Summary report on sensory-related socio-economic and sensory science literature about organic food products

Organic food’s initial attraction to the public was that it was perceived to be healthier and tastier, but scientists and policy makers have mainly stressed the benefits to the environment of organic and sustainable farming. Scientific support for marketing actions addressed to those who want to be healthier and who want to enjoy better taste, and are willing to pay more for these benefits is scarce. Past research has produced little clear evidence about the importance of sensory characteristics such as taste, smell, appearance etc in consumers’ preferences with regard to organic food. The Ecropolis project, funded by the E.U., was set up with the aim of investigating the role of the senses in consumers’ preferences regarding organic food, and leading to research into how best to satisfy those preferences. This deliverable is aimed at providing a solid basis for such research with an in-depth review of, and two reports on, the relevant scientific literature. The first report (Annex I) regards what consumers expect from organic products in terms of taste, smell, appearance, etc and how these expectations are (or are not) met; the second is about the science of the senses (Annex II). The first project tasks included creating and agreeing on a glossary of terms, deciding on search criteria (key words, etc.), setting up a bibliographical data base, preparing then circulating the above-mentioned reports, and finally preparing a summary of the reports. The report on consumers expectations highlights the suggestion that while organic food has traditionally been marketed through specialized retailers, its market share will only grow significantly if it is promoted by multiple retailers. Research literature from all over the world seems to agree in indicating that consumers’ choices are largely motivated by health, the environment, price and social status. Other considerations include ethics, the localness of the product and lifestyle choices. The literature also indicates that the organic market will expand significantly only if consumers are more willing, and able, to recognize quality, but this presents serious issues. When buying the product they cannot personally verify its quality and genuineness and thus must rely on regulation and inspection bodies. The recognition of quality can also be encouraged by effective communication by producers and retailers through appropriate branding, labelling and presentation. There are connections between this information and questions of sense perception, but researchers disagree about how important the latter is in influencing the customer, and in which ways it does so. The following report focuses, in fact, on the science of the senses, which tries to analyze in detail people’s responses to food, despite the many potential pitfalls in carrying out the research which might influence the reliability of the results. There is broad agreement on two points: - there is no proof that organic food is more nutritious or safer, and - most studies that have compared the taste and organoleptic quality of organic andconventional foods report no consistent or significant differences between organic and conventional produce. Therefore, claiming that all organic food tastes different from all conventional food would not be correct. However, among the well-designed studies with respect to fruits and vegetables that have found differences, the vast majority favour organic produce. Organic produce tends to store better and has longer shelf life, probably because of lower levels of nitrates and higher average levels of antioxidants. The former can accelerate food spoilage, while antioxidants help preserve the integrity of cells and some are natural antibiotics. The first conclusion may, however, depend on factors not directly connected to organic farming, such as harvesting and storage methods and the type of land used for growing the food. About the second finding it must be considered that measuring organoleptic quality is difficult and inherently subjective and evaluations may be clouded by the influence of numerous factors on the consumer’s perceptions of the food and not just its appearance and taste. Experimental research indicates that the information that a food is organic confers upon it a “halo effect” (making it seem better sense-wise simply because it is organic) which might make consumers like it more. Ecropolis researchers will analyze in detail which senses are indeed impacted on, and how, and try to match them to consumer needs and expectations in order to be able to offer suggestions for future policy, including how the food is stored, transported and presented, which is also essential for maintaining sensory properties. The workpackage WP1 has also produced a specific report on how organic food sensory aspects are regulated. International standards, with some important exceptions, are largely in line with European ones. Differences in standards usually regard whether there is orientation towards freshness “per se” as opposed to increasing shelf-life, or quality standardization as opposed to quality differentiation. Differences in regulations regard such aspects as ingredients, additives, processing aids and methods, packaging, storage and transport. The lack of harmony among the different regulatory systems often reflects different traditions and market conditions, however, more complicated compliance procedures result in higher costs for importers. Greater homogeneity would not only reduce such costs but would also increase consumer confidence in international standards. Ecropolis will also investigate the effect of different regulations on how people perceive organic goods sense-wise. The work done to date is seen as a starting point for future research aimed at producing practical results in the organic food market. Ecropolis will try to bring together separate strands of research concerning how organic goods are regulated and marketed with regard to taste, appearance, etc., and how consumers themselves are affected by such factors. The aim is to find optimal matches between the two, and thus to greatly increase organic food’s share of the food market

THE EFFECT OF LANGUAGE BARRIERS ON VARIATION AND RECEIPT OF EARLY STAGE BREAST CANCER TREATMENT

Background: Arriving at and implementing an appropriate patient centered treatment plan for early stage breast cancer requires significant dialogue between healthcare providers and patients. How language barriers affect this process has not been thoroughly explored in the literature. The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of language barrier on variation and receipt of early stage breast cancer treatment. Methods: Rates of lumpectomy, mastectomy, and contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) with or without reconstruction were compared between English speaking and Low English Proficiency (LEP) cohorts. Patients with recurrent or bilateral breast cancer, male patients, and/or known genetic mutations were excluded. Receipt of recommended treatments including chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and radiation were compared between the two groups, as well as patient refusal and loss of follow-up. Regression analysis for all-cause mortality within this time period was tabulated for each group. Results: There were no significant differences between receipt of recommended treatments, patient refusal or loss of follow up between the cohorts. LEP patients had a greater proportion of lumpectomies (79.7 versus 70.7%) while 9.2% of English-speaking patients had CPM or CPM with reconstruction compared to none of the LEP patients. These trends, however, did not rise to statistical significance within our small population sample. Age, insurance type, and LEP were associated with significant difference in all-cause mortality, however only age and insurance remained significant in adjusted analysis. Conclusion: Our results indicate a non-statistically significant trend towards less variation of surgical treatment variation for early stage breast cancer in the LEP population, including a greater frequency of lumpectomy and less utilization of CPM. Larger, multicenter studies would be needed to affirm and further investigate these trends

e-Factors in e-Agribusiness

The Internet offers new opportunities for small businesses to conquer new markets and to find better and cheaper suppliers. Internet-based commerce is widely perceived as the new business logic that operates in a world without boundaries; a world characterized by speed, change, interactivity and connectivity. In this global commercial environment, e-business models appear to be the central conceptual component. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are changing the way in which companies trade with their suppliers and customers. The growing complexity of the food sector drives companies to adopt more sophisticated and effective e-business solutions. If we intend to adopt an e-business solution we have to consider more “e-factors” such as technological, individual, organizational, industrial and societal aspects

FTC vs. Toysmart

Last summer, Toysmart agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission concerning use of its customer information database. Under the terms of the settlement, the defunct Internet toy retailer was permitted to sell customer information without either providing its former customers notice or giving them an opportunity to block the sale or use of their personal information. This issue ignited a privacy-rights maelstrom, but ended anti-climatically for Toysmart; in January, Buena Vista Internet Group, a Disney subsidiary and 60% majority shareholder of Toysmart, agreed to compensate the company\u27s creditors $50,000 for the privilege of destroying the database. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Carol Kenner approved this plan, subject to the limitation that Toysmart attorneys must retain the list and destroy it (rather than physically transfer it to Buena Vista) when all creditor claims are satisfied

A tool for estimating Best Management Practice effectiveness in Arkansas

Increased nutrient and sediment losses from expanding agricultural practices and urban development in Arkansas are important environmental concerns. Best Management Practices (BMPs) are being implemented to lessen the effects of these developments on existing water bodies. There is, however, insufficient scientific base as to the effectiveness of these practices. A number of studies have been conducted in recent years to determine BMP effectiveness. Data from these studies can only be reliably used for the individual site from which they were obtained. When considered collectively, these data comprise quantitative effectiveness over a wide range of conditions and can thus be used to provide reliable estimates of BMP effectiveness. This study develops a tool for estimating BMP effectiveness, based on accumulation and analyses of data reported in previous studies, with a focus on site conditions and management interventions in Arkansas. This study incorporates data from a variety of regions in the southeastern U.S., which have site conditions and management similar to those in Arkansas. Developed within Microsoft® Access© from a pre-existing BMP characterization tool, this tool will be made accessible to local and state agencies and will aid rural and urban planners in developing management solutions for nutrients and sediment control. The tool describes individual BMPs in detail and gives site-specific estimates of their long-term effectiveness in sediment and nutrient control

Factors Influencing the Quality of the User Experience in Ubiquitous Recommender Systems

The use of mobile devices and the rapid growth of the internet and networking infrastructure has brought the necessity of using Ubiquitous recommender systems. However in mobile devices there are different factors that need to be considered in order to get more useful recommendations and increase the quality of the user experience. This paper gives an overview of the factors related to the quality and proposes a new hybrid recommendation model.Comment: The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 8530, 2014, pp 369-37

Factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of e-health systems: an explanatory systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the literature on the implementation of e-health to identify: (i) barriers and facilitators to e-health implementation, and (ii) outstanding gaps in research on the subject.METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PSYCINFO and the Cochrane Library were searched for reviews published between 1 January 1995 and 17 March 2009. Studies had to be systematic reviews, narrative reviews, qualitative metasyntheses or meta-ethnographies of e-health implementation. Abstracts and papers were double screened and data were extracted on country of origin; e-health domain; publication date; aims and methods; databases searched; inclusion and exclusion criteria and number of papers included. Data were analysed qualitatively using normalization process theory as an explanatory coding framework.FINDINGS: Inclusion criteria were met by 37 papers; 20 had been published between 1995 and 2007 and 17 between 2008 and 2009. Methodological quality was poor: 19 papers did not specify the inclusion and exclusion criteria and 13 did not indicate the precise number of articles screened. The use of normalization process theory as a conceptual framework revealed that relatively little attention was paid to: (i) work directed at making sense of e-health systems, specifying their purposes and benefits, establishing their value to users and planning their implementation; (ii) factors promoting or inhibiting engagement and participation; (iii) effects on roles and responsibilities; (iv) risk management, and (v) ways in which implementation processes might be reconfigured by user-produced knowledge.CONCLUSION: The published literature focused on organizational issues, neglecting the wider social framework that must be considered when introducing new technologies.<br/