Synchrotron X-rays for Metals in Plants, Soils, and Environmental Systems: Early Science and Community Building at XLEAP

Session

Plants and food safety and nutritional quality

Aug 6, 2026, 2:15 PM

Bradfield 101 (Cornell University)

40. Keeping Babies Safe from Farm to Table: Food and Plant Science’s Role in Baby Food Manufacturing

Amber Morey-Lanza (Beech-Nut Nutrition)

8/6/26, 2:15 PM

Plants in food safety and nutritional quality

Oral presentation

Environmental and chemical contaminants were brought to the attention of baby food manufacturers in the late 2010s when an article was published about heavy metal concentrations found in different jar and tub baby foods. Over the last decade, parents have become increasingly concerned about what contaminants might be found in the food they are feeding their children. The quality team at...

16. Characterizing Impact of Heat Stress on Rice Nutritional Quality and Safety

Harkamal Walia

8/6/26, 2:45 PM

Plants in food safety and nutritional quality

Oral presentation

Plant response to environmental stresses varies with time and does not uniformly manifest across the entire plant or even specific organs. However, in most cases the phenotypic responses are measured at a single time point and lack spatial resolution. In rice, a staple food for more than half the humans, this phenomenon is evident as the grains develop on the panicle. We have developed a...

18. A novel μXRF based approach to mapping Fe Absorption across the small intestine (Gallus gallus)

Eliot Dugan (Cornell University)

8/6/26, 3:15 PM

Plants in food safety and nutritional quality

Oral presentation

Iron deficiency remains the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency globally, affecting over 2 billion people, driven largely by reliance on cereal staple foods that are inherently low in bioavailable Fe. Biofortification, the enhancement of a crop’s endogenous nutrient content and bioavailability, is increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to combat Fe deficiency. While much research...

31. Synchrotron XRF-based analyses of minerals distribution in tef (Eragrostis tef) seeds and transgenic Arabidopsis and rice expressing tef Iron-responsive genes

Ayalew Osena (University of North Carolina Greensboro)

8/6/26, 3:30 PM

Plants in food safety and nutritional quality

Oral presentation

Tef (Eragrostis tef) is the most important cereal crop in the Horn of Africa, especially in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where it has been a staple for over 6000 years. Tef is a nutrient-dense crop containing high levels of micro (Fe, Mn, Zn) and macro (Ca, Mg) nutrients. However, the spatial distribution of mineral nutrients in tef seeds has never been analyzed before. By using the synchrotron-XRF...

33. The atomic- and molecular underpinnings by which exposure to the anthropogenic exposome impacts food quality.

Mahesh Narayan (The University of Texas at El Paso)

8/6/26, 3:45 PM

Plants in food safety and nutritional quality

Oral presentation

Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) ingestion is associated with liver, immune, developmental, and reproductive effects. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanisms underlying PFDA toxicity remain poorly understood. For example, despite its established presence in human milk, cow milk, and infant formula, its molecular interactions with constituent proteins and their consequences require further study....