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November 19, 2015 is a day to remember in the history of biotechnology. On this day, the FDA approved the plan to use "genetically modified salmon" as a human food, and the genetically modified salmon became the world's first animal to be eaten as a transgenic animal. Subsequently, with the widespread appearance of Gene Modified Organisms (GMO) for human and animal consumption, the safety of these emerging foods and feeds is also increasingly worthy of attention.
Agriculture/crop quality safety refers to the reliability, usability, and intrinsic value of agriculture/crops, including the formation, remaining nutrients, hazards, and external characteristic factors in production, storage, circulation, and use. Alfa Chemistry offers a variety of agriculture/crop analysis to determine the adulteration of specific food and products. This includes early detection of possible adulterations and fraudulent practices that may result in economic losses or consumers damage. Understanding the allergenicity and hazard profiles of genetically engineered proteins and crops, digestibility, full protein expression and characterization are the key components to GMO food safety. These are the basics of food safety and chemical pesticide control, just like pesticide/herbicide metabolic studies of insects, crops and pathogen pests.
Alfa Chemistry has many analytical techniques and equipment for agriculture/crop. For example, radiolabeled 14C and 3H are used to analyze the metabolism and degradation of agricultural/plant and metabolite/degradation products in the environment, plants and animals. In addition, we have experienced food scientists, analytical chemists and biologists to analyze and study the safety and reliability of certain genetically modified foods, intake of food additives, bioaccumulation and purification capabilities, and the addition and impact of food dyes. At Alfa Chemistry , a wide array of Agriculture/Crop analysis can be accomplished with standard turn-around-time rates and expedited rates at reasonable costs.
Alfa Chemistry can provide the following technical services:
Sensitization refers to the ability of a substance to become an allergen and triggers an allergic immune response. Almost all food allergens are proteins. Using genetic engineering to alter the genetic structure of crops may alter its allergenicity, and proteins produced by new genes may produce new allergens. In addition, "unexpected effects" sometimes appear in genetic engineering. "Unexpected effects" refers to the fact that the implanted gene may alter the expression of endogenous genes, causing excess or deficiency of specific proteins. If host plants contain known allergenic proteins, adding new genes will increase the expression of allergens, making plants more likely to cause allergies. Alfa Chemistry can analyze and study the above situation. We use common enzyme immunoassay to detect allergens quickly, accurately and painlessly, avoiding the risk of new allergens.
Digestibility refers to the percentage of total nutrients that are eaten by nutrients digested and absorbed by the body in food or feed. Only part of the nutrients that enter the digestive system can be absorbed. This absorbed portion can be determined by digestive tests and used as a parameter to determine digestibility. The determination of digestibility requires the use of artificial gastric fluid (SGF), artificial intestinal fluid (SIF), and artificial colon fluid (SCF) to simulate the internal digestive environment.
Protein and Gene Expression Profiles
Protein and gene expression profiles refer to the creation of specific cells by constructing a non-biased cDNA library of cells or tissues in a specific state, performing large-scale cDNA sequencing, collecting cDNA sequence fragments, and qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing their mRNA composition. Or organize the gene expression type and abundance information in a specific state, so that the prepared data table is called Protein and Gene Expression Profiles. Expression profiling can be used to infer the characterization of the protein formed by a target gene. The construction of protein and gene expression profiles usually requires the use of techniques such as fluorescent labeling, gene probes, and gene chip synthesis. Alfa Chemistry is fully capable of performing this operation and research.
Enzymatic Assays
Enzymatic Assays refers to the method of detecting the number of enzymes in a given situation to arrive at a desired test conclusion. There are many types, such as urease and catalase tests. The principle of urease assay is that Helicobacter pylori is the only bacteria in the human stomach that can produce a large amount of urease, and can detect Helicobacter pylori infection by detecting urease. The principle of catalytic experiments is that most aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria produce catalase (catalyst). Hydrogen peroxide can be used to detect the presence of oxygen-free and facultative anaerobes. The experimental conditions required by enzymatic assays are very simple, requiring only a general biological laboratory. Alfa Chemistry has the skills and conditions to easily complete these tests.
When pesticides and herbicides remain on crops, it will seriously affect the food safety of crops and cause food poisoning. Pesticide/ Herbicide Residue analysis has become an essential part of the crop before it goes public. The detection of pesticide and herbicide residues usually requires the use of atomic spectrophotometers, HPLC, GC, and other high-tech equipment. Obviously, Alfa Chemistry has enough capacity to do this work.
Radiolabeled Substances
Radiolabeled substances are compounds that use radionuclides (14C and 3H) to displace one or more atoms of a compound molecule so that it can be recognized and used as a tracer. The isotopes in these markers will be transported, transferred, and involved in metabolic activities in the living organism, just like the corresponding ordinary atoms. Radioactively labeled atoms are easily identifiable to show their location and number for the analysis of agriculture/crops metabolites/degradates in environmental fate, plant and animal metabolism, human and degradation studies. In general, stable isotope traces are tested by IRMS analysis; radioisotopes are analyzed by liquid scintillation counter analysis. Alfa Chemistry has extensive practical experience in this area.
Analytical Support in Environmental Toxicity
Analytical support in environmental toxicity refers to the method of determining the nature, source, content, and distribution status of environmental pollutants and environmental background values. It is based on the application of modern testing techniques and methods in various fields of analytical chemistry.
Bioaccumulation and Depuration
Through the metabolism of organisms, the polluted environment is purified, the environmental load on pollutants is increased, and the effect of increasing environmental capacity is called biological purification.
Alfa Chemistry has a group of professional researchers, advanced experimental equipment and instruments that can provide you with efficient, high quality, and low-cost services.