Safety and quality and stage of distribution

Let 0 denote the level of quality inherent in a food product that is delivered to some terminal market. In this paper, I characterize allocations over 0 and provide an economic rationale for regulating safety and quality standards in the food system. Zusman and Bockstael investigate the theoretical foundations for imposing standards and stress the importance of providing a tractable conceptual foundation. Despite a wealth of contributions that are mainly empirical (for reviews of these works see, respectively, Caswell and Antle), there have been relatively few attempts to model formally the linkages between farm and food markets when food quality and consumer safety are at issue. Here, I attempt to provide such a framework, building on key contributions in the theoretical literature and linking them in a simple model of quality determination in a vertically related marketing channel. The food-marketing model is due to Gardner. Spence provides a foundation for Pareto-improving intervention in a deterministic model of quality provision, and Leland, building on the classic paper by Akerlof, investigates licensing and minimum standards when the information structure is incomplete. Linking these ideas in a satisfactory model of the food markets is the main objective of the paper.

An industry viewpoint on the role of farm assurance in delivering food safety to the consumer: the case of the dairy sector in England and Wales

Food safety, alongside food quality, remains a primary concern of both consumers and those along the whole food supply chain, leading to regulation by government alongside private third party certification. Much has been written about the value of these systems primarily from the perception of the consumer. This paper reports on a study that examined industry perceptions on the regulatory and assurance systems within the dairy sector of England and Wales. It found that the primary producer found value in both systems, although from a food hygiene focus regulation was seen to be more rigorous. Other stakeholders along the dairy food supply chain saw the assurance scheme as more rigorous. All stakeholders recognised the need to reduce duplication in delivering food safety through combining key elements of both systems with the added potential for better communication of both food safety and quality to the final consumer.

Social innovation in local food in Japan: Choku-bai-jo markets and Teikei cooperative practices

The working paper depicts two innovative examples from Japan of the direct supply of food, which involves the development of closer producer-consumer relations, as well as closer producer-producer networks. Choku-bai-jo and Teikei networks are considered as examples of practices implicated in alternative food networks (AFNs). One example has become a quasi-public endeavour and is seen by the Japanese state as a legitimate part of rural development and is promoted in support of small producers. The other is borne from consumer concern over food quality and, despite its long-lived status, this arrangement remains marginal and with little institutional or governmental support. A model which blends the organization and aims of both examples holds potential for a more sustainable eco-economic future.

Future challenges in day-care centre food services : will benchmarking help?

Purpose – The aim of this study is to identify the methods used by providers to evaluate their food services and identify elements of their service that would benefit from adopting a benchmarking system.

Design/methodology/approach – In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 food services providers and key informants in day-care settings in Surrey.

Findings – Few providers formally evaluated their service provision and most had not considered benchmarking their services against other food service providers. Factors such as food variety, food quality, cost and environment have been identified as issues that could be benchmarked and may benefit from the adoption of this process.

Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted only in one country – in the UK – further research is needed into the evaluation practices of other local authorities. The benchmarking model that has been developed by the authors needs to be applied in a food service setting to establish its usefulness to food service managers.

Practical implications – A model has been developed from the outcome of this research, which could aid evaluation processes for food service providers to identify aspects of the service in need of improvement.

Originality/value – There has been little research conducted on the evaluation of food service provision for older people, especially for congregate meals. This paper provides a model, that food service providers may find useful, to identify areas of their food services that are suitable for benchmarking.

Detection of enterotoxin genes of Staphylococcus sp isolated from nasal cavities and hands of food handlers

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Intraspecific variability in the basal metabolic rate: Testing the food habits hypothesis

Several competing hypotheses attempt to explain how environmental conditions affect mass-independent basal metabolic rate (BMR) in mammals. One of the most inclusive and yet debatable hypotheses is the one that associates BMR with food habits, including habitat productivity. These effects have been widely investigated at the interspecific level under the assumption that for any given species all traits are fixed. Consequently, the variation among individuals is largely ignored. Intraspecific analysis of physiological traits has the potential to compensate for many of the pitfalls associated with interspecific analyses and, thus, to be a useful approach for evaluating hypotheses regarding metabolic adaptation. In this study, we investigated the effects of food quality, availability, and predictability on the BMR of the leaf-eared mouse Phyllotis darwini. BMR was measured on freshly caught animals from the field, since they experience natural seasonal variations in environmental factors ( and, hence, variations in habitat productivity) and diet quality. BMR was significantly correlated with the proportion of dietary plants and seeds. In addition, BMR was significantly correlated with monthly habitat productivity. Path analysis indicated that, in our study, habitat productivity was responsible for the observed changes in BMR, while diet per se had no effect on this variable.

Estimating the effects of United States food safety and agricultural health standards on agro-food exports from Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Microbiological quality of organic and conventional vegetables sold in Brazil

While searching for healthier diets, people became more attentive to organic produce. Yet, organic foods may be more susceptible to microbiological contamination because of the use of organic fertilizers, a possible source of pathogenic bacteria. In this study, 130 samples of different organic and conventional vegetable varieties sold in Brazil were analyzed for mesophilic aerobic bacteria, yeasts and molds, total coliforms, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. Most of the mesophilic aerobic bacteria counts in organic and conventional vegetables ranged from 6 to 7 log10 CFU/g; most of the yeasts and molds counts ranged from 5 to 6 log10 CFU/g and most of the total coliforms counts ranged from 4 to 5 log10 CFU/g. E. coli was found in 41.5% of the organic and 40.0% of the conventional vegetables, and most samples had counts ranging from 1 to 2 log10 CFU/g. Salmonella spp. was not found in any sample. Comparative analyses of the microbial counts of organic and conventional vegetables showed that some organic varieties have greater counts. However, the global results show that this is not a trend. These results indicate the need of good farming practices, and proper sanitization before consumption, to ensure food quality and safety. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Polymorphisms in FGFBP1 and FGFBP2 genes associated with carcass and meat quality traits in chickens

In the past, the focus of broiler breeding programs on yield and carcass traits improvement led to problems related to meat quality. Awareness of public concern for quality resulted in inclusion of meat quality traits in the evaluation process. Nevertheless, few genes associated with meat quality attributes are known. Previous studies mapped quantitative trait loci for weight at 35 and 42 days in a region of GGA4 flanked by the microsatellite markers, MCW0240 and LEI0063. In this region, there are 2 fibroblast growth factor binding protein (FGFBP) genes that play an important role in embryogenesis, cellulardifferentiation, and proliferation in chickens. The objective of this study was to identify and associate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in FGFBP1 and FGFBP2 with performance, carcass, and meat quality in experimental and commercial chicken populations. In the commercial population, SNP g.2014G>A in FGFBP1 was associated with decreased carcass weight (P < 0.05), and SNP g.651G>A in FGFBP2 was associated with thawing loss and meat redness content (P < 0.05). Four haplotypes were constructed based on 2 SNPs and were associated with breast weight, thawing loss, and meat redness content. The diplotypes were associated with thawing loss, lightness, and redness content. The SNPs evaluated in the present study may be used as markers in poultry breeding programs to aid in improving growth and meat quality traits. © FUNPEC-RP.

Regional and socioeconomic distribution of household food availability in Brazil, in 2008-2009

OBJECTIVE: To describe the regional and socioeconomic distribution of household food availability in Brazil. METHODS: Data from the 2008-2009 Household Budget Survey on food and beverage acquisition for household consumption, conducted by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), were analyzed. The amounts of foods, recorded during seven consecutive days in the 55,970 sample households, were converted into calories and nutrients. Food quality indicators were constructed and analyzed according to the regional and socioeconomic strata of the Brazilian population. RESULTS: The amount of energy from protein was adequate in all regional and socioeconomic strata. On the other hand, an excess of free sugars and fats was observed in all regions of the country, especially in the Southern and Southeastern regions. The proportion of saturated fats was high in urban areas and consistent with the greater contribution of animal-derived products. Limited availability of fruits and vegetables was found in all regions. An increase in the fat content and reduction in carbohydrate content of the diet were observed with the increase in income. CONCLUSIONS: The negative characteristics of the Brazilian diet observed at the end of the first decade of the 21(st) century indicate the need to prioritize public policies for the promotion of healthy eating.

Electric techniques for the assessment of quality parameters of foodstuffs

In food industry, quality assurance requires low cost methods for the rapid assessment of the parameters that affect product stability. Foodstuffs are complex in their structure, mainly composed by gaseous, liquid and solid phases which often coexist in the same product. Special attention is given to water, concerned as natural component of the major food product or as added ingredient of a production process. Particularly water is structurally present in the matrix and not completely available. In this way, water can be present in foodstuff in many different states: as water of crystallization, bound to protein or starch molecules, entrapped in biopolymer networks or adsorbed on solid surfaces of porous food particles. The traditional technique for the assessment of food quality give reliable information but are destructive, time consuming and unsuitable for on line application. The techniques proposed answer to the limited disposition of time and could be able to characterize the main compositional parameters. Dielectric interaction response is mainly related to water and could be useful not only to provide information on the total content but also on the degree of mobility of this ubiquitous molecule in different complex food matrix. In this way the proposal of this thesis is to answer at this need. Dielectric and electric tool can be used for the scope and led us to describe the complex food matrix and predict food characteristic. The thesis is structured in three main part, in the first one some theoretical tools are recalled to well assess the food parameter involved in the quality definition and the techniques able to reply at the problem emerged. The second part explains the research conducted and the experimental plans are illustrated in detail. Finally the last section is left for rapid method easily implementable in an industrial process.

NMR Based Foodomics to Investigate the Digestibility of Protein-Rich Food Products

Nowadays, in developed countries, the excessive food intake, in conjunction with a decreased physical activity, has led to an increase in lifestyle-related diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type -2 diabetes, a range of cancer types and arthritis. The socio-economic importance of such lifestyle-related diseases has encouraged countries to increase their efforts in research, and many projects have been initiated recently in research that focuses on the relationship between food and health. Thanks to these efforts and to the growing availability of technologies, the food companies are beginning to develop healthier food. The necessity of rapid and affordable methods, helping the food industries in the ingredient selection has stimulated the development of in vitro systems that simulate the physiological functions to which the food components are submitted when administrated in vivo. One of the most promising tool now available appears the in vitro digestion, which aims at predicting, in a comparative way among analogue food products, the bioaccessibility of the nutrients of interest.. The adoption of the foodomics approach has been chosen in this work to evaluate the modifications occurring during the in vitro digestion of selected protein-rich food products. The measure of the proteins breakdown was performed via NMR spectroscopy, the only techniques capable of observing, directly in the simulated gastric and duodenal fluids, the soluble oligo- and polypeptides released during the in vitro digestion process. The overall approach pioneered along this PhD work, has been discussed and promoted in a large scientific community, with specialists networked under the INFOGEST COST Action, which recently released a harmonized protocol for the in vitro digestion. NMR spectroscopy, when used in tandem with the in vitro digestion, generates a new concept, which provides an additional attribute to describe the food quality: the comparative digestibility, which measures the improvement of the nutrients bioaccessibility.

The Economics and Nutritional Impacts of Food Assistance Policies and Programs

Recent evidence on malnutrition and poverty raise important questions on the role of food assistance policies and programs. In this review article, we examine evidence on the economic and nutritional impacts of international food assistance programs (FAPs) and policies. The returns on investments in FAPs are, on average, high but depend considerably on the targeting and cost structures as well as on food quality and role of complementary activities. We disaggregate findings into four classes of recipients. Returns to FAPs are highest for children under two. But, FAPs oriented towards early childhood interventions are less well funded than are interventions aimed at school-age children or at the broader, largely adult population even though available evidence indicates that these latter classes of interventions offer considerably lower average returns in economic, health, and nutrition terms. Nonetheless, FAP effectiveness in achieving any of several objectives varies with a range of key factors, including targeting, additionality, seasonality, timeliness, incentive effects, social acceptability and political economy considerations. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On The Choice and Impacts of Innovative International Food Assistance Instruments

The rise of new food assistance instruments, including local and regional procurement, cash, and vouchers, has surpassed increase in understanding of the tradeoffs among and impacts of these options relative to traditional food aid. Response choices rarely appear to result from systematic response analyses. Further, impacts along multiple dimensions-timeliness, cost-effectiveness, local market effects, recipient satisfaction, food quality, impact on smallholder suppliers, etc.-may be competing or synergistic. No single food assistance tool is always and everywhere preferable. A growing body of evidence, including the papers in this special section, nonetheless demonstrates the clear value-added of new food assistance instruments. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tradeoffs or Synergies? Assessing Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement through Case Studies in Burkina Faso and Guatemala

We compare the impacts across a range of criteria of local and regional procurement (LRP) relative to transoceanic shipment of food aid in Burkina Faso and Guatemala. We find that neither instrument dominates the other across all criteria in either country, although LRP commonly performs at least as well as transoceanic shipment with respect to timeliness, cost, market price impacts, satisfying recipients' preferences, food quality and safety, and in benefiting smallholder suppliers. LRP is plainly a valuable food assistance tool, but its advantages and disadvantages must be carefully weighed, compared, and prioritized depending on the context and program objectives. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.