Hasil untuk "Nutrition. Foods and food supply"

Shuai Ma, Laxmi Prasanna Kandi, Zhihong Xu et al.

Food waste is a major global problem that worsens food insecurity and contributes to environmental challenges and resource depletion. Reducing food waste, especially before it reaches consumers, is a crucial strategy for combating food insecurity and advancing environmental sustainability. This scoping review examines the factors, impacts, and practices related to food loss and waste (FLW) in the pre-consumption stage of the U.S. supply chain using a predefined coding scheme. A machine learning technique (i.e., topic modeling) was used to supplement the manual coding to identify themes. Findings from 104 articles from 2015 to 2024 revealed that (a) macro and micro-level factors were understudied; (b) impacts of FLW were predominantly assessed in terms of environmental consequences, with less attention given to economic, social, cultural, and political impacts; (c) despite the high concentration on donation, prevention, recovery, and recycling as solutions, there were critical gaps in the exploration of policy and regulatory strategies, as well as education and awareness; and (d) minimization is the most dominant approach compared to prevention. We recommend that more research focus on causes of food loss, economic, social, cultural, and political impacts, policy and regulatory strategies, as well as education and awareness. We also recommend shifting from weak minimization efforts to strong prevention practices, emphasizing cooperation among all participants in the supply chain.

Jianyou Gao, Cuixia Liu, Qiaosheng Jiang et al.

The utilization of the fruit of Actinidia melanandra is limited by insufficient understanding of its quality attributes and regulatory mechanisms in the fruit during soft ripening stages. In this study, we employed multi-omics approaches to investigate the post-harvest quality dynamics and the regulatory mechanisms in the fruit of A. melanandra. The results showed that the kiwifruit had better palatability at the final stage during the soft ripening stages due to its higher soluble solids content and unique flavor. Volatile profiling identified 36 aroma-active compounds that were dominated by aldehydes and terpenoids, showing progressive terpenoid diversification during maturation. Anthocyanin-specific analysis demonstrated cyanidin-3-O-galactoside as the primary pigment, co-regulating coloration with pelargonidin-3-O-galactoside. The combination of integrated omics and subsequent qRT-PCR validation identified 31 structural genes and 8 transcriptional regulators governing the metabolic pathways of sugar accumulation, monoterpene biosynthesis, and anthocyanin biosynthesis. Our study provides new insights into flavor regulation during fruit soft ripening, lays a foundation for kiwifruit flavor improvement, and guides better exploitation of A. melanandra resources.

Jiaqi Zheng, Chaowen Zhang, Siheng Xiang et al.

Abstract Fusarium wilt diseases pose a huge threat to faba bean (Vicia faba L.) production globally, with significant outbreaks in Chongqing, China. Symptomatic plants showed wilting leaves and rotten roots, ultimately perishing in the advanced stage. Morphological features, multilocus phylogenetic analyses, and pathogenicity tests demonstrated that the primary causal agent was Fusarium oxysporum. Untargeted metabolomics of faba beans revealed substantial metabolic differences in the infected faba bean roots. Plants responded to fungal biotic stress by reprogramming key metabolic pathways, including alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism, the citrate cycle, arginine biosynthesis, and jasmonic acid metabolism, which collectively underscore activated defense responses. Metagenome sequencing showed that Fusarium wilt significantly reshaped the structure of the rhizosphere microbiota and affected the abundance of genes encoding element cycling in soil. This work elucidates the pathogenic mechanisms of F. oxysporum by integrating pathogen identification, host metabolism, and microbiome ecology. Our findings offer biomarkers for disease diagnosis and targets for biocontrol, advancing sustainable management of Fusarium wilt diseases in legumes.

Qi Liang, Hang-Hang Gou, Li-Ping Chen et al.

Ahmad AlMughrabi, Guillermo Rivo, Carlos Jiménez-Farfán et al.

Food image segmentation is a critical task for dietary analysis, enabling accurate estimation of food volume and nutrients. However, current methods suffer from limited multi-view data and poor generalization to new viewpoints. We introduce BenchSeg, a novel multi-view food video segmentation dataset and benchmark. BenchSeg aggregates 55 dish scenes (from Nutrition5k, Vegetables & Fruits, MetaFood3D, and FoodKit) with 25,284 meticulously annotated frames, capturing each dish under free 360° camera motion. We evaluate a diverse set of 20 state-of-the-art segmentation models (e.g., SAM-based, transformer, CNN, and large multimodal) on the existing FoodSeg103 dataset and evaluate them (alone and combined with video-memory modules) on BenchSeg. Quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate that while standard image segmenters degrade sharply under novel viewpoints, memory-augmented methods maintain temporal consistency across frames. Our best model based on a combination of SeTR-MLA+XMem2 outperforms prior work (e.g., improving over FoodMem by ~2.63% mAP), offering new insights into food segmentation and tracking for dietary analysis. In addition to frame-wise spatial accuracy, we introduce a dedicated temporal evaluation protocol that explicitly quantifies segmentation stability over time through continuity, flicker rate, and IoU drift metrics. This allows us to reveal failure modes that remain invisible under standard per-frame evaluations. We release BenchSeg to foster future research. The project page including the dataset annotations and the food segmentation models can be found at https://amughrabi.github.io/benchseg.

Faiyaz Ahmed, Sammra Maqsood, Md Faruque Ahmad et al.

ABSTRACT Phytochemicals, bioactive compounds of plant sources, have drawn considerable interest in research and development in the field of functional foods owing to their potential health impacts and importance in sustainable food. This review deliberates the modern advances in employing phytochemicals to improve food production sustainability and enhance health. Improvements in phytochemical extraction and processing, their addition to functional food products and their usage in addressing global public health glitches such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, and cognitive impairment are important areas. The paper also highlights the role of circular food economies, sustainable food systems, and food waste valorization in exploiting the usage of phytochemicals. Problems of bioavailability, regulatory acceptance, and consumer acceptance persist despite their massive potential. In understanding the full potential of phytochemicals in functional foods, upcoming efforts will be intended at interdisciplinary investigation into consortia, personalized nutrition, and artificial intelligence‐driven food invention. This assessment highlights the need for a sustainable food system and explores the findings to improve the longevity of both humans and the environment.

Sina Röhrs, Sascha Rohn, Yvonne Pfeifer et al.

Food safety is a global issue that can be enhanced by collaboration with reliable suppliers. Given the complexities of international supply chains, identifying reliable suppliers is often challenging and resource-intensive. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) offers a valuable opportunity to improve efficiency in this process. The aim of the present study was to develop a quantitative supplier assessment scheme for implementation in an AI-supported database. The framework developed incorporates different indicators, including the hazard risk, incident category level, vulnerability of a commodity, audit performance, logistic performance index, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and GDP per capita. Each indicator is evaluated according to its own distinct assessment. Ultimately, the sub-assessments are integrated into the calculation of a supplier’s overall risk score. Hereby, it is possible to set individual weightings for each indicator. Manual testing using an exemplary selected supplier yielded promising results, indicating that the next steps involve implementation into an AI-supported database. It can be concluded that such an assessment framework can be an effective method for the identification of reliable suppliers. A future challenge will be to establish incentives to make audit data freely available, as these are often restricted and cannot be considered in the supplier risk assessment.

Stephanie W Waldrop, Ihuoma Eneli, Jaime Moore et al.

Alana Chaney, Charles D Arnold, Lauren E Au et al.

Yuda Turana, Yvonne Suzy Handajani, Tati Barus et al.

IntroductionAntioxidants may help alleviate cognitive impairment in older adults, which is often caused by oxidative stress. This research focuses on developing tempeh enriched with antioxidant-rich ingredients, including sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and adzuki beans, to enhance its neuroprotective properties. This study is the first to investigate the effectiveness of mixed tempeh in reducing cognitive decline.MethodsThis experimental study (a non-randomized controlled trial) included 57 older participants with mild cognitive impairment who did not have diabetes. The participants were divided into two groups: one consumed mixed tempeh (comprising sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, adzuki beans, and regular soybeans), while the other group consumed soy tempeh. Both groups were instructed to consume 100 g daily over a period of 4 months and to avoid other fermented foods. Cognitive assessments were conducted before and after the intervention to evaluate the effects of tempeh consumption.ResultsThe majority of participants were female (68.4%), aged over 65 years (77.2%), and had an education level of 12 years or more (59.6%). The mixed tempeh group showed improvement in three cognitive domains (global cognitive, memory, and verbal fluency) before and after the intervention, while the soy tempeh group experienced improvements in two domains (memory and visuospatial).ConclusionThe study highlights the cognitive benefits of tempeh, particularly when mixed with other nutrient-rich ingredients. The combination of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and adzuki beans in mixed tempeh provides superior neuroprotective effects than traditional soy tempeh. This research supports the idea of promoting mixed tempeh as a healthy food alternative, especially for older adults, by offering enhanced nutritional value and cognitive health benefits.

Bowen Jiao, Nanting Zhu, Decheng Bi et al.

Fucoxanthin (FUC), a lipid-soluble carotenoid with various bioactivities, demonstrates promise as a preventive agent against inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Nevertheless, the inherent instability and low aqueous solubility of FUC limit its application in functional food formulations and pharmaceutical applications. In this study, a FUC-loaded pickering emulsion (G-SPI-COS/FUC emulsion) with high encapsulation efficiency and small particle size was developed by using genipin-crosslinked soy protein isolate (SPI)-chitooligosaccharide (COS) nanoparticles as stabilizers. G-SPI-COS/FUC emulsion exhibited excellent stability under varying pH values, ionic strengths, and storage conditions. In vitro digestion experiments showed that G-SPI-COS/FUC emulsion controlled FUC release and enhanced its intestinal absorption and bioavailability. Furthermore, G-SPI-COS/FUC emulsion was more effective in preventing dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis than free FUC and FUC-loaded pickering emulsion stabilized by native SPI. These findings indicated that G-SPI-COS/FUC emulsion could serve as a promising delivery system for FUC, providing a novel approach to the prevention of IBD.

EFSA Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP), Roberto Edoardo Villa, Giovanna Azimonti et al.

Abstract Following a request from the European Commission, EFSA was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the efficacy of Bifidobacterium longum CNCM I‐5642 (PP102I) as a zootechnical feed additive (functional group: physiological condition stabiliser) for dogs. In a previous opinion, the FEEDAP Panel concluded that PP102I was safe for dogs and the environment. Regarding the safety for the users, the Panel concluded that the additive should be considered a skin and respiratory sensitiser. Due to the lack of data, no conclusions could be drawn on the potential for skin/eye irritancy of the additive. Due to the lack of sufficient data, the Panel could not conclude on the efficacy of the additive for dogs at the proposed conditions of use. The applicant submitted in vitro eye and skin irritation tests and one efficacy trial in dogs to address the inconclusive aspects of the previous assessment. Based on the data provided, the Panel considers that the additive is irritant to the eyes but not to the skin. The additive has the potential to be efficacious when included in feed for dogs at 1 × 109 colony forming unit (CFU)/dog per day (which would correspond approximately to 3.5 × 109 CFU/kg complete feed).

Phaik Ling Quah, Phaik Ling Quah, Daniel Wei Keong Chan et al.

IntroductionResearch on early childhood caregiver feeding practices and eating behaviors is limited, especially within Asian populations. This study examined these practices across key feeding domains of variety, autonomy, and mealtime setting and timing, stratified by three age groups: 0 to <7 months, 7 to <13 months, and 13 to <36 months.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of 1,307 caregivers from a multi-ethnic population in Singapore captured demographic data, feeding practices, child eating behaviors, and caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent T-tests and the chi-square test were used to assess feeding practices and eating behaviors across age groups.ResultsRegarding dietary variety, 14.8 and 6.1% of infants aged 7 to <13 months were offered three or fewer food groups frequently and daily, respectively. Additionally, 11.9% of infants were receiving processed foods often. At this age, only 1.0% of infants were consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) often, while 2.0% consumed them daily. Among older children (aged 13 to <36 months), 8.1% were offered a limited variety of three food groups, while 4.5% were offered fewer than three. In contrast, a significantly higher proportion frequently consumed processed foods (24.0%) and sugar-sweetened beverages (25.2%; p < 0.05). In terms of autonomy, only 75.4% of infants (7– < 13 months) and 89.5% of older children (13– < 36 months) were able to self-feed. Caregivers of older children (13– < 36 months) were less likely to recognize hunger and satiety cues compared to those of infants (0–< 13 months; p < 0.05). Older children (13– < 36 months) also more frequently required special mealtime settings (36.6%), viewed screens during meals (29.9%), and were less likely to be offered post-midnight meals nightly (22.6% compared to infants; 70.3%; 0–< 13 months; p < 0.05).ConclusionThese findings underscore the need for culturally tailored educational interventions to improve suboptimal feeding practices in children under three in Singapore’s multiethnic population.

Seo Jun Pyo

The study of food pairing has evolved beyond subjective expertise with the advent of machine learning. This paper presents FlavorDiffusion, a novel framework leveraging diffusion models to predict food-chemical interactions and ingredient pairings without relying on chromatography. By integrating graph-based embeddings, diffusion processes, and chemical property encoding, FlavorDiffusion addresses data imbalances and enhances clustering quality. Using a heterogeneous graph derived from datasets like Recipe1M and FlavorDB, our model demonstrates superior performance in reconstructing ingredient-ingredient relationships. The addition of a Chemical Structure Prediction (CSP) layer further refines the embedding space, achieving state-of-the-art NMI scores and enabling meaningful discovery of novel ingredient combinations. The proposed framework represents a significant step forward in computational gastronomy, offering scalable, interpretable, and chemically informed solutions for food science.

Yang Zhong, Yifan Yao, Tong Luo et al.

Food analysis is becoming a hot topic in health area, in which fine-grained food recognition task plays an important role. In this paper, we describe the details of our solution to the LargeFineFoodAI-ICCV Workshop-Recognition challenge held on Kaggle. We find a proper combination of Arcface loss[1] and Circle loss[9] can bring improvement to the performance. With Arcface and the combined loss, model was trained with carefully tuned configurations and ensembled to get the final results. Our solution won the 3rd place in the competition.

Urvashi Verma, Kanishka Goyal, Chanaka Kottegoda et al.

Additional food sources for an introduced predator are known to increase its efficiency on a target pest. In this context, inhibiting factors such as interference, predator competition, and the introduction of temporally dependent quantity and quality of additional food are all known to enable pest extinction. As climate change and habitat degradation have increasing effects in enhancing patchiness in ecological systems, the effect of additional food in patch models has also been recently considered. However, the question of complete pest extinction in such patchy systems remains open. In the current manuscript, we consider a biological control model where additional food drives competition among predators in one patch, and they subsequently disperse to a neighboring patch via drift or dispersal. We show that complete pest extinction in both patches is possible. Further, this state is proved to be globally asymptotically stable under certain parametric restrictions. We also prove a codimension-2 Bogdanov-Takens bifurcation. We discuss our results in the context of designing pest management strategies under enhanced climate change and habitat fragmentation. Such strategies are particularly relevant to control invasive pests such as the Soybean aphid (\emph{Aphis glycines}), in the North Central United States.

Abda Abdalla Emam, Nagat Elmultham

Liang Luo, Guanglei Chen, Yan Zhou et al.

BackgroundCurrently, there is limited and inconsistent evidence regarding the risk association between daily dietary intake, antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins with Childhood Asthma (CA). Therefore, this study employs Mendelian Randomization (MR) methodology to systematically investigate the causal relationships between daily dietary intake, serum antioxidants, serum minerals, and the circulating levels of serum vitamins with CA.MethodsThis study selected factors related to daily dietary intake, including carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and sugars, as well as serum antioxidant levels (lycopene, uric acid, and β-carotene), minerals (calcium, copper, selenium, zinc, iron, phosphorus, and magnesium), and vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin D, and vitamin E), using them as Instrumental Variables (IVs). Genetic data related to CA were obtained from the FinnGen and GWAS Catalog databases, with the primary analytical methods being Inverse Variance Weighting (IVW) and sensitivity analysis.ResultsFollowing MR analysis, it is observed that sugar intake (OR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.55–0.91, P: 0.01) is inversely correlated with the risk of CA, while the intake of serum circulating magnesium levels (OR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.06–2.53, P: 0.03), fats (OR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.06–1.95, P: 0.02), and serum vitamin D levels (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.04–1.25, P: 0.02) are positively associated with an increased risk of CA.ConclusionThis study identified a causal relationship between the daily dietary intake of sugars and fats, as well as the magnesium and vitamin D levels in serum, and the occurrence of CA. However, further in-depth research is warranted to elucidate the specific mechanisms underlying these associations.

Marco Bertetti, Paolo Agnolucci, Alvaro Calzadilla et al.

Reports from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) serve as the benchmark for food security predictions which is crucial for stakeholders in planning interventions and support people in need. This paper assesses the predictive accuracy of FEWSNET's food security forecasting, by comparing predictions to the following ground truth assessments at the administrative boundaries-livelihood level, revealing an overall high accuracy of 78\% across diverse timeframes and locations. However, our analysis also shows significant variations in performance across distinct regions and prediction periods. Therefore, our analysis sheds light on strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in the context of food security predictions. The insights derived from this study not only enhance our understanding of FEWSNET's capabilities but also emphasize the importance of continuous refinement in forecasting methodologies.

Yuhan Liu, Amna Liaqat, Owen Xingjian Zhang et al.

Beyond the well-known giants like Uber Eats and DoorDash, there are hundreds of independent food delivery platforms in the United States. However, little is known about the sociotechnical landscape of these ``indie'' platforms. In this paper, we analyzed these platforms to understand why they were created, how they operate, and what technologies they use. We collected data on 495 indie platforms and detailed survey responses from 29 platforms. We found that personalized, timely service is a central value of indie platforms, as is a sense of responsibility to the local community they serve. Indie platforms are motivated to provide fair rates for restaurants and couriers. These alternative business practices differentiate them from mainstream platforms. Though indie platforms have plans to expand, a lack of customizability in off-the-shelf software prevents independent platforms from personalizing services for their local communities. We show that these platforms are a widespread and longstanding fixture of the food delivery market. We illustrate the diversity of motivations and values to explain why a one-size-fits-all support is insufficient, and we discuss the siloing of technology that inhibits platforms' growth. Through these insights, we aim to promote future HCI research into the potential development of public-interest technologies for local food delivery.