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The consumer exposure to pathogenic microorganisms due to consumption of cooked chilled foods is influenced by the industrial production process and consumer behaviour. A consumer survey was organised to assess the consumption frequency, storage time, reheating practices and perception of and respect for the product’s ‘use by’ date. Of the 874 respondents, over three quarters (77.5%, n=677) had consumed at least one REPFED over the last year. Consumption frequency was the highest between the ages of 18 and 30. Nine out of ten consumers were able to give an acceptable estimate of the shelf life of cooked chilled foods (e.g. less than four weeks). By contrast, only half of the consumers (53.3%) fully respected the ‘use by’ date as indicated on the packaging, the remaining consumers consider a margin of 3 days or more to be acceptable. In addition only half of the consumers fully complied with the reheating instructions on the label. To determine the distribution of the time a cooked chilled food spends in a consumer fridge, the consumers were asked how frequently they bought these products and how they stored them. This information was used to construct a Time to Consumption (TTC) distribution. This TTC demonstrated that approx. 20% of the products was consumed on the day of purchase; about half (52.9%) were consumed within two days of purchase, 75.5% within four days and over 90% during the first week. Furthermore, the data shows that frequent consumers are likely to store the products for shorter times. These short storage times are likely to reduce the exposure to psychrotrophic microorganisms present in cooked chilled foods.

Emerging food safety risks on fresh produce, due to climate change and globalization, represent a new challenge within risk communication. The goal of this study is to investigate how a risk message should be designed to increase message credibility. Defined as ‘the perception of the message being credible, clear, understandable and likely’, message credibility is an essential variable in risk communication as it is an important prerequisite to message acceptance (Mackenzie & Lutz, 1989; Renn et al., 1991). According to the Extended Parallel Processing Model (Witte 1992), a risk message should evoke a perceived threat and perceived efficacy in order to achieve message acceptance, leading to increased awareness about the risks. Research showed that vividly presented information can increase the perceived threat (e.g., Cauberghe et al., 2009). Furthermore, research indicated that the spatial distance of where the risk could occur, can influence people’s reactions to the message (Liberman & Trope, 2008). Moreover, when communicating risks related to food, both the benefits and the risks of eating fresh produce can be presented (2-sided), or only the risks (1-sided). Both strategies can impact message acceptance (Eisend, 2006). Using a 2 (Picture of grapes and bacteria vs. Picture of grapes) X 2 (Occurrence in Flanders vs. Occurrence worldwide) X 2 (1-sided vs. 2-sided) between subjects factorial design, this study investigated the impact of these manipulations on message credibility. A leaflet was designed for every condition and 390 respondents (Mage=38.54 years (SD=14.47), 46,1% male) were randomly shown one of the eight leaflets, followed by a paper-and-pencil survey. Every leaflet contained the same information about recommended measures that consumers may take and measures that the government is taking. A significant third-order interaction effect was found using the manipulations as independent variables on message credibility (F(1,372)=9.501,p=.002). Simple effects showed that when the risk could occur in Flanders and the risk is very vividly presented, the message credibility is significantly higher when the information is presented 1-sided (M=6.09, SD=.76) instead of 2-sided (M=5.45, SD=1.50). However, when the risk could occur worldwide and the risk is very vividly presented, then the message credibility is significantly higher when 2-sided information is given (M=5.92, SD=.76), than when 1-sided information is presented (M=5.50, SD=1.17). These results have important managerial implications for international risk communication, which will be discussed together with more results.

Introduction: Fresh produce is an important part of a healthy diet. However, due to recent disease outbreaks and rapid alerts attributed to fresh produce and derived food products, concerns emerged with regard to food safety. The EU Veg-i-Trade project conducts research on emerging food safety risks related to fresh vegetables and fruit due to climate change and global sourcing. Some of these risks cannot be prevented by the consumers (e.g., pesticide residues, mycotoxins,…) which stresses the importance of governmental trust. Purpose: Risk communication is necessary to prevent people starting a scare when a food-borne outbreak might occur. The Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) of Witte (1992) is the most appropriate threat/risk related model to explain consumers’ reactions to health risk messages. Threat appeals trigger a process by which individuals appraise two perceptions: the perceived threat (susceptibility and severity) and the perceived (self- or response) efficacy of the hazard which may result in either message acceptance or avoidance. Method: In November 2010 a survey was conducted among 456 participates in Belgium. This survey measured general risk perception, problem awareness, evoked emotions, behavioral intentions and socio-demos. Results: Beside descriptive results related to socio-demographic differences, a significant interaction effect between susceptibility and governmental trust on the evoked level of fear (F (1, 452) = 3.854, p=0.05) appeared. Only when the governmental trust is low, susceptibility increases the level of fear. When trust is high, there appeared no effect of susceptibility of the threat. Significance: This study stresses the importance of governmental trust. In addition, these results show that evoked fear has a significant positive effect on risk perception. This risk perception has subsequently an impact on the intention to rinse fresh produce better (r= .388, p

Climate change and globalization increase the possible occurrence of new food safety risks on fresh produce. Hence, food risk communication needs to be carried out worldwide. This research investigates how consumers in different European countries respond to communication about these new food safety risks. Cross cultural differences between Serbia, Spain, Norway and Belgium, with regard to affective reactions, risk perception, trust, and behavioral intentions are analyzed. Both the emotional and cognitive reactions differ significantly between the countries, as well as the interplay between them, and the behavioral intentions. Hence, the communication strategy needs to be adapted on a national level.

The pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves the production of diverse lipid mediators, namely eicosanoid, lysophospholipids, and platelet-activating factor, in which phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) is the key enzyme. Thus, it has been postulated that control of lipid mediators production by inhibition of PLA(2) would be useful for the treatment of IBD. This hypothesis has been tested in the present study by examining the therapeutic effect of a novel natural probitic Bacillus subtilis PB6 (ATCC- PTA 6737). B. subtilis PB6 is found to secrete surfactins (cyclin lipopeptides) which have anti-bacterial potential. These surfactins inhibit PLA(2), a rate-limiting enzyme involved in the arachidonic acid associated inflammatory pathway and could downregulate the inflammatory response by regulating the eicosanoid and cytokine pathways. With this concept, an experimental animal trial has been conducted in a rat model of 2, 4, 6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis. The oral administration of PB6 suppresses the colitis as measured by mortality rate, changes in the weight gain, colon morphology and the levels of plasma cytokines. The animals treated orally with PB6 at 1.5 x 10(8) CFU/kg thrice daily from day 4 to 10 significantly improve gross pathology of the colon and regain the colon weight to normal (p

Long-term human Space missions depend on regenerative life support systems (RLSS) to produce food, water and oxygen from waste and metabolic products. Microbial biotechnology is efficient for nitrogen conversion, with nitrate or nitrogen gas as desirable products. A prerequisite to bioreactor operation in Space is the feasibility to reactivate cells exposed to microgravity and radiation. In this study, microorganisms capable of essential nitrogen cycle conversions were sent on a 44-days FOTON-M4 flight to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and exposed to 10−3–10−4 g (gravitational constant) and 687 ± 170 µGy (Gray) d−1 (20 ± 4 °C), about the double of the radiation prevailing in the International Space Station (ISS). After return to Earth, axenic cultures, defined and reactor communities of ureolytic bacteria, ammonia oxidizing archaea and bacteria, nitrite oxidizing bacteria, denitrifiers and anammox bacteria could all be reactivated. Space exposure generally yielded similar or even higher nitrogen conversion rates as terrestrial preservation at a similar temperature, while terrestrial storage at 4 °C mostly resulted in the highest rates. Refrigerated Space exposure is proposed as a strategy to maximize the reactivation potential. For the first time, the combined potential of ureolysis, nitritation, nitratation, denitrification (nitrate reducing activity) and anammox is demonstrated as key enabler for resource recovery in human Space exploration., Scientific Reports, 8, ISSN:2045-2322