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This paper presents a new agent-based modelling (ABM) framework to investigate the resilience of food systems against a variety of shocks. We modelled food security as an emergent property from a network of agents that produce, trade and consume food. The network consists of different regions (mimicking the different hemispheres, an equatorial region and a city state with corresponding growing seasons). Each region in turn consists of a rural and urban area. Rural consumers have access to only regionally produced goods, whereas urban consumers can access both intra- and inter-region trade. We studied food security in a hierarchy of 4 archetypical food systems (or ‘Worlds’) evolving from a simple food system in which regions are not urbanised and there is no trade between regions to a globalised World, with a fully connected food system, which is highly urbanised (including a city state with little national food production) and highly interconnected. We investigated the baseline performance of these food systems (no shocks) and the effect of an export ban of one region on food security. We showed first and second-order effects of such a shock in the short- and medium-term, and how these effects differ across food systems. We found that international trade increases food security in the baseline and shock scenario, but also that it can introduce the potential for poor populations to suffer from food system shocks of distant origins. Future work will extend the set of investigated shocks to provide a broader understanding of food systems resilience, possibly in more realistic scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tourism & Management Studies is the property of Escola Superior de Gestao, Hotelaria e Turismo, Universidade do Algarve and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, the food industry has faced a number of complex challenges related to both quality control and sustainability. Ensuring consumer safety and satisfaction remains a cornerstone of the food industry, supported by stringent standards that address the risks of contamination and spoilage. However, variability in raw materials, processing techniques and storage conditions are just some of the factors that affect quality in the food industry. To manage this high variability, it is essential to analyse the production process and factors that most influence food quality, aiming to predict and minimise food waste, thereby ensuring a sustainable process. This convergence of quality control and sustainability goals provides fertile ground for machine learning applications. By improving defect detection, process optimisation, resource allocation and predictive maintenance, these models help to improve product quality and reduce environmental impact. This article aims to explore the various applications of machine learning models in the food industry, where the variability of raw materials and the difficulty of controlling production and environmental factors challenge the use of traditional methods. The quality control and sustainability of an industrial corn cakes production process is used as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most important microorganisms for the food industry, including Japanese sake , beer, wine, bread, and other products. For sake making, Kyokai sake yeast strains are considered one of the best sake yeast strains because these strains possess fermentation properties that are suitable for the quality of sake required. In recent years, the momentum for the development of unique sake , which is distinct from conventional sake , has grown, and there is now a demand to develop unique sake yeasts that have different sake making properties than Kyokai sake yeast strains. In this minireview, we focus on "wild yeasts," which inhabit natural environments, and introduce basic research on the wild yeasts for sake making, such as their genetic and sake fermentation aspects. Finally, we also discuss the molecular breeding of wild yeast strains for sake fermentation and the possibility for sake making using wild yeasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the influence of marketing capabilities on Critical marketing responsiveness capabilities (CMRcap) and company performance in a turbulent environment in the fast food industry PT. Cipta various tastes in East Java. The sample in this study were all Cbezt restaurant managers in the East Java region, a total of 154 respondents using the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis technique. The conclusion of this study is first, marketing ability has a significant effect on Critical marketing responsiveness capabilities (CMRcap). Second, marketing capability has a significant effect on the Turbulence Environment. Third, company performance has no significant effect on company performance. Fourth, Critical Marketing Responsiveness Capabilities (CMRcap) has a significant effect on company performance. And fifth, the Turbulence Environment has a significant effect on Company Performance. The results of this study indicate that the importance of the role of marketing ability in industrial environmental turnover so that it can be considered how companies deal with changes and challenges that arise in the world of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online Food Delivery (OFD) is a service innovation that significantly impacts current technological developments in the food and beverage sector. This paper aims to review the academic literature on OFD services systematically. This study reviews all literature published from 2017 until 2022. Literature is classified based on the context, the theory, and the factors influencing the adoption of OFD. The results of this study indicate that twenty-one factors have a dominant influence on OFD adoption. These factors are classified into three categories, namely individual factors, technological factors, and external factors. This study highlights that individual factors are the most commonly used factors for OFD adoption. This study outlines directions for future research and allows a detailed view of consumer behavior in OFD businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

XYZ company implements Workflow Management System (WfMS) to make business processes more efficient. Unfortunately, current WfMS evaluation only inspects operational side, but neglects user satisfaction as critical success factor. This research refers to Poelmans's model to evaluate factors influencing employee satisfaction with WfMS by performing PLS-SEM. Results show that input quality has the most positive relationship with system quality, while perceived usefulness is determined by information and system quality. Perceived use, information quality, and system quality increase user satisfaction. Service quality and WfMS dependency had no significant effect. Since this research islimited to general business processes in manufacturing companies, future research should address deeper analysis by comparing user satisfaction among specific characteristics and different complexity level of business processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing creates three-dimensional objects by adding materials using digital format files to achieve the desired shape. Researchers worldwide, including those in Malaysia, have shown interest in AM for over a decade. Although 3D printing has gained widespread adoption, 3D food printing is still in its early stages. This study aims to explore the challenges of implementing 3D printing technology in Malaysian food manufacturing firms. The research utilized a semi-structured interview method, conducting in-depth interviews with seven respondents. Snowball sampling was employed to identify potential experts, building upon the recommendations of the initial respondent. The literature review identified nine challenges: time-consuming processes, lack of standardization, scarcity of expertise, extrusion molds and materials, limitations in scalability, cost, food safety, halal compliance, and intellectual property. During the interviews, many respondents revealed that they had not yet integrated 3D food printing into their operations. Furthermore, respondents introduced a new challenge, which was related to spare parts and maintenance. In conclusion, the investigation revealed that the implementation of 3D food printing in Malaysian manufacturing firms is still at an early stage, as evidenced by the challenges reported by the respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial Intelligent Robotic (AI Robotic) is the formal term for an 'intelligent induced' robot that can operate with vision (eye) to detect a product defect, or a control operating system to assist robot to differentiate good and reject product during production. A number of cutting-edge manufacturing automation technologies have been developed, including automatic inspection, autonomous robots, additive manufacturing, ubiquitous manufacturing, cloud manufacturing, and cyber-physical systems. Intelligent and automation technologies for worker assistance have been considered feasible. As knowledge-driven industries develop in terms of artificial intelligence and robotic automation, and to upgrade the existing and next generation of workforce, higher and further education is needed to advance a better understanding of robotic automation in manufacturers who face endless challenges such as labor shortages, high turnover labor force, product innovation, quality matters, and many others. This paper provides a general view of food supply chain challenges when faced with labor issue, environmental disaster and production problems. AI Robotic application would be a good source of problem solving in food manufacturing, food processing and food handling process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on three recent herb adoptions by the American Botanical Council (ABC), supporting their Adopt-an-Herb program and the HerbMedPro database, which provides vital scientific and clinical research data on various herbs.

Copyright of Contaduría y Administración is the property of Facultad de Contaduria y Administracion-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The intensification of efforts by state and nonstate actors to address issues affecting global health has produced a patchwork of transnational regulatory governance. Within this field, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are expected to perform authoritative roles in holding business actors to account and enhance the democratic legitimacy of institutions via their participation in governance processes. While there exists a large body of conceptual and empirical research on global business regulation and private authority, we surprisingly know little about the governance functions of NGOs engaged in influencing the practices of corporations that produce health-harming commodities. This knowledge gap is especially pronounced in the issue area of noncommunicable diseases. This article begins to address this gap by mapping the networks of NGOs that engage in regulatory activities (rule-setting, monitoring, and enforcement) related to the (ultra)processed food and alcohol industries. We identify the networks of NGOs involved in global policy making across health, regulatory standards, and multistakeholder initiatives using nonstate actor submissions to consultations held by World Health Organization, UN Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), and the UN Global Compact. This paper examines NGO governance functions and their patterns of engagement and participation across institutional spheres. Overall, the article makes a twofold contribution to existing debates. First, we identify the governance functions through which NGOs attempt to hold corporations to account, contrasting their "watchdog" function with other governance functions. Second, we examine the representation of NGOs, highlighting asymmetries in participation of NGOs in the Global North and South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia Agraria is the property of Historia Agraria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia Agraria is the property of Historia Agraria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose - The food sector has embraced new technologies in customer service, including self-ordering kiosks (SOKs). Such a service allows customers to select, customize, and pay for their meals through a device or kiosk. This study investigates customer satisfaction and intentions to reuse SOKs in the fast food context. Methodology/Design/Approach - This empirical study is based on quantitative research; an online survey with a self-administered questionnaire was designed to measure customer satisfaction and intention to reuse SOKs among adult Thai McDonald's customers in Bangkok. Findings - The results indicate that service quality dimensions, perceived value, and customer experience influence customer satisfaction, which in turn influences reuse intention. The results suggest that the fast food self-service ordering system is a unique service environment that requires its own focus in academic study and management. Practical implications - Management implications suggest that service standards for selfservice kiosks must be consistent with customer expectations during the customer-machine service encounter. Originality of the research - The study suggests that research needs to be responsive to the swift and ongoing changes in the technological environment, as these changes could affect customer experience; we also propose that more empirical research should be conducted in the Western context to examine differences in customer experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición is the property of Sociedad Latinoamericana de Nutricion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the application of process safety principles, particularly Inherently Safer Design (ISD), to enhance safety and operability in food processing facilities, highlighting the need for greater awareness and implementation of these concepts in the food industry. It discusses the potential hazards related to food ingredients, such as combustible dusts, hygroscopicity, personnel exposure hazards, and flammable liquids or gases.

The methodical toolbox of lending to entities in the agricultural sector provides three levels of hierarchy management interaction - macro, meso and micro levels (state - region - agricultural enterprises) on the bases of the complex usage of economic and mathematical models and which contains six interrelated and sequential blocks was proposed. The method of agricultural enterprises crediting improvement is implemented in accordance with the strategic position of lending to agricultural enterprises through targeted support and the creditworthiness level, which can solve the following problems: observation and evaluation of the financial and economic indicators; classification of enterprises, recognition, and identification of enterprises in terms of creditworthiness; assessment of the differences between classes given dimension enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of MESO is the property of Zadruzna Stampa D.D. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose -- Job crafting plays an essential role in job design since it is a new approach from the employee's perspective to the manager. However, little research has investigated the hotel industry's job crafting, particularly in the food and beverage department. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between job crafting and organizational commitment through the mediating role of person-job fit in the food and beverage department in five-star hotels. Design/methodology/approach -- This study presents a conceptual framework with eight constructs. In this study, a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from full-time food and beverage employees in a five-star hotel. The proposed model was examined using confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, standardized path coefficients, and the Sobel test for mediation analysis. Findings -- According to the findings of this study, job crafting factors impact the person-job fit of food and beverage employees. The results also demonstrate that job crafting, and organizational commitment are mediated by person-job fit. The originality of the research -- This paper adds a new chain to job design practices in the hospitality industry (i.e., job crafting leads to person-job fit, which enhances employees' organizational commitment). Practical implications -- Employee job crafting impacts the hotel by improving the fit of employees to their jobs, which leads to higher organizational commitment. As a result, hotel job designers should update their job design methodologies to include job crafting practices for hospitality employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Sociología is the property of Federacion Espanola de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cuadernos de Geografia: Revista Colombiana de Geografía is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this review article was to present the characteristics and properties of marine algae and their potential applications in agriculture, biofuel production, the food industry, and livestock nutrition. Algae are autotrophic aquatic organisms with a varied morphological structure. The earliest forms of algae evolved in the sea 3.5 billion years ago. These are unicellular organisms or multicellular and tissue organisms. Brown, red and green algae have many industrial applications. The algal cytoplasm contains primary and secondary metabolites, minerals, and vitamins which are essential for bodily functions. Algal polysaccharides, in particular alginic acid, fucoidan, agar, carrageenan, carotenoids, chlorophylls, hyaluronic acid, and porphyran, are widely used in medicine, pharmaceutical industry, cosmetology and in the food industry. Algae can play an important role in sustainable agriculture. They are used in the production of dietary supplements owing to their high nutritional value. Algal biomass is a renewable source of valuable bioactive ingredients for food production, and also for the chemical sector. The use of algae in livestock nutrition has improved animal performance and the quality of animal-derived raw materials intended for processing. Feed additives containing nutrients and filtered algal suspensions deliver health benefits, thus increasing animal productivity and, consequently, farming profits. Algal species and the optimal harvesting times when seaweed is most abundant in nutrients should be analyzed to minimize the potential adverse effects of algae-based diets of human and animal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food safety is an important concern for the society and refers to the assurance that the food we eat is safe, healthy and free from contamination. This objective involves monitoring and managing the production, processing and distribution of the food to prevent the risks to human health. Governments, international organisations and the food industry are constantly working to uphold food safety standards through practices such as inspections, hygiene standards, and accurate food labeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020 in Romania determined companies to adapt their communication. Through a quantitative content analysis, this work presents the topics that were covered in CSR communication by three food retail companies in Romania and the legitimation strategies that were used in the CSR discourse from their pandemic press releases. The research focuses on 21 press releases from Kaufland Romania, Lidl Romania and Carrefour Romania food retailers' websites, issued between March 2020 and May 2020. The results show that the most frequent communication topics of the three organizations was that of actions for health institutions and patients. Likewise, it also shows that rationalization legitimation was the most used strategy by Lidl and Kaufland, the companies presenting the means by which they carried out CSR actions and the effects of these actions. Moral legitimation was the most used strategy by Carrefour, the company assigning evaluative attributes to the pandemic period or to the affected people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Listy Cukrovarnicke a Reparske is the property of VUC Praha a.s. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Supplier evaluation has a crucial role in maintaining efficiency in the food industry supply chain. Machine learning approaches can be employed to formulate models aimed at analyzing and evaluating supplier performance. Previous research has successfully designed decision tree and neural network models for assessing suppliers in the food industry with accuracies of 84.2% and 92.8% separately. Recognizing the opportunity to improve the model's performance, this study aims to advancing the machine learning models accuracy for analyzing and evaluating suppliers in the food industry. Two main models are proposed to enhance model accuracy: ensemble methods and support vector machine. This research has successfully designed a supplier evaluation model and demonstrated that the ensemble method - gradient boosting model outperforms other ensemble methods and support vector machine which is achieved a accuracy of 93.6% on a cross-validation dataset. The development of a dashboard is required to implement the supplier evaluation model using machine learning, facilitating decision-makers in evaluating and controlling supplier performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on customer satisfaction in repeat purchases shows that the relationship between customer expectations and customer satisfaction can be inverse to what is commonly reported. This also has an impact on the financial performance of an enterprise, which is therefore directly influenced by customer expectations. The goal of this paper is to determine whether customer satisfaction affects customer expectations and whether these expectations have a direct impact on the financial performance of an enterprise. The variables representing factors of customer satisfaction, including customer expectations, are measured using a customer survey. Business financial performance (BFP) was measured using the ROA, ROE, and Asset Turnover indicators. The model was created using Structural Equation Modelling. The research confirmed a positive direct effect of customer expectations on BFP (specifically ROA). Customer satisfaction impacted financial performance indirectly via customer expectations in two years. This suggests that the influence of customer expectations on BFP is long-term in nature, although this effect is rather weak. As customers make repeat purchases, customer expectations change. These changes reflect relationships primarily with customer satisfaction and loyalty and BFP. Customer satisfaction is shown to influence customer expectations, which in turn influence BFP. Therefore, it is advisable to focus on (raising) customer expectations in repeat purchases if the businesses want to achieve higher financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of platforms and the associated idea of the shared economy have fostered a lot of research relating to the future of work. The question that arises is: does the advent of platform work enhance precarity of work as contracts become increasingly informal or does it build agency as the barriers to work participation decline? It is critical to understand the nuances of the ongoing processes and recognize the heterogeneity among platforms as precarity of work or agency may be a function of the nature of the platform and the type of work that it offers. This paper presents a tentative heuristic framework that can be used to understand precarity and agency in the context of the platform economy. This framework and some empirical evidence is used to compare two types of platforms in the food sector to understand the nuances of the processes at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water, energy and food (WEF) are experiencing significant stress due to an increase in their demand and scarcity, and this situation will worsen in the coming years. For this reason, this paper proposes a WEF nexus index, which consists of 6 indicators of availability and accessibility to measure water, energy and food security. The proposed methodology, based on indicators and a scoring system, allows decision-makers to evaluate the nexus security and implement actions to achieve the sustainability of the three resources by 2050. Models based on deep learning are developed for the projection of the production and consumption of resources for the case study of Mexico. The Long Short-Term Memory and Gated Recurrent Unit networks are considered. Projections for 2050 resulted in water consumption of 121,679 hm3, electricity generation of 772,486 GWh and electricity consumption of 932,764 GWh, while food production will reach 351,802,080 tons. This represents an increase of 51.7% in water consumption, 180.33% in electricity generation, 254.54% in electricity demand and 103.05% in food production, compared to 2010. The WEF nexus index has an upward trend because the accessibility of water and energy will increase by 2050, but their availability will decrease; the opposite is the case in the food sector, where availability will increase and access will decrease. [Display omitted] • Deep learning models were developed for water, energy and food resource forecasting. • An index was developed with 6 indicators of resource availability and accessibility. • A case study from Mexico was addressed. • The predicted data were used in the WEF nexus security assessment towards 2050. • Water and energy availability decrease, while accessibility increases by 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]