Logistics integration processes in the food industry

This paper analyses the integration process that firms follow toimplement Supply Chain Management (SCM). This study has beeninspired in the integration model proposed by Stevens (1989). Hesuggests that companies internally integrate first and then extendintegration to other supply chain members, such as customers andsuppliers.To analyse the integration process a survey was conducted amongSpanish food manufacturers. The results show that there are companiesin three different integration stages. In stage I, companies are notintegrated. In stage II, companies have a medium-high level of internalintegration in the Logistics-Production interface, a low level ofinternal integration in the Logistics-Marketing interface, and a mediumlevel of external integration. And, in stage III, companies have highlevels of integration in both internal interfaces and in some of theirsupply chain relationships.

Uso de los medios digitales en la gestión de la reputación corporativa : diálogo con los públicos de interés y dimensiones de percepción en webs, blogs, Facebook y Twitter

Aquest treball busca analitzar com poden emprar-se els mitjans digitals per contribuir a la gestió de la Reputació Corporativa, per ajudar a la comprensió del fenomen i a abordar-la en la pràctica des dels marcs de referència desenvolupats i validats en l'acadèmia. En primer lloc, s'empra una metodologia qualitativa i una anàlisi de continguts per analitzar els principals mitjans digitals –Webs, Blogs, Facebook i Twitter- en funció del seu potencial per a la generació de diàleg entre les organitzacions i els seus grups d'interès. S'analitzen a profunditat els mitjans digitals de 5 companyies Top 20 en el Rànquing RepTrak 2012. En segon lloc, es planteja una anàlisi d'aquests mitjans digitals en funció de les set dimensions que impulsen la Reputació Corporativa, seguint la metodologia RepTrak del Reputation Institute

L'avaluació de webs d'ajuntament: presentació d'una eina d'anàlisi i estat de la qüestió a les comarques de Girona

Anàlisi dels continguts i de la gestió dels lloc web dels ajuntaments de les comarques de Girona. Els ajuntaments catalans s'estan fent visibles a Internet, amb l'oferta de serveis que els són propis. L'estudi té una doble vessant. D'una banda, s'ha confeccionatuna taula d'avaluació per a llocs web d'ajuntament, extrapolable a d'altres anàlisis, que es basa en les possibilitats de gestió de la web i l'interès que té per als ciutadans. De l'altra, es presenta l'estat de la qüestió a la província de Girona a 1 de gener de 2001. L'estudi destaca greus deficiències, com la falta de interactivitat amb els ciutadans, la manca d'un bon sistema de recuperació i difusió de les pàgines web i la gairebé inexistència d'ús dels llenguatges d'autodescripció estàndards. Finalment, l'article conclou amb un seguit de propostes que poden tenir presents els responsables dels ajuntaments electrònics per millorar-los.

L'accessibilitat dels webs de les universitats catalanes

L'estudi vol detectar quin és el grau d'accessibilitat dels webs de les universitats catalanes. Els indicadors utilitzats són els presents en el nivell de prioritat 1 de les Pautes d'accessibilitat al contingut del web, versió 1.0 -WCAG- del World-Wide WebConsortium, acompanyats per altres de complementaris. Com a principal resultat s¿obté que només una de les 43 pàgines analitzades compleix els llindars d'accessibilitat.

Webs sempre accessibles: les biblioteques nacionals i els dipòsits digitals nacionals

Information and communication technologies enabled cultural and scientific patrimony -and information in general- to be presented in digital format, as well as in traditional analogical formats. The response was immediate and since the decade of the 1990s different projects have been designed to guarantee permanent access to the digital production -retrieval, storage, handling, preservation and dissemination. This article presents an international overview of existing models of national digital repositories, a name given to these projects that are normally generated by national libraries with a common objective: ensuring that web pages are always accessible.

Webs siempre accesibles: las bibliotecas nacionales y los depósitos digitales nacionales

Information and communication technologies enabled cultural and scientific patrimony -and information in general- to be presented in digital format, as well as in traditional analogical formats. The response was immediate and since the decade of the 1990s different projects have been designed to guarantee permanent access to the digital production -retrieval, storage, handling, preservation and dissemination. This article presents an international overview of existing models of national digital repositories, a name given to these projects that are normally generated by national libraries with a common objective: ensuring that web pages are always accessible.

Foodborne norovirus outbreak: the role of an asymptomatic food handler

Background: In July 2005 an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis occurred on a residential summer camp in the province of Barcelona (northeast of Spain). Forty-four people were affected among residents and employees. All of them had in common a meal at lunch time on 13 July (paella, round of beef and fruit). The aim of this study was to investigate a foodborne norovirus outbreak that occurred in the residential summer camp and in which the implication of a food handler was demonstrated by laboratory tests. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was designed. Personal or telephone interview was carried out to collect demographic, clinical and microbiological data of the exposed people, as well as food consumption in the suspected lunch. Food handlers of the mentioned summer camp were interviewed. Ten stool samples were requested from symptomatic exposed residents and the three food handlers that prepared the suspected food. Stools were tested for bacteries and noroviruses. Norovirus was detected using RT-PCR and sequence analysis. Attack rate, relative risks (RR) and its 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to assess the association between food consumption and disease. Results: The global attack rate of the outbreak was 55%. The main symptoms were abdominal pain (90%), nausea (85%), vomiting (70%) and diarrhoea (42.5%). The disease remitted in 24-48 hours. Norovirus was detected in seven faecal samples, one of them was from an asymptomatic food handler who had not eaten the suspected food (round of beef), but cooked and served the lunch. Analysis of the two suspected foods isolated no pathogenic bacteria and detected no viruses. Molecular analysis showed that the viral strain was the same in ill patients and in the asymptomatic food handler (genotype GII.2 Melksham-like). Conclusions: In outbreaks of foodborne disease, the search for viruses in affected patients and all food handlers, even in those that are asymptomatic, is essential. Health education of food handlers with respect to hand washing should be promoted.

Plantilla genèrica per webs d'AMPES

Generació d'una plantilla genèrica per AMPES seguint el disseny centrat en l'usuari.

Saving lives: Evidence from a conditional food supplementation program

Many governments in developing countries implement programs that aim to address nutrionalfailures in early childhood, yet evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions is scant. Thispaper evaluates the impact of a conditional food supplementation program on child mortality inEcuador. The Programa de Alimentaci?n y Nutrici?n Nacional (PANN) 2000 was implementedby regular staff at local public health posts and consisted of offering a free micronutrient-fortifiedfood, Mi Papilla, for children aged 6 to 24 months in exchange for routine health check-ups forthe children. Our regression discontinuity design exploits the fact that at its inception, the PANN2000 was running for about 8 months only in the poorest communities (parroquias) of certainprovinces. Our main result is that the presence of the program reduced child mortality in cohortswith 8 months of differential exposure from a level of about 2.5 percent by 1 to 1.5 percentagepoints.

Consumer acceptance of high pressure processed beef-based chilled ready meals: The mediating role of food-related lifestyle factors

The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of high pressure processing (HPP) on consumer acceptance for chilled ready meals manufactured using a low-value beef cut. Three hundred consumers evaluated chilled ready meals subjected to 4 pressure treatments and a non-treated control monadically on a 9-point scale for liking for beef tenderness and juiciness, overall flavour, overall liking, and purchase intent. Data were also collected on consumers' food consumption patterns, their attitudes towards food by means of the reduced food-related lifestyle (FRL) instrument, and socio-demographics. The results indicated that a pressure treatment of 200 MPa was acceptable to most consumers. K-means cluster analysis identified 4 consumer groups with similar preferences, and the optimal pressure treatments acceptable to specific consumer groups were identified for those firms that would wish to target attitudinally differentiated consumer segments

Food Indicators and Their Relationship with 10 to 12 Year-olds' Subjective Well-Being

This study aimed to test subjective indicators designed to analyze the role food plays in children’s lives, explore children’s personal well-being, and evaluate the relationship between these two phenomena. It was conducted on 371 children aged 10 to 12 by means of a selfadministered questionnaire. Results showed a marked interest in food on the part of children, who consider taste and health the most important indicators when it comes to eating. They demonstrated a high level of personal well-being, measured using Cummins & Lau’s adapted version of the Personal Well- Being Index–School Children (PWI-SC) (2005), overall life satisfaction (OLS) and satisfaction with various life domains (friends, family, sports, food and body). Regression models were conducted to explain satisfaction with food, taking as independent variables the interest children have in food, the importance they give to different reasons for eating, scores from the PWI-SC, OLS and satisfaction with various life domains. In the final model, it was found that OLS, health indicators, satisfaction with health from the PWI-SC and satisfaction with your body contribute to explaining satisfaction with food. The results obtained suggest that satisfaction with food is a relevant indicator in the exploration of children’s subjective well-being, calling into question the widespread belief that these aspects are of exclusive interest to adults. They also seem to reinforce the importance of including food indicators in any study aimed at exploring the well-being of the 10 to 12 year-old population.

Physical performance of biodegradable films intended for antimicrobial food packaging

Antimicrobial films were prepared by including enterocins to alginate, polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH), and zein films. The physical performance of the films was assessed by measuring color, microstructure (SEM), water vapor permeability (WVP), and tensile properties. All studied biopolymers showed poor WVP and limited tensile properties. PVOH showed the best performance exhibiting the lowest WVP values, higher tensile properties, and flexibility among studied biopolymers. SEM of antimicrobial films showed increased presence of voids and pores as a consequence of enterocin addition. However, changes in microstructure did not disturb WVP of films. Moreover, enterocin-containing films showed slight improvement compared to control films. Addition of enterocins to PVOH films had a plasticizing effect, by reducing its tensile strength and increasing the strain at break. The presence of enterocins had an important effect on tensile properties of zein films by significantly reducing its brittleness. Addition of enterocins, thus, proved not to disturb the physical performance of studied biopolymers. Development of new antimicrobial biodegradable packaging materials may contribute to improving food safety while reducing environmental impact derived from packaging waste.

A need for determination of arsenic species at low levels in cereal-based food and infant cereals. Validation of a method by LC-ICPMS.

The present study arose from the need to determine inorganic arsenic (iAs) at low levels in cereal-based food. Validated methods with a low limit of detection (LOD) are required to analyse these kinds of food. An analytical method for the determination of iAs, methylarsonic acid (MA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) in cereal-based food and infant cereals is reported. The method was optimised and validated to achieve low LODs. Ion chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LC-ICPMS) was used for arsenic speciation. The main quality parameters were established. To expand the applicability of the method, different cereal products were analysed: bread, biscuits, breakfast cereals, wheat flour, corn snacks, pasta and infant cereals. The total and inorganic arsenic content of 29 cereal-based food samples ranged between 3.7-35.6 and 3.1-26.0 microg As kg-1, respectively. The present method could be considered a valuable tool for assessing inorganic arsenic contents in cereal-based foods.

El uso sexista del lenguaje en las webs de facultades y escuelas de Ciencias de la Salud de la UB

El plan estratégico de igualdad de oportunidades 2008-11 de 2007 desarrolla cuatro principios rectores: Ciudadanía, Empoderamiento, Transversalidad e Innovación. El II plan de igualdad de la Universidad de Barcelona de 2011 plantea como objetivo primordial el uso no sexista del lenguaje. Esta comunicación parte del principio de Ciudadanía que afirma que debe dejar de utilizarse el masculino como referencia universal y medida de la experiencia humana, así como considerar lo femenino co-mo riqueza, atendiendo a la libertad y singularidad femenina y del uso no sexista del lenguaje, que hace invisible a las mujeres, para describir y analizar cómo se presentan en sus páginas de bienvenida las Facultades de Farmacia, Medicina, Odontología, Psicología y la Escuela de Enfermería y Podología de la UB.

Future trends of the World Wide Web in the food and beverage sector in Spain

Extended abstract.