FARHANEEN AFZAL MAZLAN

The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest threat to global health. It has a farreaching socio-economic impact on nearly all countries globally. The first case was reported in Malaysia on 25 January 2020. The number of issues kept increasing until the government announced the Movement Control Order (MCO) on 18 March 2020. As a result, the closures have had a major impact on businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This COVID19 pandemic greatly impacted worldwide compared to the H1N1 pandemic outbreak in 2009. This study aimed to examine the concept of preparedness actions of SMEs in the food industry to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopts a qualitative method of collecting data through documentation and library research to achieve this objective. The data consists of primary and secondary data gathered from books, articles, journals, reports, newspapers, and online databases. The findings of this study indicated that preparedness actions could be divided i...

The recent discoveries of smuggling non-halal meat within the halal meat industry have impeached the reliability of the existing legal framework governing the import of halal meat to Malaysia. The existing halal legal framework that is scattered and non-unified contributed to the uncertain jurisdiction of multi-authority that controls the import of halal meat, lack of coherence, over-regulation, and inadequate regulatory activities. Thus this study aimed to examine the conceptual framework of unified legal control of halal meat import in Malaysia. This study adopts a qualitative method utilizing doctrinal research where data is gathered using documentation methods from books, journal articles, reports, and online data-based. The data gathered are analyzed using a document and content analysis approach. The finding shows that a more effective unified legal framework should replace the current scattered and non-unified legal framework. The unified legal framework may assist in identif...

The isolation and characterization of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from the intestine of Oryctolagus cuniculus, a domestic rabbit species in Malaysia is described. Fifty isolates from rabbit intestine were screened by biochemical tests. From 50 isolates, four were identified and shown to be catalase-positive, lactose positive and Gram-positive cocci. Antibacterial assays were carried out against Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteritidis as indicator bacteria. The samples exhibited antibacterial properties as indicated by zone of inhibitions. Three isolates were further subjected to 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing and analysis. Partial 16SrRNA sequencing results from these isolates showed high sequence similarity with coagulase negative Staphylococcus sp. This result showed that by screening of LAB from rabbit intestine, bacteria from the family Staphylococcaceae could be isolated and this could be potentially used as probiotics in rabbit feeding.

Lactobacillus plantarumBET003 isolated fromMomordica charantiafruit was used to ferment its juice.Momordica charantiafresh juice was able to support good growth of the lactic acid bacterium. High growth rate and cell viability were obtained without further nutrient supplementation. In stirred tank reactor batch fermentation, agitation rate showed significant effect on specific growth rate of the bacterium in the fruit juice. After the fermentation, initially abundant momordicoside 23-O-β-Allopyranosyle-cucurbita-5,24-dien-7α,3β,22(R),23(S)-tetraol-3-O-β-allopyranoside was transformed into its corresponding aglycone in addition to the emergence of new metabolites. The fermentedM. charantiajuice consistently reduced glucose production by 27.2%, 14.5%, 17.1% and 19.2% at 15-minute intervals respectively, when compared against the negative control. This putative anti-diabetic activity can be attributed to the increase in availability and concentration of aglycones as well as other pheno...