Food Logistics

AUG 2013

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SUPPLY SCAN NE WS FR OM A CR OSS T HE F OO D SU PP LY CH AI N New Food Packaging Uses High Pressure Instead of Heat Researchers at the Mattson Food Science Lab in California are using a few new technologies to create packaged foods with a longer shelf life, but they're doing it without sacrificing the food's original texture or taste by using high pressure instead of heat during packaging. Technologists at Mattson say that by eliminating the heat from traditional pasteurization they are able to produce foods that retain flavor compounds that are normally lost in the process. Applications for this new packaging technology are plenty, but researchers tout the ability to 'tweak' the acidity of a jarred sauce using the new high pressure method to produce a sauce that doesn't require the intense heat to kill microbes to make the food safe to eat. Sustainable Intensification a Recipe for Future Food Production Growing more food on smaller 8 AUGUST 2013 land plots while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a concept called Sustainable Intensification, continues to gain attention as more research data comes out in favor of it. Using modeling tools that factor in future policies, actions, cost and outcomes, researchers at the Austria-based International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) found that improving crop yields using sustainable methods could help cut GHG emissions by as much as 12 percent per calorie produced. IIASA researcher Hugo Valin, who led the study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, concluded that "the most efficient way to ensure sustainable intensification on the crop side is to rely on practices and technologies that are not more fertilizer-demanding, such as new varieties, improved rotations, integrated crop-livestock practices and precision farming." Developing countries hold the most potential for sustainable intensification according to the IIASA • FOOD LOGISTICS study, because in many cases the farming in these countries is already inefficient, so investing in better farming practices could lead to big benefits in both food security and the reduction of GHG emissions. The IIASA findings seem to coincide with a special report from the United Nations that also concludes that small-scale sustainable agriculture and what they call 'agroecological' methods will be important in helping to alleviate poverty in many developing nations. UN Special Rapporteau Olivier De Schutter recently told the UN Human Rights Council that "to feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adapt the most efficient farming techniques available. Today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production where the hungry live." Results from UN-sponsored agroecological projects have shown an average crop yield increase of 80 percent in 57 developing countries, and an average increase of 116 per- cent for all of the African test projects. Recent projects in 20 African countries demonstrated a doubling of crop yields over a period of 3 to 10 years, leading De Schutter to conclude that "conventional farming relies on expensive inputs, fuels climate change and is not resilient to climatic shocks. It simply is not the best choice anymore today." US Allowing Imports of Fresh Citrus From Uruguay As of August 9, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is allowing importations of several fresh citrus fruit varieties from Uruguay, including sweet oranges, lemons, four species of mandarins, and two types of kumquats. Under the new rule, the fruit must comply with requirements for importation in commercial consignments, pest monitoring and pest control practices, grove sanitation and packinghouse procedures designed to exclude the quarantine pests, and treatment. The fruit shipments are also required to be www.foodlogistics.com

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