C. Garces-Restrepo, L. A. Mora, 'Agua para la seguridad alimentaria y el desarrollo rural en el contexto Suramericano. In Spanish', 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of microaeration on the fermentation process during anaerobic co-digestion of brown water (BW) and food waste (FW). This was achieved by daily monitoring of reactor performance and the determination of its bacterial consortium towards the end of the study. Molecular cloning and sequencing results revealed that bacteria within phyla Firmicutes and Bacteriodetes represented the dominant phylogenetic group. As compared to anaerobic conditions, the fermentation of BW and FW under microaeration conditions gave rise to a significantly more diverse bacterial population and higher proportion of bacterial clones affiliated to the phylum Firmicutes. The acidogenic reactor was therefore able to metabolize a greater variety of substrates leading to higher hydrolysis rates as compared to the anaerobic reactor. Other than enhanced fermentation, microaeration also led to a shift in fermentation production pattern where acetic acid was metabolized for the synthesis of butyric acid.

M. Mulligan, 'Policy support systems for benefit sharing across landscapes and communities in pursuit of sustainable food and water security', 2014

Today most foods are available in a packed form. During storage, the migration of chemical substances from food packaging materials into food may occur and may therefore be a potential source of consumer exposure. To protect the consumer, standard migration tests are laid down in Regulation (EU) No. 10/2011. When using those migration tests and applying additional conservative conventions, estimated exposure is linked with large uncertainties including a certain margin of safety. Thus the research project FACET was initiated within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission with the aim of developing a probabilistic migration modelling framework which allows one (1) to calculate migration into foods under real conditions of use; and (2) to deliver realistic concentration estimates for consumer exposure modelling for complex packaging materials (including multi-material multilayer structures). The aim was to carry out within the framework of the FACET project a comprehensive systematic study on the solubility behaviour of foodstuffs for potentially migrating organic chemicals. Therefore a rapid and convenient method was established to obtain partition coefficients between polymer and food, K P/F. With this method approximately 700 time-dependent kinetic experiments from spiked polyethylene films were performed using model migrants, foods and ethanol–water mixtures. The partition coefficients of migrants between polymer and food (K P/F) were compared with those obtained using ethanol–water mixtures (K P/F’s) to investigate whether an allocation of food groups with common migration behaviour to certain ethanol–water mixtures could be made. These studies have confirmed that the solubility of a migrant is mainly dependent on the fat content in the food and on the ethanol concentration of ethanol–water mixtures. Therefore dissolution properties of generic food groups for migrants can be assigned to those of ethanol–water mixtures. All foodstuffs (including dry foods) when allocated to FACET model food group codes can be classified into a reduced number of food categories each represented by a corresponding ethanol–water equivalency.

With a rapidly growing urban population in Kumasi, Ghana, the consumption of street food is increasing. Raw salads, which often accompany street food dishes, are typically composed of perishable vegetables that are grown in close proximity to the city using poor quality water for irrigation. This study assessed the risk of gastroenteritis illness (caused by rotavirus, norovirus and Ascaris lumbricoides) associated with the consumption of street food salads using Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA). Three different risk assessment models were constructed, based on availability of microbial concentrations: 1) Water — starting from irrigation water quality, 2) Produce — starting from the quality of produce at market, and 3) Street — using microbial quality of street food salad. In the absence of viral concentrations, published ratios between faecal coliforms and viruses were used to estimate the quality of water, produce and salad, and annual disease burdens were determined. Rotavirus dominated the estimates of annual disease burden (~10−3Disability Adjusted Life Years per person per year (DALYs pppy)), although norovirus also exceeded the 10−4DALY threshold for both Produce and Street models. The Water model ignored other on-farm and post-harvest sources of contamination and consistently produced lower estimates of risk; it likely underestimates disease burden and therefore is not recommended. Required log reductions of up to 5.3 (95th percentile) for rotavirus were estimated for the Street model, demonstrating that significant interventions are required to protect the health and safety of street food consumers in Kumasi. Estimates of virus concentrations were a significant source of model uncertainty and more data on pathogen concentrations is needed to refine QMRA estimates of disease burden.

With a rapidly growing urban population in Kumasi, Ghana, the consumption of street food is increasing. Raw salads, which often accompany street food dishes, are typically composed of perishable vegetables that are grown in close proximity to the city using poor quality water for irrigation. This study assessed the risk of gastroenteritis illness (caused by rotavirus, norovirus and Ascaris lumbricoides) associated with the consumption of street food salads using Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA). Three different risk assessment models were constructed, based on availability of microbial concentrations: 1)Water — starting from irrigation water quality, 2) Produce — starting from the quality of produce at market, and 3) Street — using microbial quality of street food salad. In the absence of viral concentrations, published ratios between faecal coliforms and viruses were used to estimate the quality of water, produce and salad, and annual disease burdens were determined. Rotavirus dominated the estimates of annual disease burden (~10-3 Disability Adjusted Life Years per person per year (DALYs pppy)), although norovirus also exceeded the 10-4 DALY threshold for both Produce and Street models. The Water model ignored other on-farm and post-harvest sources of contamination and consistently produced lower estimates of risk; it likely underestimates disease burden and therefore is not recommended. Required log reductions of up to 5.3 (95th percentile) for rotavirus were estimated for the Street model, demonstrating that significant interventions are required to protect the health and safety of street food consumers in Kumasi. Estimates of virus concentrations were a significant source of model uncertainty and more data on pathogen concentrations is needed to refine QMRA estimates of disease burden.

With a rapidly growing urban population in Kumasi, Ghana, the consumption of street food is increasing. Raw salads, which often accompany street food dishes, are typically composed of perishable vegetables that are grown in close proximity to the city using poor quality water for irrigation. This study assessed the risk of gastroenteritis illness (caused by rotavirus, norovirus and Ascaris lumbricoides) associated with the consumption of street food salads using Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA). Three different risk assessment models were constructed, based on availability of microbial concentrations: 1)Water — starting from irrigation water quality, 2) Produce — starting from the quality of produce at market, and 3) Street — using microbial quality of street food salad. In the absence of viral concentrations, published ratios between faecal coliforms and viruses were used to estimate the quality of water, produce and salad, and annual disease burdens were determined. Rotavirus dominated the estimates of annual disease burden (~10-3 Disability Adjusted Life Years per person per year (DALYs pppy)), although norovirus also exceeded the 10-4 DALY threshold for both Produce and Street models. The Water model ignored other on-farm and post-harvest sources of contamination and consistently produced lower estimates of risk; it likely underestimates disease burden and therefore is not recommended. Required log reductions of up to 5.3 (95th percentile) for rotavirus were estimated for the Street model, demonstrating that significant interventions are required to protect the health and safety of street food consumers in Kumasi. Estimates of virus concentrations were a significant source of model uncertainty and more data on pathogen concentrations is needed to refine QMRA estimates of disease burden.

Special issue The wrapping up of the IDEADOS project: International Workshop on Environment, Ecosystems and Demersal Resources, and Fisheries.-- 11 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables.-- Corrigendum to “Structure and dynamics of food webs in the water column on shelf and slope grounds of the western Mediterranean” [J. Mar. Syst. 138 (2014) 171–181], Journal of Marine Systems 139: 505–508 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2014.09.005 | Benthic-pelagic coupling is an important process connecting species throughout the water column, particularly, in deep-sea systems where faunal assemblages can be dense if indirectly sustained by production from the above. Through stable isotope analyses, this study explored the sources of production, trophic structure, and bentho-pelagic coupling in two locations with contrasting oceanographic conditions from the western Mediterranean, in the Balearic (BsB) and the Algerian (AsB) sub-basins. The samples of 89 dominant species (23 decapods, 19 cephalopods, 33 fishes, among the other taxa), inhabiting the hyperbenthic and pelagic domains, from the shelf break (250m), upper slope (650m), and middle slope (850m) were analyzed. Results suggested long food webs of approximately four trophic levels (TrLs) that were sustained by planktonic source material in shallower waters and degraded particulate organic matter of planktonic origin in deeper waters. Most of the collected species (70%) occupied intermediate trophic positions between the 3rd and 4th TrLs. The species δ15N and δ13C values exhibited a broad range, consistent with the high diversity that might be attributed to the oligotrophic conditions. As the depth increased, stronger segregation occurred between the trophic groups, and spatial differences were found among consumers of the two locations. Species in the AsB always had consistently higher δ15N values than in the BsB, which could possibly be attributed to the basal δ15N that was present through the food web. Despite the contrasting basin characteristics, a similarly close bentho-pelagic coupling pattern was observed at both locations, except at the deepest ground, especially at the AsB, where the mean δ13C values from the hyperbenthic and pelagic compartments were more distant. This could be related to the higher degree of reworking of organic matter in the AsB. Overall, these findings suggested the need for a depth-stratified approach to analyze deep-sea food webs in the study site in future studies. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. | This research was supported by the project CTM2008-04489-C03-01 and CTM2008-04489-C03-02. The isotope analyses were funded by the Government of the Balearic Islands, Acció especial: AAEE0138/09 (DireccióGeneral de Recerca, Desenvolupament Tecnològic i Innovació, Conselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovació) | Peer Reviewed

Benthic–pelagic coupling is an important process connecting species throughout the water column, particularly,in deep-sea systemswhere faunal assemblages can be dense if indirectly sustained by production fromthe above.Through stable isotope analyses, this study explored the sources of production, trophic structure, and benthopelagiccoupling in two locations with contrasting oceanographic conditions from the western Mediterranean,in the Balearic (BsB) and the Algerian (AsB) sub-basins. The samples of 89 dominant species (23 decapods, 19cephalopods, 33 fishes, among the other taxa), inhabiting the hyperbenthic and pelagic domains, from theshelf break (250 m), upper slope (650 m), and middle slope (850 m) were analyzed. Results suggested longfood webs of approximately four trophic levels (TrLs) that were sustained by planktonic source material inshallowerwaters and degraded particulate organic matter of planktonic origin in deeperwaters.Most of the collectedspecies (70%) occupied intermediate trophic positions between the 3rd and 4th TrLs. The species δ15Nandδ13C values exhibited a broad range, consistent with the high diversity that might be attributed to the oligotrophicconditions. As the depth increased, stronger segregation occurred between the trophic groups, and spatialdifferenceswere found among consumers of the two locations. Species in the AsB always had consistently higherδ15N values than in the BsB, which could possibly be attributed to the basal δ15N that was present through thefoodweb. Despite the contrasting basin characteristics, a similarly close bentho-pelagic coupling pattern was observedat both locations, except at the deepest ground, especially at the AsB,where themean δ13Cvalues fromthehyperbenthic and pelagic compartments were more distant. This could be related to the higher degree ofreworking of organicmatter in the AsB. Overall, these findings suggested the need for a depth-stratified approachto analyze deep-sea food webs in the study site in future studies | Versión del editor