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AbstractDrying serves as an effective method to truncate the post-harvest wastage of agricultural products. This research paper presents a new thin-layer drying model to predict drying kinetics in the falling rate region. The semi-empirical model is derived as a modification of Fick’s second law and includes one drying constant. By determining this drying constant at a specific temperature, the model allows for the prediction of drying kinetics at any temperature. A Python program was used to evaluate the drying constant through nonlinear regression. Additionally, the model was simplified to obtain the required drying time at any given temperature. The study examined the drying kinetics of several agricultural products, including potato slices, green peas, and banana slices, at temperatures of 60 °C, 70 °C, and 80 °C, respectively. Experimental data of these agricultural products at various drying temperatures were validated against several known thin-layer drying models and the proposed model. The evaluation of model performance was conducted using statistical measures, specifically R2 and MAE. The higher R2 values (0.991-0.999) and lower MAE values (0.008-0.032) suggest strong agreement between the proposed model and experimental data, demonstrating its efficacy compared to previously reported models. Additionally, the proposed model exhibited the capability to predict drying time with high accuracy (error ± 2.9%) for any given temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe increasing emphasis on the quality and safety of agricultural products, which are vital to global trade and consumer health, has driven the innovation of cost-effective, convenient, and rapid smart detection technologies. Smartphones, with their interdisciplinary functionalities, have become valuable tools in quantification and analysis research. Acting as portable, affordable, and user-friendly analytical devices, smartphones are equipped with high-resolution cameras, displays, memory, communication modules, sensors, and operating systems (Android or IOS), making them powerful, palm-sized remote computers. This review delves into how visual inspection technology and smartphones have enhanced the quality and safety of agricultural products over the past decade. It also evaluates the key features and limitations of existing smart rapid inspection methods for agricultural products and anticipates future advancements, offering insights into the application of smart rapid inspection technology in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp. and Fusarium spp. with small molecular weight and thermal stability, are highly toxic and carcinogenic secondary metabolites. Mycotoxins have caused widespread concern regarding food safety internationally because of their adverse effects on the health of humans and animals, and the major economic losses they cause. There is an urgent need to find ways to reduce or eliminate the impact of mycotoxins in food and feed without introducing new safety issues, or reducing nutritional quality. Non-thermal physical technology is the basis for new techniques to degrade mycotoxins, with great potential for practical detoxification applications in the food industry. Compared with conventional thermal treatments, non-thermal physical detoxification technologies are easier to apply and effective, with less adverse impact on the nutritional value of agricultural products. The advantages, limitations and development prospects of these new detoxification technologies are discussed. Further studies are recommended to standardize the treatment conditions for each detoxification technology, evaluate the safety of the degradation products, and to combine different detoxification technologies to achieve synergistic effects. This will facilitate realization of the great potential of the new technologies and the development of practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing research that considers the geographical indications (GIs) of agricultural products and foodstuffs as commons. However, narrative approaches exploring this relationship are scarce. This research analyzed stories attached to twelve Catalan and Swedish products within the European Union's Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) schemes to map out how narratives of commons are articulated. The analysis raised four key aspects of the narratives of GIs as commons: i) historical constitution; ii) collective efforts as a driving force behind their value; iii) co-responsibility of the community of producers and related actors; and iv) intangible outputs and focus on heritage. The results show that the narratives of GIs as commons have a stronger presence in Catalonia and more clearly address issues of social engagement and cultural heritage than in Sweden. Internal differences were noted in the two countries and some GIs are more commercially oriented and cater for world markets while others are noncommercial and only regionally consumed. The article contributes to the research on GIs, better connecting their complexities throughout their communicative and narrative constitution and articulation as commons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trade of agricultural products plays an essential role in agricultural development. Agricultural trade is more complicated and diversified than other industrial products, influenced by product characteristics for perishable. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of the most important markets for China's agricultural exports. This study aimed to analyze the impact of trade facilitation indicators on China's agricultural exports to ASEAN countries. A gravity model was adopted by taking the volume of Chinese agricultural exports to ASEAN countries from 2006–2020 as the dependent variable. Indicators such as economic freedom (EF), trade across borders (TAB), and infrastructure quality (Infra) were introduced that were representing trade facilitation as the core independent variable. Also, an empirical analysis was carried out using a mixed regression model. The results show that the three proxy indicators of trade facilitation had a significantly positive impact on the scale of China's agricultural exports to the ASEAN market. The results could play a guiding role in strengthening the cooperation between China and the ASEAN regarding trade facilitation and expansion of the scale of agricultural trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has been neglected in much of the existing studies of the influence of seasonal and regional characteristics of agriculture on the market power and national security. This paper constructs a multivariate equations model to investigate the monopoly power of seasonal suppliers and national security in China's soybean market. The results show no relationship between market share and monopoly power; and that CR3 and HHI show China's soybean import market has been the highest oligopoly type, but the model suggest that exporters (the U.S., Brazil and Argentina) have very weak monopoly power and China has no monopsony power; and that the performance of some exporters' soybeans is affected by others, while others are relatively independent in market. This is due to the non-substitutability of the product, the non-substitutability of the buyer and the seller, etc., which causes the mutual dependence of the seller and buyer, and their market power cancel each other out. The seasonality and regionality of soybean production is the root. Considering national security, it is necessary to take the seasonal and regional characteristics of exporters into account to disperse trade risks and oppose monopolisation of international food production and trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio frequency (RF) drying is an emerging technology for food and agricultural products, holding features of rapid, uniform, stable, and volumetric heating, high energy efficiency, and moisture leveling. However, the RF drying with a single stage commonly has drawbacks of unexpected product quality, non-uniform moisture distribution, and prolonged drying time. The multi-stage drying approach could overcome the shortcomings of one-stage strategy accordingly by applying different drying methods or operating parameter values in each phase separately. This review describes the principle of RF heating, presents the typical systems and superiorities of RF drying, and provides a comprehensive overview on recent development in applications of both the one-stage and the multi-stage RF drying, and analysis of drying characteristics and merits for different types of the two-stage strategy. This review finally proposes recommendations for future studies in improving and optimizing the existing RF drying protocols and scaling up them to industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effect of standardization on the international competitiveness of China's agricultural products using panel data of 89 countries from 1995 to 2018. We find that standardization has a significantly positive effect on the international competitiveness of China's agricultural products. The effect of standardization is more significant in the market where the competitiveness of China's agricultural products is low. Technological innovation and agricultural product quality are two important channels through which standardization affects the international competitiveness of agricultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modified QuEChERS pretreatment method and LC-MS/MS technique were performed to simultaneously determine four pesticide (Hexachlorophene, Dinex, Dinosam, Dinoterb) residues in agricultural products. Through the optimization of LC-MS/MS detection parameters in SIM mode, the optimal instrument conditions are obtained. The modified QuEChERS method was used to pretreat the samples. Solid phase extractants PSA, C18 and GCB were used for sample purification. The research results showed that the correlation coefficients of the four pesticides were all greater than 0.991, which had a good linear relationship. The limits of quantitation (LOQ) of the four pesticides were 0.05–0.56 μg/kg. The recoveries were 70.51–113.20% with relative standard deviations (RSDS) of 1.6–11.2%. The developed method can provide reliable data support for the subsequent simultaneous detection of these four pesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thailand is the world's leading agricultural products exporter. The transportation of agricultural products in Thailand relies mainly on roads because of its extensive network and convenience. However, with the limited capacity, traffic congestion, air pollution, and high fuel prices, this transportation mode becomes less effective. The government, then, attempts to develop and promote multimodal transportation, especially rail and water modes, to reduce the logistics costs and increase the transportation network efficiency. This study extracts five key factors influencing multimodal transportation efficiency of agricultural products in Thailand, namely Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure, Operation, Multimodal Service Provider, Market, and Road Constraints factors, as well as examines their interrelationships using the structural equation modeling method. The results show significant direct and indirect relationships among the five key multimodal transportation efficiency factors. It is found that with better multimodal transportation-related operations, multimodal transportation market is improved through less use of road transportation and more multimodal service providers in the market. Moreover, policymakers should focus on improving multimodal transportation-related infrastructures, such as container yards, access roads to train station and port, and transshipment equipment, in order to increase multimodal transportation efficiency and encourage the use of multimodal transportation. Engineering managers can use the study results in decision-making of transportation mode selection. Policymakers in government sector may apply the study results to establish effective policies to achieve a sustainable transportation system, which, in turn, gives rises to national industrial competitiveness on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the post-harvest losses of agricultural products is a current problem which deserves special attention, worldwide. In this work, agro-meteorological parameters collected at different weather stations of Benin Republic were analysed in order to highlight their seasonality, and to identify favourable air-drying periods for agricultural products. Periods from March to May and October to December have the peaks of global radiation and insolation; high temperatures values are concentrated between February and May, and rains sequences are observed from March to November. Cross-analysis of different parameters led to statistically identifying favourable drying periods for agricultural products in each region of the country. The period from November to February was shown to be favourable. It includes most post-harvest periods for most of the cultivated agricultural products and also has the best environmental and practical conditions for natural air-drying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural products are consumed as major staple foods; these are the main factors responsible for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure to humans. We analyzed the concentrations of eight PAHs (PAH8) in commonly consumed 359 agricultural samples that are commonly consumed in Republic of Korea. These food samples were divided into four groups (fatty-solid, fatty-liquid, nonfatty-solid, and nonfatty-liquid) and eight different food categories (cereals, potatoes, pulse crops, seeds and nuts, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, and regional tap water). The chronic daily intake and margin of exposure (MOE) were estimated based on daily consumption data and benzo[a]pyrene equivalents. In our total diet studies, the major contributor to the total PAH8 concentration (ΣPAH8) in agricultural samples was dried jujube (2.32 μg/kg), followed by griddled milk bread (1.25 μg/kg) and stir-fried black sesame (1.17 μg/kg). The integrated toxic equivalent concentrations based on BaP (ΣTEQbap; integrated toxic benzo[a]pyrene equivalent quantity) considering the relative toxicity, ranged from 0.12 and 1.6 μg/kg. The PAH8 risk assessment in agricultural products was expressed as the MOE value. The worst scenario (when Not Detected = Limit of Detection) showed the interpretation of the MOE result as a 'possible concern' to consume bread products (bread, rye bread, milk bread, and cornbread). The preceding experiments were carried out mainly on commercially processed foods and their raw foods. Unlike such routine testing, our total diet study-based monitoring is designed to monitor PAH8 levels in which agricultural products are analyzed after being processed as usual consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development of many countries depends mainly on agriculture. The role of agriculture has created a vast impact on various fields' namely industrial activities, employability and capital formation. Further, to improve the economic growth of a country, technology-based agriculture processes can be deployed in pre-production and post-production stage. This study mainly focuses on the various post-production activities such as grading, sorting, quality evaluation, monitoring, defects detection, recognition and maturity detection. Traditionally, various agricultural post-production stages such as grading, sorting and quality assessment is mostly done as manual process. Such inspections are prone to errors due to their ineffectiveness and unreliability. Thus, advancements in technology can be deployed for enhancing manual agricultural tasks. This study deals with image processing techniques in agricultural post-production stages. With the support of computer vision-based systems (CVS), efficiency in post-production various activities can be improved. Various feature properties like size, colour, shape of the agricultural products like vegetables and fruits can be used in CVS for grading and sorting. The steps involved in Computer Vision-based Grading System (CVGS) are image acquisition, preprocessing, image segmentation, features extraction and classification. Though many intelligent models exist for grading agricultural products, there are still broad challenges that need to be resolved. These challenges can be weighed against the advantages of CVGS and the grading process can be improved a lot. This work is based on the exhaustive survey of CVS and the steps involved in CVGS. The outcome of this survey is presented as a comparative analysis of various technologies for grading systems available in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core of agricultural product supply chain management is to emphasise the use of integrated thoughts and concepts to guide the management practices of enterprises. That is, the operation of the entire supply chain is guided by consumer demand rather than the individual management of links, and the entire supply chain is strictly controlled as a system. Based on big data technology, this paper constructs a high-performance agricultural product recommendation algorithm. Aiming at the lagging construction of my country's agricultural product supply chain network facilities, low integration of various operating links, high logistics costs, imbalances in supply and demand, and serious agricultural product quality and safety issues, this paper combines the big data technology to study the agricultural product intelligent supply chain system, and uses the network equilibrium method to construct the agricultural product supply chain network model that considers the effort level of multiple producers and retailers. Finally, this paper proves the reliability of the system model in this paper through experimental research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the Internet, the agricultural product circulation standard system needs to undergo corresponding changes to adapt to the modern fast-paced social system. Based on the summary of domestic and foreign theoretical research, this paper adopts five methods including literature research, field investigation, case comparison analysis, model construction, qualitative and quantitative methods to study the agricultural product circulation system. Moreover, this paper analyses the connotation of agricultural products and agricultural product circulation system, and takes the agricultural product circulation system as the research object, and uses field investigation as the research method to systematically analyse the contents of the agricultural product circulation subject, circulation channel, and logistics operation mode. In addition, this article combined with examples to quantitatively analyse my country's agricultural product logistics operations. Finally, this article combines the agricultural product logistics system with fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to analyse the product circulation standard under the Internet background and customer needs to put forward several suggestions for improvement, and builds an improved agricultural product circulation standard system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of food traceability analysis, stable isotope ratio analysis is a relatively new technology. The measurement and calibration of isotope data depends on stable isotope reference materials. The isotope reference materials commonly used are chemical matrix. These reference materials are inappropriate-especially for food matrix origin analysis. This review focuses on the research progress on stable isotope reference materials by (1) classification of stable isotope reference materials, (2) application of stable isotope reference materials, and (3) research progress of preparation of stable isotope reference materials. Selecting appropriate isotope reference materials will help improve the effectiveness of stable isotope ratio analysis in food traceability. By cooperation with different laboratories, high-quality isotope reference materials can be prepared to add new food matrix types to provide more choices for users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology agglomeration effect is the economic effect produced by the spatial concentration of industry and economic activities, and it is one of the key factors to enhance the industrial value chain. In recent years, China's agricultural market has gradually opened up, speeding up the marketisation and commercialisation of agricultural products. However, due to the increasing competition in the Chinese agricultural market, the value chain of the agricultural product industry is facing many challenges. The challenges faced by the value chain of the agricultural product industry are of two types: upstream and downstream. The upstream is the scope to improve yield and scarcity of resources and the downstream includes food chain loss, consumption moving towards F & V and pulses and lack of transparency and traceability. Thus, on the basis of the connotation of the agricultural product industry's value chain and value flow, this article compares and analyses the development status of domestic and foreign industrial value chains, and finally proposes an upgrade path to increase the flow of Chinese agricultural industry's value chain. It is expected to provide a reference for improving the economic benefits of Chinese agricultural product industry's value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of Internet technology, due to the uneven distribution of information, poor stability of various links, low product quality and standards, and immature development of cold chain logistics network, China's agricultural products e-commerce omnichannel supply chain cannot match the diversified needs of consumers. Based on the background of Internet technology, on the basis of exploring the reverse integration value demands of agricultural products e-commerce omnichannel supply chain, this paper constructs three modes of consumption leading business process, service leading organisation and linear value creation, and puts forward the specific implementation path, so as to realise the standardisation and modern operation of agricultural products e-commerce omnichannel supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes the field of e-commerce logistics service of agricultural products as the research object, and expounds on the research background and significance of this paper. Then, through the research and field investigation of the current situation of B2C enterprises, this paper expounds on the future development direction of the B2C industry, summarises the tools and theories that are helpful to us, and defines the technical route of this paper. A two-stage model of B2C agricultural products e-commerce logistics network based on network topology is designed. According to the characteristics of the two-stage model, an improved genetic algorithm is designed to solve the model. At the same time, the B2C logistics network optimisation decision system is realised, which verifies the practicability of the scheme. Finally, the paper reviews the research process and results, analyses the shortcomings, and points out the next research direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the failure of the existing systems to convert online service reputation evaluation, the accuracy, average recall rate and average comprehensive index of online service reputation evaluation show a straight-line downward trend. Therefore, this paper proposes an online service reputation system of agricultural products sales platform based on P2P network. This paper analyses the related concepts involved in the online service reputation system of agricultural products sales platform, designs the system under P2P network through B/S framework, mainly including the modules of online service reputation evaluation, information release and system account management. The online service reputation evaluation of agricultural products sales platform is transformed into service classification in multi-dimensional space. Machine learning is used to train the samples, and the optimal classifier model is established in multi-dimensional space to classify the online service of agricultural product sales platform, so as to achieve the final evaluation of online service reputation of agricultural product sales platform. The experimental results show that the accuracy and average recall rate of the system are close to 100%, and the average comprehensive index is up to 98.3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to selecting a "greatest hit" and a "hidden gem," here, Sreemati Mitter provides readers with a broad overview of Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS) content on the topic of capitalism in Palestine. Mitter singles out Alexander Schölch's classic, "The Economic Development of Palestine, 1856--1882" (1981) as a greatest hit and Peter Lagerquist's haunting "Vacation from History: Ethnic Cleansing as the Club Med Experience" (2006) as a hidden gem. Read together, she argues, these two pieces help elucidate how powerful forces of global market capitalism converged on Palestine's storied Mediterranean coast to shape its economy in the modern period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cold chain logistics is a special distribution process with respect to agricultural products that are sensitive to temperature. In this approach, remote sensing data and spatial analysis are the main components of china's cold chain logistics capabilities, particularly on agricultural products. Therefore, The Cold Chain Logistics analysis on agricultural products in various provinces is evaluated using a Spatial Exploratory Data Analysis and Geo-detector approach. Hence, The characteristically Remote Sensing Spatio-Temporal Logistical Regression (RS-STLR) model has been developed to characterize both the cold chain's logistic resource and provincial differences. This paper provides a perspective on the growth and variations in Chinese logistics services for cold chain logistics. The research has been conducted at a lab-scale which established an alternate interpretation between different regional variations in logistic capital of the ecological features of the cold chain logistics. The aim of this analysis is to validate the condition of the cold chain market based on the quantitative system of risk assessment on agricultural produces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio frequency (RF) drying is an effective and practical dielectric drying method for food and agricultural products due to rapid and volumetric heating, deep penetration and moisture self-balance effects. However, non-uniform heating and sometimes runaway heating are still major problems with implementation of RF drying. RF-related combination drying takes advantages of both conventional drying methods and RF heating, leading to improved drying uniformity, better product quality and higher energy efficiency. This paper provides a brief introduction on the basic principle of RF drying, analyzes the RF heating and drying characteristics and examines recent literature on RF drying applications and possible methods for improving RF heating and drying uniformity. Recommendations for future research have been proposed to achieve practical and effective RF drying requirements and bridge the gap between academia and industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of dielectric properties of materials for applications in agriculture is reviewed, and research findings on the use of dielectric heating of materials and on sensing of product moisture content and other quality factors are discussed. Dielectric heating applications include treatment of seed-borne pathogens, stored-product insect control, seed treatment to improve germination, soil treatment for pest control, and conditioning of products to improve nutritional value and quality maintenance. Quality sensing applications reviewed include the sensing of moisture content in grain, seed, fruit and nuts, and other quality attributes of fruits and vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sensitive and reliable method for the simultaneous determination of hydroxycoumarin-type (brodifacoum, bromadiolone, coumatetralyl, and warfarin) and indandione-type (chlorophacinone, diphacinone, and pindone) rodenticides in agricultural products by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) was developed. The procedure involved extraction of the rodenticides from samples with acetone, followed by liquid–liquid partitioning with hexane/ethyl acetate (1:1, v/v) and 10% sodium chloride aqueous solution, then cleanup using GPC, and finally, analysis using LC–MS/MS. High recoveries from the GPC column were obtained for all rodenticides tested using a mobile phase of acetone/cyclohexane/triethylamine (400:1600:1, v/v/v). An ODS column, which contains low levels of metal impurities, gave satisfactory peak shapes for both hydroxycoumarin- and indandione-type rodenticides in the LC–MS/MS separation. The average recoveries of rodenticides from eight agricultural foods (apple, eggplant, cabbage, orange, potato, tomato, brown rice, and soybean) fortified at 0.0005–0.001 mg/kg ranged from 76 to 116%, except for bromadiolone in orange (53%) and diphacinone in soybean (54%), and the relative standard deviations ranged from 1 to 16%. The proposed method effectively removed interfering components, such as pigments and lipids, and showed high selectivity. In addition, the matrix effects were negligible for most of the rodenticide/food combinations. The results suggest that the proposed method is reliable and suitable for determining hydroxycoumarin- and indandione-type rodenticides in agricultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1995 and the subsequent proliferation of regional and bilateral trade agreements resulted in the decline of global tariffs. However, other trade and regulatory measures have increased and thus restricted potential trade to some extent. These measures, non-tariff measures (NTMs), have also affected intra-SADC trade as there was no evidence of growth in the trade that needed to accompany the decline in tariffs. The extent of the impact of NTMs on SADC trade is still not fully understood due to lack of such data, which has effectively affected the quality of research in this area. In this article, data on NTMs related to SADC agricultural products for ten countries was compiled to shed some light on these measures, as well as to make them transparent. The results confirm that these countries have increased their use of NTMs over the period 2000 to 2010. As a result, on average one product was subjected to 17 NTMs in 2010. The Southern African Customs Union is the leader in the use of NTMs, while Malawi had the least incidences of NTMs. Most of the NTMs are applied on fruits, meat, dairy, vegetables and cereal products. The use of sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) and of export measures was increasing faster than other categories were. Finally, there is an indication that NTMs are used as substitutes for the declining tariffs. NTMs are trade restricting, and if they are not addressed, they will continue to reverse the gains of the SADC free trade area, as well as other initiatives of trade liberalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Agricultural products are highly perishable and drying of the product after harvest has been proved as one of the methods to minimize postharvest losses. Different studies have been conducted to evaluate the performance of a rotary dryer for drying of agricultural products. The advantages and the challenges of rotary dryers in drying of agricultural products are discussed. This study discusses the effects of product and drying air properties, and dryer design and operation parameters, on dryer performance and product quality. Rotary dryers are capable of processing a variety of agricultural products with a wide range of thermo-physical and flow properties. Rotary dryers have been used for drying of grains, beans, nuts, vegetables, herbs, woody biomass, animal feeds, agricultural wastes, and by-products. This review paper summarizes the advances in the application of rotary dryers in drying of different agricultural products and recommends future research into the use of rotary dryers to improve the efficiency of the drying process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The importance of environmental protection has been recently upgraded due to the continuously increasing environmental pollution load. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), wellknown as ISO 14040, has been repeatedly shown to be a useful and powerful tool for assessing the environmental performance of industrial processes, both in the European and American continents as well as in many Asian countries (such as Japan and China). To the best of our knowledge, almost no information is provided in relation to LCA implementation in Africa apart from an article related to Egypt. Although food industries are not considered to be among the most heavily polluting ones, for some like olive oil, wine, dairy, and meat processing, their impact on the environment is a heavy burden. The introduction of LCA aimed at identifying both inputs and outputs to find out which are the most detrimental to the environment in terms of water/energy consumption and solid/liquid and gas releases. In this review, a thorough coverage of literature was made in an attempt to compare the implementation of LCA to a variety of products of both plant and animal origin. It was concluded that there is a high number of subsystems suggested for the same product, thereby, occasionally leading to confusion. An idea toward solving the problem is to proceed to some sort of standardization by means of several generic case studies of LCA implementation, similarly to what had happened in the case of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) implementation in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored differences in the effects of perceived utilitarian and hedonic shopping values on customer satisfaction for the two separate groups of the agricultural product marketing channel: farmers' markets and specialty food stores. Empirical data were collected from customers of agricultural product retailers located in Taiwan (N = 412). The results show that different agricultural product marketing channels provide different values to their customers. Farmers' market customers experience a greater hedonic value, and specialty food store customers experience a greater utilitarian value. In addition, the perceived utilitarian and hedonic shopping values of farmers' market customers are more highly positively associated with customer satisfaction than are those of specialty food store customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrared microspectroscopy (IMS) has undergone rapid development in the last 20 years. New infrared sources and detectors have promoted this development. More meaningful information can be achieved in less time, and spatial resolution is only several micrometers. The improved IMS is important in biology, medical science, and biochemistry. This review describes the progress of IMS in light sources and detectors, including thermal sources, synchrotron infrared sources, multiple synchrotron beams, single element detectors, as well as focal plane array (FPA) detectors. In addition, applications of IMS on agricultural and aquatic products such as cereal seeds, milk, fish, meat, forage grass, juice, and cheese are explored. Finally, new trends in the development of IMS and its importance in the fundamental and applied research of agricultural and aquatic products are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract:Demand for high levels of quality and safety in agricultural products and food requires appropriate analytical techniques for analysis both during and after production. Desirable techniques should be quick, easy, and safe to use; require minimal or no sample preparation; avoid sample destruction; and be accurate. In this study, the recent technical applications of terahertz spectroscopy to identify and classify, qualitatively and quantitatively analyze, evaluate, and safely control agricultural products and food are reviewed. The challenges and future outlook of terahertz spectroscopy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dielectric properties of materials are defined, and the major factors that influence these properties of agricultural and food materials, namely, frequency of the applied radiofrequency or microwave electric fields, and water content, temperature, and density of the materials, are discussed on the basis of fundamental concepts. The dependence of measured dielectric properties on these factors is illustrated graphically and discussed for a number of agricultural and food products, including examples of grain, peanuts, fruit, eggs, fresh chicken meat, whey protein gel, and a macaroni and cheese preparation. General observations are provided on the nature of the variation of the dielectric properties with the major variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural and thermophysical properties of freeze-dried agricultural products (potatoes, mushrooms, and strawberries) were investigated to determine whether these properties were affected by freeze drying conditions. The true density of freeze-dried products was measured with a helium stereopycnometer, and apparent density was obtained by measuring their geometric characteristics. Porosity and pore size distribution were also measured with a mercury porosimeter. The mechanical properties of freeze-dried agricultural products were obtained using a universal testing machine. Dried products were equilibrated in saturated salt solutions of constant water activity and scanned with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) for the evaluation of glass transition temperature. Simple mathematical models were developed in order to correlate the structural and mechanical properties with process conditions. The apparent density and mechanical properties of freeze-dried products increased with the applied freeze-drying pressure, whereas the porosity decreased. The glass transition temperature decreased with the increment of moisture content and it was not highly influenced by process conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raman spectroscopy has been gaining popularity as an analytical tool due to advances in development of Raman spectrometry and the power of personal computers. Due to to its narrow and highly resolved bands, Raman spectroscopy allows for nondestructive extraction of chemical and physical information about samples and aids in rapid on-line analysis without any special sample preparation. In this review, Raman spectroscopic techniques such as dispersive Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and spatially offset Raman spectroscopy are briefly introduced. In addition, applications of Raman spectroscopy are explored, within various fields of agricultural products and food, including fruits and vegetables, crops, meat and dairy products, oil, as well as beverages. In addition, some discussion on the importance of Raman spectroscopy as fundamental and applied research of agricultural products and food is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A monoclonal antibody-based competitive antibody-coated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed and optimized for determining chlorpyrifos residue in agricultural products. The IC50 and IC10 of this ELISA were 3.3 ng/mL and 0.1 ng/mL respectively. The average recoveries in six agricultural products were between 79.5% and 118.0%, with the intra-assay coefficient of variation being less than 8 %. The limit of detection for all tested products was 30 ng/g. To the best of our knowledge, this assay has the best specificity among all the published research on ELISAs for chlorpyrifos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2003 and 2005, a total of 11,716 samples were collected and analysed to determine the level of pesticides residues. Multi-residue methods (MRMs) capable of simultaneously determining 250 pesticides were used. Of the 11,716 samples, 89.1% had no detectable residues and 1.7% had violative residues. The detection rates by commodity group were 11.4, 8.6, 0.3, and 0.02% for vegetables, fruit, grain, mushrooms, and the others, respectively. Agricultural products with pesticide residues were pepper, Perilla frutescens, leafy lettuce and spinach in decreasing order. Of the 250 pesticides that were monitored, 70 pesticides were actually found. Procymidone, endosulfan, chlorfenapyr, metalaxyl, and diethofencarb were frequently detected. Of the samples, parsley, Petasites hybridus, Aster scaber and leek had high violative rates of 23.1, 12.6, 8.2, and 7.9%, respectively. From violative samples, procymidone, endosulfan, metalaxyl, diazinon and chlorpyrifos were frequently detected. The violation rates were 1.71, 1.68, and 1.76% in 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively, and the detection rates were 8.5, 12.0, and 13.3% in 2003, 2004, and 2005, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is affecting the world and will continue to affect humans and the ecosystem in the future, in different regions of the earth in diverse ways: air temperature rise, modifications in the precipitation and snow/ice melting rates, sea level rise, changes in geographical distribution, and even extinction of some plants and animals. In particular, the predictions presented in the 2007 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group 1 (available at www.ipcc.ch) for the mean temperature increase in the present century is about (3 ± 1)°C/century for a middle range scenario of human behavior. Mitigation measures need to be taken urgently in all aspects of activities in order to reduce the future impact of the temperature augmentation. In particular, the drying process (as well as the pre- and post-drying operations) needs to be reanalyzed, in order to try to participate in this world effort to reduce the impact of anthropogenic activities that introduce in the atmosphere an excess of greenhouse gases (GHG). The energy savings, use of renewable energies, optimization of each part of the drying process, and use of control devices for detecting and minimizing the atmospheric injection of GHG are some of a large number of possible actions to be taken in this respect. A nice example of how a planetary problem can be solved with the global participation of scientists, professionals, authorities and general public is the stopping of the destruction of the ozone layer and its possible recuperation in the near future, as discussed in the WMO related report (“Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2006”, that can be obtained at http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/gaw/ozone2006/ozoneasstreport.html).[10] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on China's trade in agricultural products, focusing on the patterns of change in the trade distribution before and after the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). While China's trade growth has several diverse implications, there was an observed growth in China's crop exports. China's accession to the WTO is said to have had a "watershed" effect to the country's agricultural and aquacultural product trade, which was seen in changes in trade volumes, products traded and trading partners. Moreover, China's growth in trade led to many geopolitical implications, such as an increasingly robust and balanced trade with regions in the Northern Hemisphere and tension brought by China's extensive entry into the domestic markets of Japan and Korea.

An antibody-based rapid, quantitative, and qualitative tube enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (tube-ELISA) was developed and used to determine carbaryl (1-naphthyl methylcarbamate) residues in agricultural products (apple, Chinese cabbage, rice, and barley). The tube-ELISA is a competitive immunoassay in which the antibody is coated in the polystyrene tube, with a dynamic range between 0.7 and 46.3 μg kg -1 . Carbaryl was extracted from each agricultural sample by hand-shaking with methanol and examined for application to on-site analysis. After the liquid extraction, the sample extracts diluted with buffer were analyzed by rapid tube-ELISA directly. The overall test time was around 15–30 min, including sample preparation and assay performance. The results obtained from tube-ELISA correlated well with high-performance liquid chromatography ( R 2 > 0.9). The study shows that tube-ELISA is useful as a quality control tool and can be used to quantitatively detect carbaryl as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbaryl is one of the most important N-methyl carbamate insecticides used all over the world. To determine carbaryl residues in agricultural products (apple, pear, Chinese cabbage, rice and barley), a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method was employed, and a simple and efficient extraction method for the rapid detection of carbaryl in agricultural products was developed with recoveries greater than 90%. After liquid extraction, sample extracts diluted with buffer were analysed by ELISA directly. Matrix effects can be avoided when a 1:20 dilution of apple, pear, rice and barley samples and a 1:50 dilution of Chinese cabbage samples with 0.5% fish skin gelation in phosphate-buffered saline containing 5% methanol. Sample extracts were analysed by ELISA and HPLC, and results obtained by two methods correlated well; the correlation was greater than 0.9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the "global marketplace" has increased the number of product choices competing for consumer patronage. The purpose of this study was to explore whether competitive advantages exist for agricultural products produced locally rather than coming from elsewhere. The findings suggest that consumers have not thought about the issues associated with place of origin, think all produce is about the same, or trust their grocers to make the right purchase decisions. Marketing efforts need to educate consumers that not all produce is the same relative to quality and safety issues, and that they need to consider place of origin before making purchase decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applications of microwave measurement techniques, including frequency-domain and time-domain methods, for determining the permittivity of agricultural products (seeds, plants, grains, fruits, meat, etc.) are reviewed. Graphical data illustrating the dependence of the dielectric constants and loss factors of such products on moisture content, frequency of the applied fields, temperature, and bulk density of granular materials are provided for selected materials. Finally, recommendations are offered for further study and applications of permittivity measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important question for international marketing managers is whether the international market segments, identified through usage rates of some agricultural products, remain similar over a short time period. The results of this study have revealed that the size of the usage-rate segments usually remains similar over a short time period, but some members (countries) of the segments (light users and heavy users) could shift cluster, which may relatively change the size of the segments. Also the characteristics of each segment remain almost similar over a short time period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]