Honey is characterized as a natural and raw foodstuff that can be consumed not only as a sweetener but also as medicine due to its therapeutic impact on human health. It is prone to adulterants caused by humans that manipulate the quality of honey. Although honey consumption has remarkably increased in the last few years all around the world, the safety of honey is not assessed and monitored regularly. Since the number of consumers of honey adulteration have increased in recent years, their trust and interest in this valuable product has decreased. Honey adulterants are any substances that are added to the pure honey. In this regard, this paper provides a comprehensive and critical review of the different types of adulteration, common sugar adulterants and detection methods, and draws a clear perspective toward the impact of honey adulteration on human health. Adulteration increases the consumer’s blood sugar, which can cause diabetes, abdominal weight gain, and obesity, raise the level of blood lipids and can cause high blood pressure. The most common organ affected by honey adulterants is the liver followed by the kidney, heart, and brain, as shown in several in vivo research designs.

This research investigated the effect of synthesis temperature on the size and shape of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized using pineapple peel waste and antibacterial activity of ZnO NPs in starch films. Zinc oxide NPs synthesized at different temperatures were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Micrographs of ZnO NPs synthesized at 28 and 60 °C showed that synthesis temperature affected the sizes and shapes of ZnO NPs. The non-heated (28 °C) condition resulted in NPs with diameters in the range of 8–45 nm with a mixture of spherical and rod shapes, whereas the heated (60 °C) condition led to NPs with diameters in the range of 73–123 nm with flower rod shapes. The ZnO–starch nanocomposite films incorporated with 1, 3, and 5 wt.% ZnO NPs were prepared via a film casting method. The antibacterial activity of the films against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria was investigated using the disc diffusion method. The results showed an increase in the inhibition zone for Gram-positive bacteria, particularly Bacillus subtilis, when the concentration of ZnO NPs incorporated in the film was increased from 1 to 5 wt.%.

Mycotoxins are the secondary toxic metabolites produced naturally by fungi. Analysis of mycotoxins is essential to minimize the consumption of contaminated food and feed. In this present work, an ultrasensitive electrochemical immunosensor for the detection of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) was successfully developed based on an indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Various parameters of ELISA, including antigen–antibody concentration, blocking agents, incubation time, temperature and pH of reagents, were first optimized in a 96-well microtiter plate to study the antigen–antibody interaction and optimize the optimum parameters of the assay. The optimized assay was transferred onto the multi-walled carbon nanotubes/chitosan/screen-printed carbon electrode (MWCNTs/CS/SPCE) by covalent attachment with the aid of 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimetylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS). Competition occurred between aflatoxin B₁-bovine serum albumin (AFB₁–BSA) and free AFB₁ (in peanut sample and standard) for the binding site of a fixed amount of anti-AFB₁ antibody. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) analysis was used for the detection based on the reduction peak of TMB_(ox). The developed immunosensor showed a linear range of 0.0001 to 10 ng/mL with detection limit of 0.3 pg/mL. AFB₁ analysis in spiked peanut samples resulted in recoveries between 80% and 127%. The precision of the developed immunosensor was evaluated by RSD values (n = 5) as 4.78% and 2.71% for reproducibility and repeatability, respectively.

The effects of a novel technology utilizing a simultaneous combination of Ultraviolet-C radiation and ultrasound energy postharvest treatment on tomato bioactive compounds during 28 days' storage period was investigated by varying Ultraviolet-C radiation intensities of 639.37 or 897.16 µW/cm2 at a constant ultrasound intensity of 13.87 W/L from a 40 kHz-1 kW transducer. A minimal treatment time of 240 s at Ultraviolet-C dosage of 2.15 kJ/m2 was observed to provoke a considerable increase in bioactive compounds content, proportionated to treatment time. Although treatment led to temperature increase in the system reaching 39.33 °C due to heat generation by ultrasonic cavitation, the extractability and biosynthesis of phytochemicals were enhanced resulting in 90%, 30%, 60%, 20%, and 36% increases in lycopene, total phenols, vitamin C, hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant activities respectively. Results present the potential use of the combined non-thermal technologies as post-harvest treatment to improve bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity during storage.

Rice bran, a by-product of the rice milling process, has emerged as a functional food and being used in formulation of healthy food and drinks. However, rice bran is often contaminated with numerous mycotoxins. In this study, a method to simultaneous detection of aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, and AFG2), ochratoxin A (OTA), deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisins (FB1 and FB2), sterigmatocystin (STG), T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS) and zearalenone (ZEA) in rice bran was developed, optimized and validated using dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In DLLME, using a solvent mixture of methanol/water (80:20, v/v) as the dispersive solvent and chloroform as the extraction solvent with the addition of 5% salt improved the extraction recoveries (63–120%). The developed method was further optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM) combined with Box–Behnken Design (BBD). Under the optimized experimental conditions, good linearity was obtained with a correlation coefficient (r²) ≥ 0.990 and a limit of detection (LOD) between 0.5 to 50 ng g⁻¹. The recoveries ranged from 70.2% to 99.4% with an RSD below 1.28%. The proposed method was successfully applied to analyze multi-mycotoxin in 24 rice bran samples.