Food waste bioconversion into new food: A mini-review on nutrients circularity in the production of mushrooms, microalgae and insects

2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2110381
Author(s):  
Francesca Girotto ◽  
Laura Piazza

The global challenge of feeding an ever-increasing world population is leading scientists’ attention towards nutritious and sustainable foods whose production should have low impacts on environment, economy and society. In case the input feedstock can be waste nutrients, the label of such productions becomes even greener. Nutrients circularity is nowadays an important circular economy practice. This mini-review focuses on the valorisation of food waste as precious biomass to grow new food and feed. In particular, three functional edibles are discussed in the present paper: mushrooms, microalgae and insects. These foods are part of people diets since ages in certain areas of the world and the original aspect of their cultivation and breeding found on waste nutrients recovery is here reviewed. Proofs of such food waste biorefinery viability are already given by several researches featuring the main traits of a suitable growing medium: optimal pool of nutrients and optimal pH. However, lot of work still needs to be done in order to assess the optimal growth and cultivation conditions and the health security of the harvested/bred edibles. A SWOT factors analysis was performed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-36
Author(s):  
Raquel P. F. Guiné ◽  
Paula Correia ◽  
Catarina Coelho ◽  
Cristina A. Costa

Abstract This review is focused on the utilization of insects as a new opportunity in food and feed products, including their commercialization both in traditional and new markets. It has been suggested that insects are considerably more sustainable when compared with other sources of animal protein, thus alleviating the pressure over the environment and the planet facing the necessity to feed the world population, constantly increasing. Many chefs have adhered to the trend of using insects in their culinary preparations, bringing insects to the plan of top gastronomy, highlighting their organoleptic qualities allied to a recognized high nutritional value. However, in some markets, insects or insect-based products are not readily accepted because of neophobia and disgust. Moreover, the insect markets, farming, and commercialization are experiencing a huge growth, in which the domain of animal feed is undoubtedly a very strong component. The future of insects as human food and animal feed seems promising in view of the recent trends and challenges.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hugo Spieser

In the second half of the 20th century, post-war Europe saw major economic growth due to national reconstructions associated with high employment, industrial mass production and demographic boom. As a consequence, generalised globalisation raised an intensified international flux of goods, services and information. Advancing technology and ever-increasing worldwide goods consumption has led to the age of plastics. Their relatively easy processability and strong physico-chemical properties such as optical, mechanical or barrier properties make them the perfect candidate for many applications in building and construction, automotive, agriculture, electronics, household leisure and sports, appliances, medical furniture and packaging. In 2018, the production of plastic in Europe reached 64.4 million tons and the packaging sector represents the largest sector demands1. The market value of the packaging sector was valued at high as 917 billion US dollar in 2019 and is still rising at an annual growth of 2.8%2.In the packaging industry, the largest part concerns food packaging3 and the overall increasing number and movement of food products however also causes an increasing amount of worldwide food waste. Around one third of the globally produced food is wasted according to the estimations of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations4. This represents 1.2 billion tons per year which seems outrageous as the FAO also estimated in 2018 that around 800 million people were chronically undernourished in the world. Food waste is a important challenge for mankind as the world population is expected to reach 10 billion people in 2050 and feeding all of them is a great challenge.


Author(s):  
David Pimentel ◽  
Michael Burgess

A rapidly growing world population and an even more rapidly growing consumption of fossil fuels are increasing demand for both food and biofuels, which will exaggerate both the food and fuel shortages around the world. Producing biofuels requires huge amounts of both fossil energy and food resources, which will intensify conflicts over these resources. Using food crops to produce ethanol raises major nutritional and ethical concerns. More than 66% of the world human population is currently malnourished, so the need for grains and other basic foods is critical. Growing crops for fuel squanders land, water, and energy resources vital for the production of food for people. Using food and feed crops for ethanol production has brought increases in the prices of US beef, chicken, pork, eggs, breads, cereals, and milk of 10% to 20%. In addition, Jacques Diouf, Director General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that using food grains to produce biofuels is already causing food shortages for the poor of the world. Growing crops for biofuel ignores the need to reduce natural resource consumption and exacerbates the problem of malnourishment worldwide by turning food grain into biofuel.


2021 ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Nganou Donkeng Nadege ◽  
Nodem Sohanang Steve Francky

The present study was aimed at determining the distribution of ochratoxin A (OTA) in different types of coffee using short review and analysis. Mycotoxins have undoubtedly presented a global challenge to human health since the earliest times, and this threat will mainly increase as the demand for the available food supply increases in response to the growth of the world population. The most important naturally occurring mycotoxins in human food are aflatoxin, ochratoxin, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone and fumonisin. OTA is the most prevalent and toxic and is produced by both Aspergillus and Penicillium. Coffee production has high socio-economic importance in most African countries. However, postharvest treatment and storage conditions represent optimal environments for the occurrence of fungi responsible for mycotoxins production in coffee beans. Preliminary data revealed the wild diversity of coffee beans with the presence of other fungal genera such as Mucor, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Wallemia and Acremonium. In addition, the authors found the production ability of A. niger, A. carbonarius and A. ochraceus to produce Ochratoxin-A at concentrations of 0.31, 5.07 and 13.08 µg.kg-1. The outcome of this short review can be used for the building of a risk evaluation procedure aiming to provide specific actions to reduce the exposure to OTA in coffee beans and to improve the exchange of coffee products throughout the world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio Licinio ◽  
Ma-Li Wong

AbstractClimate change represents a major global challenge. Some hallmarks of climate change that have been connected to human activity include an increase of 0.8–1.2 °C in global temperatures as well as the warming of upper ocean water. Importantly, approximately 500 million people worldwide face the consequences of desertification. Simultaneously, the world population has grown from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion today, greatly exacerbating the human toll of devastating environmental disasters, which result in increasingly larger and more common mass migrations that also fuel human trafficking and modern-day slavery. The mental health outcomes are staggering and include, in the context of chronic stress, addiction, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, major depression, and suicidality. Mental health practitioners, healthcare systems, and governments across the world need to be prepared to address the mental health sequelae of climate change.


Author(s):  
Emilie M. Hafner-Burton

In the last six decades, one of the most striking developments in international law is the emergence of a massive body of legal norms and procedures aimed at protecting human rights. In many countries, though, there is little relationship between international law and the actual protection of human rights on the ground. This book takes a fresh look at why it's been so hard for international law to have much impact in parts of the world where human rights are most at risk. The book argues that more progress is possible if human rights promoters work strategically with the group of states that have dedicated resources to human rights protection. These human rights “stewards” can focus their resources on places where the tangible benefits to human rights are greatest. Success will require setting priorities as well as engaging local stakeholders such as nongovernmental organizations and national human rights institutions. To date, promoters of international human rights law have relied too heavily on setting universal goals and procedures and not enough on assessing what actually works and setting priorities. This book illustrates how, with a different strategy, human rights stewards can make international law more effective and also safeguard human rights for more of the world population.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
JAVED ALAM SHEIKH

Almost 50 per cent of the world population is constituted by the women and they have been making substantial contribution to socio-economic development. But, unfortunately their tremendous contribution remains unrecognized and unnoticed in most of the developing and least developed countries causing the problem of poverty among them. Empowering women has become the key element in the development of an economy. With women moving forward, the family moves, the village moves and the nation moves. Hence, improving the status of women by way of their economic empowerment is highly called for. Entrepreneurship is a key tool for the economic empowerment of women around the world for alleviating poverty. Entrepreneurship is now widely recognized as a tool of economic development in India also. In this paper I have tried to discuss the reasons and role of Women Entrepreneurship with the help of Push and Pull factors. In the last I have also discussed the problems and the road map of Women Entrepreneurs development in India.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Stefani ◽  
Gabriele Prati

Research on the relationship between fertility and gender ideology revealed inconsistent results. In the present study, we argue that inconsistencies may be due to the fact that such relationship may be nonlinear. We hypothesize a U- shaped relationship between two dimensions of gender ideology (i.e. primacy of breadwinner role and acceptance of male privilege) and fertility rates. We conducted a cross-national analysis of 60 countries using data from the World Values Survey as well as the World Population Prospects 2019. Controlling for gross domestic product, we found support for a U-shaped relationship between gender ideology and fertility. Higher levels of fertility rates were found at lower and especially higher levels of traditional gender ideology, while a medium level of gender ideology was associated with the lowest fertility rate. This curvilinear relationship is in agreement with the phase of the gender revolution in which the country is located. Traditional beliefs are linked to a complementary division of private versus public sphere between sexes, while egalitarian attitudes are associated with a more equitable division. Both conditions strengthen fertility. Instead, as in the transition phase, intermediate levels of gender ideology’s support are associated with an overload and a difficult reconciliation of the roles that women have to embody (i.e. working and nurturing) so reducing fertility. The present study has contributed to the literature by addressing the inconsistencies of prior research by demonstrating that the relationship between gender ideology and fertility rates is curvilinear rather than linear.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (39) ◽  
pp. 4639-4645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Mostafa Parizadeh ◽  
Reza Jafarzadeh-Esfehani ◽  
Amir Avan ◽  
Maryam Ghandehari ◽  
Fatemeh Goldani ◽  
...  

Gastric cancer (GC) has a high mortality rate with a poor 5-year survival. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is present as part of the normal flora of stomach. It is found in the gastric mucosa of more than half of the world population. This bacterium is involved in developing H. pylori-induced GC due to the regulation of different micro ribonucleic acid (miRNA or miR). miRNAs are small noncoding RNAs and are recognized as prognostic biomarkers for GC that may control gene expression. miRNAs may function as tumor suppressors, or oncogenes. In this review, we evaluated studies that investigated the ectopic expression of miRNAs in the prognosis of H. pylori positive and negative GC.


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