Longitudinal studies have shown significant dose–response associations between dietary share of ultraprocessed foods and the incidence of several noncommunicable diseases and all-cause mortality. Several attributes of ultraprocessed foods are potential mechanisms for their link with health outcomes, including their typically unbalanced nutrient profile, high glycemic loads, high energy intake rate, and the presence of food additives, neoformed substances, and substances released by synthetic packaging materials. However, no studies have assessed the plausibility of reduced water intake as an additional association of diets rich in ultraprocessed foods.To assess the association between ultraprocessed food consumption and total water intake.This cross-sectional secondary analysis used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, cycles 2011 to 2016, in the United States.This study included 24,505 participants aged ≥1 year who completed the first 24-hour dietary recall interview.The main outcome evaluated was the mean of total water intake.Crude and adjusted linear regressions were applied to investigate the association between quintiles of the dietary share of ultraprocessed foods and the total water intake.A significant linear reduction in the daily mean total water intake was observed across ultraprocessed food quintiles, amounting to 706 mL between the lower and the upper quintiles. Important increases across quintiles were observed for the intake of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks, whereas important reductions occurred for unsweetened drinks, plain water, and water present in solid foods and dishes.Reduced total water intake and an imbalance between sources of water that favors energy-dense and nutrient-poor sources were associated with increased consumption of ultraprocessed food, suggesting that decreased total water consumption might be a negative outcome of diets rich in ultraprocessed foods. This relationship should be further investigated in longitudinal or clinical trials.

This paper presents knowledge gaps and critiques on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus that have emerged since the concept of the WEF nexus was proposed by the World Economic Forum and the Bonn 2011 Conference. Furthermore, this study analyses current innovations on the WEF nexus concept, applications, and impacts during the period of 2012–2020. This begins by reviewing ten WEF nexus frameworks developed by international organizations and researchers. On this basis, several gaps and omissions in nexus frameworks are obvious in almost all developed frameworks. Studies that start to address some of these gaps are analysed, but they are relatively few and do not address all gaps. Several proposed improvements to nexus frameworks are identified to narrow the gaps and put the concept into practical implementation in WEF resources management and governance. Four principles and the perspective of “from local to global” for future WEF nexus framework development and analysis are suggested to ensure that the security of water, energy, and food resources can be achieved sustainably in local communities. This will improve the impact of national and global ambitions on WEF security.

Shewanella putrefaciens is an important specific spoilage organism (SSO) in seafood under low-temperature storage and can form biofilms on seafood processing-related contact surfaces, which exacerbates seafood spoilage and causes food safety problems. The characterization of and dynamic change in biofilms formed by Shewanella putrefaciens on three seafood processing-related contact surfaces were investigated in this study. An effective strategy to eliminate mature biofilms by acidic electrolysis water (AEW) was provided. Shewanella putrefaciens can form biofilms on glass, stainless steel and polystyrene, which are closely connected with surface properties such as hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity and surface roughness. AEW can be an excellent choice to clean mature biofilms formed by S. putrefaciens. AEW at a concentration of 3 g/L can remove almost all biofilms on the three common food contact materials tested. There is a bactericidal effect on the biofilm, reducing the possibility of secondary contamination. This study will contribute to promoting the application of AEW for controlling biofilms during seafood processing.

Plasma-activated water (PAW) is a novel and promising alternative to traditional food sanitizers. Recently, the inactivation efficacy of PAW has been demonstrated on a wide range of food products against foodborne pathogens, spoilage microorganisms, and harmful chemicals. The effectiveness of PAW relies on various factors related to the plasma generation mechanisms, the target microorganisms, and the food matrix. The inactivation mechanisms of PAW are attributed to the damage of cell integrity and intracellular components by various reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Utilization of plasma-activated liquids and hurdle technologies can enhance the inactivation efficacy and diversify the application of this technology. Scaling-up of PAW is still at the very beginning stage and needs further studies before industrial application.

International audience | The implementation of sustainable water management practices, through the recycling and reuse of water, is essential in terms of minimizing production costs and the environmental impact of the food industry. This problem goes beyond the classical audit and housekeeping practices through developing a systemic water-using reduction strategy. The implementation of such an approach needs R&D development, especially for the food industry, where there is a lack of knowledge on: (a) process integration and (b) data on the pollutant indicators or (c) volumes of water used and discharged at specific steps of the food processing line. Since energy pinch analysis emerged, different variations of pinch methods have been developed. As a variation of pinch, Water pinch analysis is a global and systematic approach to minimize water consumption and discharges, especially for the most energy-intensive and water-consuming factories. Based on the nature of the food industry, the real systems are complex, multi-source multi-contaminant systems, the problem should be well formulated, including mathematical constraints (inequalities thresholds). Current work has reviewed comprehensive literature about different variations of pinch analysis. In continue, water pinch method deeply discussed and some relevant data concerning the water using process and pollutant indicators have been reviewed with emphasis on the food industry sector.

Periphyton is ubiquitous in Florida Everglades and has a profound effect on mercury (Hg) cycling. Enhanced methylmercury (MeHg) production in periphyton has been well documented, but the re-distribution of MeHg from periphyton remains unknown. In this study, periphyton, sediments, surface water, periphyton overlying water, and periphyton porewater were collected from Everglades for analyzing the distribution of MeHg and total Hg (THg). Results showed that there were no significant differences in THg and MeHg in different types of periphyton, but they all displayed higher MeHg levels than sediments. MeHg distribution coefficients (logkd) in periphyton were lower than in sediments, suggesting that periphyton MeHg could be more labile entering aquatic cycling and bioaccumulation. In water, the more the distance of water samples taken from periphyton, the lower the MeHg and dissolved organic carbon concentrations were detected. In extracellular polymeric substances of periphyton, MeHg in colloidal fractions was significantly higher than that in capsular fractions. It was estimated that approximately 10% (or 1.35 kg) of periphyton MeHg were passed on to mosquitofish entering the food web during wet season, contributing 73% of total Hg stocked in mosquitofish. These results revealed the importance of periphyton on water MeHg distribution and MeHg bioaccumulation in Everglades.

A ‘nexus’ approach, comprising interrelated systems components of energy, water, and food, has been suggested to accelerate progress towards achieving sustainable development goals on food waste and related issues, like climate change. The current body of literature usually focuses on food security, especially in relation to production and waste management in the supply chain. The food service sector (FSS), a major consumer-facing component of the food system, has often been overlooked or neglected. There exists, then, an opportunity to better understand the interlinkages between food waste, energy, water, and emissions – the FEWE Nexus – to assist this sector in developing more sustainable operations, such as kitchen equipment management and menu development. To fill this gap, we introduce a novel FEWE Nexus Framework, to understand the flow of nexus components associated with receiving, storing, preparing, cooking, cleaning, and serving menu items. A key aspect of the methodological approach for FEWE evaluation is life cycle assessment (LCA). This is embodied in a comprehensive nexus audit tool comprising several indicators to monitor and quantify energy and water consumption, emissions from cooking, food waste generated, and type and efficiency of equipment used. Further, a stakeholder engagement survey is integrated, allowing for stakeholder feedback on applications of the audit tool, and to assess the impacts and acceptance of potential interventions. Finally, we describe how an iterative nexus approach can enable decision makers in the FSS to robustly estimate nexus components and establish a baseline to track their progress towards minimizing wastages and maximize efficiency.

To investigate biomarkers representing the physiological and biochemical responses of the brackish-water clam Corbicula japonica, we conducted a full factorial-design experiment to test different water-temperature levels (20 °C and 25 °C), salinity levels (5 and 20 psu), and food-availability levels (0.5 and 2.0 mg suspended solids (SS)·ind⁻¹·d⁻¹). Increase in water temperature significantly decreased superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities and oxyradical-absorbance capacity (ORAC), leading to lipid peroxidation (i.e., oxidative damage). Salinity activated or inhibited these biochemical markers. Food availability supported a detoxification mechanism against oxidative stress. Principal-components and cluster analyses revealed that a total of eight experimental conditions fell into three groups related to water temperature and/or salinity. The shift from Group I (20 °C water temperature) to Group II (25 °C water temperature and 5-psu salinity) demonstrated that the condition index, SOD, CAT, and ORAC had significantly decreased. With the further shift to Group III (25 °C water temperature and 20-psu salinity), we found a prominent increase in ORAC, which led to oxidative damage but no mortality. We conclude that future habitat changes driven by global warming should be closely watched, particularly given that local anthropogenic disturbances further add to natural ones.

The Yangtze River Basin is a resource axis represented by hydropower resources, bulk agricultural products, and mining resources. However, with rapid socio-economy development, the balance between water, energy, and food elements in the region has become more fragile. As the core element of the water-energy-food nexus, it is necessary to study water resources security and give effective pre-warning of possible water safety problems from the perspective of water-energy-food symbiosis. In this paper, we introduce the “symbiosis theory” to build a regional water-energy-food nexus symbiosis framework. Then, we establish a Lotka–Volterra symbiotic evolution model to calculate the symbiotic security index. Finally, we judge the water security state and pre-warning level and analyze the causes of water security problems by the inverse decoupling of the indicator-index. The results show that the spatial differentiation of water security in the Yangtze River Basin is obvious from the perspective of water-energy-food symbiosis. The state of water security in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin is better than that in the lower reaches. Specifically, the water resources security levels in the upstream hydropower energy enrichment regions are generally low. By contrast, the water systems of some downstream socio-economically developed provinces have certain risks. Therefore, each province needs to find out the key factors that hinder the healthy development of the water resources system based on combining the evolution mechanism and symbiotic state of water-energy-food so that water security can be managed in a targeted manner.

This study aimed to estimate the water intake of Japanese people from food moisture. For this purpose, we described a water conversion factor for cooking (WCFC) that focuses on how cooking changes the water content of complete dishes and not food ingredients, and investigated methods for calculating the water content of cooked dishes. In this study, we utilized 129 dishes commonly consumed by Japanese people. We measured the water content of the dishes before and after cooking and calculated the percentage of residual water after cooking. The dishes were divided into staple foods or side dishes, and categorized based on residual percentage in water content and cooking method. The percentage of residual water after cooking change in water content in each category was expressed in terms of the WCFC, which is the water content of the cooked dish relative to the uncooked dish. In total, there were 43 categories with a WCFC range of 0.40 to 1.33. Our results revealed that the water content of food is not simply changed by heating‐based cooking methods, but by a complex combination of cooking operations. Furthermore, by fitting WCFC to a culinary structuralism theory, it can potentially be utilized for all cuisines and not just dishes in Japan. Additionally, we found that the water content of a day's worth of food calculated using WCFC and actual measurements barely differed, indicating that WCFC could potentially be used to estimate water intake from food moisture. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This research can be used in nutrition surveys to estimate water intake from food moisture.