Il fenomeno del food waste: gli sprechi alimentari da problema a risorse

Il tema degli sprechi alimentari rappresenta un problema globale nonché una preoccupazione centrale del nostro secolo. Negli ultimi anni, il fenomeno ha assunto un’importanza crescente all’interno del dibattito scientifico e delle iniziative della società civile, fino ad essere richiamato nei documenti programmatici dell’UE e delle principali organizzazioni internazionali (FAO, UNEP, USDA, G20). Tuttavia, non esiste ancora una definizione univoca di “spreco alimentare”, così come non esistono metodologie uniformi per calcolarlo; ma, gli studi concordano che il cibo è sprecato ad ogni stadio della filiera alimentare. Si stima che annualmente nel mondo gli sprechi alimentari ammontano a circa 1.3 miliardi di tonnellate (un terzo della produzione totale di cibo destinato al consumo umano). Le cause sono molteplici e si differenziano in base al livello di sviluppo economico raggiunto (Paesi industrializzati o in via di sviluppo) e in base alla particolare struttura della filiera agroalimentare (es. standard dimensionali ed estetici, norme sulla qualità dei prodotti, surplus produttivi o fattori economici). Nel panorama europeo, i Paesi che hanno già avviato azioni e programmi volti a comprendere e contrastare il fenomeno sono molti; ma solo Francia e Italia, nel 2016, hanno adottato una legislazione nazionale in materia. Gli sprechi alimentari generano impatti negativi ambientali ed economici, ma a rendere ancora più allarmante il fenomeno è la questione sociale. Infatti, a fronte di un miliardo circa di persone nel mondo che, allo stato attuale sono sottoalimentate, gli sprechi alimentari appaiono quanto mai inaccettabili. Per stimare l’impatto ambientale di un alimento sprecato è necessario considerare il suo intero ciclo di vita utilizzando indicatori specifici quali il carbon footprint, l’ecological footprint o il water footprint; mentre per quanto riguarda l’impatto economico degli sprechi, esso include la quantificazione delle esternalità negative oltre il costo o il prezzo dei prodotti gettati via. Viste le dimensioni assunte dal fenomeno e soprattutto dalla portata dei suoi impatti, gli sprechi alimentari si allontanano di molto da quelli che sono gli obiettivi di sostenibilità da intraprendere a livello mondiale. Pertanto, la promozione di iniziative di sensibilizzazione e di recupero degli sprechi (es. attraverso il recupero delle eccedenze produttive a fini solidali o per la produzione di bioenergie), oltre all’applicazione di un quadro legislativo, dovrebbe far crescere la consapevolezza di consumatori, produttori, istituzioni e politica che in un mondo in crisi economica, ambientale e sociale, lo spreco è un fenomeno totalmente insostenibile, e non è più consentito. La sostenibilità non può più essere considerata un mero concetto teorico, ma è necessario ripensare i modelli di produzione e di consumo, rivedere comportamenti e stili di vita, per intraprendere un percorso mirato verso una società compatibile con i bisogni delle attuali e delle future generazioni. In tale contesto, la Commissione europea ha presentato un pacchetto per sostenere la transizione dell’UE verso un’economia circolare, nel quale la prevenzione e la minimizzazione degli sprechi alimentari sono parte integrante.Food waste is a global issue and a central concern of our century, it is a significant phenomenon that is currently at the heart of academic debates, civil society initiatives, and political agendas (FAO, UNEP, USDA, G20). However, there is not any standardized definition of “food waste” or any homogeneous and comparable data, but all studies agree that food is wasted at every stage of the food supply chain. Annual global food waste is estimated to be about 1.3 billion tons (a third of the total food production intended for human consumption). There are many causes of waste, differentiated according to the State (industrialized or developing countries) and the various stages of the food supply chain (e.g. due to sizing and esthetic standards, product quality regulations, production surplus or economic factors). Many EU Member States have already launched actions and programmers to promote waste reduction; but only France and Italy, in 2016, have adopted a national regulation to minimize the phenomenon. Food waste have negative environmental and economic impacts and their existence raises serious questions from a social point of view. In fact, given the problem of malnutrition that is afflicting around one billion people worldwide, the food waste appears extremely unacceptable. In order to estimate the environmental impact of a wasted food, it is necessary to consider its entire life cycle using the indicators, such as carbon footprint, ecological footprint, water footprint. The economic impact of wasted food includes calculating the negative externalities, besides the cost or the price of the products thrown away. Given the scale reached by the food waste phenomenon, and above all the scope of its impacts, the food waste deviate very far from those that are the sustainability goals to be taken globally. Therefore, the promotion of awareness initiatives and waste recovery (e.g. by distribution of the productive surplus to solidarity aims or to produce bioenergy), the application of a regulatory framework, should raise consumer, producer, institution and policy awareness in a world in economic, environmental and social crisis where the waste is no longer allowed. Sustainability can no longer be considered a theoretical concept, but is necessary a rethinking of the conventional models of production and consumption, the behaviors and lifestyles, to undertake a focused path towards a society compatible with the needs of the present and the future generations. In this context, European Commission put forward to support the EU’s transition to a circular economy, where food waste prevention and minimization are an integral part

Scaled Gradient Projection Methods for Astronomical Imaging

This book is a collection of 19 articles which reflect the courses given at the Collège de France/Summer school “Reconstruction d'images − Applications astrophysiques“ held in Nice and Fréjus, France, from June 18 to 22, 2012. The articles presented in this volume address emerging concepts and methods that are useful in the complex process of improving our knowledge of the celestial objects, including Earth

Climate-induced conservation risks of historic reinforced concrete buildings: Preliminary results from literature review

Environmental conditions can favour different kinds of deterioration in historic reinforced concrete structures. This preliminary results from literature review are focused on the climate-induced risks affecting reinforced concrete buildings with respect to mechanical, chemical, and biological deterioration. To this purpose, a three-step process defined by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) flow diagram, was used leading to the inclusion of 45 documents identified via the search engines Scopus and Web of Science. The outcomes highlight that chemical and mechanical decays are the most investigated ones, being mainly triggered by salt weathering and freezing-thawing cycles. It was found that experimental and theoretical approaches are often coupled to estimate climate-induced deterioration mechanisms, also considering environmental parameters. Finally, the literature search provides some milestones which can be used to evaluate gaps and research needs in the field of climate-induced conservative risks affecting reinforced concrete structures

Ozone Improves the Aromatic Fingerprint of White Grapes

Ozone, a powerful oxidative stressor, has been recently used in wine industry as sanitizing agent to reduce spoilage microflora on grapes. In this study, we evaluated ozone-induced metabolic and molecular responses during postharvest grape dehydration. Ozone increased the contents of total volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which have a great impact on the organoleptic properties of grapes and wines. Among terpenes, responsible for floral and fruity aroma, linalool, geraniol and nerol were the major aromatic markers of Moscato bianco grapes. They were significantly affected by the long-term ozone treatment, increasing their concentration in the last phases of dehydration (>20% weight loss). At molecular level, our results demonstrated that both postharvest dehydration and ozone exposure induce the biosynthesis of monoterpenes via methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway and of aldehydes from lipoxygenase-hydroperoxide lyase (LOX-HPL) pathway. Therefore, transcriptional changes occurred and promoted the over-production of many important volatile compounds for the quality of white grapes

Maillard reaction products as markers of the durum wheat pasta manufacturing process: A commodity investigation

In the present work, three volatile Maillard reaction products (maltol, furfuryl alcohol, and furfural) were considered for their supposed ability to act as process markers of dry durum wheat pasta. Hence, a commodity investigation was performed on Made in Italy pasta products and the HS-SPME/GC-MS technique was adopted to detect the target compounds in sixty samples. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to evaluate whether the relative abundance of the flavour compounds can differentiate pasta samples processed through mild technologies (traditional methods) from that submitted to intense thermal stress during their elaboration (industrial methods). Results showed that the analysed products were efficiently discriminated according to their claimed manufacturing method by maltol, furfuryl alcohol, and furfural, which thus can serve as reliable pasta process indicators

A dataset of criteria on the use of thermal insulation solutions in building facades located in Norway, Portugal and Italy

The building sector is responsible for a significant percentage of the energy consumption in Europe. The level of thermal insulation of the building envelope leads to decrease energy consumption, thus contributing towards a sustainable and efficient built environment. As a result, the choice of the most suitable thermal insulation solution to be applied both in new construction and in retrofitting of building facades is fundamental for a satisfactory thermal performance of the building. Nevertheless, the thermal insulation solution should not be chosen considering only the thermal performance, but rather based on a set of performance parameters (i.e., water resistance, fire performance, impact on the environment and human health, among others) and climate-related requirements. This data article includes a dataset on criteria adopted in three European countries (namely Norway, Portugal, and Italy) considering a PESTE analysis (i.e., criteria related to Political, Economic, Social, Technological, and Environmental questions). The main objective was to evaluate the knowledge and perception of people living and/or working in these countries about the use and the performance of thermal insulation solutions in building facades. To this aim a questionnaire was developed within the scope of the EEA Granted EFFICACY research project (November 2022 – February 2023), whose overall objective is to create a database that serves as a reference for the choice of thermal insulation solutions to be applied in building facades for thermal and energy performances optimization. This database contributes to systemize criteria and can be extended by other researchers or professionals in the area, as well as in other countries

Second-order grey-scale texture analysis of pleural ultrasound images to differentiate acute respiratory distress syndrome and cardiogenic pulmonary edema

Discriminating acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) from acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema (CPE) may be challenging in critically ill patients. Aim of this study was to investigate if gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) analysis of lung ultrasound (LUS) images can differentiate ARDS from CPE. The study population consisted of critically ill patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) with acute respiratory failure and submitted to LUS and extravascular lung water monitoring, and of a healthy control group (HCG). A digital analysis of pleural line and subpleural space, based on the GLCM with second order statistical texture analysis, was tested. We prospectively evaluated 47 subjects: 16 with a clinical diagnosis of CPE, 8 of ARDS, and 23 healthy subjects. By comparing ARDS and CPE patients’ subgroups with HCG, the one-way ANOVA models found a statistical significance in 9 out of 11 GLCM textural features. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons found statistical significance within each matrix feature for ARDS vs. CPE and CPE vs. HCG (P ≤ 0.001 for all). For ARDS vs. HCG a statistical significance occurred only in two matrix features (correlation: P = 0.005; homogeneity: P = 0.048). The quantitative method proposed has shown high diagnostic accuracy in differentiating normal lung from ARDS or CPE, and good diagnostic accuracy in differentiating CPE and ARDS. Gray-level co-occurrence matrix analysis of LUS images has the potential to aid pulmonary edemas differential diagnosis