This reviewed summarized the research status of water content detection methods of plant-based food materials, analyzed the water content detection devices, advantages, disadvantages and applications, and discussed the application of water content detection in different types of plant-based food materials. The advantages of hot air drying, microwave method, Karl Fischer method, absolute dry nitrogen purge method, spectral technology and imaging technology were highlighted, and the future development direction of water content detection of plant-based food materials was prospected.

Predicting food web responses to climate change can be difficult because of the potentially complex interplay between co-occurring climate variables and multiple interacting species across trophic levels. The large majority of research in this field has focused on understanding the effects of single climate variables on species at one or two trophic levels, implicitly assuming that simultaneous shifts across multiple climate variables will have additive effects on food web dynamics. We constructed a tri-trophic food web model and varied temperature, CO2, and water availability both alone and in concert to test this assumption. We found that population biomass does indeed respond additively across trophic levels when temperature, CO2, and water availability all increase simultaneously to moderate levels; however, if water availability decreases, like in a drought scenario, all three trophic levels respond antagonistically. We also found that interaction effect magnitude is highly dependent on temperature and water availability. Decreases in water availability led to 54–74% declines in population biomass across trophic levels when temperatures were within normal organismal operating ranges, but dry conditions coupled with high temperatures led to the extinction of the highest trophic level. Our results suggest that studying simplified versions of climate change and food webs will not be sufficient to predict the responses of real ecological systems. Therefore climate change ecology experiments and models must incorporate more complexity into their structure.

Abstract Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) was asked to deliver an opinion on water lentil protein concentrate from a mixture of Lemna gibba and Lemna minor as a novel food (NF) pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. Water lentil protein concentrate is produced from two water lentil species (L. gibba and L. minor) by separation of the protein fraction of the plant material from fibres, followed by pasteurisation and spray drying. The NF consists mainly of protein, fibre, fat and ash. The applicant proposed to use the NF as a food ingredient in a variety of food categories and as a food supplement. The target population is the general population when used as a food ingredient and exclusively adults when used as a food supplement. The Panel considers that taking into account the composition of the NF and the proposed conditions of use, the consumption of the NF is not nutritionally disadvantageous. There are no concerns regarding genotoxicity of the NF. The Panel considers that the risk of the NF triggering allergic reactions is low. The Panel concludes that the NF, water lentil protein concentrate from a mixture of L. gibba and L. minor, is safe under the proposed conditions of use.