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Preface Specialty food (SF) is a rapidly growing market sector, with an annual growth rate of 8-10%. SF products accounted for 13.1% of all retail food sales in 2010, reaching $55.9 billion in sales. One hundred thirty-eight million American consumers (46%) are purchasing specialty foods. Although specialty food products are marketed widely, by now there is no standard definition on specialty foods. Consumers, even processors and regulators, are confused by the term specialty foods. Specialty foods are generally considered unique and high-value food items made in small quantities from high-quality ingredients that offer distinct features to targeted customers who pay a premium price for perceived benefits. Increased production and sale of SF has increased concerns on product quality and safety due to several potential hazards. Many questions in respect to how specialty foods are different from other food sectors, specific processing technologies, controls on quality and microbial safety, etc., remain unanswered. With extensive searching, the only two published books on the subject of specialty foods focus on business development and marketing of specialty foods. There is no technical book on specialty foods from the food science discipline available. This book will be the first technical book on specialty foods. It will first discuss the unique characteristics of specialty food, the market, and consumer demands and trends, and then focus on each of the major specialty food segments by covering the key processing technologies, equipment needed, and controls on quality and food safety of the products.

Based on the classical human capital theory, we propose the connotation of human capital quality which is the combination of knowledge; techniques, capability and health etc. that are embedded in labor and with economic values. According to this concept, we put forward the three-dimensional structure of human capital quality which is constructed by health awareness, education effect and family background. And on the ground of our hypotheses, we set up theoretical models of second-order CFA and get perfect fit by using enterprise survey data of Dongguan city in China. Furthermore, we adopt multiple-group CFA model to test the invariance across subsample of workers and sub-sample of managers and technical staff. Implications of the results for public personnel management are discussed at the end.

This study focuses on the labour cost competitiveness of fabricated metal industry in China and Finland in particular, using the corresponding German, the US and Estonian industries as a point of comparison in the early 2000s. This study deepens the analysis of the earlier study of the cost competitiveness of the manufacturing industries in the same group of countries. Separate studies focusing on the labour cost competitiveness are carried out in a parallel manner on the paper and pulp and metal industries. The results of these three sector studies deepen the knowledge about the change of competitiveness and its level. Large unit labour cost differences in a common currency were obviously a key factor behind exceptionally rapidly changing international production and trade structures in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Chinese fabricated metal industry grew by about 22 per cent per year in 2000-2007 as the average annual growth of the value added of world manufacturing volume was only 3 per cent in 2000-2006. Nominal wages as such do not imply good international competitiveness. Chinese wages are, however, low even if their low labour productivity is taken into account and costs per unit of production are compared in a common currency. The relative levels of the Chinese unit labour costs vis-à-vis Germany, using the unit value ratios (UVR) to make the production volumes comparable, were estimated to be about 2 per cent in the fabricated metal industry. The ratio has even declined in early 2000s and has stayed relatively stable after that till 2007. Improving labour productivity in China had compensated for the effects of rapidly rising wages and an appreciating Renminbi. The outlook of the fabricated metal industry is clouded by the difficult global financial crisis, which strongly restricts export possibilities and dampens also the domestic markets of industry. On the other hand the stimulus packages of the government target especially the key demand sectors of the fabricated metal industry.

This study focuses on the labour cost competitiveness of the paper and pulp industry in China and Finland in particular, using the corresponding German, the US and Estonian industries as a point of comparison in the early 2000s. This study deepens the analysis of the earlier study of the cost competitiveness of the manufacturing industries in the same group of countries. Separate studies focusing on the labour cost competitiveness are carried out in a parallel manner on the chemical industries and metal industries. The results of these three sector studies deepen the knowledge about the change of competitiveness and its level. Large unit labour cost differences in a common currency were obviously a key factor behind exceptionally rapidly changing international production and trade structures in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Chinese paper and pulp industry grew by about a quarter per year in 2000-2007 as the average annual growth of the value added of world manufacturing volume was only 3 per cent in 2000- 2006. Nominal wages as such do not imply good international competitiveness. Chinese wages are, however, low even if their low labour productivity is taken into account and costs per unit of production are compared in a common currency. The relative levels of the Chinese unit labour costs vis-à-vis Germany, using the unit value ratios (UVR) to make the production volumes comparable, were estimated to be about 9 per cent in the paper and pulp industry. The ratio has even declined in the early 2000s and has stayed relatively stable after that until 2007. Improving labour productivity in China had compensated for the effects of rapidly rising wages and an appreciating Renminbi. The outlook of the paper and pulp industry, like the economy in general, is clouded by the difficult global financial crisis, which strongly restricts export possibilities and dampens also the domestic markets of industry. On the other hand, the stimulus packages of the government support the demand for paper and pulp products.