Suchergebnisse

The rise of food security up international political, societal and academic agendas has led to increasing interest in novel means of improving primary food production and reducing waste. There are however, also many 'post-farm gate' activities that are critical to food security, including processing, packaging, distributing, retailing, cooking and consuming. These activities all affect a range of important food security elements, notably availability, affordability and other aspects of access, nutrition and safety. Addressing the challenge of universal food security, in the context of a number of other policy goals (e.g. social, economic and environmental sustainability), is of keen interest to a range of UK stakeholders but requires an up-to-date evidence base and continuous innovation. An exercise was therefore conducted, under the auspices of the UK Global Food Security Programme, to identify priority research questions with a focus on the UK food system (though the outcomes may be broadly applicable to other developed nations). Emphasis was placed on incorporating a wide range of perspectives ('world views') from different stakeholder groups: policy, private sector, non-governmental organisations, advocacy groups and academia. A total of 456 individuals submitted 820 questions from which 100 were selected by a process of online voting and a three-stage workshop voting exercise. These 100 final questions were sorted into 10 themes and the 'top' question for each theme identified by a further voting exercise. This step also allowed four different stakeholder groups to select the top 7-8 questions from their perspectives. Results of these voting exercises are presented. It is clear from the wide range of questions prioritised in this exercise that the different stakeholder groups identified specific research needs on a range of post-farm gate activities and food security outcomes. Evidence needs related to food affordability, nutrition and food safety (all key elements of food security) featured highly in the exercise. While there were some questions relating to climate impacts on production, other important topics for food security (e.g. trade, transport, preference and cultural needs) were not viewed as strongly by the participants. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and International Society for Plant Pathology.

Background Front of pack nutrition labelling is part of United Kingdom government`s programme of activities aiming to tackle diet-related diseases. There are several front of pack labelling formats available and they differ in the information they deliver. This study assessed the frequency of usage of front of pack food labelling systems on food products in the United Kingdom grocery market. It also measured the healthiness of some foods in the online market by categorising them according to their nutrient contents. Methods Five hundred food products in five categories [(1) cereals and cereal products, (2) dairy products, (3) beverages, (4) packaged meats and meat products, and (5) pre-packaged fruits and vegetables] from three main United Kingdom retail websites were investigated. A simple random sampling method was used for product selection according to the categories on the retailers' websites. The healthiness of foods was also assessed by categorising them into 'healthier', 'moderately healthy' and 'least healthy' based on fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar contents. Results The total number of label types assessed comprises 19.6% of Guideline Daily Amounts or Reference Intakes and 43.8% had a combination of Traffic Light and Reference Intakes (hybrid label). Slightly over a quarter (27.4%) of products included nutritional information in a grid or table, 3.4% of the foods had two of any of the following: Health Logo, Reference Intakes and Traffic Light labels, and 5.8% did not have any Reference Intakes, Traffic Light, Health Logo or Hybrid label. Most of the foods assessed were manufactured in the United Kingdom with only 30.8% imported from 32 countries across four continents. Conclusions Traffic Light and Guideline Daily Amounts were the most used front of pack labelling formats on the assessed food product. A higher number of assessed products belonged to the "moderately healthy" and "healthier" categories than the "least healthy". The imported foods that were found in the United Kingdom retail market showed that food choices could be made from the diverse food types.

Beef from Brazil, avocados from Mexico, lamb from New Zealand, wines from South Africa and green beans from Kenya – food shopping lists have a distinctly international flavour. And with many questioning the sustainability of importing so much food from so far away, we are beginning to ask if switching to a vegetarian diet to cut emissions caused by meat production is as sustainable as one might think. The influence of the global trade of food on local diets and cultural choices has exploded over recent years. Food supply chains operate globally and deliver rural produce to nearly 4 billion people now living in cities and towns. It was this principle that established the world's first agricultural research station some 150 years ago when the founders of Rothamsted saw the potential of the agricultural land surrounding London to supply a growing urban population. In the 21st century, the whole world can be your bread basket. Many are conscious of what they eat – both from a health and environmental perspective. But what is the impact of this? We're increasingly encouraged to eat less meat to tackle climate change. And meat consumption, in the European Union at least, has reduced and stabilised at around 42m tonnes over the last 15 years. There are also now new labels for different types of meat eaters: flexitarians (only eat meat sometimes) or the reducetarian (aim to eat less meat) that reflect the ways different groups are trying to cut down.

Generation of food waste (FW) continues to be a global challenge and high on the political agenda. One of the main reasons for its generation is the absence of detailed data on the amount, timing and reasons for created waste. This paper discusses the design, the application and investigates the Internet of Things (IoT) based FW monitoring system to capture waste data during manufacturing in real-time and make it available to all the stakeholders in a food supply chain (FSC). A case study of ready-meal factory comprises of design and architecture for tracking FW including both hardware and software, its implementation in the factory and the positive data-driven results achieved. The case study demonstrates the benefits of digital FW tracking system including the FW reduction of 60.7%, better real-time visibility of the FW hotspots, reasons for waste generations, reliable data, operational improvements and employee behavioural transformation. Although the system replaced the paper-based manual system of tracking FW in the factory, it still needed human input to confirm the waste and was prone to human errors. Overall, the implementation of an IoT-based FW tracking system resulted in a reduction of FW and created a positive environmental and financial impact.

Now in a fully revised and updated second edition, this volume provides a contemporary overview of food processing/packaging technologies. It acquaints the reader with food preservation processes, shelf life and logistical considerations, as well as packaging materials, machines and processes necessary for a wide range of packaging presentations. The new edition addresses environmental and sustainability concerns, and also examines applications of emerging technologies such as RFID and nanotechnology. It is directed at packaging technologists, those involved in the design and development of pac.

Front Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgment and How to Cite -- List of Contributors -- Introduction -- Part I: Overview of Food Production and Supply Chains -- Part II: Dairy Industry -- Part III: Meat Industry -- Part IV: Coffee and Tea Industries -- Part V: Food and Beverage Waste Products -- Part VI: Food Processing and Packaging -- Part VII: Concluding Implications -- Author Notes -- Back Cover -- 1. Current Trends in Green Technologies in Food Production and Processing -- 2. Design of Sustainable Supply Chains for the Agrifood Sector: A Holistic Research Framework