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The objective of this paper is to assess foodstuff storage throughout Recent Prehistory (5600-50 BCE) from the standpoint of the three different types (household, surplus and supra-household) identified in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. The volumetric data of the underground silos serves as a proxy to evaluate the link between them and the agricultural systems and technological changes. The study also assesses the ability, and specifically, the will of the ancient communities of the northeastern Iberia to generate domestic and extra-domestic surpluses.

\"An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food-for better and for worse. How often do we open the fridge or peer into the freezer with the expectation that we'll find something fresh and ready to eat? It's an everyday act, easily taken for granted, but just a century ago, eating food that had been refrigerated was cause for both fear and excitement. Banquets were held just so guests could enjoy the novelty of eggs, butter, and apples that had been preserved for months in cold storage-and demonstrate that such zombie foods were not deadly. The introduction of artificial refrigeration overturned millennia of dietary history, launching an entirely new chapter in human nutrition. We could now overcome not just rot, but also seasonality and geography. Tomatoes in January? Avocados in Shanghai? All possible. In FROSTBITE, New Yorker contributor and co-host of the award-winning podcast Gastropod Nicola Twilley takes readers with her on a tour of the cold chain from farm to fridge, visiting such off-the-beaten-track landmarks as Missouri's subterranean cheese caves, the banana-ripening rooms of New York City, and the vast refrigerated tanks that store the nation's OJ reserves. Today, more than three-quarters of everything on the average American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration. It's impossible to make sense of our food system without understanding the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it. Twilley's eye-opening book is the first to reveal the transformative impact refrigeration has had on our health and our guts; our farms, tables, kitchens, and cities; global economics and politics; and even our environment. In the developed world, we've reaped the benefits of refrigeration for more than a century, but as Twilley soon discovers, the costs are catching up with us. We've eroded our connection to our food, extending the distance between producers and consumers and redefining what \"fresh\" really means. More importantly, refrigeration is one of the leading contributors to climate change. As the developing world races to build a U.S.-style cold chain, Twilley asks, can we reduce our dependence on refrigeration? Should we? A deeply-researched and reported, original, and entertaining dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, FROSTBITE makes the case for a recalibration of our relationship with the fridge-and how our future might depend on it\"-- Provided by publisher.

The management of a food supply chain is difficult and complex because of the product's short shelf-life, time-sensitivity, and perishable nature which must be carefully considered to minimize food waste. Temperature-controlled perishable food supply chain provides the highly crucial facilities necessary to maintain the quality and safety of the product. The storage temperature is the most vital factor in maintaining both the quality and shelf-life of a perishable food. Adequate storage temperature control ensures that perishable foods are transported to the end-users in good quality and safe to consume. This paper presents perishable food storage temperature control through mathematical optimal control model where the storage temperature is regarded as the control variable and the deterioration of the perishable food’s quality follows the first-order reaction. The optimal storage temperature for a single perishable food is determined by applying the Pontryagin's maximum principle to solve the optimal control model problem. For multi-temperature commodities supply chain, an unsupervised machine learning (ML) method, called k -means clustering technique is used to determine the temperature clusters for a range of perishables. Based on descriptive analysis, it is observed that the k -means clustering technique is effective in identifying the best suitable storage temperature clusters for quality control of multi-commodity supply chain.

Background As the increased consumption of ready-to-eat meat alternatives is a fairly recent trend, little is known about the composition and dynamics of the microbiota present on such products. Such information is nonetheless valuable in view of spoilage and food safety prevention. Even though refrigeration and modified-atmosphere-packaging (MAP) can extend the shelf-life period, microbial spoilage can still occur in these products. In the present study, the microbiota of a vegetarian alternative to poultry-based charcuterie was investigated during storage, contrasting the use of a culture-dependent method to a culture-independent metagenetic method. Results The former revealed that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were the most abundant microbial group, specifically at the end of the shelf-life period, whereby Latilactobacillus sakei was the most abundant species. Metabarcoding analysis, in contrast, revealed that DNA of Xanthomonas was most prominently present, which likely was an artifact due to the presence of xanthan gum as an ingredient, followed by Streptococcus and Weissella . Conclusions Taken together, these results indicated that Lb. sakei was likely the most prominent specific spoilage organisms (SSO) and, additionally, that the use of metagenetic analysis needs to be interpreted with care in this specific type of product. In order to improve the performance of metagenetics in food samples with a high DNA matrix but a low bacterial DNA load, selective depletion techniques for matrix DNA could be explored.

Synthesis of antifreeze proteins (AFPs) is one of the adaptations of psychrophilic yeast to live in cold environments. AFPs demonstrate thermal hysteresis (TH) activity and inhibit the recrystallization of ice (IRI) during periodic temperature fluctuations. In this study, the Antarctic yeast strain 186, identified as Glaciozyma martinii , was found to synthesize an extracellular, glycosylated ~27 kDa ice-binding protein (GmAFP) exhibiting IRI activity. It is the first evidence of AFP secretion by the psychrophilic yeast Glaciozyma martinii . To scale up protein production, a synthetic gene from a closely related cold-adapted species, Glaciozyma antarctica , was expressed in Pichia pastoris GS115 strain. The recombinant 26.57 kD protein (GaAFP) displayed IRI activity and a cryoprotective effect in food storage. The addition of GaAFP to the stored frozen vegetables and fruits (carrot, kohlrabi, and blueberry) markedly reduced the drip loss during the thawing process and positively affected their structure, with an effect similar to glycerol. Moreover, GaAFP increased the cell survival of Saccharomyces cerevisiae after freezing. The insights from this study provided proof that AFPs from natural sources may serve as competent biodegradable, eco-friendly, non-cytotoxic and biocompatible substitutes for traditional cryoprotectants in enhancing the quality of frozen foods.

Biological entities such as fungi in stored grain evolve and interact with the environment in similar fashions as physical fields. An experiment was conducted to study the behavior of the biological field of fungi in stored grain, as well as the interactions between the biological field of fungi and the physical fields of temperature and moisture. A framework of the biological field is presented to describe biological systems in which multiple biological entities co-exist and interact among themselves and with the surrounding environment. The proposed biological field describes the spatio-temporal distribution of a biological entity and its ability of influencing (or being influenced by) the surrounding biotic and abiotic entities through exchange of energy, matter, and/or information. The strength of a biological field of fungi was quantified as the rate of energy conversion by fungi from grain starch to heat. The experimental data showed that the strength of biological field of fungi in stored grain varied in both space and time, with the maximum field strength of 120-133 W m occurred at the location where the biological field of fungi interacted strongly with the temperature and moisture fields.

It is well established that cold storage results in increased resistant starch and a reduced glycemic index in carbohydrate food. However, the effects of cold storage on the glycemic response of the second meal of cereals remain unclear. The aim of this study was to compare the postprandial glycemic responses between the paired glutinous and non-glutinous grains, either fresh-cooked or refrigerated, after both the first and second meals. In this randomized crossover trial, eighteen healthy female participants consumed eight test meals, each containing 50 g of carbohydrate, including fresh-cooked non-glutinous and glutinous rice, non-glutinous and glutinous millet, and their refrigerated counterparts (4 °C for 24 h). Postprandial blood glucose and insulin were measured at 240 min and 120 min after breakfast. After a standard lunch, the participants’ blood glucose concentrations were measured within 180 min. The rapidly digestible starch (RDS), slowly digestible starch (SDS), and resistant starch (RS) contents of the samples were determined by in vitro enzymatic analysis. Cold-stored non-glutinous rice (CR) and cold-stored non-glutinous millet (CM) had a 24.4% and 29.5% lower incremental area under the curve (iAUCglu) of glucose within 240 min compared to the control (fresh-cooked rice non-glutinous, FR), respectively (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences between either the cold or hot glutinous grains and FR with respect to postprandial glycemic and insulinemic parameters. After a standard lunch, the fresh-cooked non-glutinous millet (FM) achieved a 39.1% lower iAUCglu0–180 compared to the FR (p < 0.05). FM had the highest percentage of SDS (64.8%, p < 0.05) among all grain samples. Refrigeration treatment reduced the glycemic excursion only in non-glutinous grains at the first meal, but the FM instead of CM demonstrated a significant second meal effect.

Fully biodegradable packaging materials are demanded to resolve the issue of plastic pollution. However, the fresh food storage performance of biodegradable materials is generally much lower than that of plastics due to their high permeability, microbial friendliness, and limited stretchability and transparency. Here a biodegradable packaging material is reported with high fresh food storage performance based on an oil‐infused bacterial cellulose (OBC) porous film. The oil infusion significantly improved cellulose's food‐keeping performance by reducing its gas permeability, increasing its stretchability and transparency, and enabling the active release of green vapor‐phase preservative molecules, while maintaining its intrinsically high degradability. Strawberries stored in a container with the OBC lid at 23 °C after 5 days exhibited a moldy rate of 0%, in contrast to the 100% moldy rate of those stored by poly(ethylene). Enhanced storage performance is also obtained on tomatoes, pork, and shrimp. The OBC film is naturally degraded after being buried in wet soil at 30 °C for 9 days, identical to the degradation rate of bacterial cellulose. The liquid seal strategy broadly applies to different celluloses, providing a general option for developing cellulose‐based biodegradable packaging materials. A biodegradable packaging material with changeable properties is developed by combining a biocompatible oil with an intrinsically degradable bacterial cellulose film. The dynamic oil alters cellulose's optical, mechanical, barrier, and antimicrobial properties in the favorable direction of fresh food storage, leading to improved food‐keeping performance compared with commercial polyethylene plastics while being quickly degradable.

Little is known about the major issues leading to postharvest losses in Peru, which are estimated to be 15-27%. We surveyed 503 farmers from the lowlands and Andean regions of Arequipa to learn more about the major grains produced and issues encountered during drying and storage. Rice, common bean, and quinoa were the most grown crops in the lowlands while starchy maize was the most cultivated crop in the highlands. Most farmers (90%) dried their crops in-field directly on the ground, which exposes them to rodents, birds, and insect pests. The majority of farmers (92%) used subjective methods to assess grain moisture content. About 77% of farmers identified insects as a major challenge during storage but only 44% said they used preventive measures such as the application of insecticides. Among farmers who stored grain, the main reason was for household consumption (61%); while among those who did not store, the main reason was the need for immediate cash at harvest (75%). Farmers who experienced insect problems, who stored seed or grain for sale, who stored longer, or farmers from the lowlands were more likely to apply insecticides on their stored products. These findings provide an opportunity for researchers, development organizations, and government agencies to improve postharvest handling and storage in Arequipa by disseminating drying technologies, moisture assessment tools and hermetic storage solutions among farmers.