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Advances in traceability systems in agri-food supply chains
Get PDFFailure to deliver safe and high-quality food reduces consumer confidence in the food industry and results in costly food crises, foodborne illnesses and disruption to food supply chains. Recent advances in traceability systems, and associated identification and communication technologies hold the potential to ensure food quality and safety by managing effective traceability throughout the food supply chains. However, deficits in various factors e.g., resources, awareness, training, standards, data management and technology scaling impede exploitation of these cutting-edge traceability technologies. This chapter provides a review of the advances in agri-food traceability systems and technologies, barriers to their implementations, and possible improvement pathways and policy interventions to promote deployment of advanced food traceability systems
Considering Fraud Vulnerability Associated with Cre-dence-Based Products Such as Organic Food
Get PDFOrganic foods carry a premium price. They are credence-based foods, i.e., it is difficult for consumers to evaluate the premium aspects of organic food under normal use. In global supply chains, organic food is purchased on institutional trust (certification, logos, standards) rather than on relational trust. Relying on institutional trust makes consumers vulnerable to criminals who in-tentionally label conventional product as organic or develop sophisticated organized crime networks to defraud businesses and consumers. The aim of this research is to explore cases of organic fraud that are emergent from academic and gray literature searches to identify ways to strengthen future capabilities to counter illicit activities in a globalized food environment. Each case is considered in terms of perpetrator motivations (differentiated as economic, cultural, and behaviorally orientated drivers), the mode of operation (simple or organized), the guardians involved/absent, and the business and supply chain level vulnerabilities the cases highlight. The study finds that institutional trust is particularly vulnerable to fraud. Supply chain guardians need to recognize this vulnerability and implement effective controls to reduce the likelihood of occurrence. However, in some cases con-sidered in the study, the guardians themselves were complicit in the illicit behavior, further increasing consumer vulnerability. Future research needs to consider how additional controls can be implemented, without increasing supply chain friction that will impact on food trade and supply, that can ensure consumers are purchasing what they believe they are paying for
Organisational forgetting: the food safety risk associated with unintentional knowledge loss.
Get PDFBackground: Organisational forgetting is associated with unintentional knowledge loss that makes both food businesses and consumers vulnerable to a food safety incident. It is essential that food businesses have strategies and processes in place to minimise unintentional knowledge loss to ensure that essential knowledge is retained, maintained and stays valid.
Scope and approach: The aim of this paper is to consider the risk associated with unintentional food safety knowledge loss at individual, organisational and inter-organisational levels. The research approach employed was to undertake a review of existing literature to frame the conceptual research. Screening of both academic and grey literature demonstrated a distinct knowledge gap i.e., there is limited previous research considering the concept of unintentional knowledge loss and its impact on food safety. Case study examples explore the academic theory in more depth.
Key findings and conclusions: Three aspects of organisational forgetting are considered in the context of food safety: organisational amnesia, organisational memory decay, and supply chain déjà-vu. The first two aspects operate at the organisational level and the third at the supply chain level. To overcome the risk of unintentional loss, organisational and interorganisational knowledge needs to be effectively mapped and a knowledge retention policy needs to be developed, implemented and maintained that addresses all types of organisational and interorganisational knowledge, but especially food safety knowledge
A socio-technical approach to analyse three norovirus outbreaks in hospitality settings.
Get PDFA systems-based approach can assist the response to complex safety-related issues by taking both human factors and organisational aspects into consideration. Systems-based approaches, such as AcciMap, have been used in a wide variety of domains to investigate why a food safety incident occurs (e.g. bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the UK). Moreover, other water- and foodborne outbreaks have been investigated using this approach. Norovirus is the most common cause of viral acute gastroenteritis outbreaks worldwide, associated with international hospitality settings such as hotels. With an estimated 685 million episodes and 210,000 deaths worldwide every year, this is a significant global socioeconomic and public health concern. A systems-based approach allows in-depth analysis of the system in which an issue occurs, providing insights into the errors or chain of events causing the accident. However, there is limited literature on food safety incident analysis using such approaches. This study aims to provide a stronger theoretical knowledge base of the subject and enhance understanding of the contributory factors leading to norovirus outbreaks to prevent future ocurrence. This research applied an AcciMap approach to analyse and graphically represent the contributing factors and interactions between different levels. The findings of the AcciMap analysis revealed that factors such as communication issues, managerial flaws in water systems management and public health regulations were common systemic failures at the government and physical/individual levels in the three analysed outbreaks. Thus, norovirus outbreaks were not the outcome of a single causal factor but a chain of events and interactions that occurred across a complex system
Entrepreneurial performance of new-generation rural migrant entrepreneurs in China
Get PDFPurpose – China has a new rural revitalization strategy to stimulate rural transformation through modernizing rural areas and resolving their social contradictions. While social capital is recognized as an important element to rural revitalization and entrepreneurship, research into the role of psychological capital is less developed. Therefore, this paper assesses the impact of both social and psychological capital on entrepreneurial performance of Chinese new-generation rural migrant entrepreneurs (NGRMEs) who have returned to their homes to develop businesses as part of the rural revitalization revolution.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a survey, data were collected from 525 NGRMEs in Shaanxi province. This paper uses factor analysis to determine variables for a multiple linear regression model to investigate the impacts of dimensions of both social capital and psychological capital on NGRMEs’ entrepreneurial performance.
Findings – Through the factor analysis, social capital of these entrepreneurs consists of five dimensions
(reputation, participation, networks, trust and support), psychological capital has three dimensions (innovation
and risk-taking, self-efficacy and entrepreneurial happiness) and entrepreneurial performance contains four
dimensions (financial, customer, learning and growth, and internal business process). Furthermore, the
multiple linear regression model empirically verifies that both social capital and psychological capital
significantly influence and positively correlate with NGRMEs’ entrepreneurial performance.
Originality/value – This study shows the importance of how a mixture of interrelated social and psychological
dimensions influence entrepreneurial performance that may contribute to the success of the Chinese rural revitalization
strategy. This has serious implications when attempting to improve the lives of over 100 million rural Chinese citizens
Comparison of Compaction Alleviation Methods on Soil Health and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Get PDFSoil compaction can occur due to trafficking by heavy equipment and be exacerbated by unfavourable conditions such as wet weather. Compaction can restrict crop growth and increase waterlogging, which can increase the production of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Cultivation can be used to alleviate compaction, but this can have negative impacts on earthworm abundance and increase the production of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. In this study, a field was purposefully compacted using trafficking, then in a replicated plot experiment, ploughing, low disturbance subsoiling and the application of a mycorrhizal inoculant were compared as methods of compaction alleviation, over two years of cropping. These methods were compared in terms of bulk density, penetration resistance, crop yield, greenhouse gas emissions and earthworm abundance. Ploughing alleviated topsoil compaction, as measured by bulk density and penetrometer resistance, and increased the crop biomass in one year of the study, although no yield differences were seen. Earthworm abundance was reduced in both years in the cultivated plots, and carbon dioxide flux increased significantly, although this was not significant in summer months. Outside of the summer months, nitrous oxide production increased in the non-cultivated treatments, which was attributed to increased denitrifying activity under compacted conditions
Global data on earthworm abundance, biomass, diversity and corresponding environmental properties
Get PDFEarthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provided directly by authors, were collated with information on site locations, including coordinates, habitat cover, and soil properties. Datasets were required, at a minimum, to include abundance or biomass of earthworms at a site. Where possible, site-level species lists were included, as well as the abundance and biomass of individual species and ecological groups. This global dataset contains 10,840 sites, with 184 species, from 60 countries and all continents except Antarctica. The data were obtained from 182 published articles, published between 1973 and 2017, and 17 unpublished datasets. Amalgamating data into a single global database will assist researchers in investigating and answering a wide variety of pressing questions, for example, jointly assessing aboveground and belowground biodiversity distributions and drivers of biodiversity change
Influence on the implementation of biosecurity measures in dairy cattle farms: Communication between veterinarians and dairy farmers
No full textThis study was carried out in two regions in Spain (Catalonia and Galicia) through eight focus groups; four for dairy farmers and four for veterinarians. The results showed that dairy farmers and veterinarians attributed responsibility to one another for not following biosecurity practices. The study brings to light contradictions among veterinarians and certain individual veterinary practices that participated in the study, which lead to doubt and confusion on the part of dairy farmers. Distinct perceptions were also identified of the role that government authorities should play in relation both to training and sanctions as a means of improving biosecurity on dairy farms. Additionally, the participants expressed varying opinions as to whether biosecurity measures ought to be made mandatory or remain voluntary. Results from this study highlight the need to promote initiatives through which distinct stakeholders such as veterinarians, government authorities, and dairy farmers can develop consensus-based messages on the implementation of biosecurity practices
Feasibility of low-carbon permeable pavement systems (PPS) for stormwater management.
Get PDFThe sharp increase in the utilisation and demand of construction materials
across the world, especially in road, pavements and transportation sectors has
resulted in an unsustainable surge in the amount of carbon emissions. This study
investigated the use of low-carbon materials in permeable pavements systems
(PPS) and the effects of various low-carbon engineered materials on the
mechanical, absorption and infiltration performance of PPS according to
relevant standards. This was achieved by the critical analysis of four (4)
different materials (recycled grit, recycled glass, recycled rubber) and
comparing their performance with normal materials used in conventional
pavements. The four materials were implemented into concrete mixes of the
permeable pavers and embedded in various layers and sub-sections making up
the permeable pavement structure. As a result, the outcome required of this
research is to find which mix of concrete blocks (permeable pavers) perform the
best when tested for absorption and compression and which permeable
pavement works best when tested for infiltration. Compression test was utilised
to establish the maximum allowable compressive force, while the absorption
test identified the concrete mix that could hold the least amount of water when
soaked in water for 24 hours. This was expected to reduce the possibility of
breakage of the concrete blocks. Finally, the infiltration test was employed to
establish the best performing pavement material based on the rate and amount
of infiltration of a fixed volume of effluent. The results obtained from the
laboratory tests shows improved performances of the pavements embedded with
recycled materials. Therefore, it can be recommended that the use of recycled
materials in the development of low-carbon permeable pavements, possesses the
ability to perform efficiently in comparison with conventional PPS in the
construction and built environment sectors
Relative expression of putative genes involved in galanthamine and other Amaryllidaceae alkaloids biosynthesis in Narcissus field and in vitro tissues
Get PDFThe Narcissus pseudonarcissus cv. Carlton contains Amaryllidaceae alkaloids namely galanthamine, lycorine,
homolycorine, narciclasine, which are noted for their pharmaceutical properties such as for the treatment of
early to mid-stage Alzheimer’s diseases, cancer, tumor etc. Alkaloid biosynthesis using plant in vitro systems has been considered as a tool for drug discovery and the pathways are starting to be understood but still far from
complete. Therefore, the study was emphasized to observe the relative expressions of putative genes involved in
the biosynthetic pathway leading to the Amaryllidaceae alkaloids in field grown bulbs and developing cell
culture systems in Narcissus.
MS media fortified with growth regulators were used for the development of tissue culture from Carlton twinscale
explants. MS medium with high auxin, 20 mg/l NAA was the best medium for callus growth and maintenance while media with low auxin, 4 mg/l NAA and MS basal media gave the maximum bulblets. Field tissues showed a higher amount of galanthamine content; i.e. basal plate (1050–1310 μg Gal/g FW) and bulb(980–1150 μg Gal/g FW) than the culture derived samples; callus (1.0–7.0 μg Gal/g FW) and bulblets (12–215 μg Gal/g FW) on a fresh weight (FW) basis. GC–MS chromatograms of samples under study also showed the
presence of other important alkaloids i.e. lycorine, homolycorine, lycorenine, haemanthamine, crinamine,
lycoramine and tazettine. RNA extracted from in vitro callus, bulblets and field grown bulb, basal plate were used for PCR to detect the relative expression of putative genes; P450, PAL, TYDC and NpO4OMT normalized to actin.
The selected transcripts for P450s and TYDC were expressed in both field and in vitro tissues. Higher expressions
of PAL were observed in calli than field samples. The expression of NpN4OMT was notably higher in field
samples than in vitro tissues. Therefore, in vitro tissues could be a good source for the reproducible and easy
extraction of alkaloids from plants