Agricultural University of Athens

Insecticidal applications can cause morphol. deformities to the exposed insects or their offspring.Pirimiphos-Me and etofenprox have been previously evaluated against Alphitobius diaperinus, but there is no knowledge about their effect on the morphol. of the F1 generation.This study examines the effect of both insecticides on mandible and hindwing morphol. of A. diaperinus adult progeny.Regarding the shape of the mandibles in both female and male individuals, the two insecticides induced significant deformations compared to the control group.Etofenprox caused more vigorous morphol. changes vs. pirimiphos-Me.In terms of hindwings, Principal Component Anal. (PCA) did not reveal distinction between females or males exposed to either etofenprox or pirimiphos-Me.Both insecticides affected the mouthparts of the F1 generation adults of A. diaperinus, which could lead to reduced feeding ability and thus to insufficient population growth.

In the present work, we examined the angiotensin-I-converting enzyme-inhibitory (ACE-I) activity of the water soluble extracts of four long-ripened Feta cheese samples.High activity (>87%) was determined for all of them.Addnl., we fingerprinted the non-starter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) isolated from the cheese samples.All NSLAB isolates were screened for their proteolytic activity and the most proteolytic ones were further evaluated for their ACE-I activity as well as ability to produce γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA).The NSLAB isolates comprised 130 lactobacilli and 24 enterococci, with the dominant species being Levilactobacillus brevis, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei and Enterococcus faecium.Among them, 40 selected isolates exhibited high proteolytic activity, with 13 lactobacilli and two enterococci exhibiting strong ACE-I activity (>50%), and six lactobacilli producing GABA.Thus, the hypertension risk associated with over-consumption of Feta cheese because of its high sodium content may be compensated by the anti-hypertensive traits of NSLAB microbiota members, which are active during the long cheese ripening time.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) more than 14% of the world's food production is lost every year before reaching retail, and another 17% is lost during the retail stage. The use of the expiration date as the main estimator of the life-end of food products creates unjustified food waste. Sensors capable of quantifying the effective food freshness and quality could substantially reduce food waste and enable more effective management of the food chain. We propose an electrolyte-gated organic transistor (EGOT) that responds to the release of biogenic amines, like diamines and tyramine, generated by the degradation of protein-rich food. The EGOT sensor features a polymeric poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) gate electrode fabricated in the shape of a miniaturized beaker containing an aqueous solution in the inner side (to be exposed to food) and capacitively coupled through a hydrogel to the transistor channel on the outside (not in contact with food). The hydrogen bonds formed by the water-dissolved amines with PEDOT:PSS modulate the EGOT channel across a wide range of amine concentrations. We demonstrate that our sensor can detect different amines by the combinatorial analysis of the response from different channel materials, PEDOT:PSS and the other DPP-DTT, with a limit of detection as low as 100 pM.