Search Results (5,976)

In this work we present an integrated market, experimental, technical and economic approach to citrus waste valorization based on the extraction of essential oils from orange, lemon, lime and tangerine peels using supercritical CO₂, comprising nine varieties of citrus fruits with high production in Brazil and varying harvesting seasons. This approach has been applied to such a variety of citrus waste as a novelty, allowing the observation of specific results for each kind of citrus fruit and a robust evaluation of the proposed process solution, which includes pre-treatment and extraction and may feature energy recovery. The varieties of fruits and volumes of production were selected based on a market assessment for a proposed capacity of approximately 500 kg/d of citrus waste in the extraction facility. Samples of citrus fruit waste were pre-processed by drying at 60 °C for 24 h and submitted to extraction using CO₂ at 150 bar and 35 °C for 30 min. The provisional results of the extractions (0.33% to 4.00% wt. oil yield) were used to perform the simulation of the extraction facility and estimate the cost of manufacture of essential oil, which ranged from US$26.70 to US$323.86/kg of extract, depending on the variety of citrus fruit. As an illustrative result of the application of the present screening approach, the cost of the production of essential oils from terra, bahia, seleta and lima oranges, as well as lemons, limes and tangerines, was compatible with the market price, while the costs of manufacturing pera and valencia orange essential oils were higher than the average price for cosmetic-grade and food-grade orange oil. The use of energy recovery in the CO₂ cycle would further increase the environmental sustainability of this strategy, with 55% lower energy consumption. Full article

Grain price stability is fundamental to global food security, yet the extent to which major grain futures markets contribute to international price discovery and transmit price signals across borders remains insufficiently understood. This study constructs a measurement–mechanism–pathway framework to analyze the international price transmission dynamics of four grain futures: wheat, rice, corn, and soybean. We apply the Diebold–Yilmaz spillover index, OLS regressions with mediation analysis, and fsQCA. All four crops display predominantly negative net spillover indices, with rice exhibiting the strongest transmission and soybean the weakest. At the domestic level, yield is associated with stronger price transmission through an inventory channel, while the effects of price regulation are asymmetric. Notably, soybean producer subsidies are unexpectedly associated with stronger rather than weaker international price transmission. At the international level, crude oil prices are associated with weaker grain price transmission primarily through the freight cost channel, and speculative capital is associated with reduced transmission capacity through tail-price episodes. Configuration analysis reveals two shared improvement routes, namely capacity building with policy support and risk containment via volatility suppression, together with four commodity-specific pathways. These findings provide systematic evidence and policy insights for mitigating grain price contagion and strengthening food system resilience. Full article

Machine-learning models for SME failure prediction frequently report strong results that do not survive rigorous evaluation. Using a firm–year panel of 3796 Thai food-and-beverage SMEs (15,018 firm–years, 258 dissolution events, prevalence 1.72%) drawn from the Department of Business Development records for 2020–2024, this study develops a leakage-aware temporal machine-learning framework for predicting registered business dissolution within a 12-month horizon and decomposes two sources of performance inflation that the literature typically conflates. Entity leakage from ungrouped cross-validation inflates ROC-AUC by 0.085 and PR-AUC by 0.099—a pure protocol effect. Replacing static firm-level labels with event-based labels changes the estimand rather than the accuracy: prevalence falls from 5.79% to 1.72% and PR-AUC from 0.152 to 0.090 even as ROC-AUC rises. Under the corrected design, gradient boosting with temporal features attains ROC-AUC 0.833 and the strongest precision–recall performance, with ratio volatility and year-on-year change as the leading predictive dimensions. Isotonic recalibration reduces expected calibration error from 0.081 to 0.022, supporting risk ranking and budget-constrained triage, and a break-even analysis translates model output into deployment conditions for supervisory review budgets. The framework provides a transferable template for the honest evaluation of early-warning models on administrative panels in emerging markets. Full article

Background/Objectives: Food irradiation is a recognized method for the microbiological decontamination and preservation of plant raw materials; however, in the European Union, its use is subject to strict legal regulation and to a mandatory labelling obligation. For dietary supplements, which are legally classified as foodstuffs, this issue is particularly important for market transparency and the consumer’s right to information. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the presence of post-irradiation characteristics in selected dietary supplements available at retail in Poland, with particular attention to products containing valerian root (Valeriana officinalis L.), and to compare the results obtained with the information declared on the product labels. Methods: The analysis included 15 analytical samples representing 11 commercial formulations. The study was performed using the thermoluminescence method according to standard PN-EN 1788:2002 in an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory. Results: Thermoluminescence characteristics consistent with prior irradiation were observed in 7 samples, whereas 8 samples did not show such properties. Positive results concerned exclusively products containing valerian root, including replicate batches of two commercial formulations. None of the positive samples carried any label information about irradiation or exposure to ionizing radiation. The results indicate that some dietary supplements on the market may be subjected to irradiation without this being properly reflected in their labelling. Conclusions: Given the pilot nature of the study and the limited, non-random sample, the results should be treated as a premise for further analysis rather than as a basis for generalizing to the entire market. The results of this study indicate a need for broader analytical monitoring and targeted control of dietary supplements containing plant raw materials. Full article

In horticulture, a delayed shipment or failed food-safety check can rapidly cut off market access, yet strategic risk management remains weakly developed. This paper examines how artificial intelligence (AI), agritech, and business model innovation can reduce uncertainty and strengthen resilience across horticultural value chains. Using a structured conceptual review, it integrates six literature streams: agricultural risk, supply-chain risk management, strategic and enterprise risk management, farming-system resilience, digital innovation and AI, and business model innovation. The synthesis connects risk exposure to five digital functions (sensing, predicting, verifying, coordinating, and deciding) to dynamic capabilities, business model and governance conditions, and resilience outcomes. It develops five connected propositions concerning the conversion of information into action, credible digital verification, adoption conditions, market-access resilience, and business-model-enabled shared capability. Market-access resilience is introduced as the capacity to maintain or restore verified quality, food-safety assurance, traceability, compliance, and buyer relationships during disruption. The propositions are theoretically derived and empirically informed, providing a foundation for further empirical validation, particularly of the complete market-access and business model relationships. The findings imply that digital technologies contribute to resilience only when supported by coordinated action, sound data governance, human oversight, and viable, inclusive delivery models. Full article

Rising rates of obesity and diabetes have increased demand for sugar-free products, while consumers also seek natural colorants and foods offering functional health benefits. Sorghum leaves, an underutilized part of the plant, contain health-promoting polyphenolic compounds with bioactive and coloring properties. Incorporating sorghum leaf-derived polyphenols into foods may meet both producer and consumer interest in natural colorants and value-added ingredients. This study aimed to incorporate sorghum leaf polyphenol extracts into sugar-free gelatin candies. Four formulations were produced: artificial-low color, natural-low color, artificial-high color, and natural-high color candies. Instrumental texture was evaluated using firmness and springiness measurements. Water activity was recorded using a water activity meter. Color was assessed with a colorimeter. Total phenolic content (TPC) was measured using the Folin–Ciocalteu assay. Consumers’ (N = 105) acceptance of sensory properties was evaluated using 9-point hedonic scales, and purchase intent was measured before and after colorant source and sweetener informational messaging. Natural colorant formulations had significantly higher water activity than artificially colored candies. Instrumental firmness and springiness differed significantly (p < 0.05) across formulations. However, these differences did not significantly (p > 0.05) impact consumer texture preference. TPC increased with higher levels of sorghum leaf extract but did not increase bitterness ratings. After receiving educational information about the colorant sources, purchase intent for the naturally colored formulations significantly (p < 0.05) increased, exceeding that of artificially colored candies. These findings demonstrate that sorghum leaf polyphenols can be successfully incorporated into sugar-free gummy candies and are well accepted by consumers as a natural colorant. This work supports sorghum as a value-added food ingredient, creating new market opportunities for US sorghum farmers. Full article

Overseas land investment has emerged as one of the most complex human–environment system challenges of the twenty-first century, yet its evolving role under global carbon-neutrality targets remains theoretically under-specified. This study conducts a systematic literature review and bibliometrically assisted analysis of 145 English and 38 Chinese publications (2008–2026) to map the intellectual landscape, identify divergent research priorities, and examine the implications of carbon-credit-based land investment. Our analysis reveals three distinct evolutionary phases, extending from conceptual emergence and mechanism analysis to interdisciplinary expansion. It also identifies three parallel divergences between Chinese- and English-language research: contrasting research stances, thematic priorities, and governance imaginaries. These divergences are rooted in China’s transitional position within a Western-dominated discourse system. The findings suggest that China’s transition from rule adaptation to active governance participation is important, and that priority pathways include property-rights protection, carbon-standard alignment, and polycentric governance frameworks capable of balancing food security, host-country development rights, and global ecological justice. These findings provide both theoretical synthesis and actionable directions for governing land-based carbon markets in an era of geopolitical fragmentation. Full article

Amid rising population pressure, heightened volatility in international markets, and increasingly binding domestic resource and environmental constraints, safeguarding food security while maintaining ecological security has become a salient policy and academic concern in China. Within this context, our study investigates whether and how green finance contributes to the dual security of food and ecology. Building on a theoretical analytical framework, we elaborate on the functional role of green finance and empirically assess its effects using provincial panel data from China. We construct a composite index to gauge the level of green finance development and then employ a two-way fixed-effects model with province and year fixed effects to identify the overall impact of green finance, followed by a mediation model to uncover the underlying transmission mechanisms and sub-sample regressions to examine heterogeneity. The empirical evidence indicates that, while green finance significantly improves the dual security of food and ecology, substantial heterogeneity is observed, with stronger effects in southern regions, major grain-producing functional areas, and plain regions. Mechanism analyses further show that green finance advances dual security through three primary channels of agricultural structure adjustment, planting specialization, and agricultural green technological innovation, among which shifts in agricultural production structure, greater centralization of planting, and enhanced agricultural green innovation capacity constitute the dominant transmission mechanisms. By integrating food security and ecological security within a unified framework, we clarify the multidimensional pathways through which green finance supports sustainable agricultural development and provide new empirical evidence on how financial instruments can reconcile production and environmental objectives. Full article

Consumer acceptance remains a primary barrier to incorporating organ meats into value-added beef products, despite their nutritional profile. This study evaluated the effectiveness of educational infographics emphasizing either nutritional benefits or economic value on consumer perceptions of organ-enhanced ground beef. A total of 1939 U.S. consumers served as the experimental unit and completed an online survey administered through Qualtrics. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two educational infographic treatments (nutrition or economics and resource utilization). Consumer perception indices were calculated before and after infographic exposure. Changes in perception (Δ) were analyzed with infographic treatment, food familiarity level and their interaction. Educational infographics produced small numerical improvements in consumer perception, although responses did not differ between infographic types. No differences were observed among nutrition- or economic-focused infographics for any perception index (p = 0.1570). Likewise, no interaction between infographic type and Food Familiarity Index were detected (p = 0.4849). However, food familiarity significantly influenced acceptance (p < 0.0001), label transparency (p < 0.0001), and willingness-to-pay (p < 0.0001). Consumers with greater food familiarity reported more favorable perceptions than those with lower familiarity. However, FFI level did not impact economic perception. Current results demonstrate that concise educational messaging can influence consumer perceptions of organ-enhanced ground beef. Furthermore, improving consumer food familiarity may enhance acceptance and marketability of nutrient-dense beef products containing edible organ meats. Full article

Objectives: Fixed-dose combination tablets containing sitagliptin hydrochloride (SG) and metformin hydrochloride (MF) are a mainstay in the clinical management of type 2 diabetes. However, SG is highly susceptible to chemical degradation during storage, particularly in the presence of MF. Herein, a bilayer tablet in which SG and MF are physically separated into distinct layers was designed to enhance the chemical stability of SG while ensuring pharmacokinetic equivalence to the marketed reference product Janumet^®. Methods: The compositions of individual SG and MF compartments were selected based on evaluations of their physical properties and dissolution profiles. Critical process parameters, including the pre- and main compression forces and coating levels of bilayer tablets, were fine-tuned to achieve dissolution characteristics comparable to those of the reference product. Results: Under accelerated storage conditions (40 °C, 75% relative humidity), the optimized bilayer tablet exhibited superior stability, with total SG-related impurity levels of 0.18% compared with 0.86% in the reference product after six months. Furthermore, in a randomized bioequivalence study in healthy volunteers (n = 30), the SG/MF bilayer tablet was pharmacokinetically equivalent to the reference product, with all parameters falling within the Food and Drug Administration-mandated regulatory criteria. Conclusions: In conclusion, this SG/MF bilayer tablet has better storage stability than the reference product and may be an alternative to conventional SG/MF combination tablets. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in agriculture does more than replace labor: it reorganizes how efficiently grain is used and stored. We formalize AI’s relaxation capacity as the dimensionless Supply–Demand Relaxation Effect (SRE), decompose it into five pathways (labor displacement, improvement in the feed conversion ratio (FCR), industrial AI, precision agriculture, and loss reduction), and evaluate it across the 27 empirically anchored scenarios of our published baseline study. The largest demand-side effect is FCR improvement, one to two orders of magnitude larger than labor displacement. With population declining, self-sufficiency arrives regardless of AI (2039–2079 in the baseline); AI advances it by 2–11 years. The effect grows with scenario severity: 3–5 years under optimistic scenarios but 6–11 years under the worst, and the 2100 surplus gain rises from 5–10% to 26–47%. AI’s marginal value is greatest where the food balance is tightest, so the higher the population target, the closer AI investment comes to a necessary condition. Precision agriculture has the larger effect, but FCR improvement (precision livestock AI) should rank highest, because it is supply-scenario-independent and unlikely to be delivered by the market. Realizing the precision-agriculture gain requires public investment in rural digital infrastructure to bridge China’s regional divide. Full article

This study documented traditional animal-origin food products and evaluated their market potential at the Hornbill Festival in Kohima, Nagaland, India. Structured face-to-face surveys were conducted over three consecutive festival editions (2023–2025) to record traditional foods, marketing practices, packaging materials, consumer preferences, and pricing. Most meat products were prepared using traditional methods, including hot smoking, drying, and fermentation. Sixteen traditional meat dishes were documented in morungs (traditional Naga huts), alongside several unconventional animal-origin foods. Among 100 surveyed shops each year, pork was the most frequently sold meat (95.4% of shops), followed by beef (46.0%), chicken (44.82%), snails (43.67%), worms (28.73%), and other unconventional animal-origin foods. Pork also accounted for the highest proportion of animal-origin foods sold (36.49%), followed by chicken (17.77%) and beef (16.82%), whereas duck (0.47%) and squirrel (0.23%) represented the smallest shares. Areca nut plates (24.12%) were the most common serving material, followed by aluminum foil containers (22.72%) and banana leaves (20.45%). Mithun, chevon, bird, hornet (insect), and duck dishes were the most expensive. These findings provide baseline information on traditional animal-origin foods and highlight opportunities for developing value-added products and promoting entrepreneurship while preserving indigenous culinary heritage. Full article

Background/Objectives: Orlistat is a gastrointestinal lipase inhibitor used for weight management. Although its established safety profile is largely characterised by fat malabsorption-related gastrointestinal events, post-marketing reports suggest a broader spectrum of adverse events. Given the increasing intersection between obesity pharmacotherapy and the management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (NAFLD/MASLD), this study evaluated gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, and anorectal adverse-event reporting signals associated with orlistat in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and assessed concordance with regulatory prescribing information. Methods: Quarterly FAERS files from 2004 Q1 through 2026 Q1 were analysed; some retained reports had Initial FDA Received Date (FDA_DT) values dating back to 1999. Descriptive analyses included all orlistat-associated reports, whereas disproportionality analyses were restricted to primary-suspect reports. Sixty-five prespecified Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) preferred terms (PTs) were screened. Reporting odds ratios (RORs), 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and proportional reporting ratios (PRRs) were calculated. A signal was defined as ROR > 2.0, lower bound of the 95% CI > 1.0, and n ≥ 3. Two-sided p values calculated using Fisher’s exact test on the corresponding 2 × 2 contingency tables were adjusted using the Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate procedure to address multiple testing. Signal-positive PTs were cross-referenced with prescribing information from three jurisdictions. Results: Overall, 30,454 deduplicated orlistat-associated reports were identified, including 16,684 primary-suspect reports. Thirty-eight of the 65 prespecified MedDRA PTs met the signal criteria, and all remained statistically significant after Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate correction (q < 0.05). The strongest signals were rectal discharge (ROR 1175.53; 95% CI 1093.44–1263.78) and steatorrhoea (ROR 1147.99; 95% CI 1058.12–1245.50); change in bowel habit also showed a high ROR (47.32; 95% CI 38.27–58.51). Unlabelled signal-positive PTs included constipation, faeces hard, cholecystitis, and irritable bowel syndrome; change in bowel habit showed jurisdiction-specific labelling discordance. Conclusions: Orlistat-associated FAERS signals included both expected fat-malabsorption-related events and additional gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, and anorectal PTs, several of which were not explicitly represented in the evaluated regulatory labels. These findings reflect disproportionate reporting rather than incidence, absolute risk, or causality and require confirmation in independent clinical or epidemiological data sources. They do not, by themselves, support regulatory labelling changes. Full article

Ecuadorian aquaculture plays an increasingly important role in food security, providing a sustainable complement to capture fisheries. Manabí constitutes a key economic sector that contributes to employment generation, income diversification, and supply of high-quality protein. However, the sector’s heterogeneity and limited legal registration of enterprises hinder the development of policies and targeted interventions. This study characterizes aquaculture enterprises in Manabí, integrating productive, technological, and socio-economic variables obtained from field surveys. Three distinct entrepreneurship patterns were identified: small-scale, informal farms cultivating native species with low technology but characteristics that may contribute to socio-ecological resilience; semi-formal producers operating with intermediate technology and mixed species; and freshwater shrimp farms operating at the largest relative scale within the sample, though still small-scale and family-based, with moderate technological development and market integration limited mainly to local and regional markets. The typology focused on a gradient in formalization, technological sophistication, and market orientation among enterprises. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of aquaculture diversity in Manabí and offer a practical framework for differentiated policy design using a Strategic Producer Positioning Map. Strengthening formalization, technological innovation, environmental management, and social inclusion is essential to enhance the sector’s sustainability and competitiveness, contributing to sustainable blue economy development in coastal Ecuador. Full article