Tracing enteric viruses in the European berry fruit supply chain

In recent years, numerous foodborne outbreaks due to consumption of berry fruit contaminated by human enteric viruses have been reported. This European multinational study investigated possible contamination routes by monitoring the entire food chain for a panel of human and animal enteric viruses.     

Variables influencing food perception reviewed for consumer-oriented product development

Consumer wishes have to be translated into product characteristics to implement consumer-oriented product development. Before this step can be made, insight in food-related behavior and perception of consumers is necessary to make the right, useful, and successful translation. Food choice behavior and consumers' perception are studied in many disciplines. Models of food behavior and preferences therefore were studied from a multidisciplinary perspective. Nearly all models structure the determinants related to the person, the food, and the environment. Consequently, the overview of models was used as a basis to structure the variables influencing food perception into a model for consumer-oriented product development. To this new model, referred to as food perception model, other variables like time and place as part of consumption moment were added. These are important variables influencing consumers' perception, and therefore of increasing importance to consumer-oriented product development nowadays. In further research, the presented food perception model is used as a tool to implement successful consumer-oriented product development.     

Innovation in traditional food products in Europe: Do sector innovation activities match consumers’ acceptance?

Traditional food products are subject to an increased interest in Europe. Innovations, though controversial in the context of traditional food, are essential to maximally cope with this opportunity. So far, only few studies have concentrated on innovation in the traditional food sector. In this paper sector and consumer data are combined in order to validate to what extent innovations in the traditional food sector match with consumers’ acceptance. Sector innovations were explored through 270 interviews, covering 90 traditional food chains in three European countries (Belgium, Italy and Hungary). Consumers’ innovation acceptance was investigated using a quantitative survey approach with 2429 respondents in Belgium, Italy and Poland. In general, both the sector and the consumers were open towards innovations in traditional food products. In addition, the innovation activities of the sector were matching well with the innovations accepted by consumers. Throughout, preserving the traditional character of the food was stressed as a prerequisite for innovations in traditional food products.     

European citizen and consumer attitudes and preferences regarding beef and pork

This paper presents the combined mid-term findings of the consumer research components of two EU Sixth Framework Programme integrated projects concerning meat, ProSafeBeef and Q-PorkChains. The consumer pillar of ProSafeBeef carried out eight focus group discussions in May 2008, in France, Germany, Spain and the UK. Q-PorkChains conducted a large-scale, web-based, consumer survey in January 2008 in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Poland. The first project provides a set of qualitative data from a small cohort of focus groups and the second a set of quantitative data from a larger consumer sample. This paper draws together the main findings of both projects and provides a comprehensive overview of European citizens’ and consumers’ attitudes towards and preferences regarding beef and pork. In general, consumers consider meat to be a healthy and important component of the diet. Consumers support the development of technologies that can improve the health attributes of meat products and guarantee eating quality, but they have a negative view of what they see to be excessive manipulation and lack of naturalness in the production and processing of beef products. In the Q-PorkChains study consumer and citizen segments are identified and profiled. Consumer segments were built upon the frequency and variety of pork consumption. The citizen segments were built upon their attitudes towards pig production systems. Overall, the relationship between individuals’ views as citizens and their behaviour as consumers was found to be quite weak and did not appear to greatly or systematically influence meat-buying habits. Future studies in both projects will concentrate on consumers’ acceptance of innovative meat product concepts and products, with the aim of boosting consumer trust and invigorating the European beef and pork industries.     

Heads or Tails: Genotyping of Hepatitis C Virus Concerning the 2k/1b Circulating Recombinant Form

As different hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes respond differently to initiated therapy, correct HCV genotyping is essential. A potential risk for misclassification of the intergenotypic HCV circulating recombinant form (CRF) 2k/1b strains exists, depending on the genotyping method used. The aim was to investigate the differences in HCV genotyping methods with regard to CRF 2k/1b and to gain insight in the prevalence of the CRF 2k/1b. Genotyping results by Versant HCV Genotype Assay were compared with nonstructural protein 5B (NS5B) sequencing. In total, from November 2001 until March 2015, 3296 serum samples were analyzed by Versant HCV Genotype Assay. As misclassified CRF is harbored among HCV genotype 2, we further focused our search on 142 (4.3%) samples positive for HCV genotype 2. On 116 (81.7%) retrieved samples, the NS5B sequencing was performed. Twelve out of the 116 retrieved samples (10.3%) were classified as CRF 2k/1b by sequencing of the NS5B region. Ten of these 12 samples were originally misclassified as genotype 2a or 2c, while 2 of them were misclassified as genotype 2. Our results show that the current prevalence of CRF 2k/1b is underestimated. The importance of correct HCV genotyping is emphasized, considering the tailored choice of treatment regimen and overall prognosis.     

Enhanced hot-carrier cooling and ultrafast spectral diffusion in strongly coupled PbSe quantum-dot solids

PbSe quantum-dot solids are of great interest for low cost and efficient photodetectors and solar cells. We have prepared PbSe quantum-dot solids with high charge carrier mobilities using layer-by-layer dip-coating with 1,2-ethanediamine as substitute capping ligands. Here we present a time and energy resolved transient absorption spectroscopy study on the kinetics of photogenerated charge carriers, focusing on 0-5 ps after photoexcitation. We compare the observed carrier kinetics to those for quantum dots in dispersion and show that the intraband carrier cooling is significantly faster in quantum-dot solids. In addition we find that carriers diffuse from higher to lower energy sites in the quantum-dot solid within several picoseconds.     

Design and performance of biofilters for the removal of alkylbenzene vapors

Three identical biofilters, run under the same conditions but inoculated with different mixed cultures, were fed a mixture of toluene, ethylbenzene, and o-xylene (TEX) gases. Inert porous perlite was used as support material, in contrast to the more conventional biofiltration systems where natural supports are used. Biodegradation started in all three biofilters a few hours after inoculation, without previous adaptation of the inocula to the toxic mixture. Despite acidification of the systems to pH values below 4·5, the elimination capacities reached were fully satisfactory. The best performing biofilter, in which bacteria were dominant, showed an elimination capacity of 70 g TEX m⁻³ h⁻¹ with a near complete removal of the mixture up to an influent concentration of 1200 mg TEX m⁻³ at a gas residence time of 57 s. Most of the ingoing carbon was recovered as carbon dioxide in the outgoing gas. In the other biofilters fungi dominated and performance was slightly worse. With single substrates, the elimination capacity was higher for toluene and ethylbenzene than for the TEX mixture, whereas o-xylene removal was slowest in all cases. Also when feeding the mixture to the biofilters, o-xylene was removed most slowly.