Search results for "FOOD SYSTEM"
showing 10 items of 83 documents
Are local food chains more sustainable than global food chains? Considerations for assessment
2016
© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This paper summarizes the main findings of the GLAMUR project which starts with an apparently simple question: is "local" more sustainable than "global"? Sustainability assessment is framed within a post-normal science perspective, advocating the integration of public deliberation and scientific research. The assessment spans 39 local, intermediate and global supply chain case studies across different commodities and countries. Assessment criteria cover environmental, economic, social, health and ethical sustainability dimensions. A closer view of the food system demonstrates a highly dynamic local-global continuum where actors, whil…
Interactions between Street Food and Food Safety Topics in the Scientific Literature—A Bibliometric Analysis with Science Mapping
2022
Street food (SF) consists of ready-to-eat food prepared and sold on the street. This food constitutes the food traditions of local populations in many countries of the world. SF characterizes a large number of cities around the world, from New York to Paris, from Palermo to cities of North Africa, China, India and Japan. SF is inexpensive and prepared following traditional methods that meet local consumer preferences, culinary culture and lifestyles. Moreover, SF allows a unique experience for tourists who also want to experience a destination through traditional food consumed on the street together with the locals. Nevertheless, SF is linked to several health hazards. Hence, several studie…
Which food for whom?
2015
From lack of food to food excess there are numerous different forms of malnutrition, caused by many determining factors. Improving the nutritional condition of populations therefore is a key task of public health care on a planetary level. It is also an economic challenge. The development of an agro-industrial system over the last sixty years has no doubt contributed to make foods safer, but it has also contributed to the consumption of products which are too fat and too sweet. As a consequence the innovation of healthier foods that are affordable has now become an important challenge. This challenge requires developing a new food engineering approach, notably improving the understanding of…
7-Ketocholesterol as marker of cholesterol oxidation in model and food systems: when and how.
2014
Cholesterol can undergo oxidation through enzymatic or chemical mechanisms, generating a wide range of oxidation products (COPs) with adverse biological effects. COPs are characterized by different functional groups and are produced in different ratios or amounts, depending on the treatment and storage conditions. To follow the cholesterol oxidation process, 7-ketocholesterol (7-KC) has been often used as an oxidation marker in both model and food systems, since it is easily formed and is one of the most representative ring COPs. However, 7-KC does not always rise with increasing time/temperature conditions, especially in complex systems and high-protein or extensively processed foods. The …
Transforming food systems at local levels: using participatory system dynamics in an interactive manner to refine small-scale farmers’ mental models
2017
Food systems will need to undergo considerable transformation. To be better prepared for and resilient to uncertainty and disturbances in the future, resource users and managers need to further develop knowledge about the food and farming system, with its dominating feedback structures and complexities, and to test robust and integrated system-based solutions. This paper investigates how participatory system dynamics modeling can be adapted to groups at the community level with low or no formal educational background. The paper also analyses the refinement of workshop participants’ mental models as a consequence of a participatory system dynamics intervention. For this purpose, we ran two w…
Nutraceuticals and Lipid Management
2020
Scientific data support the effectiveness of reducing total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in preventing atherosclerotic disease cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) events. Current guidelines suggest the use of innovative nutritional strategies in lipid management based on consumption of nutraceuticals and functional foods. Nutraceuticals are products isolated or purified from foods (generally sold in medicinal forms), while a functional food is similar in appearance to, or may be, a conventional food. Both nutritional components promote health, lead to better well-being, and reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, possibly by affecting plasma lipid levels. The m…
Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults
2019
Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions…
Electron spin resonance as a tool to monitor the influence of novel processing technologies on food properties
2020
Abstract Background Nowadays, electron spin resonance (ESR) is widely used as a powerful, non-destructive and very sensitive technique for the detection of free radicals in food systems. It can be applied for the direct identification of highly reactive oxygen species, organic and inorganic paramagnetic species and screening of food for potential toxicity. Its applications cover investigating food oxidative stability and properties of irradiated foods including fruits and vegetables, meats and fishes, spices, cereal grains, and oil seeds. Scope and approach This review aims at providing specialists in food science and industry with the fundamentals of ESR spectroscopy, typical radicals pres…
Are "good guys" more likely to participate in local agriculture?
2015
Abstract In recent years a new form of food production and distribution organisation, as part of small-scale and local agriculture, has been gaining ground. Generically termed short supply chains (SSCs), this new model of food procurement comprises various forms such as community-supported agriculture, box schemes and solidarity purchase groups. Consumer participation in SSCs is dictated by deep motivations: while consumers are principally encouraged by the desire to preserve local producers, as well as the social and environmental aspects of farming, the attraction of SSCs is also tied to different and more complex ways of perceiving food quality. The quality issue in SSCs is not only seen…
Justice in Finnish Food Policies
2023
Abstract The need to create more sustainable food systems calls for careful attention to justice in making the transition. However, to achieve a just transition and create policies to support the goal of developing sustainable food systems, we need more knowledge of the ways current policies tackle justice. This knowledge can reveal blind spots and development needs and increase the transparency of potentially conflicting goals, which is essential for designing just transition policies. From the normative perspective of food justice, a food system should produce three principal outcomes: food security and nutrition, livelihoods and fair income, and environmental sustainability. In this arti…