The contemporary scientific and technical community claims that the new development paradigm will be based on the priority of the universal laws of nature, the principles of ecological economics and the widespread use of digital transformation. The analysis of the sustainable development strategy Latvia 2030 and the presented changes in the value of indicators showed that, it is quite difficult to put together a common unified picture of Latvia’s movement towards sustainable development. The main goal of the article is to present a new approach to the assessment of sustainable development and to monitoring system, using a system’s power changes analysis method. In the context of a Latvian sustainable development strategy, the authors presented the results of the formalisation of new approach to the sustainable development monitoring, using an invariant coordinate system in units of power (energy flow) in compare with calculated data in monetary terms. Calculations and the initial interpretation of the results of Latvia as well as of the five EU countries from the Baltic Sea region – Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania – were carried out for the period 1990–2019. The presented indicators of sustainable development show that achieving the strategic goals of Latvia 2030 would be very difficult without any serious internal and external incentives. The results can provide a basis for creation of the development strategy both the country as a whole and each region separately.

In the food industry, there is always a demand for food products which are colourful, have an attractive appearance, and also have nutritional and health-enhancing properties to attract the attention of consumers. Synthetic pigments are widely used in the global market, however, they can cause many side effects such as hyperallergenicity, carcinogenicity and other toxicological problems. Recent studies have revealed that microorganisms are an abundant source of natural colours that allow the industrial production of safe, environmentally friendly biodegradable pigments. The aim of the work was to isolate pigmented microorganisms from environmental samples, select fermentation conditions, isolate pigments from microorganisms and check their antimicrobial activity. Pigments have been isolated from various sources such as soil, food waste, flour, etc. Growth parameters of pigment-producing microorganisms such as growth temperature, pH, and tryptone and NaCl concentration in the medium were optimised to evaluate pigment production. After fermentation, five types of pigments were isolated by cell lysis with an ultrasonic bath and solvent extraction. The antimicrobial activity of the extracted pigments was investigated. During the study, the optimal conditions for the growth of microorganisms were determined: temperature of 30 °C, pH of 7, concentration of 3% tryptone and 6% NaCl in the culture medium. Glycerol was found as an additional carbon source, which had a positive effect on pigments production. The results of the antibacterial effect of the extracted pigments showed that P. aeruginosa was the most sensitive to the effect of the pigments. The pink-red pigment showed the highest antimicrobial activity against the tested pathogenic bacteria.