Food Safety Related to Biotechnology: Role of IFBC

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine whether the lifestyles of young consumers in Poland (Generation Z) are associated with their preferences regarding the attributes of foods with edible insects, and whether they can influence their willingness to consume new, innovative foods with edible insects. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical study was conducted by indirect interview method, via an online platform, among 749 students in Poland in 2023. Findings: Generation Z's acceptance of foods containing edible insects as a solution or support to the problem of finding new food ingredients with high nutritional value was correlated with pleasure orientation (among men), lack of attachment to the culinary traditions of the region of origin (among men and women), high nutritional value of food and high health awareness (among women). Research limitations/implications: The research has certain limitations. Despite the large size of the study group, the results obtained are not representative and cannot be generalised to the population of young adults (Generation Z) in Poland. Practical implications: Acceptance of new foods containing edible insects (fresh, frozen, dried, powdered e.g. meal) by young consumers (Generation Z) should be based on reliable information about their nutritional value and the possibility of satisfying their needs according to their lifestyle and perceived values. Social implications: The study effectively captured a range of lifestyle determinants, such as health awareness and its correlation with nutritional claims, pleasure orientation and its correlation with attractive taste and affordability (for men) and attractive appearance (for women). Originality/value: The research enriches the existing literature on entomophagy by highlighting the potential acceptability of insect-based foods among young adults, thereby contributing to broader discussions on sustainable food systems and environmental protection. This novel approach not only addresses current environmental and nutritional issues, but also provides a basis for future research and policy development aimed at improving food security and sustainability. Keywords: edible insects, novel food, food attributes, consumer studies, behaviors. Category of the paper: Research paper.

Human Exposure Estimates for Phthalates

The safety and social acceptance of novel foods

Caper (Capparis spinosaL.), a drought tolerant plant belonging to genus Capparis of the family Capparidaceae is mainly distributed in arid and semi-arid regions of the tropical and subtropical world. The plant, as a potential source of valuable nutrients such as vitamins (especially vitamin C), digestible protein, reducing sugars and essential minerals is valued for human food. The fruit of this plant, being a rich source of high-value components, is usually pickled and added to salads, sauces and jams. The plant has been used traditionally to prevent and/or treat a number of health disorders such as diabetes, hepatitis, obesity and kidney problems. Besides uses as an ingredient for food and feed, the contents of bioactive phytochemicals such as terpenoids, alkaloids, glucosinolates, tocopherols, polyprenols, isothiocyanates, carotenoids and phenolics, have allowed to envisage potential applications of C spinosa as a health promoter plant. A broad range of pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, cardiovascular, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antipyretic, diuretic and hypoglycemic have been ascribed to different parts of C. spinosa. This comprehensive review describes the detailed profile of high-value nutrients and bioactives along with pharmacological and phyto-medicinal attributes of this multipurpose food plant with the aim to exploring its potential uses as ingredients for functional foods and nutraceutical/pharmaceutical industry

Overcoming barriers to sustainable, healthy diets

Making life look and taste better

Chapter 14 - Botanical Nutraceuticals (Food Supplements, Fortified and Functional Foods) in the European Union with Main Focus on Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation

Emphasis on public health and consumer protection, in combination with globalisation of the food market, has created a strong demand for exposure assessments of food chemicals. The food chemicals for which exposure assessments are required include food additives, pesticide residues, environmental contaminants, mycotoxins, novel food ingredients, packaging-material migrants, flavouring substances and nutrients. A wide range of methodologies exists for estimating exposure to food chemicals, and the method chosen for a particular exposure assessment is influenced by the nature of the chemical, the purpose of the assessment and the resources available. Sources of food consumption data currently used in exposure assessments range from food balance sheets to detailed food consumption surveys of individuals and duplicate-diet studies. The fitness-for-purpose of the data must be evaluated in the context of data quality and relevance to the assessment objective. Methods to combine the food consumption data with chemical concentration data may be deterministic or probabilistic. Deterministic methods estimate intakes of food chemicals that may occur in a population, but probabilistic methods provide the advantage of estimating the probability with which different levels of intake will occur. Probabilistic analysis permits the exposure assessor to model the variability (true heterogeneity) and uncertainty (lack of knowledge) that may exist in the exposure variables, including food consumption data, and thus to examine the full distribution of possible resulting exposures. Challenges for probabilistic modelling include the selection of appropriate modes of inputting food consumption data into the models.

Upcycled foods are a promising solution to reduce food waste because the upcycling process involves transforming food by-products and waste materials into new and edible food products. Consumers tend to be skeptical of novel foods and food processing technologies, making it crucial to research the factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of upcycled foods. Such research can inform the development of evidence-based communications and marketing strategies that promote the success of upcycled foods in retail settings. We conducted a scoping review of the literature investigating consumers’ acceptance of upcycled foods to map existing evidence and identify knowledge gaps. After systematically searching five databases, we included 37 studies met our inclusion criteria and were included in our analysis. We identified three categories of key factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of upcycled foods. These were sociodemographic characteristics, psychographic characteristics, and product characteristics. Our findings suggest that the most important factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of upcycled foods were gender, educational level, food (technology) neophobia, environmental awareness, food waste awareness, and the inclusion of logos, labels, and certifications. In addition, communicating information about how upcycled foods positively contribute to health, nutrition, sustainability, food waste reduction, and the economy can increase consumers’ acceptance. These results can inform and advance research, practice, and policy that promote upcycling foods.

PurposeContemporary business is rather global. Food imports and exports are expanding beyond borders to meet increasing domestic and international food and consumer demands. Genetically modified (GM) food emerged as a potential sustainable solution which aims at meeting consumer demands and to mitigate urgent global food security problem. Because of its nature of existence, GM food is a controversial topic in several countries and has varied acceptance rates by consumers. Both government and consumers are antagonistic towards GM foods in most European countries. In contrast, most Asian consumers are neutral and so do not oppose GM foods. The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to examine the factors determining the difference in acceptance of GM foods between cultures. Such information can facilitate policy implications for governments in global agri-food trade and for producers in segregating markets.Design/methodology/approachExtensive literature review is done to base the discussions of this viewpoint paper.FindingsThis paper presents five factors that describe the difference in acceptance of GM foods between Europeans and Asians: knowledge and trust over the institutions performing research, uncertainty avoidance and health, gender differences, risk perception and material benefits and food for survival.Originality/valueThere is no systematic study that compares factors determining acceptance of GM foods across cultures.

Food taxes increase prices of food or food ingredients in order to stimulate consumers to change their eating behaviour and finally to level up population health. Their aim is to tackle the high rates of obesity and other lifestyle diseases. As Bonnet argues, often food taxes are set up out of an economic perspective (1). To change consumer behaviour is one thing, to level up people’s health is a complex matter. Evidently, to evaluate the most accurate measures, governments require rigorous consideration (2). People have to go along a process, through different stages and challenges (3–6). In ‘Food taxes: a new holy grail?’, we start from the questions ‘Will it work?’ and ‘Do we want it?’ (7). But even prior to that, we also need to demarcate the borders of ‘unhealthy food’. Overall, as stated by Bonnet (8), sweet drinks, junk food, savoury and sweet biscuits are considered as ‘unhealthy products’, Lobstein and Davies propose ‘nutrient profiling’ (9); nevertheless today, there is no consensus on what is unhealthy food. As a consequence, European countries like France, Hungary and Denmark, implement food taxes to decrease the consumption of unhealthy food, but each of them taxes different ingredients. At least this is confusing. Do we have to increase our consumption of fat, or sugar, or salt? And how is this related to physical activity? Many questions remain. As Bonnet underpinned, food taxes tend to be effective, but do their positive effects counterweigh the negative ones (10,11)? Food taxes have the most unpredictable and negative consequences; they are regressive, their social and cultural value is not pondered, for they undermine freedom in lifestyle choice; not to speak of their unpredictable economical consequences (11–13). If food taxes are supposed to be effective when it comes down to health, we need to rely upon evidence-based arguments from a medical, political and economical point of view (5,12,14). To stipulate only one aspect; many studies are based upon outcome variables different from health, e.g. consciousness, behaviour (2); an effect on behaviour may differ from a health effect (15–17). Next to that, also public acceptation of food taxes is crucial in this. In a democratic society, it is important to involve people in decisions (18), in order to convince people. Food taxes should be part of a global health strategy (19); if not, they are doomed to fail or people will only look after substitutes which may even be more unhealthy. Sometimes it is good to know what we do not know.

Precision fermentation (PF) is a term used to describe the use of a range of technologies including genomics, biotechnology, synthetic biology, including Artificial Intelligence-centred to use microorganisms (bacteria, yeast, fungi) to produce food and food ingredients. The term was originally conceived in the context of more sustainable approaches taking over from traditional agriculture. Part of the rebranding is to enable clearer communication to consumers to gain their acceptance of PF foods and food ingredients. Start-ups and larger companies are developing new niche and specialty products using PF and, internationally, there are examples of commercial PF products (e.g. synthetic dairy milk in Denmark). Although these market examples are currently limited, there is enormous potential for growth of PF food and food ingredients as technological advancements and efficiency gains reduce cost of production. The market will continue to prove itself through higher value, lower-volume approaches to market entry and capitalisation with a view to broad acceptance and adoption.

Current research on diets and health focuses on composite food patterns and their likely impact on health outcomes. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have likewise adopted a more food group–based approach. By contrast, most nutrient profiling (NP) models continue to assess nutrient density of individual foods, based on a small number of individual nutrients. Nutrients to encourage have included protein, fiber, and a wide range of vitamins and minerals. Nutrients to limit are typically saturated fats, total or added sugars, and sodium. Because current NP models may not fully capture the healthfulness of foods, there is a case for advancing a hybrid NP approach that takes both nutrients and desirable food groups and food ingredients into account. Creating a nutrient- and food-based NP model may provide a more integrated way of assessing a food’s nutrient density. Hybrid nutrient density scores will provide for a better alignment between NP models and the DGA, a chief instrument of food and nutrition policy in the United States. Such synergy may lead ultimately to improved dietary guidance, sound nutrition policy, and better public health.

This report presents the results from the second phase of a longitudinal study of Americans' knowledge and feelings about agricultural biotechnology and how those perceptions and attitudes have changed over time. Two independent national probability samples of 1,200 adults were interviewed by phone in the spring of 2001 and 2003. While this report focuses on the findings from 2003, longitudinal comparisons are presented where appropriate. The report begins with an investigation of Americans' awareness of the presence of genetically modified (GM) ingredients in the foods they encounter everyday. Next, the report describes Americans' actual and perceived knowledge of science, biotechnology and food production. It then examines American opinions about GM foods in general, along with their opinions on a variety of existing and potential GM food products with direct or indirect consumer benefits. The report discusses the relationship between opinions of GM food and a variety of factors, including demographics, knowledge of biotechnology, purchasing behaviors and styles of food selection. Finally, it describes Americans' thoughts on GM food labeling. Highlights of the findings are below. Americans pay little attention to agricultural biotechnology. - Only half of Americans are aware that foods containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients are currently sold in stores. - Despite the prevalence of such foods, only one-quarter of Americans believe they have eaten them. - Little more than a third of Americans have ever discussed biotechnology. - Awareness, although still low, has increased slightly from 2001. Americans do not have much knowledge about agricultural biotechnology. - Self-reported knowledge of biotechnology is low. - Quizzes on biotechnology and food production reveal that Americans are generally uninformed about both, and this has not changed since 2001. Opinion on the acceptability of GM foods is split. - When asked directly, about half of Americans report that they approve of plant-based GM foods, (down from 2001) and about a quarter approve of animal-based GM foods (unchanged from 2001). - Approximately 10% of Americans report being unsure of their opinion of GM foods. Opinions of GM food are easily influenced. - Approval increases when specific benefits of GM food are mentioned. - Reactions to the technology depends on what it is called. The term biotechnology evokes the most positive responses, while genetic modification is perceived most negatively and genetic engineering is most often associated with cloning. Demographics and styles of choosing food are related to acceptance of GM foods. - Women, people over 64, and people with low levels of education are less likely to approve of GM foods. - People who value naturalness and healthfulness in their foods are slightly less likely to approve of GM foods. - People who have purchased organic foods in the past are less likely to approve of GM foods.

Risk-benefit analyses are introduced as a new paradigm for old problems. However, in many cases it is not always necessary to perform a full comprehensive and expensive quantitative risk-benefit assessment to solve the problem, nor is it always possible, given the lack of required date. The choice to continue from a more qualitative to a full quantitative risk-benefit assessment can be made using a tiered approach. In this article, this tiered approach for risk-benefit assessment will be addressed using a decision tree. The tiered approach described uses the same four steps as the risk assessment paradigm: hazard and benefit identification, hazard and benefit characterization, exposure assessment, and risk-benefit characterization, albeit in a different order. For the purpose of this approach, the exposure assessment has been moved upward and the dose-response modeling (part of hazard and benefit characterization) is moved to a later stage. The decision tree includes several stop moments, depending on the situation where the gathered information is sufficient to answer the initial risk-benefit question. The approach has been tested for two food ingredients. The decision tree presented in this article is useful to assist on a case-by-case basis a risk-benefit assessor and policymaker in making informed choices when to stop or continue with a risk-benefit assessment.