Water is an essential component of food structures and biological materials. The importance of water as a parameter affecting virion stability and inactivation has been recognized across disciplinary areas. The large number of virus species, differences in spreading, likelihood of foodborne infections, unknown infective doses, and difficulties of infective virus quantification are often limiting experimental approaches to establish accurate data required for detailed understanding of virions’ stability and inactivation kinetics in various foods. Furthermore, non-foodborne viruses, as shown by the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic, may spread within the food chain. Traditional food engineering benefits from kinetic data on effects of relative humidity (RH) and temperature on virion inactivation. The stability of enteric viruses, human norovirus (HuNoV), and hepatitis A (HAV) virions in food materials and their resistance against inactivation in traditional food processing and preservation is well recognized. It appears that temperature-dependence of virus inactivation is less affected by virus strains than differences in temperature and RH sensitivity of individual virus species. Pathogenic viruses are stable at low temperatures typical of food storage conditions. A significant change in activation energy above typical protein denaturation temperatures suggests a rapid inactivation of virions. Furthermore, virus inactivation mechanisms seem to vary according to temperature. Although little is known on the effects of water on virions’ resistance during food processing and storage, dehydration, low RH conditions, and freezing stabilize virions. Enveloped virions tend to have a high stability at low RH, but low temperature and high RH may also stabilize such virions on metal and other surfaces for several days. Food engineering has contributed to significant developments in stabilization of nutrients, flavors, and sensitive components in food materials which provides a knowledge base for development of technologies to inactivate virions in foods and environment. Novel food processing, particularly high pressure processing (HPP) and cold plasma technologies, seem to provide efficient means for virion inactivation and food quality retention prior to packaging or food preservation by traditional technologies.

In China, waste sorting practice is not strictly followed, plastics, especially food packaging, are commonly mixed in food waste. Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of unsorted food waste was conducted in this study, using model unsorted food waste by mixture of pure food waste and plastic. Different operating parameters including reaction temperature, residence time, and feedstock concentration were investigated. Moreover, the effect of three representative food additives namely NaCl, NaHCO₃ and Na₂CO₃ were tested in this work. Finally, comparative analysis about SCWG of unsorted food waste, pure food waste, and plastic was studied. It was found that higher reaction temperature, longer residence time and lower feedstock concentration were advantageous for SCWG of unsorted food waste. Within the range of operating parameters in this study, when the feedstock concentration was 5 wt%, the highest H₂ yield (7.69 mol/kg), H₂ selectivity (82.11%), total gas yield (17.05 mol/kg), and efficiencies of SCWG (cold gas efficiency, gasification efficiency, carbon gasification efficiency, and hydrogen gasification efficiency) were obtained at 480 °C for 75 min. Also, the addition of food additives with Na⁺ promoted the SCWG of unsorted food waste. The Na₂CO₃ showed the best catalytic performance on enhancement of H₂ and syngas production. This research demonstrated the positive effect of waste sorting on the SCWG of food waste, and provided novel results and information that help to overcome the problems in the process of food waste treatment and accelerate the industrial application of SCWG technology in the future.

In winter 2004/2005, 1532 Water Pipits were recorded during 37 censuses carried out along an established route on a sewage farm flooded with wastewater (Wrocław, SW Poland). Single birds were seen in nearly 39% of all 299 encounters, while the largest concentrations, between 16–28 individuals, accounted for 9%. 78% of all birds were observed on meadows flooded with communal wastewater. The remaining ones stayed around irrigation ditches (n = 172, 11.5%), sedimentation basins (n = 88, 5.9%) and reedbeds (n = 72, 4.8%). The mean size of the Water Pipit concentration was largest on the meadows (mean ± SE = 6.54 ± 0.50 individuals) and smallest at the sedimentation basins (mean = 1.44 ± 0.14). In this winter season (December-first half of March), rainfall enlarged numbers of birds to forage on the meadows, and the thickness of the snow cover was positively correlated with bird abundance at the sedimentation basins. The dominant available prey items inhabiting the warm wastewater were Diptera larvae (96%), 88% of which belonged to the genus Eristalis. The mean (± SD) invertebrate biomass was highest in the basin sediments (1.03 ± 1.14 g/dm³ of deposits), and lowest on the flooded meadows (0.20 ± 0.37 g/dm³ of deposits). The results point to the significance of the artificial environmental conditions created by warm sewage water, which enable the birds to remain largely independent of the weather and thus to overwinter in a cold region of central Europe.

Climate change increases the need for effective and sustainable technologies in food and agriculture. Plasma-activated water (PAW) emerges as a green and sustainable technology in food processing and production. Synergy of a myriad of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RNOS) in PAW contributes to desirable properties of PAW. Compared to conventional methods, PAW is fast and effective for various products, not limited by the volume or shape of the treated samples. In this review, we will first introduce the fundamentals on plasma generation, physicochemical properties and characterization of PAW. Among various approaches for activation improvement, we highlight a recent progress in improving the cold plasma activation by microbubbles. Then we critically review the treatment conditions by PAW, and effectiveness of PAW for bio-film removal, food processing, plant growth in agriculture, and environment. As the research output on PAW is expanding exponentially, this review focuses on the work published within the last two years (2020–2021) to summarize the current understanding of the principles of the effects from PAW and to reflect potentials of PAW in applications for the food science and technology.

Limited food availability and altered thermal regimes (e.g. cold water releases from dams) are two common stressors threatening the persistence of fishes inhabiting anthropogenically disturbed freshwater systems. Yet, the combined effects of these stressors remain poorly characterised. To remedy this, we examined the isolated and combined effects of low temperature exposure and food restriction on specific growth rate (SGR, % body mass/day) and upper thermal tolerance (critical thermal maxima, CTMax) in larval white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus [Acipenseridae], 32 days post‐hatch, body mass: 0.25 ± 0.03 g, mean ± standard deviation). A 2 × 2 factorial design was implemented with fish exposed to one of two ecologically‐relevant acclimation temperatures (cold exposure: 11°C or a control temperature: 18°C) and one of two food restriction treatments designed to emulate observed declines in food availability (100% or 40% optimal feed rate) for 6 weeks (N: 3 replicate tanks/treatment, 50 fish/tank). Specific growth rate was affected by both low temperature exposure and food restriction in isolation; low temperature exposure reduced SGR by 56.5% and food restriction reduced SGR by 30.6%. Simultaneous exposure to low temperature and food restriction resulted in a greater but less than additive reduction in SGR (80.6%), indicating that the stressors interacted antagonistically. Critical thermal maxima were c. 2°C higher in 18°C‐acclimated fish (CTMax = 30.7 ± 0.4°C, mean ± standard error) compared to 11°C‐acclimated fish (CTMax = 28.6 ± 0.2°C, mean ± standard error); however, CTMax was independent of food restriction in both 11°C‐ and 18°C‐acclimated fish. These data highlight the unpredictability of stressor interactions and may guide holistic conservation strategies, which target co‐occurring stressors in freshwater habitats.

In this study, we found that treatment with cold plasma influenced the wetting properties of soy protein isolate and milk protein concentrate powders. Cold plasma treatment significantly decreased the apparent contact angle of the powders, indicating hydrophilization of the powders. Cold radiofrequency low-pressure plasma treatment had a larger effect on powder wettability than corona atmospheric plasma discharge. In addition, cold plasma treatment had a more noticeable effect on the wettability of the hydrophobic milk protein concentrate than on the inherently hydrophilic soy protein isolate. Both the soy protein isolate and milk protein concentrate demonstrated zero hydrophobic recovery over time. Scanning electron microscopy showed that cold air plasma treatment of food powders caused minor surface oxidation, though these changes were not observed using FTIR spectroscopy. We suggest that cold plasma treatment has important implications for the production of stabilizer-free food suspensions.