Milk and dairy products are important sources of nutrition in daily life, helping to prevent and reduce diseases caused by deficiencies in certain nutrients. However, they are highly susceptible to contamination by pathogenic microorganisms, posing a threat to food safety and public health. Common pathogenic microorganisms include Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes, among others. In recent years, the frequent occurrence of milk and dairy product quality and safety incidents have sparked heightened public concern over dairy product safety. Traditional microbial detection methods (such as culture-based methods) are time-consuming and cumbersome, failing to meet the modern food industry’s demand for rapid testing and precise traceability. To satisfy the need for rapid, accurate, and efficient microbial detection in dairy products, researchers have developed various detection methods, including molecular biology techniques, immunological methods, and biosensor technologies, etc. This paper presents a systematic review of the latest advancements in rapid detection and traceability technologies for pathogenic microorganisms in milk and dairy products and explores their application prospects and development trends, aiming to provide references for food safety regulation and technological innovation.

Dairy products are rich in protein, fat, oligosaccharides, and micronutrients, and the global demand for these products is steadily increasing. However, in the processing of dairy products, there may be some problems such as adulteration with inferior milk or passing off low-quality milk products as high-quality ones. Therefore, establishing a robust method to identify the species composition of dairy products is crucial for quality supervision in the dairy industry. Omics technologies, characterized by their high throughput nature, broad applicability, and ability to accurately reflect food status, have increasingly been utilized for species identification in dairy products. This paper reviews the concepts of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, highlighting the current status and future prospects of these omics approaches in species identification in dairy products. The integration of multiple omics technologies will provide more reliable support for accurate, rapid, and comprehensive identification of dairy products.

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD), a pervasive global health concern, involves multifaceted pathological mechanisms including oxidative stress, lipid dysregulation and inflammatory responses, yet lacks effective multi-target therapies. Carnosic acid (CA), a natural diterpenoid with extensively characterized antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, remains underexplored for its systemic therapeutic potential in ALD. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate CA’s hepatoprotective efficacy and molecular mechanisms against ALD. Results demonstrated that CA significantly reduced serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, and transaminase levels in ALD mice, concurrently alleviating alcohol-induced histopathological damage. Network pharmacology identified 36 potential targets, with 10 core targets predominantly enriched in lipid metabolism, PPAR signaling and inflammatory response. Molecular docking revealed superior binding affinities of CA to core targets compared to silibinin, a reference hepatoprotectant. RT-qPCR validation further confirmed CA’s regulatory effects on apoptosis-related TP53/BCL2 axis, TNF-mediated inflammatory pathways and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) metabolic genes. Through a tripartite strategy integrating phenotypic validation, mechanistic prediction, and experimental confirmation, this study elucidates CA’s multi-target therapeutic actions against ALD via coordinated modulation of lipid homeostasis, oxidative stress and inflammatory pathways, providing the groundwork for future mechanism exploration.

Macrophage polarization is a pivotal determinant in the modulation of immune responses and the formation of the tumor-microenvironment (TME), therefore represents a promising avenue for the development of cancer immunotherapy. Recent research highlights the potential of edible mushroom polysaccharides in inducing M1/M2 polarization of macrophages. Here, we report that oral administration of Flammulina (F.) velutipes polysaccharide (FVP) reduced the tumor volume of grafted 4T1 mammary and lewis lung carcinoma (LLC), and increased the overall survival rate of mice. Moreover, this polysaccharide induced the generation of CD11b⁺Ly6C^highF4/80⁺ macrophage cells in LLC and 4T1 tumor-bearing mice. Further investigation found that FVP decreased the ratio of M2-macrophages and regulatory T cells in TME, which is known to support tumor growth and metastasis. Mechanistically, FVP reversed the IL-4 induced M2-polarization by activating the TLR4/ NF-κB axis, and in vitro assays confirmed the expression of pro-inflammatory genes and the antitumor effects of the polysaccharide. Additionally, the expression of Th1 response relative genes also enhanced by FVP polarized macrophage secretions. In summary, these results suggest that FVP may represent a promising immunomodulatory agent for the reversal of macrophage polarization.

Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc., a valuable Chinese medicine resource, has a long clinic utilization history. In recent years, more research focus on the chemical composition and pharmacological activity of C. officinalis which was used as health foods and drugs. This paper summarized the active ingredients, pharmacological activities and molecular mechanisms of C. officinalis in recent 5 years to provide reference for the development and utilization of C. officinalis. A total of 149 active constituents of C. officinalis were summarized, including iridoids (64), flavonoids (18), lignin (17), tannins (16), organic acids and phenolic acids (14), triterpenes (11) and others (9), which were further subdivided according to their pharmacological effects. It was found that the pharmacological effects of C. officinalis were very extensive, mainly including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, neuroprotective and other biological activities. Among these activities, the anti-inflammatory and hypoglycemic mechanisms showed multi-pathway and multi-target characteristics, which were elaborated systematically. However, there are still many compounds in C. officinalis that have not been studied for biological activity, which means that it still has potential pharmacological activity to be further studied. C. officinalis not only has high medicinal value, but also has a potential edible resource. However, limited by people’s understanding of the nutritional value of C. officinalis, few product types and incomplete processing technology, people’s acceptance of the edible value of C. officinalis is not high, and it needs to be further developed and utilized.

A rapid detection method based on helicase-dependent isothermal DNA amplification (HDA) was established for Lactobacillus plantarum in fermented milk. Specific primers were designed according to the scrB gene sequence of Lactobacillus plantarum (Genbank Accession NO. AJ579541.1), and the optimal concentrations of UvrD helicase and T4 gp32 in the reaction system were determined through experiments. The limit of detection (LOD), specificity, consistency and stability of the proposed method were evaluated by use of L. plantarum-spiked samples, amplification of various strains, and electrophoresis of amplified products and sequence alignment analysis, respectively. The results showed that the optimized of UvrD helicase and T4 gp32 in the reaction system were found to be 0.15 and 5.0 μg, respectively. The HDA method had high specificity with no amplification of other strains tested. The detection limit was 2.8 × 10¹ CFU/g. The amplified product was consistent with the designed sequence length (273 bp) and the sequence homology was 100%. In conclusion: this method is rapid, simple, sensitive and suitable for the detection of Lactobacillus plantarum in fermented milk.

A quality control sample for the qualitative analysis of Listeria monocytogenes was developed by vacuum freezing drying technology, and the homogeneity and stability of the quality control sample were systematically analyzed. By optimizing the type of lyophilized matrix, the optimal conditions for the development of quality control samples were obtained. The homogeneity and stability of the developed quality control sample were verified by counting the number of cells as well as using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The quality control sample was white in color, spherical in shape and uniform in size. The results of cell counting for uniformity validation showed F = 0.567, which was less than the critical value, indicating good uniformity. In the transportation stability test, the quality control sample remained stable at 37 and 25 ℃. In the storage stability test, the resurrection rate of the quality control sample was 101.5% after 28 days of storage at –20 ℃, and 99.6% after 28 days of storage at 4 ℃, indicating that the sample has good uniformity and stability, and can be used as a positive quality control sample for the detection and quality control of Listeria monocytogenes.

This study established a method using gas chromatography-electrostatic field Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (Orbitrap GC-MS) for the simultaneous determination of 70 organic pollutants across 4 categories: organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and phthalates (PAEs) in infant cereal-based supplementary foods. Techniques integrating cryogenic centrifugation and lipid and protein adsorbent (LPAS) purification were employed. The precise mass numbers of target compounds were determined by Orbitrap GC-MS in full-scan mode (Full MS), which effectively minimized matrix interferences in these foods. Method validation on rice flour samples demonstrated that the 70 compounds exhibited excellent linearity within their respective mass concentration ranges, with correlation coefficients all exceeding 0.995. The detection limits for this method ranged 0.10–1.00 μg/kg, while the quantification limits varied 0.3–3.0 μg/kg, meeting the established detection requirements. The average spike recovery of the 70 compounds at 3 spiked levels (5, 20, and 100 μg/kg) ranged 75.3%–119.3%, with relative standard deviations ranging 1.8%–10.8%. Both inter-day and intra-day precision demonstrated relative standard deviation values below 15%. This method was applied to analyze 100 samples of commercial infant cereal-based supplementary food, revealing the presence of PAEs and PAHs in 12.0% of the samples. Notably, no OCPs or PCBs were detected. The detected concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were (4.2 ± 0.1) and (1.8 ± 0.3) μg/kg, respectively. This method is straightforward, highly sensitive, and suitable for the rapid screening and confirmation of 70 organic pollutants in infant cereal-based supplementary foods.

Rosmarinus officinalis L. is a perennial evergreen subshrub of the family Lamiaceae in the class Dicotyledoneae. It is native to Europe and the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa and has broad development prospects in the food, medicinal, and chemical industries. Although the chemical composition of R. officinalis L. has been reported, the classifications and summary of the structure of its compounds are not sufficient. In this article, we summarize the chemical components of R. officinalis L. that have been reported over the past five years, including flavonoids, terpenoids, and phenylpropanoids, and their structure, and we introduce the applications of R. officinalis L., so as to provide a reference and scientific basis for the chemical composition analysis, structural identification, development and utilization of R. officinalis L..

Inflammation caused by obesity, particularly in adipose tissue and the liver, can lead to insulin resistance (IR) and trigger type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It is crucial to identify therapeutic agents that alleviate IR by reducing inflammation. Here, we report that isobavachromene (IB), a flavonoid derived from Psoralea corylifolia Linn., ameliorates IR in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by inhibiting the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) signaling pathway. We first found that IB could promote glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by activating the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI-3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathway and was more effective than the positive control sodium orthovanadate at concentrations ranging from 25 to 100 μmol/L. Additionally, IB inhibited RAW264.7 macrophage infiltration into 3T3-L1 adipocytes and suppressed the secretion of inflammatory factors from RAW264.7 macrophages, as well as the phosphorylation levels of key proteins (NF-κB p65, extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and mitogen-activated protein kinase 38 (p38)) in the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. In summary, IB improves glucose uptake in IR adipocytes, activates the PI-3K/Akt signaling pathway, inhibits the JNK and NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathways, and reduces adipocyte inflammation, thereby improving of IR in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.