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Editorial and News

2023; Wiley; Volume: 37; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/fsat.3701_2.x

2689-1816

Veronica Giacintucci,

Nutritional Studies and Diet

It is with great excitement that I am introducing myself as the new Editor of this publication. I want to thank Melanie Brown for doing a fantastic job over the years as the former Editor and helping me settle into this new role. The main topic of this issue is Food Reformulation. It is a key aspect to ensure the production of foods with and enhanced nutritional profile and to maintain high-quality texture and sensory characteristics. Several reformulation approaches can be used, including revisiting and utilizing ancient crops, grains, beans, and their by-products. Such components have been proven to affect human health positively. By-products can be incorporated into foods using innovative technologies such as encapsulation. We could use bioactive compounds from waste recovery of olive oil to improve the nutritional profile of novel food formulations. Paying attention to sustainability means using our actions to reduce the effects of climate change. This applies not only to food reformulation but also when talking about sensory aspects where consumer scientists can potentially reduce the impact of testing on the planet. Salt, sugar, and fat remain key ingredients in complex food formulations. Companies are making many efforts to reduce and replace such elements in food matrices, trying not to compromise organoleptic characteristics therefore satisfy consumers’ expectations. One strategy to reduce saturated fats, for example, could be using oleogelation, which would allow the production of structured fats with a healthier fatty acids profile and smiliar physical properties to other sources such as butter or palm oil. [email protected] Letters to the editor about any of the articles published in Food Science and Technology are welcomed. HelloFresh has recently launched its climate labeling initiative in the United Kingdom. This follows a successful debut in Germany in November 2021. The new label was developed in response to HelloFresh's recent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which revealed that ingredients account for most emissions. The label, which includes recipes that emit up to 85% fewer CO2 emissions that the average HelloFresh recipe, is now available in eight other European countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand. This follows the results of a HelloFresh customer survey, which revealed that sustainability remains an important topic for customers in the UK and worldwide. According to an internal customer survey, two-thirds of HelloFresh customers across all markets wanted to learn more about ingredient emissions. The climate impact of recipes has been measured in collaboration with the independent research firm HowGood by analyzing key metrics such as the amount of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) generated by agricultural production and the food processing required to obtain the ingredients found in HelloFresh recipes. The climate label ranks five UK recipes, or slightly more than one-in-ten UK recipes, and directs customers to more sustainable food options. Within the United Kingdom, the labeled recipes emit slightly more than 70% less CO2e than the average HelloFresh recipe. HelloFresh published an in-depth life cycle assessment in April 2022, analyzing the environmental footprint across the entire value chain from field to fork. It was discovered that an average HelloFresh meal has 25% lower CO2e emissions than the same meal prepared with supermarket ingredients. Ingredients were also found to be by far the most significant contributors to emissions, emphasizing the importance of mapping recipe carbon emissions. When compared to supermarkets, the production of ingredients along the overall life cycle of a meal and every gram of food waste avoided means that CO2e emissions are reduced. This is due to decreased food waste, which produces methane when decomposing in landfills. The avoidance of food waste associated with meal kits is a significant differentiator compared to supermarkets, with a recently published research paper highlighting that cooking with HelloFresh significantly reduces household food waste by 38% compared to traditionally cooked dinners. ‘Our mission is to change the way people eat forever – empowering our customers to make choices that are right for them has always been at the core of that mission’, said Adam Park, CEO at HelloFresh UK. ‘Introducing the climate label is one of many steps we're taking as part of our commitment to provide full menu transparency and to enable our customers to take back control when it comes to their food decisions’. Changes in food behavior in times of crisis is a EIT Food funded project coordinated by Aarhus University (Denmark), the University of Helsinki and KU Leuven. The project is EIT Food funded. Aistila Oy, a research firm, conducted an online survey to collect consumer date. In August 2022, data was collected in ten European countries (Spain, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, France, Greece, Finland, and Romania). A total of 5000 adult consumers (18+) responsible or co-responsible for grocery shopping were surveyed, 500 per country. According to the survey, more than half (55%) of surveyed adults believe that the war in Ukraine, as well as the resulting economic and supply chain effects, have made food production more vulnerable, and 54% believe that the war is the primary cause of higher food prices in Europe. The project is a continuation of a 2020 study that discovered COVID-19 lockdown measures may have caused long-term changes in food consumption behavior. Consumers have been feeling the effects of rising prices since the last study, with most food categories experiencing price increases. They are responding to rising prices by cutting costs wherever possible, such as buying less, choosing cheaper brands, and shopping at more affordable stores. Almost four in ten consumers (37%) say they buy less red meat, while a third say they buy less fish and poultry (33% each). Shoppers are also cutting back on specific categories to save money, with one in ten (12%) discontinuing convenience foods and 10% purchasing alcoholic beverages. To save money on cereals and dairy products, one-third of consumers (35% and 33%, respectively) have switched to a cheaper brand. Aside from cost-cutting, consumers across Europe are making more deliberate purchasing decisions; 52% of them state that they are checking prices more than before the pandemic, compared to 31% in 2020. Four in ten (41%), up from 26% in 2020, report making fewer unplanned purchases. Four in ten also check use-by dates (40%) or closely compare products (39%). Source: shorturl.at/DHOQS According to the Official Journal of the EU ‘The partially defatted powder of Acheta domesticus (house cricket) is included in the Union list of novel foods established by implementing regulation (EU) 2017/2470’. On 23 March 2022, the European Food Safety Authority adopted a scientific opinion on the safety of partially defatted domestic cricket powder, concluding that ‘it is safe under the proposed conditions and levels of use’. The Official Journal of the EU reports that ‘this scientific opinion, therefore, presents sufficient grounds to establish that partially defatted house cricket powder, when used in multigrain bread and rolls, crackers and breadsticks, cereal bars, dry premixes for baked goods, in biscuits, in dry filled and unfilled pasta products, in sauces, in processed potato products, in legume and vegetable dishes, in pizza, in pasta products, whey powder, meat substitute products, soups, and soup concentrates or powders, cornmeal snack foods, beer-type beverages, chocolate products, tree nuts and in oilseeds, non-chip snacks and meat preparations, intended for the general population, fulfils the conditions for placing on the market’. EFSA also noted that ‘the consumption of partially defatted house cricket dust may cause allergic reactions in people allergic to crustaceans, molluscs, and house dust mites’. The Authority also noted that ‘if the substrate with which the insects are fed contains additional allergens, the latter may be present in the new food’. It is, therefore, appropriate that foods containing partially defatted house cricket powder are appropriately labelled. As a result of the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research (FASTER) Act, the FDA will add sesame to the list of allergens, therefore, joining: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans, effective January 1st, 2023. According to the FDA, foods containing sesame will be subject to specific food allergen regulatory requirements, which include labelling and manufacturing requirements. According to FoodAllergy.org, approximately 0.23% of children and adults in the United States are allergic to sesame. Consumers should be reminded, however, that foods that were already in interstate commerce prior to 2023, including those on retail shelves, do not need to be removed from the market or relabeled in order to declare sesame as an allergen. As a result, depending on shelf life, some food products may not have sesame allergen labelling on the effective date. If consumers are unsure whether a food product contains sesame, the FDA recommends they check with the manufacturer. The Plant-Based Treaty has been officially endorsed by Edinburgh City Council, making it the first Scottish city as well as the first capital in Europe to do so. Through a focus on destructive factors of the food system, namely animal agriculture, the Plant-Based Treaty builds upon the goals of the Paris Agreement. As a whole, the Treaty aims to reverse the damage caused by animal-based food industries actively. Land degradation, deforestation, water, and air pollution, biodiversity gas emissions are all examples of this. To that end, the Treaty encourages a shift toward more sustainable systems based on plant-based foods. By focusing on addressing the environmental negative impacts caused by today's food system, the Treaty encourages vegan industries over those that rely on animal exploitation, such as beef and dairy. Edinburgh, which has a population of over 500,000 people, is now the 20th city or town to sign on to the Treaty. It follows Los Angeles, Boynton Beach in Florida, Haywards Heath in the United Kingdom, Didim in Turkey, and other Indian cities. Edinburgh City Council's decision resulted from an assessment report that looked at the implications of endorsing the Plant-Based Treaty. The report was presented on January 17th to the Policy and Sustainability Committee. According to such report, endorsing the Treaty acknowledges that food systems are the main drivers of climate emergency and that a plant-based diet shift could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Newcastle cell-based tissue engineering company, 3DBT, developed the first steak filled using cultivated meat. The patented protected protocol has been developed by Prof. Che Connon, Professor of Tissue Engineering at Newcastle University and 3DBT's Chief Executive Officer alongside Dr Ricardo Gouveia 3DBT's Chief Science Officer. The steak fillet has been developed using 3DBT's patented, developed using 3DBT's patented, serum-free and animal-free cell booster (City-mixTM). This serum-free media would allow the production of a meat analogue with similar structure to meat without using a scaffold, neither plant-based alternatives. The lab-grown pork fillet has a size of 9cm wide x 1cm high and 4cm long and resembles the average size of a typical piece of pork fillet. Researchers have assured that the elasticity and the consistency of the raw fillet is extremely similar texture-wise to conventional meat as well as pan fried meat. Upon cooking, the fillet tends to naturally shrink just as expected from a common piece of meat. The company also hopes to collaborate with manufacturers and supermarkets to sell cultivated meat and with fashion companies to produce cultivated leather using the same tissue-templating process but with skin cells. This can significantly reduce livestock farming, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and energy consumption in meat production. The University of Leeds, with its team of researchers, analysed each of the steps involved in eating chocolate. They did this from the point of view of the chocolate's texture to understand what it is that makes it so irresistible to us. This interdisciplinary research team hopes it will lead to a new generation of luxury chocolate that will have the same feel and texture while being healthier to consume. The sensations associated with chocolate come from how it is lubricated, either by its ingredients or saliva. Fat plays an essential function almost immediately when a piece of chocolate is placed in the mouth and in contact with the tongue. Since solid cocoa particles are only released after this stage and become relevant for the tactile feel, the fat that is present in the deep layers within the chocolate piece plays a rather limited role. This could lead to reducing fat without compromising chocolate's feel sensation. The study of lubrication gives mechanistic insight into how food feels in the mouth. According to Professor Sarkar from the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds, this knowledge can be used to design foods with better taste, texture, and additional health benefits. Professor Sarkar keeps explaining that if chocolate has 5% fat or 50% fat, it will still form droplets in the mouth, giving you the chocolate sensation. In each stage of lubrication, however, the location of fat in the chocolate matters, and that has rarely been studied. The fat portion needs to be on the outer layer of the chocolate. In addition, the cocoa particles are effectively coated with fat, making chocolate so delicious. The study was published in January in the scientific journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces but did not address how chocolate tastes. The specific research focused on its feel and texture. The researchers used analytical techniques such as tribology to conduct the study, which included in situ imaging. Tribology studies how surfaces and fluids interact, their friction levels, and the impact of lubricants, such as saliva or liquids from chocolate. Those mechanisms happen in our mouths when we eat a piece of chocolate. Dr. Soltanahmadi, from the School of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds and the lead researcher in the study, said: ‘With the understanding of the physical mechanisms that happen as people eat chocolate, we believe that a next generation of chocolate can be developed that offers the feel and sensation of high-fat chocolate yet is a healthier choice. Our research opens the possibility that manufacturers can design dark chocolate to reduce the overall fat content. ‘We believe dark chocolate can be produced in a gradient-layered architecture with fat covering the surface of chocolates and particles to offer the sought-after self-indulging experience without adding too much fat inside the body of the chocolate’. The team of researchers believes the physical techniques used in the study could be applied to the investigation of other complex food matrices such as ice cream, margarine or cheese. Food and drink manufacturers in the UK are being urged to get up to speed with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair's (Defra) EPR guidance to pursue sustainability targets. EPR is a policy approach stating that producers are responsible financially and physically for managing and disposing of their post-consumer products. Data collection from applicable businesses will begin in March 2023, so payments can start in 2024. Those with a turnover greater than £1m and packaging sales exceeding 25 tonnes are required to meet the requirement. Such changes and regulations will help introduce innovation in packaging strategies and design. In EPR, manufacturers are required to pay for or take responsibility for plastic's negative externalities by shifting the economic burden onto them. 20-22 March IFE MANUFACTURING Venue ExCel London Wednesday, March 22, 2023 FLAVOURTALK LONDON Venue Millennium Gloucester Hotel Conference Centre Web flavourhorizons. Com/flavourtalk-London-registration/ 24-26 April FOOD AND DRINK EXPO 2023 Venue NEC Birmingham Thursday, March 23, 2023 IFST WORKSHOP: MAKING SENSORY AND CONSUMER SCIENCE SYSTAINABLE Venue Reading University, RG6 6AH Thursday, March 30, 2023 FUTURE LEADERS NETWORKING RECEPTION Venue The Glasshouse at NYX Hotel, London, WC1B 4AR Thursday, April 27, 2023 IFST SPRING CONFERENCE 2023 (SC23) – TAMING THE PERFECT STORM – THE POWER OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Venue Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, CF5 2YB