Impact of different food label formats on healthiness evaluation and food choice of consumers: a randomized-controlled study

Abstract Background Front of pack food labels or signpost labels are currently widely discussed as means to help consumers to make informed food choices. It is hoped that more informed food choices will result in an overall healthier diet. There is only limited evidence, as to which format of a food label is best understood by consumers, helps them best to differentiate between more or less healthy food and whether these changes in perceived healthiness result in changes of food choice. Methods In a randomised experimental study in Hamburg/Germany 420 adult subjects were exposed to one of five experimental conditions: (1) a simple "healthy choice" tick, (2) a multiple traffic light label, (3) a monochrome Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) label, (4) a coloured GDA label and (5) a "no label" condition. In the first task they had to identify the healthier food items in 28 pair-wise comparisons of foods from different food groups. In the second task they were asked to select food portions from a range of foods to compose a one-day's consumption. Differences between means were analysed using ANOVAs. Results Task I: Experimental conditions differed significantly in the number of correct decisions (p Conclusion Different food label formats differ in the understanding of consumers. The current study shows, that German adults profit most from the multiple traffic light labels. Perceived healthiness of foods is influenced by this label format most often. Nevertheless, such changes in perceived healthiness are unlikely to influence food choice and consumption. Attempts to establish the informed consumer with the hope that informed choices will be healthier choices are unlikely to change consumer behaviour and will not result in the desired contribution to the prevention of obesity and diet related diseases.</p

Quality changes and shelf-life prediction of a fresh fruit and vegetables purple smoothie

The sensory, microbial and bioactive quality changes of untreated (CTRL) and mild heat−treated (HT; 90 ºC/45 s) smoothies were studied and modelled throughout storage (5, 15 and 25 ºC). The overall acceptability was better preserved in HT samples being highly correlated (hierarchical clustering) with the flavour. The sensory quality data estimated smoothie shelf−life (CTRL/HT) of 18/55 (at 5 ºC), 4.5/12 (at 15 ºC), 2.4/5.8 (at 25 ºC) days. The yeast and moulds growth rate was lower in HT compared to CTRL while a lag phase for mesophiles/psychrophiles was observed in HT−5/15 ºC. HT and 5 ºC−storage stabilized the phenolics content. FRAP reported the best correlation (R2=0.94) with the studied bioactive compounds, followed by ABTS (R2=0.81) while DPPH was the total antioxidant capacity method with the lowest adjustment (R2=0.49). Conclusively, modelling was used to estimate the shelf−life of a smoothie based on quality retention after a short time−high temperature heat treatment that better preserved microbial and nutritional quality during storage.The financial support of this research was provided by the Ministerio Español de Economía y Competitividad MINECO (Projects AGL2013−48830−C2−1−R and AGL2013−48993−C2−1−R) and by FEDER funds. G.A. González−Tejedor thanks to Panamá Government for the scholarship to carry out his PhD Thesis. A. Garre (BES−2014−070946) is grateful to the MINECO for awarding him a pre−doctoral grant. We are also grateful to E. Esposito and N. Castillejo for their skilful technical assistance

Phospholipids and sports performance

Phospholipids are essential components of all biological membranes. Phosphatidylcholine (PC) and Phosphatidylserine (PS) are Phosphatidyl-phospholipids that are required for normal cellular structure and function. The participation in physical activity often challenges a variety of physiological systems; consequently, the ability to maintain normal cellular function during activity can determine sporting performance. The participation in prolonged intense exercise has been shown to reduce circulatory choline concentrations in some individuals. As choline is a pre-cursor to the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine, this finding has encouraged researchers to investigate the hypothesis that supplementation with PC (or choline salts) could enhance sporting performance. Although the available data that evaluates the effects of PC supplementation on performance are equivocal, acute oral supplementation with PC (~0.2 g PC per kg body mass) has been demonstrated to improve performance in a variety of sporting activities where exercise has depleted circulatory choline concentrations. Short term oral supplementation with soy-derived PS (S-PS) has been reported to attenuate circulating cortisol concentrations, improve perceived well-being, and reduce perceived muscle soreness after exercise. More recently, short term oral supplementation (750 mg per day of S-PS for 10 days) has been demonstrated to improve exercise capacity during high intensity cycling and tended to increase performance during intermittent running. Although more research is warranted to determine minimum dietary Phospholipid requirements for optimal sporting performance, these findings suggest that some participants might benefit from dietary interventions that increase the intakes of PC and PS

Micronutrient status in lactating mothers before and after introduction of fortified flour: cross-sectional surveys in Maela refugee camp

Background Deficiency of micronutrients is common in refugee populations. Objectives Identify deficiencies and whether provided supplements and wheat flour fortified with 10 micronutrients impacts upon status among breast-feeding women from Maela refugee camp. Methods Two sequential cross-sectional studies were conducted in different groups of lactating mothers at 12 weeks postpartum. The first survey was before and the second 4-5 months after micronutrient fortified flour (MFF) had been provided to the camp (in addition to the regular food basket). Iron status and micronutrients were measured in serum, whole blood, and in breast milk samples. Results Iron and zinc deficiency and anemia were highly prevalent while low serum retinol and thiamine deficiency were rarely detected. Iron and zinc deficiency were associated with anemia, and their proportions were significantly lower after the introduction of MFF (21 vs. 35% with soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR)&gt;8.5 mg/L, P = 0.042, and 50 vs. 73% with serum zinc&lt;0.66 mg/L, P = 0.001). Serum sTfR, whole-blood thiamine diphosphate (TDP) and serum β-carotene were significant predictors (P&lt;0.001) of milk iron, thiamine and β-carotene, respectively. Lower prevalence of iron deficiency in the MFF group was associated with significantly higher iron and thiamine in breast milk. Conclusions High whole-blood TDP and breast milk thiamine reflected good compliance to provided thiamine; high prevalence of iron deficiency suggested insufficient dietary iron and low acceptance to ferrous sulfate supplements. MFF as an additional food ration in Maela refugee camp seemed to have an effect in reducing both iron and zinc deficiency postpartum. © Springer-Verlag 2012

Environmental risk assessments for transgenic crops producing output trait enzymes

The environmental risks from cultivating crops producing output trait enzymes can be rigorously assessed by testing conservative risk hypotheses of no harm to endpoints such as the abundance of wildlife, crop yield and the rate of degradation of crop residues in soil. These hypotheses can be tested with data from many sources, including evaluations of the agronomic performance and nutritional quality of the crop made during product development, and information from the scientific literature on the mode-of-action, taxonomic distribution and environmental fate of the enzyme. Few, if any, specific ecotoxicology or environmental fate studies are needed. The effective use of existing data means that regulatory decision-making, to which an environmental risk assessment provides essential information, is not unnecessarily complicated by evaluation of large amounts of new data that provide negligible improvement in the characterization of risk, and that may delay environmental benefits offered by transgenic crops containing output trait enzymes

Genomic Approaches to Enhance Stress Tolerance for Productivity Improvements in Pearl Millet

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.], the sixth most important cereal crop (after rice, wheat, maize, barley, and sorghum), is grown as a grain and stover crop by the small holder farmers in the harshest cropping environments of the arid and semiarid tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Millet is grown on ~31 million hectares globally with India in South Asia; Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali in western and central Africa; and Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania in Eastern Africa as the major producers. Pearl millet provides food and nutritional security to more than 500 million of the world’s poorest and most nutritionally insecure people. Global pearl millet production has increased over the past 15 years, primarily due to availability of improved genetics and adoption of hybrids in India and expanding area under pearl millet production in West Africa. Pearl millet production is challenged by various biotic and abiotic stresses resulting in a significant reduction in yields. The genomics research in pearl millet lagged behind because of multiple reasons in the past. However, in the recent past, several efforts were initiated in genomic research resulting into a generation of large amounts of genomic resources and information including recently published sequence of the reference genome and re-sequencing of almost 1000 lines representing the global diversity. This chapter reviews the advances made in generating the genetic and genomics resources in pearl millet and their interventions in improving the stress tolerance to improve the productivity of this very important climate-smart nutri-cereal