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.  

Additional Blue LED during Cultivation Induces Cold Tolerance in Tomato Fruit but Only to an Optimum

Tomato is a chilling-sensitive fruit. The aim of this study is to examine the role of preharvest blue LED lighting (BL) to induce cold tolerance in ‘Foundation’ tomatoes. Blue and red supplemental LED light was applied to achieve either 0, 12 or 24% additional BL (0B, 12B and 24B). Mature green (MG) or red (R) tomatoes were harvested and cold stored at 4 °C for 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 d, and then stored for 20 d at 20 °C (shelf life). Chilling injury (CI) indices, color and firmness, hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde, ascorbic acid and catalase activity were characterized. At harvest, R tomatoes cultivated at 12B were firmer and showed less coloration compared to fruit of other treatments. These fruits also showed higher loss of red color during cold storage and lower CI symptoms during shelf-life. MG tomatoes cultivated at 12B showed delayed coloring (non-chilled) and decreased weight loss (long cold stored) during shelf life compared to fruit in the other treatments. No effects of light treatments, both for MG and R tomatoes, were observed for the selected antioxidant capacity indicators. Improved cold tolerance for R tomatoes cultivated at 12B points to lycopene having higher scavenging activity at lower concentrations to mitigate chilling injury.

Accumulation of Anthocyanidins Determines Leaf Color of Liquidambar Formosana as Revealed by Transcriptome Sequencing and Metabolism Analysis

Liquidambar formosana is important for its ornamental value in China; it is increasingly used for landscaping and gardening trees due to its diverse leaf colors and seasonal changes. Varieties including either a fixed leaf color, the purplish ‘Fuluzifeng’ (ZF), or seasonal changes in leaf color, the reddish ‘Nanlinhong’ (NLH) have been bred and registered as new plant varieties under the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV) system. To gain practical insights into the anthocyanin biosynthetic process, transcriptome sequencing (Illumina) was performed to clarify the metabolic pathways present in the three seasonal changes in leaf colors in NLH and in the springtime purple-red color of ZF. qRT-PCR was used to verify the speculation. Based on the differentially expressed genes and flavonoids analyses, the spring, summer, and autumn leaves of NLH were compared to study the seasonal differences. NLH and ZF were compared to study the formation mechanism of the two leaf colors in spring. Transcriptome sequencing produced a total of 121,216 unigenes from all samples, where 48 unigenes were differentially expressed and associated with the anthocyanidin pathway. The expression levels of LfDFR and LfANS genes corresponded to the accumulation of concentrations of cyanidins in spring (NLHC) and autumn leaves (NLHQ), respectively, with different shades of red. Moreover, the LfF3′5′H gene corresponded to the accumulation of flavonols and delphinidins in purple-red leaves (ZFC). Cyanidin and peonidin were the key pigments in red and dark-red leaves, and purple-red leaves were co-pigmented by cyanidins, pelargonidins, and delphinidins.

Influence of UV Radiation on the Color Change of the Surface of Steamed Maple Wood with Saturated Water Steam

The wood of maple (Acer Pseudopatanus L.) was steamed with a saturated steam-air mixture at a temperature of t = 95 °C or saturated steam at t = 115 °C and t = 135 °C, in order to give a pale pink-brown, pale brown, and brown-red color. Subsequently, samples of unsteamed and steamed maple wood were irradiated with a UV lamp in a Xenotest Q-SUN Xe-3-H after drying, in order to test the color stability of steamed maple wood. The color change of the wood surface was evaluated by means of measured values on the coordinates of the color space CIE L* a* b*. The results show that the surface of unsteamed maple wood changes color markedly under the influence of UV radiation than the surface of steamed maple wood. The greater the darkening and browning color of the maple wood by steaming, the smaller the changes in the values at the coordinates L*, a*, b* of the steamed maple wood caused by UV radiation. The positive effect of steaming on UV resistance is evidenced by the decrease in the overall color difference ∆E*. While the value of the total color diffusion of unsteamed maple wood induced by UV radiation is ∆E* = 18.5, for maple wood steamed with a saturated steam-air mixture at temperature t = 95 °C the ∆E* decreases to 12.6, for steamed maple wood with saturated water steam with temperature t = 115 °C the ∆E* decreases to 10.4, and for saturated water steam with temperature t = 135 °C the ∆E* decreases to 7.2. Differential ATR-FTIR spectra declare the effect of UV radiation on unsteamed and steamed maple wood and confirm the higher color stability of steamed maple wood.

Nanoplasmonic Strip Test for Salivary Glucose Monitoring

Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in Point-of-care (POC) devices for the noninvasive glucose assessment. Despite the recent progress in glucose self-monitoring, commercially available devices still use invasive samples such as blood or interstitial fluids, and they are not equipment-free and affordable for the whole population. Here, we report a fully integrated strip test for the semi-quantitative detection of glucose in whole saliva. The colorimetric mechanism consists of an enzyme-mediated reshaping of multibranched gold nanoparticles (MGNPs) into nanospheres with an associated plasmonic shift and consequent blue-to-red color change, clearly detectable in less than 10 min.

Ecological and/or Nutritional Scores for Food Traffic-Lights: Results of an Online Survey Conducted on Pizza in France

Understanding the hierarchy for consumers between different labels signaling various characteristics defining food sustainability is still an open question. A web survey was conducted in France to examine how providing different scores about the environment and/or nutrition could influence purchase intents for one pizza. 1200 participants were recruited in France in April 2021. They were asked about their purchase intents for one pizza, before and after seeing nutritional and/or ecological scores associated with colors going from green to red. A Global-Score synthetizing both nutritional and ecological dimensions was also tested. The results show that the appearance of scores and colors significantly affect the purchase intents for this pizza. Indeed, for each type of score (namely nutritional, ecological or global), the dominant effect comes from the reduction in purchase intents related to the red color, although green or yellow colors also change purchase intents but to a lesser extent. With the red color, the nutritional score leads to more significant decreases in purchasing intents than the ones related to the ecological score or the Global-Score. With an additional round, the appearance of another score complementing the alternative one underlines that the negative impact of the red color for one score on purchase intents is not outweighed by the positive impact of the green color for the other score.

Analysis of varietal diversity, decorativeness and peculiarities of growth and development of cultivars Dahlia cultorum Thorsrud & Reisaeter in the collection of the biostationary of Bila Tserkva NAU

Aim. In order to identify promising cultivars of Dahlia cultorum for use in landscaping in Kyiv region, the analysis of the system of qualitative and quantitative indicators of cultivars of dahlias, the peculiarities of their growth and development in the absence of irrigation is conducted. Methods. To analyze the diversity of Dahlia cultorum cultivars at the biostationary of Bila Tserkva NAU, the classification developed by the American Society of Dahlia (ADS classification) was used. The cultivar assortment of dahlias was studied according to the descriptions of the catalog of the company “SontseSad”, which transferred 108 cultivars of Dahlia cultorum to Bila Tserkva NAU biostationary in 2014. Phenological rhythms of growth and development of dahlias were studied according to the methods of B. K. Shybniev, H. D. Yurkevych, and D. S. Holod. The increment of dahlias was measured during the period of active growth, the size of the flower — during the period of its full opening with the help of a measuring ruler on 5 specimens of each cultivar every decade. Results. Based on the analysis of the varietal composition of Dahlia cultorum collection of dahlia cultivars of Bila Tserkva NAU biostationary, it was found that the largest number of 36% belongs to the cultivar group of decorative dahlias, 12% — to cactus, 7% — to spherical and 1% to pompoms and anemones. The mixed cultivar of dahlias is 43.4%, among them the most numerous group of dahlias with dissected leaves “Deer antlers” — 48%, “Karma” — 19%, pot — 12%, French collection — 21%. According to the color spectrum, the collection is dominated by dahlias of red color — 29%, pink — 19%, yellow and orange — 16% each, violet — 12%, white color — 6%. Two-color cultivars amount to only 2%. Observations show that in May–June, due to the long and dry period and the lack of artificial irrigation, all cultivars of dahlias at Bila Tserkva NAU biostationary were marked by very slow growth. As of July 15, the height of dahlia bushes averaged 30–50 cm, which was significantly less than the size presented in the catalog of the magazine “SontseSad”. Conclusions. The collection of dahlias at Bila Tserkva NAU biostationary includes 108 cultivars belonging to seven main cultivar groups, including 11 cultivars from the new French collection. Early in the first decade of July, the cultivars ‘Islande’, ‘Maki’, ‘Sir Alf Ramsay’, ‘Mingus Alex’, ‘Glorie van Heemstede’ begin to bloom. Latest of all, in August, cultivars ‘Babylon Rose’, ‘Amanda’, ‘Aitara Bronwyn’, ’Karma Gold’, ‘Gallery Rembrandt’, ‘Lilac Time’, and ‘Star Spectacle’ began flowering. It is established that the period from the appearance of the bud to the opening of the flower in dahlia cultivars lasts 25-30 days. The first buds appeared in early July, but their peduncles were very short and such flowers were not suitable for cutting. In fact, the blooming central flower itself was 5-10 cm lower than the second-order buds around it, and therefore had a limited view from the inflorescence, which led to a loss of decorativeness in the cultivars ‘Romance’, ‘Candlelight’, and “Karma Bon Bini”. The duration of flowering of one dahlia flower in different cultivars ranged from 5 to 17 days. The longest period of blooming of one flower is 14-17 days in ‘Autumn Fairy’, ‘Nagano’, ‘Idylle’, ‘Babylon Brons’, ‘Duet’ cultivars. The shortest blooming period of one flower is 5-7 days for ‘Ellen Huston’, ‘Champs Elysees’, ‘ThykiYori No Shisha’, ‘Aspen’ cultivars. Due to the high air temperature and the long rainless period, the peak of flowering of dahlias in the conditions of Bila Tserkva NAU biostationary was at the beginning of September.

Evaluation of the aesthetic qualities and adaptability of introduced ornamental apple trees from the genetic collection of the Orenburg Branch of the Federal Horticultural Research Center for Breeding, Agrotechnology and Nursery

The study of ornamental and adaptive qualities of Malus Mill. from the genetic collection of ornamental crops of the Orenburg branch of the Research Center of Horticulture was carried out to assess the gene pool of introduced wild apple tree species and forms and identify suitable for the urban landscaping and the breeding process. Such characteristics as habitus, abundance of flowering, color and number of flowers in the inflorescence, color of vegetative organs, flowers and fruits during the season were taken into account; resistance to major diseases and adverse abiotic factors was evaluated. Additionally, the color of buds and flowers was characterized on the basis of the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society Color Chart). As a result of a preliminary survey on the complex of ornamental qualities and the level of adaptability, 5 most promising species were identified, which received the best ratings on the ornamental scale. Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne ex C. K. Schneid. (31 points) was characterized by an attractive habit, the presence of flowers with a diameter of up to 40 mm and subsequently fruits that acquire a yellow-red color. Malus sargentii Rehder (29 points) was notable for its compact rounded crown, a large number of flowers with a diameter of 30 mm, followed by the formation of fruits with a dark red color. Malus floribunda Siebold ex Van Houtte (28 points) was distinguished by a large number of fragrant flowers in an umbrella-shaped inflorescence (5 — 7 pcs) with an average diameter of 30 mm, as well as attractive red-yellow fruits. Malus sieboldii (Regel) Rehder, M. toringo Siebold (28 points) was interesting primarily by the presence of 5 -7 flowers of 20 — 30 mm in the inflorescence and decorative fruits, the color of which varies from yellow to red. Malus niedzwetzkyana Dieck (28 points) attracted attention to the rich purple color of all organs due to the presence of a large number of anthocyanins, it was also worth noting the presence of a pleasant aroma during flowering and large flowers with an average diameter of 40 mm. The selected ornamental types of apple trees are favorable for use in landscaping of various scales, they are recommended for breeding work as initial parent forms.

DEVELOPMENT OF PAPER-BASED ANALYTICAL DEVICE FOR DETECTING DIAZEPAM IN URINE

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop Paper-based Analytical Devices (PADs) with colorimetric method as a presumptive test for detecting diazepam in urine Methods: Colorimetric method was used as a principle of this study. PADs were fabricated with wax-printing methods. Chosen colorimetric reagent was tested for selectivity with hydromorphone and codeine; and sensitivity by measuring the absorbance with UV-Vis spectrophotometer. PADs were tested for its sensitivity and stability. The intensity of color developed on PADs are measured with ImageJ. The ability of PADs to detect diazepam in urine was simulated with testing spiked urine sample to the PADs Results: Zimmermann gave the most obvious prominent color change from colorless to purple-red color out of the four reagents. PAD is selective to diazepam when tested with hydromorphone and codeine. PAD is sensitive with a cut-off concentration at 100 ppm. PAD can detect diazepam in urine with the highest recovery percent at 92.8%±4,6 Conclusion: It can be concluded that PAD is quite selective and sensitive to detect diazepam in urine and can be done easily and fast for onsite analysis

Improved Oxidative Stability and Sensory Quality of Beef Hamburgers Enriched with a Phenolic Extract from Olive Vegetation Water

This study aims at evaluating the effect of a phenol-rich extract obtained from the concentration and purification of olive mill wastewaters (added at a ratio of 87.5 and 175 mg of phenols/kg meat) on the stability and sensory quality of beef hamburgers packed under modified atmosphere and stored under alternating exposure to fluorescent light at 4 ± 2 °C for 9 days. The hamburgers were sampled at different times (0, 6, and 9 days) and grilled at 200 °C. After 9 days, more than 56% of the added phenols in the raw burgers and more than 20% the grilled ones were retained. The results show that both concentrations of phenolic extract proved to effectively reduce primary and secondary lipid oxidation, as well as cholesterol oxidation products (COPs), during the shelf-life of raw hamburgers. Peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, and total COPs were up to 1.4-, 4.5-, and 8.8-fold lower in phenol-enriched raw hamburgers, respectively, than in the control samples; a similar trend was noted also in phenol-enriched cooked hamburgers (1.3-, 5.7-, and 4-fold lower). The sensory analysis also confirmed the effectiveness of the addition of phenolic extract, resulting in a positive effect on the red color intensity (raw product) and thus reducing browning during storage.