Whey Protein Films for Sustainable Food Packaging: Effect of Incorporated Ascorbic Acid and Environmental Assessment

The management of food waste and by-products has become a challenge for the agri-food sector and an example are whey by-products produced in dairy industries. Seeking other whey valorisation alternatives and applications, whey protein films for food packaging applications were developed in this study. Films containing different amounts (0, 5, 10, and 15 wt%) of ascorbic acid were manufactured via compression-moulding and their physicochemical, thermal, barrier, optical, and mechanical properties were analysed and related to the film structure. Additionally, the environmental assessment of the films was carried out to analyse the impact of film manufacture. Regarding physicochemical properties, both FTIR and water uptake analyses showed the presence of non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, between whey protein and ascorbic acid as band shifts at the 1500–1700 cm−1 region as well as a water absorption decrease from 380% down to 240% were observed. The addition of ascorbic acid notably improved the UV-Vis light absorbance capacity of whey protein films up to 500 nm, a relevant enhancement for protecting foods susceptible to UV-Vis light-induced lipid oxidation. In relation to the environmental assessment, it was concluded that scaling up film manufacture could lead to a reduction in the environmental impacts, mainly electricity consumption.The authors would like to thank Basque Government (KK-2021/00131 and IT1658-22) for its financial support

A Green Approach towards Native Collagen Scaffolds: Environmental and Physicochemical Assessment

Native collagen scaffolds were prepared in this work, in which both materials and environmental approaches were considered with the aim of providing a global strategy towards more sustainable biomaterials. From the environmental perspective, it is worth mentioning that acid and enzymatic treatments have been avoided to extract collagen, allowing the reduction in the use of resources, in terms of chemicals, energy, and time, and leading to a low environmental load of this step in all the impact categories under analysis. With the incorporation of chitosan into the scaffold-forming formulations, physical interactions occurred between collagen and chitosan, but the native collagen structure was preserved, as observed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The incorporation of chitosan also led to more homogenous porous microstructures, with higher elastic moduli and compression resistance for both dry and hydrated scaffolds. Furthermore, hydrated scaffolds preserved their size and shape after some compression cycles.This research was funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-097100-B-C22) and the Basque Government (38-2018-00037). M.A. (PRE_2017_1_0025) and A.Ir. (PRE_2019_1_0031) thank the Basque Government for their fellowships

Introducción al análisis financiero de la empresa

Duración (en horas): De 41 a 50 horas. Destinatario: Estudiante y DocenteEste curso está dirigido a estudiantes de carreras técnicas que tengan que cursar la asignatura de "Economía de la Empresa". En concreto, facilita el aprendizaje del módulo "Gestión Financiera" dentro de esta asignatura. A partir de una pregunta inicial, se desarrollan 13 actividades que permitirán al alumno a su término saber elaborar, interpretar y corregir las cuentas anuales de una empresa. El tiempo estimado para su realización es de 25 horas presenciales y 25 horas no presenciales

Compatibilidad entre las estrategias ambientales de la empresa y el desarrollo sostenible

Centro de Informacion y Documentacion Cientifica (CINDOC). C/Joaquin Costa, 22. 28002 Madrid. SPAIN / CINDOC - Centro de Informaciòn y Documentaciòn CientìficaSIGLEESSpai