To achieve food security goals, water accounting seems to be one of the most powerful tools to deal with water scarcity management. Thus, indicators, such as virtual water and water productivity, can be considered complementary rather than competing indicators to assess water demand efficiency use. Water computation is, therefore, a crucial tool to understand the overall tendency of water consumption and to assist the decision makers in their decisional process about water efficiency use in different phases of production. In this perspective, this paper aims to evaluate water use throughout the value chain of the olive oil sector, which is the first strategic agro-industrial sector in Tunisia. This evaluation will be undertaken while taking into account various crucial issues concerning the main two production phases in terms of the importance of water consumption (agriculture and processing phase). In the agriculture phase, the rainfed and irrigated modes will be compared, and in the processing phase, three different processing systems will be evaluated. Thirty surveys with farmers and nine surveys with olive oil mill owners were undertaken in the arid region of Sfax: one of the most important olive oil producers in Tunisia. The results show the importance of the theoretical framework adopted in clarifying the state of water consumption in a strategic sector, such as the Tunisian olive oil sector. In addition, the different calculated indicators highlight the importance of the application of a whole technical package and a controlled and efficient use of water to improve the economic profitability and the necessity to revise the irrigated olive growing extensions’ policies under arid conditions. In addition, in the processing phase, the continuous-two phase system is emphasized as the most relevant system in terms of water efficiency use. This system is proposed to be encouraged by policy makers in future olive mill installations.

Nylon 6 and nylon 12 food packaging materials used as sausage casings are typically exposed to fatty food on one side and boiling water on the other during the cooking process. To simulate the migration behaviour under these conditions, a special migration cell was constructed and filled with olive oil on one side of the polymer and water on the other to find out what amounts of the migrants will transfer to either side and phase at 100 °C. Results show that when a nylon 6 film is exposed to the conditions as described above, total mass transfer of the monomer—caprolactam—into the water phase occurs after 2 h at 100 °C. Nylon 12 sausage casings release similar amounts of their monomer—laurolactam—into both the aqueous and oil phase. An existing computer migration model was adapted to simulate the situation of simultaneous two-sided migration applying previously determined diffusion and partitioning coefficients. The suitability of the model was confirmed by experimental data.

The promotion of responsible consumption is a key strategy to achieve environmental benefits, sustainable food security, and enhance public health. Countries like Spain are making efforts to reverse growing obesity and promote healthy diets, such as the recommended and traditional Mediterranean, recognized as a key strategy to improve the population's health with locally grown, traditional, and seasonal products like fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and fish. With a view to connecting water, agriculture, food security, nutrition and health, this research aims to investigate and compare the nutritional and water implications of the current food consumption of Spanish households with the recommended Mediterranean diet. Besides, we calculate their nutritional composition, compare their water footprints, and develop a new methodological approach to assess nutritional water productivity (i.e. the nutritional value per unit of embedded water). Results show that the current Spanish diet is shifting away from the recommended Mediterranean towards an alternative one containing three times more meat, dairy and sugar products, and a third fewer fruits, vegetables, and cereals. The Mediterranean diet is also less caloric, as it contains smaller amounts of proteins and fats and is richer in fiber and micronutrients. Due to the high-embedded water content in animal products, a shift towards a Mediterranean diet would reduce the consumptive WF about 750 l/capita day. Additionally, the Mediterranean diet has better water-nutritional efficiency than the current one: it provides more energy, fiber, and nutrients per liter of consumptive water. The study confirms the Mediterranean diet is a healthier and more sustainable diet with strong cultural heritage.

Nanoemulsions are of great interest in food industry finding various food applications. However, oil-in-water (o/w) nanoemulsions have been intensively investigated, but there are few studies on w/o nanoemulsions. In the present work the preparation of nanoemulsions with olive oil using non-ionic surfactants (Tween 20, 40, 60, 80, Span 20, 80) without the addition of a co-surfactant was studied and their emulsion properties and stability were examined. The stable nanoemulsions were presented in ternary phase diagrams (oil–water-surfactant) for each surfactant and the emulsifying ability of the efficient surfactants was determined. The nanoemulsions properties were evaluated in relationship to compositional components. From the results of this study it can be concluded that stable olive oil nanoemulsions without use of a co-surfactant were obtained and moreover the most efficient type of emulsifier and its ratio of addition in the system were determined.