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•Insects intended for human consumption are considered Novel Foods in the EU.•Insect-based products (IBPs) collected online were authenticated by metabarcoding.•A high mislabeling ...rate (33.3%) was observed.•Not authorized species or lower value species were found in mislabeled IBPs.•Metabarcoding was proved as effective tool to authenticate IBPs and detect frauds.
Insects intended for human consumption are considered Novel Foods according to EU legislation. marketed in form of powders, bars, snacks are increasingly available on the EU market, especially on e-commerce. The commercial form and the way of distribution make IBPs particularly prone to mislabeling. Literature concerning the mislabeling occurrence in IBPs is extremely scarce. In this study, 46 processed IBPs were collected on nine EU e-commerce platforms (e-CO) to be authenticated by metabarcoding. A 200 bp region from 16S rRNA gene was used as molecular target. Sequencing data were processed using DADA2 R package, and sequences were taxonomically assigned through BLAST analysis against GenBank. Procedural blanks and positive controls were included in the analysis, and threshold values were established to filter the final data. The mislabeling rate (i. e. the mismatch between the species declared on the IBP label and the species identified by metabarcoding) was calculated. Overall, a high mislabeling rate (33.3 %) was observed, although this percentage is influenced by the e-CO platform and the insect species, with A. domesticus particularly involved. The use of species not listed in authorized Novel Food (e. g. Gryllus locorojo), and/or the partial replacement of high value species with lower value species was highlighted for the first time in processed IBPs. The presence of insect pests was also detected. Metabarcoding was confirmed as an effective tool for IBPs authentication. Also, outcomes from this study can provide useful data on the main issues involving the EU IBPs’ market, that can represent an incentive to reinforce both official controls and FBO’s self-controls on these poorly investigated products.
A new type of stringent sampling inspection plan is proposed for cell counts generally in line with a Poisson or a mixed-Poisson type of distribution. The proposed plan is based on setting an upper ...envelope estimated from the sample counts which should remain below the given microbiological limit m. We used Monte-Carlo simulation methodology to evaluate the proposed plans and showed that the lot acceptance criterion using the upper envelope improves consumer protection in general. Both two and three class attribute plans are investigated for establishing the upper envelope. Our study reveals that the proposed plans can offer better consumer protection and economy when compared to both two and three class attribute plans. It is also demonstrated that a slightly stringent plan can be found in place of lognormal type variables plans. The limitations of the proposed new plans, and a discussion on alternative stringent rules for batch acceptance are also provided. The new plan was also validated using the APC cell counts observed for 2000 milk powder batches. Our conclusion is that the proposed stringent plans can improve protection to the consumer, particularly for exported food products.
•The proposed stringent sampling plan makes use all of the analytical test information.•The new plan offers better consumer protection and economy.•Models including Poisson and its mixtures are considered under the new plan.•A web-based application of the plan is provided for practitioners.
In the case of this economic operator, manufacturing or trading textile products, the corporate social responsibility is a social must, and it consists of a set of objectives which must be ...implemented by the management of the economic operator in all departments. In order to understand the implications of a social responsibile management in the textile products domain, it is required to analise the juridical framework. Interesting is the choice in this area of the production and the marketing of textile products, to only adopt/use one regulation, not a directive or a legislative package consisting in a directive and a regulation. As a result of legal analysis performed, we support the maintenance of the use, as a legal instrument, of the European regulation type normative document, but we suggest the extension of the provisions of the European normative act and its transformation into a particular complex normative act, beyond the scope of the aspects concerning the labelling.
Perhaps no kind of regulation is more common or less useful than mandated disclosure-requiring one party to a transaction to give the other information. It is the iTunes terms you assent to, the ...doctor's consent form you sign, the pile of papers you get with your mortgage. Reading the terms, the form, and the papers is supposed to equip you to choose your purchase, your treatment, and your loan well.More Than You Wanted to Knowsurveys the evidence and finds that mandated disclosure rarely works. But how could it? Who reads these disclosures? Who understands them? Who uses them to make better choices?
Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl Schneider put the regulatory problem in human terms. Most people find disclosures complex, obscure, and dull. Most people make choices by stripping information away, not layering it on. Most people find they can safely ignore most disclosures and that they lack the literacy to analyze them anyway. And so many disclosures are mandated that nobody could heed them all. Nor can all this be changed by simpler forms in plainer English, since complex things cannot be made simple by better writing. Furthermore, disclosure is a lawmakers' panacea, so they keep issuing new mandates and expanding old ones, often instead of taking on the hard work of writing regulations with bite.
Timely and provocative,More Than You Wanted to Knowtakes on the form of regulation we encounter daily and asks why we must encounter it at all.
The sharing economy has radically reshaped marketing thought and practice, and research has yet to examine whether and how platform-level buyer protection insurance (PPI) affects buyers and sellers ...in this economy. The authors exploit a natural experiment involving an unexpected system glitch during a PPI launch and estimate difference-in-differences models using over 5.4 million data points from a food sharing platform. Results suggest that PPI significantly increases buyer spending and seller revenue, affirming the benefits of this platform-level insurance in the sharing economy. The authors also uncover multifaceted buyer-side and seller-side responses that enable such benefits. PPI increases buyer spending by boosting product orders and variety-seeking behavior. Furthermore, it enhances seller revenue by increasing customer retention and acquisition. This work contributes to the literature by (1) putting a spotlight on the topic of PPI, a platform governance policy that reduces consumer risks and improves the efficacy of sharing platforms; (2) accounting for how PPI alters buyer and seller behaviors on a platform; (3) addressing what types of buyers and sellers benefit more or less from PPI; and (4) offering guidance for managers to improve platform reputation, marketplace efficiency, and consumer welfare in the context of the sharing economy.
The paper is devoted to analyzing the conditions and possibilities of assisting consumers in protecting their consumer rights. As Slovakia is a member of the EU, it is necessary to include the ...conditions resulting from harmonizing the law within the Union. This paper points out different possibilities of consumer protection documented in the research part by evaluating data available in statistical sources. We also point out the current state of the frequency of initiated individual proceedings, the analysis of which is used to formulate the conclusions and recommendations of the scientific study.
Cosmetics, like any product containing water and organic/inorganic compounds, require preservation against microbial contamination to guarantee consumer’s safety and to increase their shelf-life. The ...microbiological safety has as main goal of consumer protection against potentially pathogenic microorganisms, together with the product’s preservation resulting from biological and physicochemical deterioration. This is ensured by chemical, physical, or physicochemical strategies. The most common strategy is based on the application of antimicrobial agents, either by using synthetic or natural compounds, or even multifunctional ingredients. Current validation of a preservation system follow the application of good manufacturing practices (GMPs), the control of the raw material, and the verification of the preservative effect by suitable methodologies, including the challenge test. Among the preservatives described in the positive lists of regulations, there are parabens, isothiasolinone, organic acids, formaldehyde releasers, triclosan, and chlorhexidine. These chemical agents have different mechanisms of antimicrobial action, depending on their chemical structure and functional group’s reactivity. Preservatives act on several cell targets; however, they might present toxic effects to the consumer. Indeed, their use at high concentrations is more effective from the preservation viewpoint being, however, toxic for the consumer, whereas at low concentrations microbial resistance can develop.
The National Authority for Consumers’ Protection is concerned to survey the market of agro-alimentary produce; as a result of the punctual programme, it develops control activities in order to check ...quality / conformity of foodstuff supplied for sale. Meat preparations are the most demanded and preferred; this is why they have paid particular attention to quality, labelling, marketing, and storage. Of the total 87 complaints concerning lack of compliance with the standards of such items as fruits, milk, meat, vegetables, bread and bakery, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, coffee, chocolate, and fish preparations, only 31 proved justified. We can see that of the total complaints only 35.63% are justified and that they concern such produce as biscuits, fresh and refrigerated fish, vegetable and fruit juices, pet foods, spirits, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages.
Consumer protection is a very wide-ranging issue and needs to be given due attention. It concerns the safety of consumers in the environment of individual countries of the world, it concerns the ...consumer safety of certain groups, such as the European Union. The basic frameworks of consumer protection are set by the guidelines of world organizations - the UN, WHO, but also the European Union and individual member states. In the area of consumer protection, attention is paid to major health problems caused by unsuitable food, such as food scandals, various types of diseases - mad cow disease, swine fever, covid 19.
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