Natural resources are consumed in food production, and food loss is consequently accompanied with a loss of resources as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study analyses food loss based on India-specific production data (for the year 2013) and reported food loss rates during production and post-harvest stages of major food crops and animal products in India. Further, the study evaluates the environmental impacts of food loss in terms of utilization of water, land resources and GHG emissions. The total food loss in harvest and post-harvest stages of the food supply chain for the selected food items amounted to 58.3 ± 2.22 million tonnes (Mt) in the year 2013 with the highest losses by mass in sugarcane and rice. The volume of water associated with the food losses was found to be 115 ± 4.15 billion m³, of which 105 ± 3.77 billion m³ was direct water use (blue + green) and 9.54 ± 0.38 billion m³ was indirect water use (grey). Wasted sugarcane and rice were found to be the largest contributors for water loss. Land footprint and carbon footprint associated with food loss were found to be 9.58 ± 0.4 million hectares (Mha) and 64.1 ± 3.8 Mt CO₂eq, respectively, with rice accounting for the largest impact in both. This highlights the immediate need for quantification and taking measures for minimization of losses across the food supply chains in India.

Der Trocknungsverlauf wasserreicher, zylinderfoermiger Lebensmittel bzw. Modellsubstanzen (Konvektionstrocknung) wurde untersucht. Bedingt durch das Schrumpfen der Proben veraendern sich waehrend des Trocknungsprozesses die Gutsoberflaeche und der-geometrieabhaengige -Stoffuebergangskoeffizient. Es wird gezeigt, dass durch Verknuepfen der beiden Geometriefunktionen die flaechenbezogene Trocknungsgeschwindigkeit aus der Massenabnahme und den geometrischen Anfangswerten fuer Oberflaeche und Volumen bestimmt werden kann. Eine einfache Ueberpruefung der Richtigkeit der gefundenen Beziehung ergibt sich aus der Beurteilung des 1. Trocknungsabschnittes (freies Wasser an der Gutsoberflaeche): Die gemessenen Verdunstungsverluste muessen konstante Werte fuer die flaechenbezogene Trocknungsgeschwindigkeit ergeben. Die Berechnungsmethode kann auf mehrere geometrische Formen des Trocknungsgutes uebertragen werden.

The objective of the study reported here was to investigate three factors that may affect the amounts of water consumed and urine excreted by a rat in the metabolism cage: water dilution, housing, and food. Young F344/N rats (eight per group) were used for all experiments. Food was withheld from rats before each 16-h urine collection, then rats were transferred into a metabolism cage. For trial A (water dilution), urine was collected from rats supplied with dyed water (0.05%,vol/vol). This was repeated three times over a 2-week period. Dye in water or urine was quantified, using a spectrophotometer. For trial B (housing), rats were individually housed in wire cages for 3 weeks before the first urine collection. Then they were group housed in the solid-bottom cage (four per cage). After 2 weeks of acclimation, urine collection was repeated. For trial C (food), one group of rats was provided with food, the other was not, during urine collection. About 8% of urine samples of small volume (less than or equal to 3 ml) from trial A were contaminated with drinking water up to 13% of volume. The average urine volume associated with individual housing was approximately twice as large as that associated with group housing. When food was provided during urine collection, rats consumed similar amounts of water but excreted significantly smaller amounts of urine than did rats without food. It was concluded that water dilution of a urine sample from a sipper bottle is relatively small; rats individually housed in wire caging before urine collection can consumed and excrete a larger quantity of water, compared with rats group housed in solid-bottom cages: and highly variable urine volumes are, in part, associated with lack of access to food during urine collection.

As the basis of quantitative research over water-energy-food nexus (WEFN), qualitative analysis is indispensable for depicting the systems and providing effective measures and policies. Preceding qualitative WEFN studies largely neglected the role of local stakeholder participation, which could only reflect fragments of the systems. Causal loop diagrams (CLDs) have been proven to be effective for supporting stakeholder participation in many other areas. Nevertheless, there was a lack of impartial methods that could make CLD analysis tractable without significantly impairing the WEFN systems integrity. To fill such gaps, a novel method based on merging and reduction rules was proposed to reasonably merge and downscale WEFN CLDs built by stakeholders. Based on this improved method, a CLD-based methodology was developed as a prototype for characterizing WEFN systems, prescribing the WEFN problem, exploring its causes and consequences, and identifying effective measures and policies for alleviating conflicts. To validate the applicability of the developed methodology, it was applied to a real case. The results indicated that total water consumption, water allocation among varied sectors, available surface water, and available groundwater, as well as indirect factors such as volume of diverted water and agricultural water consumption, were the keys to alleviate water scarcity problem under WEFN in the study area. Measures and polices focusing on the interactions between surface water and groundwater could be viable for alleviating the problem. Directions to enhance tradeoffs and synergies within WEFN systems were also obtained.

When fed once daily with wet squid, turbot (30-50 g) accustomed to dry pellets require many days to increase intake to meet their feed requirement (approximately equal to 10 mg dry matter g(-1) bw meal(-1)). Adaptation takes 1-2 days if several daily feedings are given. With dried squid, they ingest about 20% of the wet squid bulk because the stomach contents expand when moisturised. In contrast, turbot eat enough wet squid to fill most of the available stomach volume (approximately equal to 7.6 mL 100 g(-1) bw). When presented in gelatine capsules, food water content is masked and does not affect the volume ingested. Moistening the contents shortens the delay before gastric emptying starts to one-third (0.6 h) compared with dry food (1.9 h). Daily dry-matter intake increased when dry contents were moistened but only if two or more meals were offered per day. Turbot adapt their digestion to supply water for dry diets but this may add extra metabolic costs. When offered 20 mg dry matter g bw(-1) day(-1), divided into four equal meals, turbot grew faster and more efficiently with moist than with dry squid. Protein, energy and dry-matter digestibilities were also enhanced. The increased daily protein absorption did not increase ammonia release, indicating that the extra protein was used for somatic growth.

A bibliographic search yielded a set of empirical equations that constitute an easy method for the calculation of some thermophysical properties of both liquid water and ice I, properties that are involved in the modeling of thermal processes in the high-pressure domain, as required in the design of new high-pressure food processes. These properties, closely interrelated in their physical derivation and experimental measurement, are specific volume, specific isobaric heat capacity, thermal expansion coefficient, and isothermal compressibility coefficient. Where no single equation was found, an alternative method for calculation is proposed. Keeping in mind the intended applications and considering the availability of both experimental data and empirical equations, the limits for the set of equations where set in -40 to 120 degrees C and 0 to 500 MPa for liquid water and -30 to 0 degrees C and 0 to 210 MPa for ice I. The equations and methods selected for each property are described and their results analyzed. Their good agreement with many existing experimental data is discussed. In addition, the routines implemented for the calculation of these properties after the described equations are made available in the public domain.

A green vortex assisted based liquid-liquid microextraction (VA-LLME) method was developed for preconcentration of selenium. Ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) was used to form a hydrophobic complex with selenium in natural water, agricultural soil and food samples by GFAAS. Whereas Triton X-114, a nonionic surfactant and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ionic liquid were used for Se extraction as a dispersing medium. The conical flasks contents were shack on a vortex mixer to increase the extraction efficiency. Multivariate techniques were used to evaluate extraction parameters; pH, vortex time, APDC amount, volume of ionic liquid and Triton X-114 and centrifugation rate on the recovery of Se. The central composite design (CCD) was used for further optimization of the essential extraction parameters. The enhancement factor and limit of detection were obtained as 98.7 and 0.07 µg L⁻¹. The certified reference materials was used for accuracy of method and the related standard deviation was found to be 3.51%. The resulted data indicated that concentrations of Se in all types of water samples were below the permissible limit recommended by WHO.

The present study explores the biosorption potential of Pleurotus ostreatus immobilized magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for solid-phase extractions of Ni(II) and Pb(II) ions from the water and food samples. It was characterized using FTIR, FE-SEM/EDX before and after analyte ions biosorption. Important operational parameters including the effect of initial pH, the flow rate of the sample solution and volume, amount of biomass and support material, interfering ions, best eluent, column reusability were studied. The biosorption capacities of fungus immobilized iron oxide nanoparticles were found as 28.6 and 32.1 mg g⁻¹ for Ni(II) and Pb(II), respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were achieved as 0.019 and 0.062 ng mL⁻¹ for Ni(II), 0.041 and 0.14 ng mL⁻¹ for Pb(II), respectively. The proposed method was validated by applying to certified reference materials and successfully applied for the preconcentrations of Ni(II) and Pb(II) ions from water and food samples by ICP-OES.

A novel and green method was developed for enrichment of maneb (manganese ethylene-bisdithiocarbamate) with a supramolecular solvent liquid phase microextraction method. The microextraction method has been used for the first time in the literature for separation-preconcentration of maneb. 1-decanol and tetrahydrofuran were used in the supramolecular solvent formation. The Mn²⁺ content of maneb was extracted in the supramolecular solvent phase as 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol complex at pH 12.0. Manganese concentration was determined by UV–Vis spectrophotometer at 555 nm. Then, the maneb concentration equivalent to manganese concentration was calculated. The analytical parameters which effective in the method, including pH, volume of reagents, and sample volume were optimized. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification values for maneb were calculated as 2.22 μg L⁻¹ and 7.32 μg L⁻¹, respectively. The method was successfully applied in the analysis of the maneb content of water and food samples.

The young larvae of insects living on dry food produce large amounts of water by the metabolic combustion of dietary lipids. The metabolic production of water needed for larval growth, previously known as hypermetabolic responses to juvenile hormone (JH), is associated with a 10 to 20-fold increase in the rate of O2 consumption (10,000 microL O2/g/h in contrast to the usual rate of 500 microL O2/g/h). Growing and moulting larvae are naturally hypermetabolic due to the endogenous release of JH from the corpora allata. At the last, larval-pupal or larval-adult moult there is no JH and as a consequence the metabolic rate is much lower and the dietary lipid is not metabolized to produce water but stored in the fat body. At this developmental stage, however, a hypermetabolic response can be induced by the exogenous treatment of the last larval instars with a synthetic JH analogue. In D. vulpinus, the JH-treated hypermetabolic larvae survive for several weeks without moulting or pupating. In T. castaneum and G. mellonella, the JH-treated hypermetabolic larvae moult several times but do not pupate. All these larvae consume dry food and the hypermetabolic response to JH is considered to be a secondary feature of a hormone, which is produced by some subordinated endocrine organ. The organ is most probably the controversial prothoracic gland (PG), which is a typical larval endocrine gland that only functions when JH is present. According to our hypothesis, PG activated by JH releases an adipokinetic superhormone, which initiates the conversion of dietary lipid into metabolic water. This type of metabolic combustion of dietary lipid produces large quantities of endothermic energy, which is dissipated by the larvae in the form of heat. Thermovision imaging revealed that the body of hypermetabolic larvae of G. mellonella can be as hot as 43 deg C or more. In contrast, the temperature of "cold" normal last instar larvae did not differ significantly from that of their environment. It is highly likely that thermovision will facilitate the elucidation of the currently poorly understood hormonal mechanisms that initiate the production of metabolic water essential for the survival of insects that live in absolutely dry conditions.