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Food packaging and sustainability – Consumer perception vs. correlated scientific facts: A review
No full textFood packaging maintains the food safety and ensures the quality of food throughout the supply chain. Both are achieved by the protective function of the packaging against negative ambient influences such as mechanical damage, light or water vapour. Material, form and concepts of packaging vary widely, which thus also differentiates the environmental impact for packaging.
This paper provides an overview of the current research of European consumer perception and how this correlates with the environmental impact of loose foodstuffs and packaged food. Considered materials are plastic, glass, metal, and paper/cardboard. These perceptions are compared to the objective environmentally friendliness based on the selected assessment criteria carbon footprint, recycling rate, reuse rate and biological degradation/decomposition in Europe. The purpose of this paper is to discover whether there is any link between the consumer perception and the scientific assessed environmental sustainability.
Consumers judge packaging material by criteria of circular economy, natural looking material, and design. The environmental impact of paper/cardboard and metal are rated in line with the scientific measure by consumers, whereas plastic packaging is underestimated and glass and biodegradable plastic packaging are highly overestimated. These results indicate that the rating of European consumers and scientific life cycle assessments turn out differently. The differences are mainly linked by theoretical concepts of recyclability, biodegradability, and reuse rate of the packaging. Consumers evaluate food packaging by affective feelings than using cognitive reasoning. Their knowledge about the practical implementation of recyclability, biodegradability and reusability as well as additional environmental impact factors are low. Consequently, consumers’ buying behaviour is in most cases less environmentally sustainable than intended.
Awareness trainings based on scientific facts, clear product and packaging information based on labelling schemes (“eco-labelling”) and nudging for sustainable behaviour can potentially support consumers in their sustainable buying behaviour
Analyse des Nutzerverhaltens mulitfunktionaler Küchenmaschinen
Get PDFDer Verbraucherwunsch an eine unkomplizierte, schnelle Speisenzubereitung befeuert die Relevanz multifunktionaler Küchenmaschinen. Die zunehmende Marktdynamik erschwert die Gerätewahl, zumal relevante Performanceparameter nur z. T. definiert und reproduzierbar prüfbar sind. Eine Online-Umfrage von Nutzern multifunktionaler Küchenmaschinen zeigt auf, dass Zerkleinerungs-prozesse, die Zubereitung von Teigen, bei Geräten mit Kochfunktion, Auf- und Fortkochfunktionen sowie das Anbraten bei Performanceanalysen zu berücksichtigen sind. Die Handhabung, Reinigungseignung und das Mixtopfvolumen sind für Nutzer von Küchenmaschinen ohne Kochfunktion am relevantesten, Funktionsvielfalt und Gelinggarantie bei Geräten mit Kochfunktion
Wether to adopt or not? A cross-country comparison of consumer resistance towards the Internet of Things in households
Get PDFThe uptake of IoTs in households worldwide is lower than predicted and comparatively slower in developing countries than in developed countries due to inadequate digital infrastructure. This study aims to understand why the Internet of Things in households (specifically smart household appliances) have been resisted and have not been adopted to predicted levels by comparing Germany as a developed country to South Africa as a developing country. The specific focus was on innovation and consumer characteristics, perceived risk of adoption, and personality considerations, using a smart refrigerator. Through regression analysis of data generated from a quantitative survey of 1665 consumers from Germany and South Africa, it was found that both resistance and adoption are influenced by how intrusive the smart appliance is, how the consumer perceives its usefulness and
whether it is considered novel or new. The perceived price of the smart appliance also played a role in adoption. Only South Africans’ perception of their capability to use a technologically innovative product influences their resistance to the smart appliance. Adoption is not the inverse of resistance when considering the constructs in
their totality. Consumer innovativeness, influenced by uncertainty avoidance, played a significant role among the German and South African participants both resisting and adopting smart products. However, the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance also influenced consumer innovativeness. On the other hand, South Africans’
spirit of innovation influenced their resistance to and adoption of smart appliances more strongly than their German counterparts
Low-energy electron beam has severe impact on seedling development compared to cold atmospheric pressure plasma
Get PDFSprouts are germinated seeds that are often consumed due to their high nutritional content and health benefts. However, the conditions for germination strongly support the proliferation of present bacteria, including foodborne pathogens. Since sprouts are consumed raw or minimally processed, they are frequently linked to cases of food poisoning. Therefore, a seed decontamination method that provides efcient inactivation of microbial pathogens, while maintaining the germination capacity and quality of the seeds is in high demand. This study aimed to investigate and compare seed decontamination by cold atmospheric-pressure plasma and low-energy electron beam with
respect to their impact on seed and seedling quality. The results show that both technologies provide great potential for inactivation of microorganisms on seeds, while cold plasma yielded a higher efciency with 5 log units compared to a maximum of 3 log units after electron beam treatment. Both techniques accelerated seed germination, defned by the percentage of hypocotyl and leaf emergence at 3 days, with short plasma treatment (< 120 s) and all applied doses of electron beam treatment (8–60 kGy). However, even the lowest dose of electron beam treatment at 8 kGy in this study caused root abnormalities in seedlings, suggesting a detrimental efect on the seed tissue. Seeds treated with cold plasma had an eroded seed coat and increased seed wettability compared to electron beam treated seeds. However, these efects cannot explain the increase in the germination capacity of
seeds as this was observed for both techniques. Future studies should focus on the investigation of the mechanisms causing accelerated seed germination and root abnormalities by characterizing the molecular and physiological impact of cold plasma and electron beam on seed tissue
What do incident response practitioners need to know? A skillmap for the years ahead
Get PDFDigital forensics incident response (DFIR) specialists are expected to possess multidisciplinary skills including expert knowledge of computer-related principles and technology. On the other hand, recent
studies suggest that existing training and study programs may not fully address the needs of future DFIR professionals. To reveal possible gaps in practitioners education and identify the most needed skills, we built a skillmap for DFIR where we followed a threefold approach: (1) an online survey among DFIR experts; (2) a review of training programs; and (3) an analysis of job listings on LinkedIn. Each source was first analyzed on its own and the findings were merged into a DFIR skillmap which is the main contribution of this article. The results show that network forensics and incident handling are the most demanded domains of skills. While these are covered by existing courses the newly desired skills, in particular, cloud forensics and encrypted data, need to get more space in training and education. We
hope that this article provides educators with information on ways to improve in the years ahead
Conjugation Dynamics of Self-Transmissible and Mobilisable Plasmids into E. coli O157:H7 on Arabidopsis thaliana Rosettes
Get PDFMany antibiotic resistance genes present in human pathogenic bacteria are believed to originate from environmental bacteria. Conjugation of antibiotic resistance conferring plasmids is con� sidered to be one of the major reasons for the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistances. A hotspot for plasmid-based horizontal gene transfer is the phyllosphere, i.e., the surfaces of aboveground plant parts. Bacteria in the phyllosphere might serve as intermediate hosts with transfer capability to human pathogenic bacteria. In this study, the exchange of mobilisable and self-transmissible plasmids via conjugation was evaluated. The conjugation from the laboratory strain Escherichia coli S17-1, the model phyllosphere coloniser Pantoea eucalypti 299R, and the model pathogen E. coli O157:H7 to the
recipient strain E. coli O157:H7::MRE103 (EcO157:H7red) in the phyllosphere of Arabidopsis thaliana was determined. The results suggest that short-term occurrence of a competent donor is sufficient
to fix plasmids in a recipient population of E. coli O157:H7red. The spread of self-transmissible plasmids was limited after initial steep increases of transconjugants that contributed up to 10% of the total recipient population. The here-presented data of plasmid transfer will be important for future modelling approaches to estimate environmental spread of antibiotic resistance in agricultural production environments
Tracing Antibiotic Resistance Genes along the Irrigation Water Chain to Chive: Does Tap or Surface Water Make a Difference?
Get PDFIrrigation water is well known as potential source of pathogens in fresh produce. However, its role in transferring antibiotic resistance determinants is less well investigated. Therefore, we analyzed the contribution of surface and tap water to the resistome of overhead-irrigated chive plants. Field-grown chive was irrigated with either surface water (R-system) or tap water (D-system), from planting to harvest. Water along the two irrigation chains as well as the respective plants were repeatedly sampled and screened for 264 antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and mobile genetic elements (MGEs), using high-capacity qPCR. Differentially abundant (DA) ARGs were determined by comparing the two systems. On R-chive, β-lactam ARGs, multidrug-resistance (MDR) determinants, and MGEs were most abundant, while D-chive featured DA ARGs from the vancomycin class.
Diversity and number of DA ARGs was the highest on young chives, strongly diminished at harvest, and increased again at the end of shelf life. Most ARGs highly enriched on R- compared to D-chive
were also enriched in R- compared to D-sprinkler water, indicating that water played a major role in ARG enrichment. Of note, blaKPC was detected at high levels in surface water and chive. We conclude that water quality significantly affects the resistome of the irrigated produce
Ambiguous Self-Induced Disinformation (ASID) Attacks: Weaponizing a Cognitive Deficiency
Get PDFHumans quickly and effortlessly impose narrative context onto ambiguous stimuli, as demonstrated through psychological projective testing and ambiguous figures. We suggest that this feature of human cognition may be weaponized as part of an information operation. Such Ambiguous Self-Induced Disinformation (ASID) attacks would employ the following elements: the introduction of a culturally consistent narrative, the presence of ambiguous stimuli, the motivation for hypervigilance, and a social network. ASID attacks represent a reduced-risk, low-investment on the part of the adversary with a potentially significant reward, making this a likely tactic of choice for information operators within the context of gray-zone conflicts
