Bacillus cereus is a spore-forming bacterium that occurs as a contaminant in food and feed, occasionally resulting in food poisoning through the production of various toxins. In this study, we retrospectively characterized viable B. cereus sensu lato (s.l.) isolates originating from commercial vitamin B₂ feed and food additives collected between 2016 and 2022 by the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain from products sold on the Belgian market. In total, 75 collected product samples were cultured on a general medium and, in case of bacterial growth, two isolates per product sample were collected and characterized using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and subsequently characterized in terms of sequence type (ST), virulence gene profile, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene profile, plasmid content, and phylogenomic relationships. Viable B. cereus was identified in 18 of the 75 (24%) tested products, resulting in 36 WGS datasets, which were classified into eleven different STs, with ST165 (n = 10) and ST32 (n = 8) being the most common. All isolates carried multiple genes encoding virulence factors, including cytotoxin K-2 (52.78%) and cereulide (22.22%). Most isolates were predicted to be resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics (100%) and fosfomycin (88.89%), and a subset was predicted to be resistant to streptothricin (30.56%). Phylogenomic analysis revealed that some isolates obtained from different products were closely related or even identical indicating a likely common origin, whereas for some products the two isolates obtained did not show any close relationship to each other or other isolates found in other products. This study reveals that potentially pathogenic and drug-resistant B. cereus s.l. can be present in food and feed vitamin B₂ additives that are commercially available, and that more research is warranted to assess whether their presence in these types of products poses a threat to consumers.

Cereulide is an emetic toxin produced by some strains of Bacillus cereus. This bacterial toxin, a cyclic 1.2 kDa dodecadepsipeptide, is stable to heat and acids and causes nausea and vomiting when ingested via contaminated food. This work aimed to develop and validate a targeted analytical method applying liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) to quantify this toxin in food and human faeces. Samples were extracted with acetonitrile in the presence of ¹³C₆-cereulide, a labelled internal standard, and purified by centrifugation and filtration. The limits of quantification were 0.5 and 0.3 µg kg⁻¹ for food and faeces, respectively. The linearity of the method was very good, with calculated R² values above 0.995. The mean recovery of the method was within the acceptable range of 70.0%–120.0%, the repeatability was not higher than 7.3%, and the highest intra-laboratory reproducibility was 8.9%. The estimated range for the expanded measurement uncertainty was between 5.1% and 18.0%. The LC–MS/MS method was used to analyse one food sample (rice) from a Belgian foodborne outbreak and five faecal samples from patients with clinical symptoms after consumption of the contaminated rice. The levels of cereulide were 12.22 µg g⁻¹ for food and between 6.32 and 773.37 ng g⁻¹ for faecal samples.

Per today, commercial claims for LED-based products in terms of lumen maintenance are fully based on TM-21 extrapolations using LM80 data. There may be a risk in doing this as TM-21 only relies on the behavior of the average LED degradation, instead of taking into account the degradation of all individual LEDs. A more profound statistical analysis is required to make the step from TM-21 extrapolation to lumen maintenance on product level. This is needed as the commercial claims are used as input for service bids up to periods of 20 to 25 years of operation. This paper describes the different approaches currently available to perform lumen maintenance extrapolations. For that, we have analyzed several LM80 data sets from a statistical point of view.

This study examines the accuracy of labeling for galantamine products formulated as both generic drugs and dietary supplements, as well as tests for contamination with microorganisms.

Dietary supplements containing red yeast rice (RYR), a fermentation product of the fungus Monascus purpureus grown on white rice, remain popular in Europe as proclaimed cholesterol-lowering aids. The cholesterol-lowering effects are due to the occurrence of monacolin K, which is often present as a mixture of monacolin K lactone (MK) and as monacolin K hydroxy acid (MKA). MK is structurally similar to the cholesterol-lowering medicine lovastatin. Recently, due to safety concerns linked to the use of statins, the European Commission prohibited RYR supplements with a maximum serving exceeding 3 mg of total monacolins per day. Moreover, the amount of the mycotoxin citrinin, potentially produced by M. purpureus, was also reduced to 100 µg/kg. Evidently, manufacturers that offer their products on the European market, including the online market, must also be compliant with these limits in order to guarantee the safety of their products. Therefore, thirty-five different RYR supplements, purchased from an EU-bound e-commerce platform or from registered online pharmacies, were screened for their compliance to the European legislation for citrinin content and the amount of total monacolin K. This was conducted by means of a newly developed LC-MS/MS methodology that was validated according to ISO 17025. Moreover, these supplements were also screened for possible adulteration and any contamination by micro-organisms and/or mycotoxins. It was found that at least four of the thirty-five RYR supplements (≈11%) might have reason for concern for the safety of the consumer either due to high total monacolin K concentrations exceeding the European predefined limits for total monacolins or severe bacterial contamination. Moreover, three samples (≈9%) were likely adulterated, and the labeling of six of the seventeen samples (≈35%) originating from an EU-based e-commerce platform was not compliant, as either the mandatory warning was missing or incomplete or the total amount of monacolins was not mentioned.

Illicit PDE-5 inhibitors are frequently encountered by regulatory agencies. Self-medicating with substandard and falsified (SF) PDE-5 inhibitors could be dangerous as they are likely taken without any medical supervision and might be of poor quality which could result in adverse reactions. In order to provide an overview of the quality deficiencies present in recently seized illicit PDE-5 samples that may pose health risks, we set out to identify the products’ different chemical and/or biological risks. Our results indicate that 38% of the samples harbored a chemical risk including the significant exceedance of the maximum recommended dosage, a large heterogeneity in API content between the different tablets in the same package or blister and the presence of only 40% of the claimed dosage. Moreover, our results also demonstrate that 16 of the 32 samples were not compliant with the internationally set microbiological quality standards. Startlingly, two samples were severely contaminated with potentially pathogenic bacteria, which could result in a gastrointestinal illness upon oral intake.