungi must absorb food from other sources. Fungi are able to...

Past and the Technology of Present Aly F. El Sheikhaa, b Around 7000 BC humans (probably the Egyptians) somehow learned to grind grains in water and heat the mix on hot stoves to make unleavened bread. Later (around 3500 BC) the ancient Egyptians made the bread. They made bread and beer from the two major cereals cultivated in Dynastic Egypt, emmer...

Traditional foods constitute an essential aspect of people’s cultural heritage, historical background and their environmental conditions. In addition, traditional foods represent an important component of people’s diet and are very much related to their food habits and nutrition. During the last decades, the high rate of urbanization, labor migrati...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is among the major food crops in the world and is cultivated in all tropical and subtropical regions particularly in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Asia and Africa regions account for 95% of the world's production. Among the root and tuber crops grown in the world, sweet potato ranks second after cassava. In previou...

The world is in dire need to secure self-sufficiency of firewood in the future as a source of energy that are now exposed continuously to a decrease in global stocks. As well as give a vegetarian cover to reduce high temperature in the desert. Therefore, the need arises to search for resistant plants to drought and survival in extreme dry seasons....

Medicinal plants are the wealthy source of antibacterial agents and curatives. There is an urgent need for new antimicrobial agents, so the antimicrobial activity for Ruta graveolens L. and Ficus carica Linn. Crude extracts were evaluated for its inhibitory activity against some disease causing selected microorganisms. Root extract of Ruta graveole...

Ithrib (Rumex nervosus) is an annual herbaceous plant that belongs to Polygonaceae family. It is widely distributed in the temperate Himalayas; Western Ghat of Nilgiri and Nainital hills. It is also found extensively in Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. However, little information is available on this plant because of documentation of knowl...

Today, bread supplies over half of the caloric intake of the world’s population including a high proportion of the intake of Vitamins B and E. Bread therefore is a major food of the world. Bread was the main stables of the ancient Egyptian diet. Around 7,000 BC humans (probably Egyptians) somehow learned to grind grains in water and heat the mix on...

17.1 Detection methods of plant pathogens from the past to the present Historically, it was necessary to perform time-consuming indexing for micro-bial detection or to cultivate the microorganisms for one or more days at a certain temperature on the appropriate medium in order to identify microbial communities, using appropriate stains as well as t...

Food traceability is essential to preserve the identity of unique quality traits against fraud or commercials disputes. Therefore, there is growing demand of new traceability systems for the collection of information related to units/batches of food ingredients and products. A rapid method based on a molecular technique employing 28S rDNA profiles...

Plant microbial pathogens are responsible for increasing economic losses worldwide. Detection of harmful microorganisms in plant material, vectors or natural reservoirs is essential to ensure safe and sustainable agriculture. The available techniques have evolved significantly in the past few years to achieve rapid and reliable detection of pathoge...

Post-harvest losses in African artisanal fisheries may thus be lower than often assumed. Fermentation of fish is especially used in situations where drying of fish is not possible because the climate is too wet and where cooling and sterilization of the product is too expensive. Fermented fishery products in Africa are usually whole or in cut piece...

Fermented meats are unique products that are often represented as elements of culinary heritage and identity. Yet, their success has often been compromised throughout history because of health and safety issues. Moreover, contemporary industrialized meat products are sometimes perceived as of inferior quality due to health and safety issues. But no...

Traceability is defined according to ISO 9000 as the ability to retrieve the origin and use of an article or an activity through a registered method. Its implementation in the timber industry is delayed because of limits of classical identification systems with regard to the nature of timber and features of the manufacturing process. One hypothesis...

Introduction: Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by fungi of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium. It has been shown to have carcinogenic and immunotoxic properties in rats and to be responsible for human and animal kidney pathologies. OTA content in coffee was shown to be closely link to harvesting conditions, postharves...

The bacterial diversity occurring in traditional Minas cheese, made from raw milk, produced in four different regions of Minas Gerais state in Brazil, namely Cerrado, Araxa, Serro and Serra da Canastra, were evaluated by PCR–DGGE analysis of the V3 region of the bacterial 16S rDNA using primers previously described in the literature. Samples of Min...

Husk tomato has been known in Egypt for a long time ago. Recently, economical importance of husk tomato is raising, what due to its high acceptance in the local consumption with achieving a great success in Arabic and European markets. The idea was conducted to utilize this crop for processing many products throughout its contributing with apricot...

The new European regulation 178/2002 imposes the determination of the geographical origin in the traceability process of foodstuffs at the moment of commercial transactions. In practice, it is difficult to determine with accuracy the geographical origin of foodstuffs. For this purpose, the total analysis of fungal communities in samples of coffee i...

Traceability of fruits is only documentary. In case of doubt or fraud, no standardized analysis makes it possible to trace back the origin of the fruit. The aim of this study is to apply PCR-DGGE method to analyze in a unique step all the yeasts present on the fruit to create the linkage between yeast communities and their geographical origins. PCR...

Les échanges commerciaux s’intensifient et s’étendent à l’ensemble de la planète. La détermination de l'origine géographique est une exigence du système de traçabilité lors de l'importation-exportation des produits. La difficulté de mise en place de systèmes documentaires dans les pays en développement, crée un besoin des nouvelles stratégies de tr...

Fish is an important source of protein in the human diet. However, fish also has the disadvantage that if it is not salted, dried, smoked or preserved in some way or other, it will quickly spoil. In warm region such as tropical countries, access to fresh fish can be a problem mainly in rural areas owing to the shortage of ice and lack of refrigerat...

Traceability is now one of the great concerns of the customers and the food regulators. We proposed a new analytical molecular method based on the analysis in a universal way of the microbial communities of food that we linked statistically to its geographical origin. 28S rDNA profiles generated by PCR-DGGE were used to detect the variation in fung...

Introduction. Consumption of Physalis fruits is quite recent and the products are poorly known among consumers. This plant has been known for a long time as an ornamental in Europe, for at least 200 years. Traceability is increasingly becoming important across the agri-food industry; however, at the present time, the traceability of this fruit is o...

Objectives Shea tree is a multi-purpose tree daily used by rural African communities. Economic importance of Shea tree fruits has been rising and achieving a great success in African, American and European markets. Shea butter is used mainly in chocolate industry, cosmetic or pharmacological products. Traceability is now one of the great concerns o...

In Africa salting and drying of fish for preservation is accompanied by fermentation, but the period is short and the product is not transformed into a paste or sauce. Although fermented fish products are a good source of protein, they can be consumed only in limited quantities because of the high salt content of these products. Fermentation of fis...

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important vegetables, both nutritionally and economically. The edible part, fruit, known as the power house of nutrition, is a rich source of carotenoids (lycopene, ß-carotene and lutein, etc) and phenolics, vitamins and minerals. Dietary intake of tomatoes and tomato products containing lyc...

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) has been widely used for examining the microbial community in various biological resources. Here, we used this technique to determine both bacterial and yeast communities in the chicken intestinal tract. The tract samples were collected from five broiler chickens and rapidly dissected into five section...

Introduction. Physalis has been known for a long time in Egypt. Among unexploited tropical fruits, Physalis is a very promising fruit. Recently, the economic importance of Physalis has risen, due to its high acceptance for local consumption, achieving great success in the African, Latin American and European markets. One of the challenges of recent...

The determination of geographical origin is a demand of the traceability system of import-export food products. For this purpose, molecular techniques employing 16S, 26S rDNA profiles generated by PCR-DGGE (polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) were used to detect the variation in microbial community (bacteria, yeast) s...

The determination of geographical origin is a demand of the traceability system of import- export foodstuff. One hypothesis of tracing the source of a product is by analyzing in a global way the microbial communities of the food and links statistically this analysis to the geographical origin of the food (Montet et al., 2004). The molecular techniq...

Ground cherry (Physalis pubescens L.) is one of the most promising exotic fruits and some interesting functional products could be developed from these berries. The fresh juice was yellowish or orangey and had a light, sweet taste with acidic nature (pH 3.5). The titratable acidity was 1.43, polyphenols 76.6 mg/100 mL and vitamin C 38.8 mg/100 mL....

The determination of geographical origin is a demand of the traceability system of import-export food products. One hypothesis for tracing the source of a product is by global analysis of the microbial communities of the food and statistical linkage of this analysis to the geographical origin of the food. For this purpose, a molecular technique emp...