Background: In recent years, formaldehyde is reported to be widely used as a food preservative to increase the shelf life of fruits and fishes in tropical countries. Formaldehyde is detrimental to human health. Hence, use of formaldehyde as a food preservative is legally prohibited in most of the countries. To regulate formaldehyde application in foods, the regulatory bodies often conduct on-the-spot analytical tests to detect artificially added formaldehyde in food items. However, formaldehyde is ubiquitous in the environment and is present in many animal and plant species as a product of their normal metabolism. This naturally occurring formaldehyde may interfere in the detection of artificially added formaldehyde in foods. It is, therefore, important to study the concentration and formation mechanism of naturally occurring formaldehyde in food items. Results: In this study, the formaldehyde contents of food samples were determined using spectrophotometric technique. The naturally occurring formaldehyde contents of a wide range of fruit, vegetable, milk, poultry, mutton and meat samples were determined. In addition, formaldehyde contents of processed food items, such as: cooked beef and poultry, beverages, and commercially available UHT milk and powdered milk samples, were also assessed and analyzed. The naturally occurring formaldehyde contents of fruit, vegetable, milk, poultry, mutton and meat samples were found up to 58.3, 40.6, 5.2, 8.2, 15.2 and 8.5 ppm, respectively. Formaldehyde contents of commercially available UHT milk, powdered milk, beverages, cooked beef and poultry were found up to 187.7, 194.1, 21.7, 4.3 and 4.0 ppm, respectively. This study also analyzed the time dynamic behavior of the formation of endogenous formaldehyde content of banana (AAB genome of Musa spp.), mandarin and beef. Conclusions: The experimental results provide a baseline data of natural occurring formaldehyde content of the analyzed food items. The formation behavior of formaldehyde may vary according to food types, storage temperature, storing time, and aging pattern of the food items. The findings of this study will be useful for the consumers, researchers, legal authorities and other stakeholders working on food safety and preservation.

Urinary or serum uric acid concentration is an indicator of chronic kidney condition. An increase in uric acid concentration may indicate renal dysfunction. Reliable instantaneous detection of uric acid without requiring sophisticated laboratory and analytical instrumentation, such as: chromatographic and spectrophotometric methods, would be invaluable for patients with renal complication. This paper reports the early development of a simple, low-cost, instantaneous and user-friendly paper based diagnostic device (PAD) for the qualitative and quantitative detection of uric acid in urine. A colorimetric detection technique was developed based on the intensity of Prussian blue color formation on paper in presence of uric acid; the reaction rate of corresponding chemical reactions on paper surface was also studied. Based on the colorimetric signal produced on paper surface, a calibration curve was developed to detect unknown concentration of uric acid in urine. The effect of temperature on formation of color signal on paper surface was also analyzed. In this study, estimation of urinary uric acid using MATLAB coding on a windows platform was demonstrated as the use of software application and digital diagnostics. This paper-based technique is faster and less expensive compared to traditional detection techniques. The paper-based diagnostic can be integrated with a camera of smart phone, tablet computer or laptop and an image processing application (using windows/android/IOS platform) as a part of digital diagnostics. Therefore, with proper calibration, the paper-based technique can be compatible and economical to the sophisticated detection techniques used to detect urinary uric acid.

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Fruit ripening is a natural process in which a fruit goes through various physical and chemical changes and gradually becomes sweet, colored, soft, and palatable. Fruit ripening process can also be stimulated by applying artificial fruit ripening agents. Farmers and vendors often use artificial ripening agents to control the rate of fruit ripening. However, because of the potential health hazards related to the ripening agents, artificial fruit ripening process is highly debatable throughout the world. There are existing laws and guidelines to control artificial fruit ripening process. This article highlights the legal aspects of artificial fruit ripening and fruit adulteration throughout the world. Different laws and acts of both the developed and developing countries to control and prohibit artificial fruit ripening and adulteration using hazardous chemicals are discussed here. The technical and economic issues related to artificial fruit ripening are also addressed in this study. This article aims at developing awareness among government agencies, policymakers, farmers, vendors, and scientists, as since it will take collective participation of different stakeholders to address different aspects of artificial fruit ripening issues and to provide an effective solution.

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