Association of Night-Time Screen-Viewing with Adolescents’ Diet, Sleep, Weight Status, and Adiposity

Night-time screen-viewing (SV) contributes to inadequate sleep and poor diet, and subsequently excess weight. Adolescents may use many devices at night, which can provide additional night-time SV. Purpose: To identify night-time SV patterns, and describe differences in diet, sleep, weight status, and adiposity between patterns in a cross-sectional and longitudinal manner. Methods: Adolescents (10–16 y) reported devices they viewed at night and completed food recalls. Accelerometry, anthropometrics, and imaging were conducted to measure sleep, weight status, and adiposity, respectively. Latent class analysis was performed to identify night-time SV clusters. Linear regression analysis was used to examine associations between clusters with diet, sleep, weight status, and adiposity. Results: Amongst 273 adolescents (12.5 ± 1.9 y, 54% female, 59% White), four clusters were identified: no SV (36%), primarily cellphone (32%), TV and portable devices (TV+PDs, 17%), and multiple PDs (17%). Most differences in sleep and adiposity were attenuated after adjustment for covariates. The TV+PDs cluster had a higher waist circumference than the no SV cluster in cross-sectional analysis. In longitudinal analysis, the primarily cellphone cluster had less change in waist circumference compared to the no SV cluster. Conclusions: Directing efforts towards reducing night-time SV, especially TV and PDs, may promote healthy development.

The role of technology in crisis management and product recall in food supply chains

This chapter considers food governance and how it frames crisis management and product recalls in food supply chains. Effective food recalls following a food safety or legality related incident are supported by traceability systems ranging from paper based to those that apply the newest technology. This chapter is considers the value of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) for improvements in food supply chain governance structures that are especially tested during product recalls. The focus is on identifying advantages of Blockchain systems within public-private partnerships (PPPs) for food governance. There is great potential to reduce information asymmetry, a key barrier to supply chain development, innovation and efficiency, and effective crisis management and product recalls with the use of DLTs including Blockchain. PPPs for supply chain governance deliver value at the supply chain and wider stakeholder level including developing Blockchain consortia to improve overall efficiency and integrity in data collection, storage and sharing.

The Association of Meal Timing With Body Composition and Cardiometabolic Health in Obese Older Adults

Objectives To determine the association between eating window and time of last calorie intake with body composition and cardiometabolic health in obese older adults. Methods We performed a cross-sectional analysis on 36 community-dwelling, overweight-to-obese (BMI 28.0-39.9 kg/m2) older adults, recruited to participate in a weight loss and exercise trial. Time of food intake were extracted from three 24-hour food recalls. Eating window was calculated as the time elapsed between the first and last food intake. We recorded the time of last calorie intake either from food or drink. Blood glucose, triglycerides, high-density (HDL) & low-density (LDL) lipoprotein cholesterols were measured as markers of cardiometabolic health. Total fat and lean mass were assessed by DXA. Partial correlation was used to determine the relationships between eating window and last calorie intake with body composition and cardiometabolic markers, while controlling for sex, age, and total calorie intake. Results On average, participants’ eating window was 12.0±1.1 hours. Time of last calorie intake in 86% of participants was between 6:00-8:00 PM. After controlling for potential confounders, longer eating windows were associated with higher triglyceride levels (P=0.032) and lower HDL (P=0.035), while no association was observed with the other cardiometabolic markers. We observed negative trends, though not statistically significant, between longer eating windows and greater weight, BMI, and fat mass. No association was observed between time of last calorie intake, body composition and cardiometabolic markers. Conclusions Our results suggest that timing of food intake may influence cardiometabolic risk and obesity in older adults.

Qualitative Accounts of School-Aged Children’s Diets during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Rural, Central, Kenya

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to food security in many countries, including Kenya. However, the impact of this on food provision to children at an individual level is unknown. This small study aimed to provide a qualitative snapshot of the diets of children during the COVID-19 pandemic. During completion of 24-h food recalls, with 15 families with children aged 5–8 years, caregivers were asked about changes they had made to foods given to their children due to the pandemic. Food recalls were analysed to assess nutrient intakes. Qualitative comments were thematically analysed. Most of the families reported making some changes to foods they provided to their children due to COVID-19. Reasons for these changes fell into three themes, inability to access foods (both due to formal restriction of movements and fear of leaving the house), poorer availability of foods, and financial constraints (both decreases in income and increases in food prices). The COVID-19 pandemic has affected some foods parents in rural Kenya can provide to their children.

Factors affecting the diffusion of traceability practices in an imported fresh produce supply chain in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to facilitate the successful adoption of traceability technologies, such as blockchain, into food supply chains and facilitate the understanding of the barriers and enablers to their uptake by channel members' needs so that appropriate enabling strategy can be put in place.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, an integrated framework involving five components was used as the methodology: (1) diffusion of innovation theory, (2) the innovation concept, (3) the business structure-conduct-performance paradigm, (4) legitimacy and (5) trust was developed and assessed for validity through interviewing 21 channel members, including distributors, wholesalers, Internet retailers and traditional retailers associated with a global fresh produce company's supply chain in China.FindingsBarriers negatively framing channel members' attitudes and decisions included a perceived lack of need owing to fresh produce having a short shelf life and being of low value and risk. However, the importance of traceability and the need for effective food recalls were not always understood among channel members, and distributed trust innovations were also suppressed by their lack of compatibility with the Chinese hierarchical culture.Originality/valueTo date, channel members' perception of innovations in food supply chains has not been considered in light of the components proposed in the integrated framework. The adapted framework used in this study ensured a comprehensive assessment of channel members' attitude and motivations toward traceability practices.

Review of the FSA’s research programme on food hypersensitivity

The overarching mission of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is tothe ensure that food is safe, food is what it says it is and that consumers can make informed choices about what to eat. These are of central importance to consumers with food hypersensitivity(FHS).Food hypersensitivity (FHS) encompasses both immune-mediated food hypersensitivity (food allergy and coeliac disease) and non-immune food intolerances. FHS is a complex, multifactorial disease of concern to multiple stakeholders including consumers with FHS, their families, clinicians, regulatory agencies and policy makers, scientists, food manufacturers and food business operators. It affects around 5-8% of children and 2-3% of adults in the UK, and although rare, can be fatal. Public concern over FHS has grown in recent years. In the UK and elsewhere, food recalls due to the presence of undeclared allergens feature predominantly in food alerts; legislation over food labelling has become clearer, and consumers and producers are more aware of FHS. The FSA has been a major funder of research into FHS for over 2 decades, and the outputs of the research programme has had significant impacts at a national and global scale, most notably in the area of the prevention of FHS in children and the presence of declared and undeclared allergens in food products. Strengthening protections for consumers with FHS is a top priority for the FSA. The FSA has established a Food Hypersensitivity Programme Board to oversee and coordinate its work in this area. The working group was tasked with reviewing the research into FHS supported by the Food Standards Agency to date, and prioritising those priority areas where the current scientific evidence is limited and therefore should be a focus for future research investment. The aim –to make the UK the best country in the world for consumers with food hypersensitivity.

Nitrogen-bearing toxins & the environment : food-safety monitoring systems for the quality assurance of vegetable protein products

The multitude of food recalls in 2007 clearly demonstrated that total nitrogen-content (ΣN) determination by means of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) can be deceived, and should no longer be regarded as a complete quality assurance program for nutritive-protein evaluations. Furthermore, contemporary Canadian-employed analytical tools are precariously limited in their ability to effectively assure a product where there is no a priori knowledge of the environmental toxin(s) involved. In light of these challenges, this study explored a number of new analytical techniques used to assess and furthermore assure the quality of Vegetable Protein Products (VPPs). Using LC/MS/MS/MS technologies, a combination of VPP-based samples were analyzed for the presence of nitrogen-bearing environmental toxins. Of the 117 test-runs, involving an assortment of matrices, Melamine (MEL) and Cyanuric Acid (CYA) were positively identified (> 1 PPM) in 22 and 17, respectively. Subsequent HPLC-UV Amino-Acid-Profiling further confirmed the adulteration of those materials contaminated with Melamine-and-Related-Compounds (MARC).