Processing strategies. QLIF subproject 5: Development of a framework for the design of minimum and low input processing strategies, that guarantee food quality and safety

Organic processing standards already prohibit the use of many chemicals, additives and preservatives, which are used in the processing of conventional foods. Yet, there are frequent discussions of the underlying principles on organic food processing regarding such aspects as environmentally friendly processing, minimal use of additives, sensory quality, and transportation. It is therefore essential to develop a framework or code of practice, which can be used to determine whether novel processing strategies are compatible with organic processing standards and principles as well as consumer demands and expectations in relation to quality characteristics of processed food. In the present subproject part of the research comprised an assessment of alternative sanitising protocols under controlled laboratory conditions in the processing of fresh cut lettuce and mixtures of fresh-cut-vegetables. During these studies it was found that, with regard to ecological aspects, ozone is a good alternative to the existing disinfectants, such as chlorine, in the organic field. Further research concerned an assessment of processing technologies that may improve the nutritional composition of dairy products, such as increased content of conjugated linolenic acids (CLA)

Development of a framework for the design of minimum processing strategies which guarantee food quality and safety - Principles, concepts and recommendations for the future

Principles of processing of organic and ‘low input’ food have been analysed in the EU funded QLIF project. A literature survey showed that some of the principles are generally accepted (e.g. the use of certified organic ingredients, a certified production chain and minimal use of additives), others are shared broadly (e.g. more careful processing methods, naturalness) and some principles are in discussion mainly in the private sector (e.g. environmental management concepts, social requirements, regional focus). Recent studies showed that consumer associate organic food with the following dimensions/attributes: health, high quality, the use of natural raw materials, welfare orientated animal husbandry as well as environmentally friendly land use and processing techniques. The challenge will be to consider such wider consumer perceptions and expectations, in particular when revising the EU regulation No 2092/91 on organic food and farming. In the current draft for revised regulation, agreed generally by the EU Council on 19-20 December 2006, some of these elements are included, but not all. How detailed such aspects should be regulated in implementation rules is seen quite differentiated by processors and non-processors which were asked in a Delphi Survey, depending on the different areas. At the EU regulatory level, the top priority mentioned was the minimal use of additives, followed by minimal and careful processing. Quality/sensory aspects, however, were not seen as primary objectives at the EU level, because companies should have the chance to develop individual sensorial profiles for their products. However, regarding the minimum use of additives this is clearly perceived to be an EU level issue. There is also a tendency to prefer additives of certified organic origin, both among ‘processors’ as well as ‘non-processors’ points of view. The challenge in the future will be to develop regulations with the right balance between authenticity, health orientation and convenience to maintain the confidence of consumers and credibility of the products in the use minimum and careful processing strategies permitted under organic farming standards

The Alzheimer variant of Lewy body disease: A pathologically confirmed case-control study

The objective of the study was to identify clinical features that distinguish patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), who were classified as Alzheimer's disease ( AD) patients, from patients with AD. We examined a group of 27 patients from our memory clinic, originally diagnosed with AD, of whom 6 were postmortem found to have DLB. For the present study, we compared cognitive, noncognitive and neurological symptoms between the two groups. We found that there were no differences on ratings of dementia and scales for activities of daily living. Patients with DLB performed better on the MMSE and the memory subtest of the CAMCOG, but there was no difference in any other cognitive domain. Furthermore, genetic risk factors, including family history of dementia or allele frequency of the apolipoprotein epsilon 4, did not discriminate between the two groups, and there were no differences on CCT scans. Taken together, our findings suggest that Lewy body pathology may be present in patients who do not show the typical clinical features which distinguish DLB from AD. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

Relativistic quark models of baryons with instantaneous forces

This is the first of a series of three papers treating light baryon resonances (up to 3 GeV) within a relativistically covariant quark model based on the three-fermion Bethe-Salpeter equation with instantaneous two- and three-body forces. In this paper we give a unified description of the theoretical background and demonstrate how to solve the Bethe-Salpeter equation by a reduction to the Salpeter equation. The specific new features of our covariant Salpeter model with respect to the usual nonrelativistic quark model are discussed in detail. The purely theoretical results obtained in this paper will be applied numerically to explicit quark models for light baryons in two subsequent papers

Separated Oscillatory Fields for High-Precision Penning Trap Mass Spectrometry

Ramsey's method of separated oscillatory fields is applied to the excitation of the cyclotron motion of short-lived ions in a Penning trap to improve the precision of their measured mass. The theoretical description of the extracted ion-cyclotron-resonance line shape is derived out and its correctness demonstrated experimentally by measuring the mass of the short-lived $^{38}$Ca nuclide with an uncertainty of $1.6\cdot 10^{-8}$ using the ISOLTRAP Penning trap mass spectrometer at CERN. The mass value of the superallowed beta-emitter $^{38}$Ca is an important contribution for testing the conserved-vector-current hypothesis of the electroweak interaction. It is shown that the Ramsey method applied to mass measurements yields a statistical uncertainty similar to that obtained by the conventional technique ten times faster.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 0 table

Fast calculation of real fluid properties for steam turbine CFD analysis with the new IAPWS standard on the spline-based table look-Up method (SBTL)

Workshop byl částečně podpořen projektem CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0139. Tento projekt je spolufinancován Evropským sociálním fondem a státním rozpočtem České republiky

EHEC – kein spezifisches Problem nachhaltiger Landwirtschaft - [EHEC – A problem not specific to sustainable agriculture] [La EHEC – no es un problema específico de la agricultura sostenible] - [EHEC – Non è un problema specifi-co dell’agricoltura biologica] - [ECEH n’est pas un problème dû à l’agriculture durable] - [EHEC – nem speciálisan a fenntartható mezőgazdaság gondja] - [ECEH n’est pas un problème dû à l’agriculture durable]

DEUTSCH Über den EHEC-Erreger, der in Deutschland zu über dreissig tragischen Todesfällen geführt hat, ist viel spekuliert worden. Unterdessen konnten die Verbreitungswege nahezu aufgeklärt werden, während die Entstehung des Krankheitserregers noch weitgehend unklar ist. Im Zusammenhang mit dem EHEC-Ausbruch wurde auch die Frage erörtert, ob bestimmte Landwirtschaftsmethoden (zum Beispiel gemischte Betriebe mit Tierhaltung und Pflanzenbau oder die organische Düngung von Gemüse) oder ob gewisse Hygienisierungsmethoden für frische, konsumfähige Produkte(wie zum Beispiel die Verwendung von schonenden, weniger Rückstände verursachenden organischen Säuren) das Risiko erhöhen könnten. Diese Dokumentation geht nicht auf die aktuellen Fälle von EHEC in Norddeutschland ein, sondern liefert an diesem Beispiel Hintergrundinformationen zur Frage, wie nachhaltige, in Kreisläufen arbeitende Landwirtschaftsmethoden mit vom Tier auf den Menschen übertragbare Krankheitserreger (Zoonosen) umgehen. ENGLISH There has been much speculation about the pathogenic EHEC bacterial strain that has tragically claimed the lives of more than 30 people so far in Germany. Meanwhile, the transmission pathways have for the most part been identified. The origin of the pathogen, however, is largely unclear. In the context of the EHEC outbreak there have been debates as to whether certain agriculturalmethods (e.g. mixed holdings including both livestock and crop production, or the use of organic fertilizers for vegetable production) or certain sanitization methods for fresh consumable products (such as the use of organic acids, a mild treatment that leaves fewer residues) may increase the risk of infection. This document does not address the current epidemiological situation of the outbreak in northern Germany. Its purpose is rather to provide background information on the question of how sustainable agricultural methods based on nutrient cycling deal with pathogens that can be transmitted from animals to humans (zoonoses). CASTELLANO Mucho se ha especulado sobre la bacteria patógena Escherichia coli enterohemorrágica (ECEH), que ha ocasionado más de treinta muertes trágicas en Alemania. Hasta ahora casi se ha podido esclarecer la via de su propagación, mientras que sigue estando poco claro como ha aparecido el agente patógeno. Con el brote de la ECEH se ha cuestionado si determinadas prácticas agrícolas (por ejemplo, mantener explotaciones mixtas con ganado y cultivos, o la fertilización orgánica de los vegetales) o si los métodos de higiene para productos frescos, listos para el consumo (como por ejemplo, el uso de ácidos orgánicos menos agresivos y con menor riesgo de dejar residudos), pudieran incrementar los riesgos. Esta documento no se refiere sólo a los casos actuales de ECEH en el norte de Alemania, sino que proporciona, información básica de fondo, aprovechando este ejemplo, sobre como los métodos de producción agraria de ciclos cerrados con animales evitan forma sostenible que los patógenos generadores de enfermedades contagiosas (zoonosis) trasmisibles al ser humano. ITALIANO A proposito dell’insorgenza di EHEC è stata sollevata la questione se determinati metodi agricoli (per esempio aziende miste con allevamento di animali e produzione vegetale o la concimazione organica di ortaggi) oppure se determinati metodi di igienizzazione per pro-dotti freschi adatti al consumo (come per esempio l’impiego di acidi organici che provocano meno residui) possano aumentare i rischi. La presente documentazione non entra nei particolari degli attuali casi di EHEC nella Ger-mania settentrionale bensì fornisce informazioni d’approfondimento su come i me-todi agri-coli sostenibili basati sui cicli degli elementi nutritivi trattano la questione degli agenti pato-geni trasmissibili dagli animali all’uomo (zoonosi). HUNGARIAN Sok a spekuláció az EHEC kórokozót illetően, amely Németországban harmincnál is több tragikus halálesethez vezetett. Időközben a terjedés útját már csaknem teljesen felderítették, míg a kórokozó létrejöttéről még szinte semmit sem tudunk. Az EHEC fertőzés kitörése kapcsán az a kérdés is felmerült, hogy bizonyos mezőgazdasági módszerek (pl. a vegyes üzemek, melyek egyaránt foglalkoznak növénytermesztéssel és állattenyésztéssel, vagy a zöldségek szerves trágyázása), ill. a friss, fogyasztásra kész termékek egyes fertőtlenítési módszerei (így pl. a kímélőbb, kevesebb hulladékot eredményező szerves savak alkalmazása) nem növelhetik-e a kockázatot. A jelen tanulmány nem a Németország északi részén kialakult aktuális EHEC esetekkel foglalkozik, hanem háttér-információval szolgál arról, hogy a körforgásos működésű, fenntartható mezőgazdasági módszerek milyen kapcsolatban lehetnek az állatról emberre terjedő betegségekkel, az ún. zoonózisokkal. FRANCAIS ECEH n’est pas un problème dû à l’agriculture durabl