Health claims potentially represent an opportunity for firms to engage in product differentiation and thereby induce investment into R&D and innovation in the food sector. The Nutrition and Health ...Claims Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006 (NHCR) aims at protecting and promoting innovation as one of its objectives. However, existing studies indicate that this regulation may create several challenges for innovation in the food sector. To this end, we review the challenges related to the NHCR (Article 13.1) and its impact on innovation. Extant literature suggests that companies face challenges related to changing list of ingredients, missing transparency, wording of claims, limited financial resources, limited R&D resources, switching product categories and abandoning the functional foods sector. Moreover, current studies imply that so far the NHCR (in specific Article 13.1) does not seem to encourage innovation in the EU food sector.
•We assessed COVID-19 implications on household income and food security using in Kenya and Uganda.•More than two-thirds of households experienced income shocks and worsened food security.•Food ...security outcomes were worse among the income poor and households dependent on labour income.•Labour-dependent and income poor households employed food-based coping strategies.•Membership in savings groups was more likely to mitigate member’s income shocks than NSSF.
This study assessed implications of the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic on household income and food security in two East African countries – Kenya and Uganda, using online survey data from 442 respondents. Results show that more than two-thirds of the respondents experienced income shocks due to the COVID-19 crisis. Food security and dietary quality worsened, as measured by the food insecurity experience scale and the frequency of consumption of nutritionally-rich foods. The proportion of food insecure respondents increased by 38% and 44% in Kenya and Uganda respectively, and in both countries, the regular consumption of fruits decreased by about 30% during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to a normal period (before the pandemic). Results from probit regressions show that the income-poor households and those dependent on labour income were more vulnerable to income shock, and had poorer food consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other respondent categories. As such, they were more likely to employ food-based coping strategies compared to those pursuing alternative livelihoods, who generally relied on savings. Farmers were less likely to experience worsened food security compared to other respondent categories who depended to a great extent on market sources for food. In both countries, participation in national social security schemes was less likely to mitigate respondents’ income shock during the COVID-19 period. Conversely, membership in savings and loan groups was correlated with less likelihood of suffering income shocks and reduction in food consumption. The results suggest that ongoing and future government responses should focus on structural changes in social security by developing responsive packages to cushion members pushed into poverty by such pandemics while building strong financial institutions to support the recovery of businesses in the medium term, and ensuring the resilience of food supply chains particularly those making available nutrient-dense foods.
Microwave processing techniques have been extensively used in the food industry due to its significant reduction in cooking time and energy consumption. Microwave processing technologies such as ...microwave drying, heating and sterilizing play a significant role in food quality and safety control. However, few reviews have been published in recent years summarizing the latest developments in the application of microwave technology in the food industry.
This review focuses on recent applications of microwave processing technologies including microwave drying, heating, and sterilizing in fruit (banana, apple, olive, sour cherries, pomegranate arils, blueberries, kiwifruit, aronia, strawberry, and grape tomato), vegetables (potato, bamboo shoot, purslane leaves, onion, green bean, pumpkin, eggplant, edamame, sea tangle, garlic, kale, red cabbage, tomato, cassava, lentils, chickpea, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, jalapeño peppers, and coriander foliage), and meat products (sardine fish, restructured silver carp slices, sea cucumber, beef semitendinosus muscle, bovine supraspinatus muscle, camel longissimus dorsi muscle, foal meat, bovine gluteus medium muscle, chicken steak, mature cows semimembranosus and semitendinosus muscles, kavurma (a ready-to-eat meat product), salmon, cod, drumettes, and beef slices), changes in product quality as affected with microwave processing are discussed in details, and future directions of research are presented.
Microwave drying has the advantages of low energy consumption and high efficiency as compared to conventional drying, while producing more porous structure of foods. Microwave drying usually combines with other conventional drying to enhance the quality of a food product. Compared with the traditional method, microwave heating or cooking can generally retain higher levels of bioactive components, antioxidant activity and attractive color of vegetables, while microwave cooking with water can cause a serious drop in nutrients due to leaching and thermal liability. Microwave sterilization has the capacity to completely inactivate microorganisms and effectively destroy enzyme activity, and less effect on antioxidant activity, texture and color of food products compared with conventional pasteurization.
•Applications of microwave treatments in fruit, vegetables and meat are presented.•The effects of microwave processing on food product quality are discussed.•Moisture migration and distribution during microwave drying is reported.•Microwave heating of food materials and its characteristics are reviewed.•The effects of microwave sterilization on microorganisms are discussed.
Recently, interest in smart packaging, which can show the color change of the packaging film according to the state of the food and evaluate the quality or freshness of the packaged food in ...real-time, is increasing. As a color indicator, a natural colorant, anthocyanin, drew a lot of attention due to their various colors as well as useful functions properties such as antioxidant activity and anti-carcinogenic and anti-inflammatory effects, prevention of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes. In particular, the pH-responsive color-changing function of anthocyanins is useful for making color indicator smart packaging films. This review addressed the latest information on the use of natural pigment anthocyanins for intelligent and active food packaging applications. Recent studies on eco-friendly biodegradable polymer-based color indicator films incorporated with anthocyanins have been addressed. Also, studies on the use of smart packaging films to monitor the freshness of foods such as milk, meat, and fish were reviewed. This review highlights the potential and challenges for the use of anthocyanins as pH-responsive color-changing films for intelligent food packaging applications, which may be beneficial for further development of smart color indicator films for practical use.
Novel foods are defined as food and food ingredients that have not been used to any significant extent in a particular country. This paper offers a brief overview of the current novel food ...legislation in European Union, Great Britain, USA, Australia and New Zealand, Canada and China. Prior to sale, food business operators (manufacturers or importers) are required, under different regulations and procedures, to submit information to Food Safety Authority about the product in question for a safety assessment. The approaches and specific information used to assess the safety of novel foods are outlined in national Guidelines. Generally, applicant should provide a detailed description of the novel food (identity of the novel food, production process, compositional data, proposed uses and use levels and anticipated intake of the novel food, history of use of the novel food and/or of its source, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, nutritional information, toxicological information and allergenicity) for the safety assessment and market approval of a novel food.
The role of processed foods in nutrition transition in the Pacific is receiving some attention in the context of a significant obesity and diet-related noncommunicable disease health burden. However, ...trends, patterns and underlying drivers of processed food markets in the Pacific are not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate recent trends and patterns of processed food markets in the region and interpret the findings by engaging key literature on relevant food systems drivers.
We conducted a mixed-methods approach involving two steps; (1) We analysed Euromonitor market sales data for processed food and beverage products sold from 2004-2018 for 16 countries differentiated by income level, and (2) guided by a food systems conceptual framework, we drew upon key literature to understand the likely drivers of our observations.
We observed plateaus and declines in processed food sales in some high-income countries but increases in upper-middle and lower-middle income countries, and most rapidly in the latter. Beverage markets appear to be stagnating across all income groups. Carbonated soft drinks, baked goods, vegetable oils, processed meats, noodles and sweet biscuits made up the majority of sales in transitioning countries. These observations are likely a result of income growth, urbanising populations, trade and globalisation, and various policies implemented by Pacific governments.
A processed foods nutrition transition is well underway in the Pacific region and accelerating most prominently in lower-middle income countries.
Mycotoxin contamination in agri-food products compromises human and animal health throughout the supply chains, thus the establishment of rapid and accurate methods for the detection of mycotoxins is ...essential for food safety assurance. Among the preferred spectral methods, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has emerged as an attractive solution for detecting trace mycotoxins in complex food matrices due to its advantages of high sensitivity, rapidness and non-destructiveness. However, relevant developments in research in this field are scarcely reviewed.
In the current review, the fundamentals of SERS and substrates for detecting mycotoxin in agri-foods are introduced, technical developments in the detection procedure including combined techniques, fingerprinting and SERS tagging and spectral optimizations such as using chemometrics are elaborated. Recent applications of SERS methods for trace level detection of mycotoxins in agri-food samples including cereal grains, fruits, dairy products, and wine are also highlighted, and limitations and future prospects for developing the SERS technology for detecting mycotoxin contamination are finally presented.
SERS is a rapid and sensitive technique for detecting trace mycotoxins. However, the preparation of high-performance SERS substrates for on-site quantitative analysis of real food samples is still a challenging scientific problem. Future research should focus on designing reliable SERS substrates, establishing SERS fingerprint libraries of mycotoxins, and developing accurate chemometric methods, and choosing suitable combined techniques in order to achieve an early adoption of the SERS method as a practical tool for detecting mycotoxin contamination in the agri-food industry.
•Mycotoxin contamination in foods is a considerable challenge.•SERS technique can detect AFs, OTs, ZEN, DON, FB and other mycotoxins in foods.•SERS detection of mycotoxins includes fingerprinting and SERS tagging methods.•The speed and sensitivity of the SERS technique will facilitate mycotoxin inspection.
Food in time and place Freedman, Paul; Chaplin, Joyce E; Albala, Ken
2014., 20141017, 2014, 2014-11-24
eBook
Food and cuisine are important subjects for historians across many areas of study. Food, after all, is one of the most basic human needs and a foundational part of social and cultural histories. Such ...topics as famines, food supply, nutrition, and public health are addressed by historians specializing in every era and every nation.Food in Time and Placedelivers an unprecedented review of the state of historical research on food, endorsed by the American Historical Association, providing readers with a geographically, chronologically, and topically broad understanding of food cultures-from ancient Mediterranean and medieval societies to France and its domination of haute cuisine. Teachers, students, and scholars in food history will appreciate coverage of different thematic concerns, such as transfers of crops, conquest, colonization, immigration, and modern forms of globalization.
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