Economic loss, amount of beef discarded, natural resources wastage, and environmental impact due to beef discoloration

Consumers associate a bright-cherry red color of beefwith freshness and wholesomeness. Any deviation from a bright red color leadsto a discounted price or beef is discarded. Limited data is currently availableon the economic losses due to retail beef discoloration. Therefore, theobjective of the study was to estimate economic losses, the amount of beefdiscarded, natural resource wastage, and environmental impact due to beefdiscoloration. One-year data of total beef sales, total beef discarded, and discountedsale values were collected from two national retail chains and one retailstore. The two retail chains were located throughout the US, and the one retailstore was located in Southern US. The US beef system life cycle parameters frompublished literature were used to calculate the impact of discarded meat on waterand energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The data from three stores weremodeled to calculate annual loss due to discoloration from the US retail beefsales. The data indicated that total beef sales from two major retail chainsand one retail store was 1.1 billion pounds of steaks and ground beef for theone-year period. This amount of beef corresponds to approximately 6.5% of totalretail sales of steaks and ground beef in the US. The amount of beef discardedfrom two major retail chains and one retail store corresponds to 29.7 millionpounds. Based on modeled data, the amount of beef discarded annually due todiscoloration within the US retail beef industry corresponds to 429 millionpounds, with another 1.8 billion pounds sold at a discount. The results indicatethat the US beef industry losses $3.745 billion annually due to discoloration. Thetotal amount of beef discarded per year in the US corresponds to 429 millionpounds, which represents wasting 780,000 animals and the associated naturalresources used in their production. A 1% decrease in discolored beef in the UScould reduce natural resource waste and environmental impacts by 23.95 billionL in water, 96.88 billion mega Joules in energy consumed, and 0.40 million tonsof carbon dioxide equivalent emission along the beef upstream value chain.Therefore, novel technologies to improve meat color stability could improvebeef production’s sustainability and limit wastage of nutritious beef.  

Fresh-Cut Vegetables Processing: Environmental Sustainability and Food Safety Issues in a Comprehensive Perspective

The fresh-cut industry supplies the food market with healthy fresh fruit and vegetables and, in that way, may contribute to improve the nutritional status of the general population. On the other hand, over the last few years increasing concerns have been raised regarding the environmental impact of the fresh-cut industry, human health risks from exposure to disinfection by-products found in fresh-cut products and chlorine-based disinfection treatments during produce processing. This review provides a comprehensive view of the main interlinked aspects related to food safety and environmental impact of processing of fresh-cut vegetables. Advantages and downsides of the mainstream disinfection strategy, based on the use of chlorine-related disinfecting agents, along with some alternative treatments close to a wide commercial application, are discussed. Limitation in the application of these strategies to processing of organic fresh-cut produce are also highlighted, examining the specific environmental and food safety problems in the organic sector. Areas where lack of available information hinders at present a clear understanding of priorities of research and action are pointed out. Innovative conceptual tools are proposed to address these multiple and interlinking issues and to overcome limitations of currently available technologies. A comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach is suggested to move toward a more safe and environmentally sustainable production of fresh-cut products.

Utilization of Electric Vehicles for Vehicle-to-Grid Services: Progress and Perspectives

With every passing second, we witness the effect of the global environmental impact of fossil fuels and carbon emissions, to which nations across the globe respond by coming up with ambitious goals to become carbon-free and energy-efficient. At the same time, electric vehicles (EVs) are developed as a possible solution to reach this ambitious goal of making a cleaner environment and facilitating smarter transportation modes. This excellent idea of shifting towards an entirely EV-based mobility industry and economy results in a range of issues that need to be addressed. The issues range from ramping up the electricity generation for the projected increase in consumption to developing an infrastructure that is large enough to support the higher demand for electricity that arises due to the market penetration of EVs. Vehicle to grid (V2G) is a concept that is largely in a testing phase in the current scenario. However, it appears to offer a solution to the issues created by a mobility sector that the constantly growing EV fleet will dominate. Furthermore, the integration of EVs with the grid seems to offer various cost-wise and environment-wise benefits while assisting the grid by tapping into the idle energy of parked EVs during peak hours. This review aims to present some of the possible ancillary service potentials of such a system while also discussing the potential challenges, impacts, and future market penetration capabilities of V2G technology.