Jorge Barros-Velázquez

• Ph.D. Food Microbiology
• Professor at University of Santiago de Compostela

Fish is a highly nutritious but perishable food, prone to rapid spoilage due to microbial proliferation and biochemical degradation during handling and storage. Moreover, certain microorganisms can be pathogenic to humans, leading to foodborne diseases. This study presents, for the first time, the efficacy of photodynamic inactivation (PDI) mediate...

Red seaweeds Grateloupia turuturu and Porphyra umbilicalis are consumed in East Asia as seasonings, vegetables and for wrapping sushi. Contrary to conventional agricultural crops, seaweed harvesting and farming can serve as a more environmentally friendly alternative. However, it is necessary to broaden the knowledge of G. turuturu and P. umbilical...

Salmonella is a genus of bacteria that causes foodborne diseases, known as salmonellosis, in both humans and animals. This study provides a detailed characterization of 15 S. enterica subsp. enterica serotypes from chicken meat using shotgun proteomics. A total of 13,117 peptide spectrum matches were identified from 4469 unique peptides, correspond...

An attempt to apply extracts of the brown algae Cystoseira myrica and Cystoseira trinodis for the quality enhancement of fish was carried out. Aqueous, ethanolic, and aqueous–ethanolic (1:1, v/v) extracts of both algae were included, respectively, in the icing system employed for the chilled storage of farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Ch...

This study focused on the preparation of phospholipid- and tocopherol-enriched concentrates from Patagonian squid (Doryteuthis gahi) discards. For it, non-halogenated solvents (hexane, HX; isopropanol, IP; ethanol, ET) were combined in one-step and two-step extracting systems and applied to this marine substrate. Total lipid, phospholipid (PL) and...

A new antioxidant lipid (AL) was synthesized from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) belly oil and cold-pressed maqui (CPM) (Aristotelia chilensis (Mol.) Stuntz) seed oil via enzymatic interesterification using Thermomyces lanuginosus in supercritical CO2 medium. A Box–Behnken design with 15 experiments was employed, with the independent variables...

Avocado oil has a good thermal stability. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the behavior when hydrolysis is involved with oxidation processes. This study demonstrated potential for deep frying process of avocado oil. The behavior of cold-pressed olive oil and avocado oil in a domestic frying process with natural potatoes was studied. Both...

Background and objective: The global aging population has led to increased noncommunicable diseases, often linked to poor diet and declining muscle strength and mass. This study assessed leucine intake and sarcopenia indicators among 181 adults aged 60–80 in Santiago, Chile, participating in the Program for Complementary Food in Older People (PACAM...

The aim of this study was to investigate the preservative properties of alga Gelidium sp. flour when included in the glazing medium employed for the frozen storage (−18 °C) of horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus). Different concentrations (low, medium, and high) of an aqueous extract were tested and compared to a control water-glazing condition. Qu...

This research evaluated the preservative properties of flour from the alga Gelidium sp., which is a waste substrate resulting from commercial phycocolloid extraction. Gelatin-based biofilms, which included two different concentrations of red alga flour, were developed and used as packaging systems during refrigerated storage (up to 9 days at 4 °C)...

The present study focused on the use of pouting (Trisopterus luscus), an underutilized gadoid fish species, as a fresh product of potential commercial interest. Accordingly, non-degutted pouting specimens (145–195 g and 15–22 cm) were stored under chilling conditions (0 °C) for microbial, chemical and sensory analyses to evaluate their commercial q...

Fishery products are one of the main human nutritional sources, and due to the consumption increase, the quality of the derived products may be modified, during catching, technological processing, and storage. Detection and identification of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms in fishery products is needed because the first may be involved in hu...

Food authentication and food allergy profiling are relevant topics that must be carefully considered by authorities, food production and manufacturing industries, and customers. Precise, sensitive, and efficient detection procedures are crucial for authenticating food and identifying allergens. In this paper, we present a current review of advanced...

Numerous Pseudomonas species can infect aquatic animals, such as farmed rainbow trout, sea trout, sea bass, and sea bream, by causing disease or stress reactions. In aquaculture facilities, a number of Pseudomonas species have been isolated and identified as the main pathogens. The present study describes the characterization of 18 Pseudomonas stra...

The presence of undeclared allergenic ingredients or the presence of traces of allergens due to unintentional contamination during food processing poses a great health risk to sensitized individuals. Therefore, fast, and reliable analytical methods are required to detect and identify allergenic ingredients in food products. The use of miniaturized...

This article summarizes the characterization, by shotgun proteomics, of 11 bacterial strains identified as responsible for seafood spoilage. A total of 4455 peptide spectrum matches, corresponding to 4299 peptides and 3817 proteins were identified. Analyses of data determined the functional pathways they are involved in. The proteins identified wer...

The presence of biogenic amines (histamine, tyramine, putrescine, and cadaverine) in seafood is a significant concern for food safety. This review describes for the first time a shotgun quantitative proteomics strategy to evaluate and compare foodborne strains of bacteria that produce biogenic amines in seafoods. This approach recognized 35,621 pep...

Background: Eighty-three strains of Leuconostoc mesenteroides were isolated from Algerian raw camel milk. Based on morphological, biochemical, and physiological characters tests, strains were identified as Ln. mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides. Seven strains had a remarkable antagonistic and probiotic characterization. The present study aims at i...

Biogenic amine-producing bacteria are responsible for the production of basic nitrogenous compounds (histamine, cadaverine, tyramine, and putrescine) following the spoilage of food due to microorganisms. In this study, we adopted a shotgun proteomics strategy to characterize 15 foodborne strains of biogenic-amine-producing bacteria. A total of 10,6...

This study focused on the quality loss inhibition of fish muscle during refrigerated storage. Two parallel experiments were carried out that were focused on the employment of pitaya (Stenocereus thurberi) extracts in biodegradable packing films. On the one hand, a pitaya–gelatin film was employed for hake (Merluccius merluccius) muscle storage. On...

A biorefinery process was developed for a freeze-dried pomace of calafate berries (Berberis microphylla). The process consisted of extraction of lipophilic components with supercritical CO2 (scCO2) and subsequent extraction of the residue with a pressurized mixture of ethanol/water (1:1 v/v). scCO2 extracted oil from the pomace, while pressurized l...

Editor-in-Chief Professor Jorge Barros Velazquez and Executive Editor Dr Anna Rulka introduce the inaugural issue of Sustainable Food Technology .

Enterococcus belongs to a group of microorganisms known as lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which constitute a broad heterogeneous group of generally food-grade microorganisms historically used in food preservation. Enterococci live as commensals of the gastrointestinal tract of warm-blooded animals, although they also are present in food of animal orig...

Miniaturization enables the development of portable devices for rapid on-site DNA analysis, providing cheaper and more convenient systems for target DNA detection in resource-limited settings. Miniaturized devices for DNA-based analysis are highly promising analytical tools for different aims, in particular for food quality and safety analysis in t...

Raoultella ornithinolytica has become increasingly important in human diseases. Here, we report the nearly complete genome sequence of a multidrug-resistant strain, R. ornithinolytica MQB_Silv_108, which was isolated from the effluent from a domestic wastewater treatment plant in Spain. Therefore, its release into the environment poses a possible e...

Bioactive peptides are found in foods and dietary supplements and are responsible for health benefits with applications in human and animal medicine. The health benefits include antihypertensive, antimicrobial, antithrombotic, immunomodulatory, opioid, antioxidant, anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory functions. Bioactive peptides can be obtained by...

Here, we report the draft genome sequences of two bacteriocin-producing Enterococcus faecium strains isolated from nonfermented animal foods in Spain. The genomes of the strains contain at least three different regions encoding bacteriocins, and the strains comply with the European Food Safety Authority guidance for use in animal nutrition.

Enterococcus species are Gram-positive bacteria that are normal gastrointestinal tract inhabitants that play a beneficial role in the dairy and meat industry. However, Enterococcus species are also the causative agents of health care-associated infections that can be found in dairy and fermented food products. Enterococcal infections are led by str...

Nowadays, the application of rapid molecular-based methods such as PCR/qPCR and isothermal techniques like Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA), has increased in order to overcome some of the drawbacks of traditional culture-based methods due to their high sensitivity and specificity. One of the main limitations of these techniques is their i...

This study analyzed the antimicrobial effect of aqueous extracts of flour obtained from red alga (Gelidium sp.) both in vitro, against most common food pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, and in a food model system during the chilled storage of Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus). Results of in vitro assays allowed the conclusion that the aqueous fl...

Recombinase Polymerase Amplification combined with Lateral Flow (RPA-LF) detection was reported to be a good alternative to traditional culture-based methods, as well as other molecular techniques such as qPCR, PCR and Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification. The reasons for this are its simplicity, high sensitivity/specificity and ability for point...

Intoxication with foodborne pathogens such as bacteria, parasites, and viruses or their toxins results in a variety of symptoms, ranging from self-limiting (vomiting and diarrhea) to life-threatening (such as sepsis, kidney, and liver failure) effects, or even death. This chapter is focused on the role of bacteria as the main cause of food poisonin...

Fungal spoilage of food commodities is still of great concern for food industry due to increased costs regarding food waste and product recalls. Traditional culture-based methods are laborious and require huge amounts of reagents and media. In addition, results are available after seven days rendering these techniques unsuitable for the intense pro...

DNA-based techniques like PCR/qPCR have been applied for the detection of microorganisms in order to provide faster results, due to their high sensitivity and specificity, when compared to culture-based techniques. However, isothermal amplification techniques like Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) have emerged lately allowing the simpli...

Miniaturization of DNA-based techniques can bring interesting advantages for food analysis, such as portability of complex analytical procedures. In the olive oil industry, miniaturization can be particularly interesting for authenticity and traceability applications, through in situ control of raw materials before production and/or the final produ...

Some Listeria species are important human and animal pathogens that can be found in contaminated food and produce a variety of virulence factors involved in their pathogenicity. Listeria strains exhibiting multidrug resistance are known to be progressively increasing and that is why continuous monitoring is needed. Effective therapy against pathoge...

Lyophilized alga Fucus spiralis powder was incorporated into a gelatin-based film and employed as a packaging system for mackerel (Scomber scombrus) muscle portions throughout a 9-day refrigerated storage period at 4 °C. In global terms, a progressive loss of quality could be observed in fish muscle with increasing storage time. Comparisons between...

This work addressed the preservative behaviour of different icing media containing extracts from the alga Bifurcaria bifurcata. A comparative study of the antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of this macroalga was carried out. Whole hake (Merluccius merluccius) pieces were stored in ice containing either kind of e...

Streptococcus spp. are among the main mastitis pathogens present in dairy products [1]. The major species involved in both clinical and subclinical mastitis are Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus canis, Streptococcus dysgalactiae and Streptococcus uberis, which produce a variety of virulence factors that are involved in streptococcal pathog...

The use of bacteriocins is a promising alternative to improve food security through the biocontrol of food pathogens and spoilage microorganisms. Gram-negative produced microcin J25(G12Y), known as (MccJ25(G12Y)) is a variant of the well-studied and characterized antimicrobial peptide, microcin J25 (MccJ25). In the present work, we explored the act...

Zebra mussel ( Dreissena polymorpha ) is considered as one of the 100 most harmful IAS in the world. Traditional detection methods have limitations, and PCR based environmental DNA detection has provided interesting results for early warning. However, in the last years, the development of isothermal amplification methods has received increasing att...

The present work describes LC-ESI-MS/MS MS (liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry) analyses of tryptic digestion peptides from phages that infect mastitis-causing Staphylococcus aureus isolated from dairy products. A total of 1933 nonredundant peptides belonging to 1282 proteins were identified and analyzed. Among t...

Classical and culture-based methods for the identification and characterization of the biochemical properties of microorganisms are slow and labor-intensive. Liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) has been used for the analysis of bacterial pathogen strain-specific diagnostic peptides allowing the char...

Staphylococcus aureus constitutes a major food-borne pathogen, as well as one of the main causative agents of mastitis in dairy ruminants. This pathogen can produce a variety of extracellular toxins; these include the shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1), exfoliative toxins, staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE), hemolysins, and leukocidins. S. aureus expres...

The current work investigated the discriminatory potential of MALDI-TOF MS fingerprinting towards most-relevant major (Streptococcus agalactiae, S. dysgalactiae, S. uberis) and minor (S. canis, S. parauberis, S. salivarius, S. equinus and S. gallolyticus) streptococci involved in bovine mastitis (BM), in comparison to 16S rRNA gene sequencing (GS)-...

The use of packaging films containing natural preservative compounds attracts great attention for the quality improvement of seafood. Microalga spirulina (Spirulina platensis) represents a potential source of high added-value and preservative biocompounds. The goal of this study was to enhance the quality of refrigerated Atlantic mackerel (Scomber...

This study focused on the development of novel active packaging methods based on natural compounds. Its main objective was the quality enhancement of refrigerated packaged fish. For it, the effect of the inclusion of a protein concentrate (PC) extracted from microalga Spirulina platensis into a crosslinked gelatine-based biofilm was investigated du...

The present work focuses on LC-ESI-MS/MS (liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry) analysis of phage-origin tryptic digestion peptides from mastitis-causing Streptococcus spp. isolated from milk. A total of 2,546 non-redundant peptides belonging to 1,890 proteins were identified and analyzed. Among them, 65 phage-orig...

Streptococcus spp. are major mastitis pathogens present in dairy products, which produce a variety of virulence factors that are involved in streptococcal pathogenicity. These include neuraminidase, pyrogenic exotoxin, and M protein, and in addition they might produce bacteriocins and antibiotic-resistance proteins. Unjustifiable misuse of antimicr...

Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides synthesised ribosomally. One of the main drawbacks of bacteriocins as food biopreservative agents is their restricted action spectrum. To obtain a broad-spectrum bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacterium, we engineered a fusion protein between the enterocin P signal peptide and the broad-spectrum chimerical...

Adulteration and mislabeling of food products and the commercial fraud derived, either intentionally or not, is a global source of economic fraud to consumers but also to all stakeholders involved in food production and distribution. Legislation has been enforced all over the world aimed at guaranteeing the authenticity of the food products all alo...

Winemaking involves a wide range of microbiota that greatly influences the quality of wine and may cause negative attributes of some wines. Thus, the detection, identification, and characterization of the wine microbiome, including genera, species, strains, and metabolites involved, is of crucial importance. In the past decades, molecular technique...

During the last decade, the occurrence of methicillin-resistant staphylococci in animals and foods derived from them has been increasingly reported, but the dairy sector still requires further surveillance. For this, 150 samples of raw bovine milk, ovine and caprine chesses were analysed for identification of Staphylococcus spp. isolates based on 1...

Food adulteration, mislabeling and fraud, either unintentional or deliberate, is a worldwide and growing concern. Current challenges associated with food authentication comprise many topics: geographic origin, breed/variety identification, production method, feeding regime, technological processing, undeclared components, detection of genetically m...

The employment of an ethanolic extract of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) as a novel preservation medium and as a source of bioactive compounds is tested for chilled fish storage. For this purpose, specimens from an under‐valued pelagic species (Atlantic chub mackerel, Scomber colias) are stored in ice including quinoa at two concentrations: 80%...

This article contains data related to the research article entitled "Novel approach for accurate minute DNA quantification on microvolumetric solutions" (Carvalho et al., 2018). The combination of PicoGreen® with a microvolume fluorospectrometer is a popular DNA quantification method due to its high sensitivity and minimal consumption of sample, be...

During the last decade, the occurrence of methicillin-resistant staphylococci in animals and foods derived from them has been increasingly reported, but the dairy sector still requires further surveillance. For this, 150 samples of raw bovine milk, ovine and caprine chesses were analysed for identification of Staphylococcus spp. isolates based on 1...

The present study addressed the quality enhancement of chilled fish by applying a preliminary dipping treatment containing a bioactive extract of the alga Bifurcaria bifurcata. Megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis) specimens were dipped in ethanolic–aqueous solutions containing two different concentrations of the alga extract (high: HAC batch and low...

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are traditionally used in food and feed bio-industries as they have health-promoting probiotic effect for their host and currently considered safe for human and animal consumption. Recently, we isolated 177 strains from freshwater fishes of dams of Tunisia exhibiting antimicrobial activities against various food-borne pat...

Sample preparation from complex matrixes with minute DNA content could highly benefit from the miniaturization of solid phase extraction (SPE) based devices due to an increased surface area-to-volume ratio. However, the adaptation of “bench-top” based protocols for DNA purification to miniaturized devices is not as straightforward as it might seem,...

Seaweeds have attracted an increasing attention as a new source for bioactive compounds, these include preservative compounds. This study is a first attempt to employ alga Cystoseira compressa for the preservation of chilled fish. For it, a combined ethanol–aqueous extract of this alga was included in the icing system and employed as chilling mediu...

The optimization and evaluation of the performance of microfluidic devices for DNA purification requires the use of a reliable DNA quantification method. The samples collected from these devices usually have small volumes and, in the case of food, forensic and environmental applications, these samples are also complex, frequently containing highly...

Proteomics tools have vast potential for the discrimination and classification of food spoilage pathogens. In this chapter, mass spectrometric approaches for bacterial identification of strains isolated from food are reviewed, focusing on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry profiling and bottom-up identification of peptide...

In the present work, we applied a shotgun proteomics approach for the fast and easy characterization of 20 different foodborne strains of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), one of the most recognized foodborne pathogenic bacteria. A total of 644 non-redundant proteins were identified and analyzed via an easy and rapid protein sample preparation pro...

This research was focused on the lipid fraction of an under-valued crustacean (lobster krill; Munida spp.) and the comparative study of individuals captured at winter and summer seasons. For this purpose, seasonal variations were analyzed in the muscle (i.e., tail meat) for proximate composition, lipid class distribution, and fatty acids profile. M...

Stevia ( Stevia rebaudiana Bert.) is a relevant source of natural phenolic compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential protective effect of crude stevia extracts on the quality and shelf‐life of salmon ( Salmo salar ) paste. For this, polyphenol extracts obtained by water extraction,...

The need for complete and truthful information about the food products we eat is a primary request from consumers. In the last years many regulations have appeared in order to avoid food adulteration, mislabelling and fraud. For these reasons, the authentication of food products must be guaranteed, and therefore accurate and reliable analytical met...

A DNA fingerprint refers to a specific DNA profile of an individual. In the last few decades, spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques have emerged as competent fingerprinting tools, representing spectral profiles that give information on the specific composition of the target analyzed. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight m...

Aquatic food products suffer microbiological and biochemical spoilage. The development of effective processing treatments to extend their shelf life is a necessity. Films and coatings that support antimicrobials are one of the stress factors that have been proposed to meet this demand. They are of special interest to the inhibition of Listeria mono...

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) emerged as a rapid, easy-to-handle, and cost-effective technique for bacterial identification. In few years, the studies carried out in the field of bacterial differentiation by MALDI-TOF MS increased considerably, demonstrating the high potential in clinica...

Backgroud: An advanced strategy for chilled fish preservation, based on the inclusion in ice of an extract of jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) skin (JSS), is proposed. Aqueous solutions including acetic acid-ethanol extracts of JSS were tested at two different concentrations as icing media, being the effects on the quality evolution of chilled hake (...

Currently, food allergies are an important health concern worldwide. The presence of undeclared allergenic ingredients or the presence of traces of allergens due to contamination during food processing poses a great health risk to sensitized individuals. Therefore, reliable analytical methods are required to detect and identify allergenic ingredien...

The study focuses on the impact of icing systems with aqueous (AQ batch), ethanolic (ET batch) and ethanolic-aqueous (ET-AQ batch) extracts of alga Fucus spiralis on the microbial and biochemical quality of chilled hake (Merluccius merluccius). After a 13-day storage, comparison with fish kept under traditional ice proved a significant (P < 0.05) a...

Abstract The complex microbial community of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) plays an important role in GIT health and in whole body wellbeing by aiding digestion, producing nutrients, protecting against pathogens and in the maturation of the host immune system. A balanced intestinal microbiota and balanced microbe-microbe-host relationships is ess...

Bifurcaria bifurcata is a widely extended brown macroalga, whose antimicrobial and antioxidant properties have previously been described. In this study, ethanolic extracts of B. bifurcata were included in the icing medium employed for the chilled storage of megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis). For it, two different concentrations of this brown macr...

Food preservation methods have been empirically used since the dawn of humankind. Thus, our ancestors used to handle raw materials such as milk, meat or fish in a way that extended their shelf-lives by using practical methods based on what we now know as drying, curing or fermentation. Centuries later and during the industrial revolution at the beg...