Explore the vast range of titles available.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun a public process to redefine how companies are allowed to use the term \"healthy\" on food packages. Although the definition is formulated based on the latest consensus in nutrition and epidemiological research, it is also important to understand how consumers define and understand the term if it is to be behaviorally relevant. This research is an exploratory study designed to provide a descriptive account of consumers' perceptions of and beliefs about the meaning of \"healthy\" food. A nationwide U.S. sample of 1,290 food consumers was surveyed in December 2018. Respondents answered 15 questions designed to gauge perceptions of healthy food and to elicit preference for policies surrounding healthy food definitions. Responses are weighted to demographically match the population. Categorical variables have a sampling error of ±2.7%. Exploratory factor analysis is used to determine latent dimensions of health perceptions related to food type. Consumers were about evenly split on whether a food can be deemed healthy based solely on the foods' nutritional content (52.1% believing as such) or whether there were other factors that affect whether a food is healthy (47.9% believing as such). Consumers were also about evenly split on whether an individual food can be considered healthy (believed by 47.9%) or whether this healthiness is instead a characteristic of one's overall diet (believed by 52.1%). Ratings of individual food products revealed that \"healthy\" perceptions are comprised of at least three underlying latent dimensions related to animal origin, preservation, and freshness/processing. Focusing on individual macronutrients, perceived healthiness was generally decreasing in a food's fat, sodium, and carbohydrate content and increasing in protein content. About 40% of consumers thought a healthy label implied they should increase consumption of the type of food bearing the label and about 15% thought the label meant they could eat all they wanted. Results suggest consumer's perceptions of \"healthy,\" which is primarily based on fat content, partially aligns with the FDA definition but also suggest consumers perceive the word as a broader and more nuanced concept that defies easy, uniform definition. Results highlight areas where nutrition education may be needed and suggest disclosures may need to accompany health claims so that consumers know what, precisely, is being communicated.

Adulteration and mislabeling have become a very common global malpractice in food industry. Especially foods of animal origin are prepared from plant sources and intentionally mislabeled. This type of mislabeling is an important concern in food safety as the replaced ingredients may cause a food allergy or toxicity to vulnerable consumers. Moreover, foodborne pathogens also pose a major threat to food safety. There is a dire need to develop strong analytical tools to deal with related issues. In this context, proteomics stands out as a promising tool used to report the aforementioned issues. The development in the field of omics has inimitable advantages in enabling the understanding of various biological fields especially in the discipline of food science. In this review, current applications and the role of proteomics in food authenticity, safety, and quality and food traceability are highlighted comprehensively. Additionally, the other components of proteomics have also been comprehensively described. Furthermore, this review will be helpful in the provision of new intuition into the use of proteomics in food analysis. Moreover, the pathogens in food can also be identified based on differences in their protein profiling. Conclusively, proteomics, an indicator of food properties, its origin, the processes applied to food, and its composition are also the limelight of this article. In this context, proteomics stands out as a promising tool used to report aforementioned issues. The development in the field of omics has inimitable advantages in enabling the understanding of various biological fields especially in the discipline of food science. In this review, current applications and role of proteomics in food authenticity, safety, and quality and food traceability are highlighted comprehensively. Additionally, the other components of proteomics have also been comprehensively described.

Background Food prepared out-of-home is typically energy-dense and nutrient-poor. This food can be purchased from multiple types of retailer, including restaurants and takeaway food outlets. Using online food delivery services to purchase food prepared out-of-home is increasing in popularity. This may lead to more frequent unhealthy food consumption, which is positively associated with poor diet and living with obesity. Understanding possible reasons for using online food delivery services might contribute to the development of future public health interventions, if deemed necessary. This knowledge would be best obtained by engaging with individuals who use online food delivery services as part of established routines. Therefore, we aimed to investigate customer experiences of using online food delivery services to understand their reasons for using them, including any advantages and drawbacks. Methods and results In 2020, we conducted telephone interviews with 22 adults living in the UK who had used online food delivery services on at least a monthly basis over the previous year. Through codebook thematic analysis, we generated five themes: ‘The importance of takeaway food’, ‘Less effort for more convenience’, ‘Saving money and reallocating time’, ‘Online food delivery service normalisation’ and ‘Maintained home food practices’. Two concepts were overarching throughout: ‘Place. Time. Situation.’ and ‘Perceived advantages outweigh recognised drawbacks’. After considering each of the accessible food purchasing options within the context of their location and the time of day, participants typically selected online food delivery services. Participants reported that they did not use online food delivery services to purchase healthy food. Participants considered online food delivery service use to be a normal practice that involves little effort due to optimised purchasing processes. As a result, these services were seen to offer convenient access to food aligned with sociocultural expectations. Participants reported that this convenience was often an advantage but could be a drawback. Although participants were price-sensitive, they were willing to pay delivery fees for the opportunity to complete tasks whilst waiting for delivery. Furthermore, participants valued price-promotions and concluded that receiving them justified their online food delivery service use. Despite takeaway food consumption, participants considered home cooking to be irreplaceable. Conclusions Future public health interventions might seek to increase the healthiness of food available online whilst maintaining sociocultural values. Extending restrictions adopted in other food environments to online food delivery services could also be explored.

Aquatic ecosystems are contaminated with heavy metals by natural and anthropogenic sources. Whilst some heavy metals are necessary for plants as micronutrients, others can be toxic to plants and humans even in trace concentrations. Among heavy metals, cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) cause significant damage to aquatic ecosystems and can invariably affect human health. Rice, a staple diet of many nations, and other aquatic plants used as vegetables in many countries, can bioaccumulate heavy metals when they grow in contaminated aquatic environments. These metals can enter the human body through food chains, and the presence of heavy metals in food can lead to numerous human health consequences. Heavy metals in aquatic plants can affect plant physicochemical functions, growth, and crop yield. Various mitigation strategies are being continuously explored to avoid heavy metals entering aquatic ecosystems. Understanding the levels of heavy metals in rice and aquatic plants grown for food in contaminated aquatic environments is important. Further, it is imperative to adopt sustainable management approaches and mitigation mechanisms. Although narrowly focused reviews exist, this article provides novel information for improving our understanding about heavy metal accumulation in rice and aquatic plants, addressing the gaps in literature.

Glyphosate is a systemic, broad-spectrum and post-emergent herbicide. The use of glyphosate has grown in the last decades, and it is currently the most used herbicide worldwide. The rise of glyphosate consumption over the years also brought an increased concern about its possible toxicity and consequences for human health. However, a scientific community consensus does not exist at the present time, and glyphosate’s safety and health consequences are controversial. Since glyphosate is mainly applied in fields and can persist several months in the soil, concerns have been raised about the impact that its presence in food can cause in humans. Therefore, this work aims to review the glyphosate use, toxicity and occurrence in diverse food samples, which, in certain cases, occurs at violative levels. The incidence of glyphosate at levels above those legally allowed and the suspected toxic effects of this compound raise awareness regarding public health.

3D printing is an innovative technology for food industry, which provides tremendous opportunities for the designing of customized and personalized nutrition for fruit and vegetable based food products. Various researchers have worked on the development of printable ink, stability of printed products and quality parameters. The aim of this review is to cover the most recent advancements on 3D food printing for fruits and vegetables and explore the prospect. Extrusion-based 3D printing is the most extensively used technique due to their several advantages. The review examines the three groups of extrusion printing such as room temperature extrusion, fused deposition manufacturing and gel forming extrusion. The development in last few years in the area of 3D food products of fruits and vegetables powder has been assembled in this review article. Based on these results, it can conclude that fruit and vegetable has been successfully used to fabricate 3D and even 4D food products. Future studies are required for improvement in pre and post-processing technique. Functional food can also be developed by using 3D printing but more research is required in this area.

Micro/nanoplastics (MP/NPs) are emerging global pollutants that garnered enormous attention due to their potential threat to the ecosystem in virtue of their persistence and accumulation. Notably, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) yearbook in 2014 proposed MPs as one among ten emergent issues that the Earth is facing today. MP/NPs can be found in most regularly used products (primary microplastics) or formed by the fragmentation of bigger plastics (secondary microplastics) and are inextricably discharged into the environment by terrestrial and land-based sources, particularly runoff. They are non-degradable, biologically incompatible, and their presence in the air, soil, water, and food can induce ecotoxicological issues and also a menace to the environment. Due to micro size and diverse chemical nature, MP/NPs easily infiltrate wastewater treatment processes. This communication reviews the current understanding of MP/NPs occurrence, mobility, aggregation behavior, and degradation/assimilation in terrestrial, aquatic (fresh & marine), atmospheric depositions, wetlands and trophic food chain. This communication provide current perspectives and understanding on MP/NPs concerning (1) Source, occurrence, distribution, and properties (2) Impact on the ecosystem and its services, (3) Techniques in detection and identification and (4) Strategies to manage and mitigation.

Food preservation is a longstanding discipline encompassing traditional techniques such as sun drying, roasting, smoking, fermenting, and salting to maintain agricultural products. Current estimates indicate that one-third of agricultural product is lost to food deterioration, with 25% of the overall food loss ascribed to microbiological spoiling. Microbiological contamination of food can occur at several stages in the supply chain: during harvesting, post-harvest, processing, and storage at the point of sale. This results in an elevated risk of human exposure to harmful microbes. To address this issue, several creative solutions have been developed to restrict microbial development across the food supply chain. This review succinctly addressed the innovative strategies both non-conventional and emerging to control the growth of pathogenic microorganisms in food. The innovative strategies reviewed in this paper were broadly classified into technological and non-technological-based methods. These alternative technologies might markedly reduce processing period, conserve energy, and enhance food safety, ultimately helping the food sector. Nevertheless, some emerging technologies have garnered significant interest from researchers, food producers, and consumers; yet various hurdles must be addressed before to achieving full industrial and consumer acceptance. Issues such as antibiotic resistance and the identification of novel pathogens persist, underscoring the necessity for ongoing study and development in this domain.

Lipid oxidation not only negatively influences the sensory characteristics but also the functional characteristics of meat. During the process, various primary and secondary by-products are formed depending upon the types of fatty acids, oxygen availability, and the presence of pro- and antioxidants. Some of the lipid oxidation products only influence the quality of meat but others are implicated to various diseases and human health. Therefore, prevention of lipid oxidation in meat is important for meat quality and for human health as well. The imbalance of oxidants and antioxidants that favors oxidants in the biological system is called oxidative stress in the body. Although the body is equipped with defense enzymes and antioxidant compounds, there are many sources of oxidants or free radicals that can destroy the oxidants/antioxidants balance. Therefore, supply of extra antioxidants through food can help maintaining the balance in favor of antioxidants and help preventing various diseases and malfunctions of our body.

The improvement of the microbial quality of food products is one of the most important aspects of the world economy with a significant impact on the health of consumers. Due to the content of lipids, water, and proteins, meat is highly susceptible to degradation mediated by enzymes or microorganisms. Among the wide variety of animal-derived consumption products, fish is highly perishable and characterized by a short shelf life. To improve safety and microbial quality during storage, fish food can be treated with ozone, which is a highly potent antimicrobial agent. In this study, the effect of ozone treatment on the total microorganism content and the quality of fish food was investigated with respect to the content of lipids and the volatile faction responsible for the characteristic odour. The content of microorganisms in fish food subjected to an atmosphere enriched with ozone was reduced. For example, for the control sample with 1.8 x 10 3 cfu, which was exposed to 20 ppm ozone in atmosphere during the exposition time in the range 10–30 min, a microbial load was reduced to a level between 1.6 x 10 3 and 1.2 x 10 3 cfu. The observed reduction levels indicated that such an ozone treatment procedure can be declared as an viable option for improvement of microbial safety of fish. However, the presence of ozone caused qualitative changes of chemical parameters of the fish matrix; in particular, oxidation of lipids occurred. The extent of those changes increased with the extension of the exposition time..