Scarce use of physically based models for simulating foodstuff rehydration is related, inter alia, to difficulties in determining their hydraulic characteristic curve (water content vs. matric potential under equilibrium conditions). Its direct determination is not feasible for foodstuffs as it requires extended contact time with water to reach equilibrium that may cause microbial spoilage, swelling and physical destruction of the sample. To circumvent these difficulties, an alternative indirect method for determining the characteristic curve over the entire water-content range is proposed. It is based on the hypothesis that the end-parts of this curve, the air-entry value and saturated water content for the wet-end and water sorption isotherm for the dry-end, are relatively easily determined. The predicted characteristic curve was successfully verified for a model food material by comparing it with an independently measured values. Then, it was utilized for simulated rehydration by solving the Richards equation.

Rainfed farming needs to be supported by appropriate water harvesting technologies to mitigate the moisture stress during critical crop growth stages during the main season and to increase opportunities for irrigated horticultural production. With this aim, a wider scale of water harvesting technology dissemination program was carried out in some areas of Ethiopia since 2002/03. This research was conducted with the aim of evaluating the implementation of the program and its impacts thus far, and to identify the major technical and socio-economic constraints to the wider utilization of on-farm level household ponds. Detailed analysis of the case of model farmers show that acceptable economic returns are possible from pond technologies given that farmers are able to follow appropriate cropping patterns and irrigation techniques to improve water use efficiency. It is recommended that the technologies should be disseminated in the region in a more farmer participatory approach.

The water intake in 45 male (27.50 ± 0.48 kg of mena body weight) Santa Ines sheep fed with increasing levels (0, 25, 50, 75, 100% DM basis) of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica Mill) to replace corn was studied. A completely randomized block design with nine replications per treatment was used. Quadratic behavior was observed for the intake of dry matter, hitting the final weight, which decreased with increasing the cactus in the diet. There was an increase in the intake of natural material and a decrease in voluntary water intake; total water intake increased, and the ratio of intakes: water/dry matter, decreased in the treatment with larger cactus proportion. The pryckly pear constitues a water reservoir for Santa Inês sheep in Brazilian semiarid conditions. | En 45 ovinos machos Santa Inés (peso vivo medio de 27,50 ± 0, 48 kg) se evaluó el consumo de agua, al consumir raciones con niveles crecientes (0, 25, 50, 75, 100%) de nopal (Opuntia fícus indica Mill) en sustitución al maíz molido. El diseño fue en bloques al azar con nueve repeticiones. El consumo de materia seca respondió de modo cuadrático, perjudicando el peso final, que disminuyó, con el aumento del nopal en la dieta. Aumentó el consumo de materia natural disminuyendo el de agua, el consumo total de agua aumentó en el tratamiento con mayor cantidad de nopal. La relación de consumos: agua voluntaria/materia seca, disminuyó al aumentar el nopal. El nopal constituye una reserva de agua para ovinos Santa Inés en condiciones semiáridas de Brasil.

Makean veden kulutuksesta on tullut tärkeä kestävyyden ulottuvuus mitattaessa kulutuksen ja tuotannon kestävyyttä. Tämä kirjallisuuteen perustuva katsaus käsittelee elintarviketuotteiden makean veden kulutuksen ja sen vaikutusten mittaamista. Monitahoinen vesikriisi koettelee elintarvikesektoria: ilmastonmuutos vähentää alueellisesti veden saatavuutta, toisaalta kastelun lisääminen kasvattaa energiankulutusta ja sitä kautta ilmakehän hiilidioksidipäästöjä. Kriisin merkkejä ovat myös veden niukkuudesta aiheutuva ekosysteemien köyhtyminen sekä kilpailu vesivaroista maatalouden ja muiden toimijoiden sekä ruuantuotannon ja non-food-tuotannon välillä. Kansainvälinen vesitilastoinnin suositus IRWS (International Recommendations for Water Statistics) pyrkii harmonisoimaan vesitilastointia mm. kansantalouden tilinpidon kehittämiseksi. Vesitilastointi tarjoaa globaalisti suhteellisen kattavan tietolähteen vedenkulutuksen arvioimiseen. Kansalliset vesitilastot eivät kuitenkaan yleensä huomioi piiloveden tuontia maan ulkopuolelta eivätkä kasvien haihduttamaa vettä. Hoekstran ja Hungin vuonna 2002 esittelemä vesijalanjälkikonsepti pohjautuu virtuaali- eli piiloveden käsitteeseen, laajentaen ja syventäen sitä makean veden kulutuksen globaaliksi mittariksi. Kansainvälinen verkosto Water Footprint Network (WFN) tukee konseptia, joka erottelee sinisen eli ns. teknisen ihmisen käyttöönsä ottaman veden, vihreän eli kasvien käyttöönsä ottaman maaperän veden sekä harmaan veden, jolla tarkoitetaan sen laimennusveden määrää, jolla pilaantunut vesi saataisiin laimennettua referenssitasolle. Elintarvikkeiden vesijalanjäljestä merkittävin osa on yleensä peräisin elinkaaren alkuvaiheesta, kasvintuotannosta. Vesijalanjälkikonseptin on todettu soveltuvan hyvin yrityksen riskien tunnistamiseen ja strategiseen suunnitteluun. Konseptin vahvuutena on pidetty sinisen ja vihreän veden erottelua erityisesti maatalouteen perustuvilla tuotannonaloilla. World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) ja UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative ovat olleet aloitteellisia menetelmäkehityksessä vedenkulutuksen arvioimiseksi osana elinkaariarviointia. ISO on puolestaan aloittanut työn standardin tuottamiseksi vesijalanjäljen laskennasta. Elinkaariarvioinnissa vedenkulutus suhteutetaan useimmiten alueelliseen niukkuuteen. UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative esittää vaikutusarvioinnin viitekehyksessään mm. että veden kulumista resurssina voidaan käyttää indikaattorina (ns. keskipiste), kun taas vaikutukset ihmisen terveyteen ja ekosysteemiin ovat lopullisia tarkasteltavia haittoja (loppupisteitä). Näihin haittoihin päästään kiinni ns. vaikutusketjumalleilla, joilla hahmotetaan veden kulutuksen syy-seuraus-suhteet. Elinkaariarviointia pidetään tieteellisesti kehittyneenä menetelmänä, joka soveltuu hyvin vertaamaan makean veden käyttöä vaikutuksineen koko tuotteen elinkaaren ja toisaalta laajojen alueiden välillä. Hankaluutena pidetään sitä, että mitkään LCA-menetelmät eivät ole vielä laajasti hyväksyttyjä ja toisaalta arviointitulosten viestimistä pidetään vaativana teknisen monimutkaisuuden vuoksi. Vedenkulutusta on tarkasteltu myös osana talouden materiaalivirtoja ja panos-tuotos-malleja, kuten Mäenpää kehittämässään Suomen kansantalouden mallissa. Suomalaisen elintarviketuotannon näkökulmasta haasteita elintarvikkeen vesijalanjäljen arvioimiseksi riittää sekä datan hankinnan että menetelmäkehityksen puolella. Globaali vesikriisi kuitenkin haastaa yritykset luomaan omat vesistrategiansa sekä vastuullisen hankinnan periaatteensa, joissa veden kulutus ja sen vaikutukset ovat mukana. | Fresh water consumption has become an important dimension of sustainability assessing sustainability of consumption and production. This literature based review deals with measuring the consumption of fresh water and its impacts in production. Water crisis is a complex phenomenom, which strains the food sector: climate change decreases the availability of water regionally, on the other hand irrigation increases energy consumption and CO2 -emissions in the atmosphere. Also ecosystem degradation due to water scarcity and completion over water resources between agriculture and other sector and between food production and non-food production are signs of the crisis. International Recommendations for Water Statistics (IRWS) is aiming to harmonize water statistics for National Accounts among the other things. Water statistics provide globally relatively comprehensive data source for assessing water consumption. However the national water statistics do not normally take the import of virtual water or water evapotranspiration from crop production into account. Water footprint concept presented by Hoekstra and Hung in 2002 is based on virtual (embedded) water extended to a global index of fresh water consumption. International Water Footprint Network (WFN) supports the concept. In the concept the three different types of water use are distinguished: blue water is water technically put into operation by humans, green water is soil water used by plants and grey water is the theoretical amount of dilution water needed to dilute the low-quality water to the reference level. The significant proportion of water footprint of food stuffs is normally derived from the beginning of lice cycle, agriculture. The concept of water footprint is found to be suitable for identifying the risks and strategic planning in companies. The strength of the concept especially in agriculture is the separation of blue and green water. World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative have taken the initiative in methodology development to assess the water consumption as a part of life cycle assessment. ISO has launched a work to produce a standard of water footprint assessment. In life cycle assessment the consumption of water is normally put in proportion with regional scarcity. UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative propose in their framework of impact assessment of LCA that water consumption (water as a resource) could be used as an indicator (so called middle point), and impacts on human health and ecosystem are final areas of protection (endpoints).These areas of protection are approached by so called impact-pathways, which are used to conceive the cause and effect relations of water consumption. Life cycle assessment is kept as scientifically advanced method, which is suitable for comparing fresh water use and its impacts in a product level and between wide areas. A difficulty is that none of the LCA methods are widely accepted and on the other hand communicating the results is challenging due their technical complexity. Water consumption is studied also as a part of material flows of national economy and input-output-models as Mäenpää in Finnish national economy model. In the perspective of Finnish food production there are lots of challenges in assessing water footprint of food stuffs. Both data acquisition and methodology development are difficult tasks. However the global water crisis is challenging companies to develop their own water strategies and include the water consumption and its impacts into their principles of responsible purchasing. | v | ok

Proper management of water in the food industry will depend, to a large extent, on economic incentives regulated by legislation. The influence of water cost and wastewater discharge taxes is analyzed, as factors that encourage the implementation of water recycling systems and wastewater treatments within the food industry. Two Spanish taxation models are taken into account: at the national level, the Waste Control Tax; and at the local level, the autonomous Sanitary Tax. The cost reduction obtained in the Waste Control Tax by investing 68,305€ in minimizing water consumption from 193,200m³/year to 142,417m³/year is negligible since it is not a quantitatively elevated tax (from 2262€/year to 1407€/year). With regard to the Sanitary Tax, diversity affects the tax quantity and, consequently, the pressure exerted on the effluent quality in each case. In the Region of Murcia, the sanitary tax reduction was 8885€/year; and in La Rioja, the saving is greater (38,642€/year) given that this tax is considerably higher. Designing more stringent environmental regulation will markedly enhance the development of new technologies for improving wastewater treatment towards the goal of environmentally acceptable discharging and water reuse.

The state of water in foodstuffs is a guiding principle in food design, and the equilibrium concept of water activity (Aw) is ubiquitous. It is regarded as a primary variable or “hurdle” in preservation technology, and a key variable influencing chemical reaction during storage. However, the amount of water in any system differs as function of water activity depending whether it is determined by water sorption or desorption. Even though this hysteresis behaviour has already been described in the literature, no physical interpretation of its origin has yet been proposed with respect to detailed molecular organisation. This work shows, for two different food powders, gluten and a milk-based product that the hysteresis disappears when either go through their glass transition. A more complete DSC analysis for gluten during different sorption/desorption cycles demonstrates that the hysteresis is dependent on the ageing of the material, which evolves in the glassy state and is induced by structural relaxation.