Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus and CO₂ emissions for a farm in northwest Iran were analyzed to provide data support for decision-makers formulating national strategies in response to climate change. In the analysis, input–output energy in the production of seven crop species (alfalfa, barley, silage corn, potato, rapeseed, sugar beet, and wheat) was determined using six indicators, water, and energy consumption, mass productivity, and economic productivity. WEF Nexus index (WEFNI), calculated based on these indicators, showed the highest (best) value for silage corn and the lowest for potato. Nitrogen fertilizer and diesel fuel with an average of 36.8% and 30.6% of total input energy were the greatest contributors to energy demand. Because of the direct relationship between energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, potato cropping, with the highest energy consumption, had the highest CO₂ emissions with a value of 5166 kg CO₂eq ha⁻¹. A comparison of energy inputs and CO₂ emissions revealed a direct relationship between input energy and global warming potential. A 1 MJ increase in input energy increased CO₂ emissions by 0.047, 0.049, 0.047, 0.054, 0.046, 0.046, and 0.047 kg ha⁻¹ for alfalfa, barley, silage corn, potato, rapeseed, sugar beet, and wheat, respectively. Optimization assessments to identify the optimal cultivation pattern, with emphasis on maximized WEFNI and minimized CO₂ emissions, showed that barley, rapeseed, silage corn, and wheat performed best under the conditions studied.

Food and beverages enrichment with water-insoluble health-promoting nutraceuticals is important, but technologically challenging. Sugar beet pectin (SBP) is a natural dietary fiber with high emulsifying capacity. However, its potential as a natural encapsulator of hydrophobic nutraceuticals for beverage enrichment, has hardly been explored. Curcumin is a potent antioxidant with numerous attributed health benefits, but very low aqueous-solubility. We herein explored SBP as a carrier for solubilization and protection of curcumin (CUR). Using spectrofluorimetry, the CUR-SBP binding constant determined was (6.74 ± 0.5) ∙ 10⁵M⁻¹. As CUR:SBP molar ratio increased from 14:1 to 140:1, CUR encapsulation capacity increased from 14.5 ± 0.8 to 127.4 ± 0.4 mg CUR/gSBP, and encapsulation efficiency moderately decreased from ~100% to 86 ± 7%. The encapsulation in SBP dramatically decreased CUR particle size, from >17 μm to <0.5 μm, in average, and conferred substantial protection to CUR during simulated shelf-life, decreasing the decay rate constant ~7 fold. Therefore, SBP is a potent natural encapsulator for hydrophobic nutraceuticals for food and even clear beverage enrichment.

Une etude de faisabilite du tamisage humide par courant d'eau pour la mesure de la granulometrie de fibres alimentaires precise les conditions de son application tant au niveau de l'echantillon que de l'appareillage. La quantite necessaire d'echantillon a tamiser, la pression et la duree de pulverisation d'eau optimales sont determinees pour la fibre de betterave et les sons de ble et d'orge. L'echantillon entier et des fractions tamisees sont egalement analyses a l'aide d'un granulometre par diffraction de la lumiere laser. Les resultats montrent une certaine relation entre le diametre de maille dt et le diametre volumique dv, obtenu par diffraction de la lumiere laser, converti en diametre surface-volume, ds,v. Des modes d'expression synthetiques des resultats sont recherches pour caracteriser la distribution granulometrique. Les fibres de betterave sont proches du modele log-normal, le son d'orge du modele normal et le son de ble du modele Rosin-Rammler. En l'absence de loi generale pour caracteriser la granulometrie des fibres alimentaires, la representation graphique des classes de taille sous forme d'histogramme en frequence massique cumulee permet de determiner des diametres equivalents a des fractiles de la population totale