The Effects of Relative Price and Health Information on Derived Demand for Sweeteners in the U.S. Food Processing Industry

The purpose of the study is to examine the differential effects of relative prices and diet-health link information on the degree of substitution between corn and cane sugar in the U.S. food processing sector. Our results suggest that the nature of the relationship between cane and corn sugar is complementary and time-varying; and the elasticity of substitution is more responsive to changes in relative prices than to changes in health information.Derived Demand, Sweeteners, Relative Prices, Health Information, Trade offs, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D21, I18, L66,

Demand behavior of U.S. high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and its implication for the U.S. sweetener market: a cointegration analysis

This paper investigates the relationship between U.S. HFCS demand and refined sugar price. A cointegration analysis is utilized to investigate possible linkages between these markets. The coefficients on the ECM have the expected signs, and they measure adjustments towards long-run equilibrium. The study result also shows that there is cointegration in a relationship including, HFCS price, the refined sugar price, and income. the increase in HFCS demand would affect primarily the quantity of sugar imports negatively. However, this study does not necessarily support such a conclusion due to the exclusion of noneconomic factors such as change in consumer preference and health concern.Demand and Price Analysis,

A QSTR-based expert system to predict sweetness of molecules

This work describes a novel approach based on advanced molecular similarity to predict the sweetness of chemicals. The proposed Quantitative Structure-Taste Relationship (QSTR) model is an expert system developed keeping in mind the five principles defined by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the validation of (Q)SARs. The 649 sweet and non-sweet molecules were described by both conformation-independent extended-connectivity fingerprints (ECFPs) and molecular descriptors. In particular, the molecular similarity in the ECFPs space showed a clear association with molecular taste and it was exploited for model development. Molecules laying in the subspaces where the taste assignation was more difficult were modeled trough a consensus between linear and local approaches (Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis and N-nearest-neighbor classifier). The expert system, which was thoroughly validated through a Monte Carlo procedure and an external set, gave satisfactory results in comparison with the state-of-the-art models. Moreover, the QSTR model can be leveraged into a greater understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and sweetness, and into the design of novel sweeteners.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y AplicadasFacultad de Ciencias Exacta

Artificial intelligence in biological activity prediction

Artificial intelligence has become an indispensable resource in chemoinformatics. Numerous machine learning algorithms for activity prediction recently emerged, becoming an indispensable approach to mine chemical information from large compound datasets. These approaches enable the automation of compound discovery to find biologically active molecules with important properties. Here, we present a review of some of the main machine learning studies in biological activity prediction of compounds, in particular for sweetness prediction. We discuss some of the most used compound featurization techniques and the major databases of chemical compounds relevant to these tasks.This study was supported by the European Commission through project SHIKIFACTORY100 - Modular cell factories for the production of 100 compounds from the shikimate pathway (Reference 814408), and by the Portuguese FCT under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sugar policy and reform

Reviewing cross-country experience with sugar policies, and policy reform, the authors conclude that long-standing government interventions - rooted in historical trade arrangements, fear of shortages, and conflicting interests between growers, and sugar mills - often displace both the markets, and the institutions required to produce efficient outcomes. Arrangements rooted in colonial eras, still shape policies, and trade in the United States, the European Union (EU), and many developing countries. Once policies, and institutions are put in place, households, and the value of investments grow dependent on them, even as their usefulness fades. Firms and households make decisions that are costly to reverse. And the result is a legacy of path-dependent policies, in which approaches, and instruments are greatly influenced by past agreements, and previous interventions. The cumulative effects of these interventions are embodied in livelihoods, political institutions, capital stocks, and factor markets - which not only dictate the starting point for reform, but also determine which reform paths are feasible. Experiments with public ownership, common in many countries, have not succeeded. So most countries have initiated some measure of market reform. And events relating to NAFTA, Lome, and expansion of the EU, may bring about significant changes in the EU, and US sugar regimes, with cascading effects on other countries. Common problems in the sector include determining cane quality, finding methods for fairly sharing revenues from joint production, finding ways to take advantage of preferential trade arrangements with minimal negative consequences, finding ways to finance, and encourage research, and other activities with common benefits, identifying practices that facilitate equitable, sustainable privatization, and determining the relationship between sugar market reform, and markets in land, water, credit, and other inputs.Food&Beverage Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agribusiness,Agribusiness&Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agribusiness&Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Agribusiness,Agricultural Trade

Atmospheric Pollution Causes Deterioration of Sweeteners of Treats and Decreases Competitiveness in the Food Industry of Coastal Baja California, Mexico

The use of pigments and sweeteners in the food industry has been of great importance over the last thirty years, as an aid to obtaining better quality products of certain types of food that require specialized methods of production, such as sweet breads. Since pigments were first used they have increased the competitiveness of the regional, national and international bakeries and treats companies found on the coast of Baja California, in northwest Mexico. In this region of the country, many people consume a considerable quantity of sweet bread, principally in winter. The pigments are made using specialized methods and have qualities relevant to the special conditions required in the storage and manufacturing processes, as well as to the types of food and the packaging associated with them. This is done in order to achieve a favorable appearance, and to create an be aactive product fortoforonsumers. Any bread with defective sweetener or pigmentation levels must be rejected and returned to the manufacturing process or be offered as food to pigs at a much lower market price resulting in economic losses to the company and a decrease in competitiveness. A specialized analysis of the subject was undertaken between 2012 and 2014 with the use of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

The True Colors of Trademark Law: Green-lighting a Red Tide of Anti Competition Blues

The elevation of color to stand-alone trademark status illustrates the unbounded nature of trademarks within the judicial consciousness. The availability of color-alone marks also facilitates the commoditization of color in ways that complicate the development and distribution of products and services that use color for multiple purposes conterminously. The economic case for color-alone trademarks is severely undermined by careful observation of the ways that colors are actually deployed in commerce, which makes it clear that the trademarks of multiple goods and services can utilize the same color to telegraph the same message without confusing anyone or diluting the commercial power of textual or symbolic trademarks. Trademark law can be used to monopolistically harness the aesthetic appeal or preexisting social meaning of a color. The Supreme Court was wrong to facilitate this abuse of trademark powers when it decided in Qualitex v. Jacobson Products Co. that colors alone could constitute protectable trademarks! Long ago the Supreme Court held in the Sears, Roebuck & Co. v Stiffel Co. and Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. cases that the Intellectual Property Clause of the Constitution preserves a right to copy any product feature that is unrestricted by patents or copyrights., Ruling in favor of color-alone trademarks abrogated this important principle for no good reason. The Qualitex holding did not lessen color related consumer confusion, because there was not evidence of any. Instead it reduced competition and consumer choice by creating illegitimate aesthetic and communicative cartels. The primary doctrinal arguments against recognizing color-alone trademarks raised here include aesthetic functionality, the related concept of communicative functionality, uncertainty about scope, and color exhaustion. Colors always add aesthetic value, and often communicate messages unrelated to commercial source. Coupled with the uncertainties related to color-alone marks and the risks of color exhaustion, the anticompetitive effects of color monopolies outweigh any possible social benefit from a regime that permits registration of color-alone trademarks. It is further argued that if any court attempted to declare a color famous for dilution purposes, thereby granting a commercial entity broad rights to monopolize the color well beyond the context in which it is used in commerce, there would be a furious backlash against this ill-advised doctrine. The palette of commercially appealing colors is far more limited than the dictionary of attractive and usable words, and could be radically depleted by deployment of dilution precepts rather quickly. Courts that recognize this may relegate color-alone marks to some second class status that is ineligible for dilution protections, preserving color availability somewhat but further warping trademark doctrine

COMMONLY USED ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS IN EUROPE

It has been known for many years that the excessive consumption of sugar (sucrose) has harmful effects on human health. This fact led to a reduction in sugar consumption and the appearance of artificial sweeteners in the 1800s. The first low-cost and low-calorie sugar alternative was saccharin. Since this sweetener gained great popularity, other artificial sweeteners soon followed, including aspartame, acesulfame-K and cyclamates as the most common ones. As the result of a sharp rise in the obesity pandemic in all populations and ethnic groups, a demand for sweeteners with a minimum caloric value has increased dramatically in the last decade as consumers care more about their health. Due to the different regulation of permitted artificial sweeteners in United States (US) and Europe (EU), there are some controversies and suspicions about the relationship between certain sweeteners and a potential health risk. Despite doubts about the safety of artificial sweeteners, many studies have shown the absence of dangers associated with their use (if used in the acceptable daily intake, ADI). Therefore, artificial sweeteners today are considered as safe for consumption by many competent institutions and organisations. Nowadays, artificial sweeteners are fundamental in the food industry and present in many foodstuffs