A validated survey to measure household food waste.

To assess household food waste in large-scale studies with the aim to understand differences in food waste levels between households, surveys are often employed. Yet, survey measures rely on people's awareness of their own food waste levels, draw upon their memory of instances of food waste, and can be subject to social desirability. Therefore, existing survey measures may not be optimal in measuring household food waste. The Household Food Waste Questionnaire has been developed to ameliorate these issues. It uses a pre-announcement to increase awareness of food waste, focuses on a short and specific time period (i.e. the past week), and specifies detailed product categories, whereas previous surveys mostly used general questions without reference to time period or product category. The amount of household food waste estimated using the Household Food Waste Questionnaire is likely to considerably underestimate the actual amount, so the method should not be used to obtain accurate waste amounts, but rather to distinguish differences between households and/or across time. Advantages compared to existing survey methods are that it: •Distinguishes better between households with low versus high levels of food waste•Correlates more highly with other measurements of household food waste (diary, kitchen caddy, photograph coding).

Comparing wasted apples and oranges: An assessment of methods to measure household food waste.

Food waste has become a global concern in recent years, especially the household food waste that is generated in the developed world. Multiple methods to measure household food waste have been proposed, but little is known about their validity. Five methods are selected and investigated empirically: survey questions about general food waste over a non-specified period of time, diaries, photo coding, kitchen caddies, and pre-announced survey questions regarding a specific time period. In an experiment, respondents were asked to assess their food waste using some or all of these methods depending on condition. Overall, the general survey questions appear to be less valid, as these lead to large underestimation of the level of food waste, low variance in reported food waste across households compared to the other methods, and low correlations with other measures. The other four methods are relatively highly correlated. A survey about food waste in the past week appears to be a useful method for large-scale measurements to differentiate households according to the amount of food waste each produces, although it should be noted that this method underestimates the amount of food waste. Kitchen caddies and photo coding seem to be valid methods and, for small samples, provide alternatives to food diaries, which have been more commonly used.

Beneficial effect of personalized lifestyle advice compared to generic advice on wellbeing among Dutch seniors - An explorative study.

The aim of this explorative study is to evaluate whether personalized compared to generic lifestyle advice improves wellbeing in a senior population. We conducted a nine-week single-blind randomized controlled trial including 59 participants (age 67.7 ±â€¯4.8 years) from Wageningen and its surrounding areas in the Netherlands. Three times during the intervention period, participants received either personalized advice (PA), or generic advice (GA) to improve lifestyle behavior. Personalization was based on metabolic health measures and dietary intake resulting in an advice that highlighted food groups and physical activity types for which behavior change was most urgent. Before and after the intervention period self-perceived health was evaluated as parameter of wellbeing using a self-perceived health score (single-item) and two questionnaires (Vita-16 and Short Form-12). Additionally, anthropometry and physical functioning (short physical performance battery, SPPB) were assessed. Overall scores for self-perceived health did not change over time in any group. Resilience and motivation (Vita-16) slightly improved only in the PA group, whilst mental health (SF-12) and energy (Vita-16) showed slight improvement only in the GA group. SPPB scores improved over time in both the PA and GA group. PA participants also showed a reduction in body fat percentage and hip circumference, whereas these parameters increased in the GA group Our findings suggest that although no clear effects on wellbeing were found, still, at least on the short term, personalized advice may evoke health benefits in a population of seniors as compared to generic advice.

An In-Store Experiment on the Effect of Accessibility on Sales of Wholegrain and White Bread in Supermarkets.

Even though whole grain foods have various health benefits, consumers have been found not to eat enough of them. Nudging interventions are built on the premise that food purchases and consumption are strongly influenced by the environment in which decisions are made. Little research has been conducted to examine the influence of a small and inexpensive nudging intervention on bread choices in a real-life supermarket context. An in-store experiment was conducted in two six-week periods in two supermarkets to investigate the effects of accessibility on consumers' purchase of healthier whole grain and other types of bread. In the high accessibility condition, healthier bread was placed in a more convenient location for the shopper on the left side of the shelves where it was encountered first. In the low accessibility condition, it was placed on the right side. There were consistent significant differences in sales between supermarkets, types of bread, day of the week, but not between low and high accessibility. Additional research is needed to better understand the effects of convenience and accessibility on bread choices.

The influence of monoterpene synthase transformation on the odour of tobacco.

Monoterpenes are an important class of terpenoids that are commonly present in plant essential oils. These can be extracted from plants and are used in the flavouring and perfumery industry. Monoterpene synthases are the key enzymes in monoterpene biosynthesis, as they catalyse the cyclisation of the ubiquitous geranyl diphosphate (GDP) to the specific monoterpene skeletons. Tobacco is one of the most studied model plants, it can easily and efficiently be transformed, and is a suitable model to study the release of plant volatiles. Thus, we have isolated monoterpene synthases from lemon, transformed tobacco with these cDNAs and have used human panelists to study the change in fragrance of the transgenic in comparison to the wild type plants. In a triangle test, we found that subjects were capable of smelling significant differences between leaf samples. However, as a result of variability in panel ratings, no significant difference between two sets of transgenic flowers and the wild type tobacco flowers was found for the generated attributes in a descriptive test.

Consumer preferences for fresh tomato at the European scale: a common segmentation on taste and firmness.

Although tomato flavor has not been a major goal for breeders, nowadays it becomes important as it is a subject of consumer complaint. A better knowledge of tomato consumer preferences, at the European level, should provide the basis for improvement of fruit quality and for market segmentation. In the framework of a large European project, 806 consumers from 3 countries, The Netherlands, France, and Italy, were presented with a set of 16 varieties representing the diversity of fresh tomato offer in order to evaluate their preferences. In parallel, sensory profiles were constructed by expert panels in each country. Preference maps were then constructed in each country revealing the structure of consumer preferences and allowing identification of the most important characteristics. Then a global analysis revealed that preferences were quite homogeneous across countries. This study identified the overall flavor and firmness as the most important traits for improving tomato fruit quality. It showed that consumer preferences from different European countries, with different cultures and food practices, are segmented following similar patterns when projected onto a common referential plan. Moreover, the results clearly showed that diversification of taste and texture is required to satisfy all consumers' expectations as some consumers preferred firm tomatoes, while others preferred melting ones and were more or less demanding in terms of sweetness and flavor intensity. Detailed comparisons also showed the importance of the fruit appearance in consumer preference.