There is widespread agreement among experts that a fundamental reorientation of global, regional, national and local food systems is needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals Agenda and ...address the linked challenges of undernutrition, obesity and climate change described as the Global Syndemic. Recognising the urgency of this imperative, a wide range of global stakeholders – governments, civil society, academia, agri-food industry, business leaders and donors – convened at the September 2021 UN Food Systems Summit to coordinate numerous statements, commitments and declarations for action to transform food systems. As the dust settles, how will they be pieced together, how will governments and food corporations be held to account and by whom? New data, analytical methods and global coalitions have created an opportunity and a need for those working in food systems monitoring to scale up and connect their efforts in order to inform and strengthen accountability actions for food systems. To this end, we present – and encourage stakeholders to join or support – an Accountability Pact to catalyse an evidence-informed transformation of current food systems to promote human and ecological health and wellbeing, social equity and economic prosperity.
PurposeDespite the undoubted role of knowledge in the small family business (FB) in the restaurant and fast-food industry, there are some main challenges in the knowledge-sharing (KS) orientation for ...promoting their business. This study tries to recognise and explore the drivers influencing these enterprises' KS processes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied combined exploratory and confirmatory analysis in two studies. In the first study, by the Delphi method, the 22 experts consisting of managers, FB owners and academic professors explore and forecast significant items and drivers. The second study is a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for validating the first study's indicators using the survey collected amongst 218 restaurants and fast foods employees.FindingsThe findings indicate 23 indicators in three main drivers of individual, organisational and technological, are critical for KS in small FBs in the investigated industry.Originality/valueThis research supports the understanding of knowledge management and the FB and contributes to recognising the influential factors for KS amongst small and medium-sized family businesses in the food-related industry. Also, by identifying and ranking the most significant factors, this research will help entrepreneurs facilitate FB entrepreneurship. Finally, the results provide practical implications for current and future KM and FB decision-makers.
Microbial contamination is an increasing concern in the food industry. In order to understand the effect of microorganisms, the study of their characteristics and behavior in various platforms is of ...prime importance. Over the years, time-consuming and labor-intensive, culture-based enumeration techniques have become obsolete for real-time applications, and increasing concerns on foodborne outbreaks necessitate rapid, on-site and sensitive methods for the detection of microorganisms in food matrices.
In the current review, a brief discussion about biomarkers in microorganisms and bio-recognition ligands commonly used for detection assay are presented. The molecular interaction between biomarkers and ligands is critically evaluated and recent developments in bio-recognition based detection techniques for analyzing microorganism activity in complex food matrices are reviewed.
The microbial activity in food can be detected by analyzing the specific biomarkers of microorganisms such as nucleic acids, proteins, antigens, and metabolic products. Recent bio-recognition ligands in detection techniques such as biosensors, lateral flow assay, and microfluidic devices can improve the selectivity in detecting cells from complex food matrices. The emerging bio-recognition based methods bridge the gap between culture-dependent enumeration and molecular methods, and they could be employed in the industry to ensure food safety. However, the development of a validation protocol for all the emerging methods is necessary to assess their efficiency in real samples.
•Foodborne outbreaks necessitate rapid detection of microbial activity in food.•Biomarkers and bio-recognition ligands employed for detection are discussed.•Emerging bio-recognition based biosensors to ensure food safety are given.•Point-of-care use of lateral flow and microfluidic assay are briefly presented.
Reduction of food waste provides important environmental and economic benefits. Valorization of food by-products into edible materials is one of the most interesting strategies in this field. ...However, food by-products and wastes can contain chemical contaminants or potential pathogens that may endanger consumers’ health. Therefore, assuring quality and safety of these by-products is of utmost importance to take advantage of this valorization strategy.
In this review, safety evaluation of valorized by-products intended for human and animal consumption has been revised and critically discussed. With this aim, the most relevant applications of valorized by-products intended for livestock feed or food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical industries, in which quality and safety were assessed have been compiled. Moreover, the most common strategies for the analysis and removal of undesirable substances in these valorized by-products have been pointed out, as well as the requirements established by current regulations.
Despite the great number of applications found on food by-products valorization, only in a reduced number of works safety evaluation studies, such as physicochemical and microbiological assessments or the determination of toxic contaminants, were carried out. Among them, the development of decontamination procedures and processing approaches that avoid the generation of such undesirable substances, as well as effective analysis methods have been reported. However, in most cases the evaluation of results has been very complex and difficult due to the lack of specific legislation that regulates the suitability and safety of the new products to guarantee consumers’ safety.
•By-products valorization presents important economic and environmental benefits.•Food by-products require safety assessment for their use in humans or animals.•Safety evaluation of valorized by-products has been scarce up to date.•Physicochemical, microbiological and toxicological studies are discussed.•There is a lack of specific regulations to assure safety of valorized by-products.
Food security is both a complex and challenging issue to resolve as it cannot be characterized or limited by geography nor defined by a single grouping, i.e., demography, education, geographic ...location or income. Currently, approximately one billion people (16% of global population) suffer from chronic hunger in a time when there is more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet. Therein lies the Food security challenge to implement an ability to deal with increasing food shortages, caused by a combination of waste and an ever expanding world population. At current levels prediction state that we must increase global food production by 70% on already over exploited finite infrastructures before 2050.
This review paper firstly introduces the concept of Food Security with an overview of its scale and depth in the context of the global food industry. It then highlights the main sources. The readership is then introduced to the key factors affecting food security and highlights the many national and international measures adopted to tackle the problem at both policy and technological level.
Food experts indicate that no one single solution will provide a sustainable food security solution into the future. Collective stakeholder engagement will prove essential in bringing about the policy changes and investment reforms required to achieve a solution. Achieving truly sustainable global food security will require a holistic systems-based approach, built on a combination of policy and technological reform, which will utilize existing systems combined with state-of-the-art technologies, techniques and best practices some of which are outlined herein.
•222 millions of tons are annually wasted in developed countries.•Increasing pressure is being placed on shrinking finite resources produce our food.•The European commission has recently committed to decrease food waste 50% by 2025, as well as the US who have adopted a national waste reduction goal by the year 2030.•We must adopt a fully coordinated global effort to achieve sustainable food security.•Technology has a significant role to play in global food security.
Food Safety in the 21 st Century: Public Health Perspective is an important reference for anyone currently working in the food industry or those entering the industry. It provides realistic, ...practical, and very usable information about key aspects of food safety, while also systematically approaching the matter of foodborne illness by addressing the intricacies of both prevention and control. This book discusses ways to assess risk and to employ epidemiological methods to improve food safety. In addition, it also describes the regulatory context that shapes food safety activities at the local, national, and international levels and looks forward to the future of food safety. * Provides the latest research and developments in the field of food safety * Incorporates practical, real-life examples for risk reduction * Includes specific aspects of food safety and the risks associated with each sector of the food chain, from food production, to food processing and serving * Describes various ways in which epidemiologic principles are applied to meet the challenges of maintaining a safe food supply in India and how to reduce disease outbreaks * Presents practical examples of foodborne disease incidents and their root causes to highlight pitfalls in food safety management
Lipid nanoparticles are innovative delivery systems, which are similar to the prevalently used emulsions, with the differences in size and structure in which the water-insoluble core is dispersed in ...a combination of solid and liquid lipids stabilized by surfactants. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) plus nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are novel and promising nano-vehicles, which are of great interest to be applied in the food sector owing to their exclusive properties, as investigated in this revision.
LNs and NLCs are produced to unite the advantages of structures like liposomes and emulsions and they can be formulated to achieve desirable protection and release of food bioactive ingredients. This review highlights the pros and cons of using SLNs and NLCs in the food industry. Furthermore, the commonly applied production methods and formulations along with the recently conducted studies in the field of food science and technology are underlined.
These nano-vehicles have the potential to be employed in the food industrial applications in regard to their beneficial properties like simple production technology, low cost and scale up ability. These nanocarriers have been mostly applied in the pharmaceutical industries and are recently being utilized in the food sector, which seems to have great impacts on this industry as well as their commercialization in the near future.
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•Solid lipid nano-structures (SLNs) and nano structured lipid carriers (NLCs) are green nanovehicles.•Formulation and preparation methods for loading bioactive compounds into SLNs and NLCs are summarized and listed.•Recent studies on application of SLNs and NLCs in the food industry are reviewed.
In recent years, livestock farming has been in the spotlight. Meat production is blamed for the pollution of aquifers and rivers, as well as for the large amount of water required to feed livestock. ...This has highlighted the need to find alternative feeding systems for cattle breeding able to reduce food/feed competition.
In this context, the present study compares the water footprint (WF) of conventionally fed beef versus beef fed with vegetable by-products from the local agri-food industry.
Twenty-four entire male young bulls were reared under the Ternera de Navarra Protected Geographic Identification (PGI) in the town of Azoz, in Navarra, Spain. Twelve calves were fattened on a diet based on vegetable by-products and fodder and grain to complement the ration (VBP diet) and the remaining animals were fattened with a traditional diet based on concentrate and straw (conventional or control diet).
Once the fattening was finished and animals were slaughtered, the results showed a larger green, blue and grey WF in terms of m3 per beef cattle for conventionally fed animals compared to those fed with VBP. However, when looking at the efficiency, the results were mixed. Conventionally fed cattle exhibited lower green and grey WFs but a higher blue WF compared to VBP-fed cattle, with values of 9955 l/kg, 1577 l/kg and 1731 l/kg versus 10,147 l/kg, 1457 l/kg and 1831 l/kg of carcass beef, respectively.
This means that a by-product-based calf diet can reduce blue water use. However, further research is needed on the indirect water pollution associated with animal-fed crop production.
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•Circular economy actions and solutions need to be environmentally assessed.•Conventionally fed beef uses more water than vegetable by-product fed beef in terms of m3/beef.•Vegetable by-product fed beef increases blue water efficiency (l/kg).•Vegetable by-product fed beef may raise N water pollution per kg, but requires further study.•Beyond efficiency, total basin-specific water footprint assessments are needed, considering scarcity and pollution levels.
Water‐in‐oil (W/O) emulsions can be used to encapsulate and control the release of bioactive compounds for nutrition fortification in fat‐based food products. However, long‐term stabilization of W/O ...emulsions remains a challenging task in food science and thereby limits their potential application in the food industry. To develop high‐quality emulsion‐based food products, it is essential to better understand the factors that affect the emulsions’ stability. In real food system, the stability situation of W/O emulsions is more complicated by the fact that various additives are contained in the products, such as NaCl, sugar, and other large molecular additives. The potential stability issues of W/O emulsions caused by these encapsulated additives are a current concern, and special attention should be given to the relevant theoretical knowledge. This article presents several commonly used methods for the preparation of W/O emulsions, and the roles of different additives (water‐ and oil‐soluble types) in stabilizing W/O emulsions are mainly discussed and illustrated to gain new insights into the stability mechanism of emulsion systems. In addition, the review provides a comprehensive and state‐of‐art overview of the potential applications of W/O emulsions in food systems, for example, as fat replacers, controlled‐release platforms of nutrients, and delivery carrier systems of water‐soluble bioactive compounds. The information may be useful for optimizing the formulation of W/O emulsions for utilization in commercial functional food products.
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