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Neapolitan pizza, a renowned Italian food recognized as one of the traditional specialties guaranteed (TSG) by European Commission Regulation no. 97/2010, should be exclusively baked in wood-fired ovens for approximately 90 s. Despite its extensive use in restaurants and rotisserie shops all around the world, such equipment has been very poorly studied thus far. The aims of this study were to characterize the operation of a pilot-scale wood-fired pizza oven from its start-up phase to its baking operation and assess its thermal efficiency. To manage brick firing, the oven was lighted at a firewood feed rate (Q

The food cooking energy may represent the primary hotspot in the cradle-to-grave life cycle of several foods and drinks. It is mainly affected by the type of food and its cookery method, cooking appliance and the fuel selected as well as the number of portions to be cooked. The primary aim of this survey was to demonstrate the basic characteristics of the main cooking methods, appliances, and fuels as well as energy required for some key foods. The secondary aim was to assess the environmental impacts of a generic cooking system as a function of few household cookers fueled by different fuels (i.e., firewood, charcoal, coal, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene and biogas) and electricity in the Italian scenario by using the ReCiPe 2016 and product environmental footprint (PEF) standard methods and Ecoinvent v. 3.7 database. A functional unit equal to per capita useful energy delivered to the pot for cooking (1.41 gigajoule [GJ]) in 27 European Union countries in 2019 was used as the basis of comparison. The use of natural gas resulted in minimum impact in nine of the 18 mid-point impact categories of ReCiPe 2016 method and two damage categories (human health and ecosystem quality) with a minimum overall weighted damage score (OWDSR) of ~5 Pt. Thus, such a cookstove appeared to be more apt to minimize both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Even if the electric cookstove yielded a greater OWDSR (8.6 Pt) because the Italian electricity grid mix was mainly based on fossil sources, it was possible to forecast that new-generation, smart cooktops driven by hydro- and wind-power electricity would minimize OWDSR to as low as 0.9 and 1.4 Pt, respectively, thus not only avoiding the consumption of any fossil energy source but also improving people’s health.

The main aim of this review was to check for the applicability of the concept of circular economy to brewing chain. By analyzing the beer brewing process, it was possible to identify the main brewery wastes formed and packaging materials used as well as their range of composition and yields. In order to reduce the contribution of packaging material to the carbon footprint of beer, it would be necessary to replace one-way containers used nowadays with lighter, reusable, or recycled ones. Even if the contribution of beer consumption phase was taken into account, there was no definitive solution about the less environmentally impacting beer packaging format. The direct management of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packaging for liquid foodstuffs could make available 100% recycled PET flakes to be reconverted into food-grade bottles with minimum downcycling to other non-food usage. The countless potential uses of brewery wastes in nutritional and biotechnological fields were tested in laboratory by disregarding any cost–benefit or market analysis. This was mainly because the estimated market price of dried brewer’s spent grain (BSG) resulted to be about 450% higher than that of conventional lignocellulose residues. All the alternative uses hailed in the literature appeared to be more useful for publishing articles than for defining any economically feasible reusing procedure for all brewery wastes. Owing to their high moisture content, such wastes are so perishable as to prevent their safe usage in the human food chain. Currently, their use as-is in animal feeding is the disposal method not only economically feasible but also able to reduce the greenhouse gas load of beer packed in glass bottles (GB) by about one-third of that associated with packaging materials. Not by chance, it is practiced by most industrial and craft breweries.

Roasted and ground coffee in Italy is currently dominating in consumption and revenues. However, the portioned coffee market is recording continuous and constant growth notwithstanding a great concern about the unnecessary consumption of non-renewable resources and huge generation of often aluminum-polluted wastes. The aim of this work was to assess the cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of a 40-mL cup of coffee, prepared using different brewing methods (i.e., a 3-cup Moka pot, and three single-serving coffee machines) and distinct formats (i.e., 250-g vacuum flexible bags, 44-mm Easy Serving Espresso pods, and Nespresso®-type capsules), in compliance with the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050 standard method. The production of one cup of coffee gave rise to 45-57 or 47-59 g CO2e when using the Moka pot heated by an induction- or gas-fired stove, 74-96 g CO2e when using the espresso coffee machine, 72-92 g CO2e when using the pod coffee machine, and 57-73 g CO2e when using the capsule coffee machine, whether the post-consumer wastes were incinerated or disposed of in landfills. Moreover, by using coffee pods or capsules, the contribution of the packaging material production and post-consumer waste disposal increased up to represent the secondary share of the overall GHG emissions. Based on these estimates, the environmentally aware consumer should be conscious that the preparation of a cup of coffee with a coffee pod or capsule machine would result in extra emissions of 27.6 or 12.6 g CO2e with respect to those emitted with an induction Moka pot, respectively. By referring to the current Italian consumption of 80-million coffee cups per day, such extra GHG emissions would equal to those emitted by a Euro 5 city car (ca. 100 g CO2e/km) traveling around the Earth's equator as many as 551 or 252 times per day, respectively.

Background Everyday pasta cooking has a large environmental impact. The aims of this work were to assess the effect of cooking temperatures (TC ) that were lower than the water boiling point (TBW ) on the main chemico-physical quality parameters of two pasta shapes (i.e., ziti and spaghetti) cooked at the conventional and minimum water-to-pasta ratios, as well as their optimum cooking time (OCT), cooking energy consumption, and carbon footprint, by using a novel eco-sustainable pasta cooker. Results Once the effect of TC on OCT had been modeled in accordance with the Bigelow model, it was possible to estimate that the energy saved to heat the cooking water from ambient temperature to a lower temperature than TBW was smaller than the extra energy needed to complete the pasta cooking phase. After several cooking trials, the water uptake, cooking loss, textural properties, and thickness of the central nerve (as observed with a scanning electronic microscope) of cooked pasta were found to be independent of TC in the range of 85-98 °C. Conclusions By using smaller amounts of water (~3 L kg-1 ) and cooking at 85 °C with the eco-sustainable pasta cooker, the energy consumption reduced from the default value of 2.8 kWh kg-1 to ~0.45 kWh kg-1 and GHG emissions to about one sixth of those resulting from the use of the average European home appliances. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Background In several Environmental Product Declarations, the business-to-business carbon footprint (CFCDC ) of durum wheat semolina dried pasta ranged from 0.57 to 1.72 kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e ) kg-1 . In this work, the business-to-consumer carbon footprint (CFCG ) of 1 kg of dry decorticated organic durum wheat semolina pasta, as packed in 0.5 kg polypropylene bags by a South Italian medium-sized pasta factory in the years 2016 and 2017, was assessed in compliance with the Publicly Available Specification 2050 standard method. Results Whereas CFCDC was mostly conditioned by the greenhouse gases emitted throughout durum wheat cultivation (0.67 vs 1.12 kg CO2e kg-1 ), CFCG was mainly dependent on the use and post-consume phases (0.68 vs 1.81 kg CO2e kg-1 ). CFCG was more or less affected by the pasta types and packing formats used, since it varied from +0.3 to +14.8% with respect to the minimum score estimated (1.74 kg CO2e kg-1 ), which corresponded to long goods packed in 3 kg bags for catering service. Once the main hotspots had been identified, CFCG was stepwise reduced by resorting to a series of mitigation actions. Conclusion Use of more eco-sustainable cooking practices, organic durum wheat kernels resulting from less impacting cultivation techniques, and renewable resources to generate the thermal and electric energy needs reduced CFCG by about 58% with respect to the above reference case. Finally, by shifting from road to rail freight transport and shortening the supply logistics of dry pasta and grains, a further 5% reduction in CFCG was achieved. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

The cradle-to-grave environmental impact of 1 kg of dry pasta, produced from a medium-sized pasta factory located in the North of Italy and packed in 0.5-kg polypropylene bags, was investigated by using a well-known life cycle assessment software in compliance with the cumulative energy demand, PAS 2050, IMPACT 2002+, ReCiPe 2016, and product environmental footprint standard methods. All these methods allowed durum wheat cultivation and pasta cooking to be identified as the primary and secondary hotspots. Improvements in the cultivation phase were outlined by resorting to conservative farming systems with low N fertilizer inputs. However, the smaller the grain yields, the greater the land occupation and damage to the ecosystem quality became. The replacement of the ordinary home gas-fired hobs with a more eco-sustainable pasta cooker reduced the damage to “climate change,” and “resource depletion". Both mitigation actions reduced the primary energy sources, greenhouse gas emissions, and overall weighted scores of the global environmental impact by about 40%, 48%, and 29%–42% with respect to the reference case, respectively. Although a more sustainable field phase is still to be identified, the environmental impact of dry pasta might be henceforward relieved by replacing the current domestic appliances with novel energy-saving pasta cookers.

The assessment of the environmental performance of food and beverage production is presently carried out using numerous single- or multi-environmental issue standard methods. All of them are compliant with the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology but diverge along the number of impact categories and materials covered, the models used to characterize the environmental impact, and even for the free use of different normalization and weighting factors. In this chapter the human impact on the environment and basics of the LCA methodology and main life cycle impact assessment methods are briefly outlined. Independently of the number of mid- or end-point impact categories accounted for, all these methods give no more than a partial schematic representation of the environmental impact of a product or activity. They are useful for in-house product improvement and, except for the carbon footprint (CF) labeling, cannot be presently used for external communication to environmentally -unconscious consumers. Whether the life cycle impact of foods and beverages is mostly affected by fossil cumulative energy demand (CED) and consequently by greenhouse gas emissions, the CED indicator or CF appears to be the most straightforward and cost-effective method usable by 99% of the European food and beverage enterprises to start improving their sustainability, even with the help of secondary instead of primary data. Any additional environmental impact category or alternative method can be included, primarily if the LCA modeling is carried out using the LCA software nowadays available.

Neapolitan pizza is very popular worldwide and is registered on the traditional specialties guaranteed (TSG) list. This study was aimed at identifying the cradle-to-grave carbon footprint (CF) of a medium-sized pizza restaurant serving in situ or takeaway true Neapolitan pizzas conforming to the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050 standard method. An average CF of ~4.69 kg CO2e/diner was estimated, about 74% of which was due to the production of the ingredients used (with buffalo mozzarella cheese alone representing as much as 52% of CF). The contribution of beverages, packaging materials, transportation, and energy sources varied within 6.8 and 4.6% of CF. The percentage relative variation of CF with respect to its basic score was of about +26%, +4.4%, and +1.6% or +2.1%, provided that the emission factor of buffalo mozzarella, fresh cow mozzarella (fiordilatte), Grana Padano cheeses, and electricity varied by +50% with respect to each corresponding default value, respectively. The specific carbon footprint for Marinara pizza was equal to ~4 kg CO2e/kg, while for Margherita pizza, it was up to 5.1, or 10.8 kg CO2e/kg when topped with fresh cow or buffalo mozzarella cheese. To help pizza restaurant operators select the most rewarding mitigation strategy, we explored how CF was affected by more sustainable buffalo mozzarella cheese production, lighter and reusable containers for beer, mineral water, and main fresh vegetables, newer diesel-powered vans, less air-polluting electric ovens instead of traditional wood-fired ovens, as well as renewable electricity sources.

In large-sized breweries, rough beer clarification is still carried out using Kieselguhr filters notwithstanding their environmental and safety implications. The main aim of this work was to test an innovative rough beer clarification and stabilization process involving enzymatic treating with Brewers Clarex&reg, centrifuging, rough filtering across 1.4-&mu, m ceramic hollow-fiber membrane at 30 &deg, C, and fine filtering through 0.45-&mu, m cartridge filter. When feeding an enzymatically-pretreated and centrifuged rough beer with permanent haze (HP) of 2 or 14 European Brewery Convention unit (EBC-U), its primary clarification under periodic CO2 backflushing yielded a permeate with turbidity of 1.0&ndash, 1.5 EBC-U at a high permeation flux (2.173 &plusmn, 51 or 593 &plusmn, 100 L m&minus, 2 h&minus, 1), much greater than that typical of powder filters. The final beer was brilliant (HP = 0.57 &plusmn, 0.08 EBC-U) with almost the same colloidal stability of the industrial control and an overall log reduction value (~5.0 for the selected beer spoilage bacterium or 7.6 for the brewing yeast) in line with the microbial effectiveness of current sterilizing membranes. It was perceived as significantly different in flavor and body from the industrial control at a probability level of 10% by a triangle sensory test, as more likely related to the several lab-scale beer-racking steps used than to the novel process itself.

Background: During daily pasta cooking, the general consumer pays little attention to water and energy issues. The present study aimed to measure the cooking quality and environmental impact of a standard format of dry pasta by varying the water-to-dried pasta ratio (WPR) from 12 to 2 L kg-1 .; Results: In the above WPR range, the cooked pasta water uptake (1.3 ± 0.1 g g-1 ), cooking loss (0.037 ± 0.009 g g-1 ) and degree of starch gelatinization (11.2 ± 0.8%) were approximately constant, whereas the main Texture Analysis parameters (eg, cooked pasta hardness at 30% and 90% deformation, and resilience) showed no statistically significant difference. As the WPR was reduced from 12 to 2 L kg-1 , the specific electric energy consumption linearly decreased from 1.93 to 0.39 Wh g-1 and the carbon footprint and eutrophication potential of pasta cooking lessened by approximately 80% and 50%, respectively.; Conclusion: Cooking dry pasta in a large excess of water (ie, 10 L kg-1 ), as commonly suggested by the great majority of pasta manufacturers, might be pointless. Such a great mitigation with respect to the environmental impact of pasta cooking should be checked further for other commercial pasta formats and would highlight the need for novel and more suitable pasta cookers than those currently in use. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.; © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Cimini A, Moresi M (2018) Are the present standard methods effectively useful to mitigate the environmental impact of the 99% EU food and drink enterprises? Trends in Food Science and Technology, 77: 42-53. Background: The environmental performance of food and drink production may be currently assessed by several standard methods. Except the ISO Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Product Declaration® and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methods, all the other international standards account for the single impact category of climate change. The PEF method requires the estimation of as many as 14 impact categories and is thus regarded as complex and expensive. Several independent studies have shown that climate change is the impact category with the lowest uncertainty level. Scope and Approach: In this viewpoint paper, the mere assessment of the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) using so-called secondary data was recommended as the most direct and economical method to allow SMEs to improve their sustainability via a simple and stepwise virtuous approach. Key Findings and Conclusions: By applying a previously developed LCA model, the carbon footprint (PCF) of beer packed in 66-cL glass bottles in a medium-sized brewery was estimated (∼90 kg CO2e hL−1) and the main life cycle hotspots were identified. By resorting to 100%-recycled glass bottles, barley grown locally using organic agriculture methods, rail instead of road transport; etc., it was possible to reduce PCF to as low as 49 kg CO2e hL−1. A cost/benefit analysis might help SMEs to recognize which opportunities effectively reduce their product environmental impact, as well as to decide to invest on the collection of selected primary data to make PCF calculation more accurate, or further progress in the estimation of other selected impact categories.

Cimini A, Moresi M (2018) Combined enzymatic and crossflow microfiltration process to assure the colloidal stability of beer. LWT - Food Science and Technology, 90: 132-137. In this work, two beers of the industrial and craft types were stabilized and clarified by combining a commercial enzyme preparation of fungal origin (Brewers Clarex®), which is commonly used for the production of gluten-free beers, with crossflow microfiltration. By resorting to some European Brewing Convention indicative forcing tests (i.e., sensitive proteins, alcohol chill haze, and chill haze development), it was possible to confirm the efficacy of the enzyme preparation for both beers examined. By combining the enzymatic and polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) treatments, each beer exhibited a greater colloidal stability with respect to that achievable with any single treatment. Independently of the stabilizing pretreatment used, final membrane clarification gave rise to permeated beers with almost the same chill haze development. By coupling the enzymatic treatment to crossflow microfiltration, it would be possible to replace PVPP, and avoid its expensive recovery and regeneration processes, thus leading to a simpler one-step beer conditioning process.

In this work, the main constraint (that is, beer chilling and chill haze removing) of the current beer conditioning techniques using Kieselguhr filtration and Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) treatment was overcome by developing a novel higher-throughput conditioning process, operating at room temperatures with no use of filter aids. The effect of filtration temperature (TF) in the range of 0 to 40 °C on the hydraulic permeability of ceramic hollow-fiber (HF) membranes with nominal pore size of 0.2 to 1.4 µm, as well as on their limiting permeation flux (J*) when feeding precentrifuged rough beer, was preliminarily assessed. When using the 1.4-µm HF membrane operating at TF= 20 °C, it was possible to enhance the average permeation flux at values (676 to 1844 L/m2/h), noticeably higher than those (250 to 500 L/m2/h) characteristics of conventional powder filtration. Despite its acceptable permanent haze, the resulting beer permeate still exhibited colloidal instability. By resorting to the commercial enzyme preparation Brewers Clarex® before beer clarification, it was possible to significantly improve its colloidal stability as measured using a number of European Brewing Convention forcing tests, especially with respect to that of precentrifuged rough beer by itself. By combining the above enzymatic treatment with membrane clarification at 30 °C across the ceramic 1.4-µm HF membrane module, it was possible to limit the haze development due to chilling, sensitive proteins, and alcohol addition to as low as 0.78, 4.1, and 4.0 EBC-U, respectively, the enzymatic treatment being by far more effective than that using PVPP. A novel Kieselguhr- and PVPP-free rough beer conditioning process at room temperatures was set up. By submitting precentrifuged rough beer to commercial preparation Brewers Clarex ® and then to membrane clarification at 30 °C across a ceramic 1.4-µm hollow-fiber membrane module, it was possible to obtain a clear and stable beer with a throughput (1306 ± 72 L/m2/h) by far higher than that (250 to 500 L/m2/h) characterizing the current powder filters. The haze development due to chilling, sensitive proteins, and alcohol adding was by far lower than that observed when microfiltering PVPP-pretreated rough beer.

Summary Several carbon footprint (CF) studies have been so far carried out to assess the environmental impact of the brewing industry. In this study, a series of reliable secondary data for small-, medium-, and large-sized breweries were collected and used to develop a simplified model to estimate the cradle-to-grave (C2G) CF of the production of a functional unit consisting of 1 hectoliter (hL) of lager beer packed in 66-centiliter (glass or polyethylene terephthalate [PET]) bottles. With reference to the typical operating conditions of nine breweries of different size, the C2G CF was found to increase up to 43% or 45% either for glass or PET bottles as the brewery size reduced from 10 × 106 to 500 hL per year. Whatever the brewery size, the use of PET instead of glass bottles lowered the beer CF by 2.7 ± 0.9%. The contribution of the consumer and postconsumer waste disposal phases was found to be significant. Thus, beer makers should pay attention to the recycling ratio of postconsumer packaging in the sales areas. The C2G CF tended to increase linearly with the overall (thermal and electric) energy needed to produce 1 hL of beer, almost independently of the primary packaging material used. Such a simple and easy-to-measure quantitative indicator might be more than sufficient not only to estimate qualitatively the environmental burden of beer production, but also to identify which mitigation opportunities might be explored or to prioritize primary data collection efforts to refine CF calculation.

Pasta cooking is an energy-intensive process. Its energy requirements might be significantly cut by reducing simultaneously the cooking water-to-dry pasta ratio (WPR) and effective power supplied during the so-called pasta cooking phase. In the case of cooked short-cut extruded pasta of the Penne rigate type, the textural (i.e., hardness at 40% and 98% compression, and resilience) and chemical (i.e., relative water uptake, degree of starch gelatinisation, and cooking loss) parameters were almost constant for WPR ranging from 3 to 10 L kg−1. When cooking one kg of short pasta with just 3 L of water under mild mixing the energy needs reduced by about two-thirds with respect to the conventional WPR value of 10 L kg−1. In this way, it would be possible to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted to sustain the current consumption of dry pasta by about 50%. An empirical equation was also developed to predict a minimum WPR value assuring no agglomeration of any pasta type (short or long) by accounting for the external surface and empty volume of each pasta piece, and most probable water uptake by cooked pasta.

The consumption of two vital resources (e.g., water and energy) during home pasta cooking has so far received limited attention. The main focus of this work was to assess how the instrumental and sensory quality of cooked pasta is affected by the water-to-dried pasta ratio (WPR) using a model cooking system with three commercial brands of spaghetti. At WPR equal to 10 or 3 L/kg, the three sensory attributes of firmness, stickiness, and bulkiness, as well as the overall cooking quality, displayed no statistically significant sensitivity towards WPR. Cooked pasta water uptake, diameter, hardness at 90% deformation, and resilience were more influenced by the raw protein content of dried pasta than by WPR, while the cooking loss was regarded as approximately constant. Using the model cooking system that assured mild mixing of spaghetti to avoid their sticking during cooking, it would be possible to use 70% less cooking water and consume about 65% less electricity, the latter cutting significantly the climate change potential of home pasta cooking.

In this work, the crossflow microfiltration performance of rough beer samples was assessed using ceramic hollow-fiber (HF) membrane modules with a nominal pore size ranging from 0.2 to 1.4 μm. Under constant operating conditions (that is, transmembrane pressure difference, TMP = 2.35 bar; feed superficial velocity, vS = 2.5 m/s; temperature, T = 10 °C), quite small steady-state permeation fluxes (J* ) of 32 or 37 L/m2 /h were achieved using the 0.2- or 0.5-μm symmetric membrane modules. Both permeates exhibited turbidity

The ethyl carbamate (EC) content of a wine after a given temperature-time storage was theoretically predicted from the potential concentration of ethyl carbamate (PEC), as determined via an accelerated EC formation test. Such information was used to decide whether an enzymatic treatment was needed to reduce the wine urea level before bottling/aging. To this end, 6 white, red, and rose wines, manufactured in Italy as such or enriched with urea, were tested for their PEC content either before or after enzymatic treatment using a purified acid urease preparation derived from Lactobacillus fermentum. The treatment was severely affected by the total phenolic content (TP) of the wine, the estimated pseudo-first-order kinetic rate constant for NH3 formation reducing by a factor of approximately 2000 as the TP increased from 0 to 1.64 g L-1. Such a sensitivity to TP was by far greater than that pertaining to a killed cell-based enzyme preparation used previously. Urea hydrolysis was successful at reducing EC concentration in wines with low levels of TP and other EC precursors. Practical Application A simple procedure, relying on the potential ethyl carbamate (EC) level measured in the same wine in an accelerated EC formation test, was proposed to estimate the EC content in a wine upon a long storage so as to decide whether an enzymatic treatment for reducing the urea level in the wine of concern should be undertaken. The capability of the urea-added wines to be effectively detoxified by purified acid urease via accelerated EC formation test was also assessed.

Beer foam is one of the first characteristics consumers visually perceive. Even if their opinions vary, generally, beer foam should be stable and long lasting. In this work, the conventional foam head retention method developed by Rudin (1957) was improved by resorting to three different automatic data acquisition systems. The first one made use of a mouse time tracking software offered at no cost. The second one was an Accurate Image Analysis system using a high-definition camera and a script written in MATLAB. Finally, the third one was an automatic low-cost image analysis (LCIA) system incorporating a Raspberry Pi single-board computer and a camera module (Raspberry Pi Foundation, UK). The latter was able not only to acquire the whole foam decay curve but also to fit the time course of the beer–foam interface position and extract the characteristic beer foam half-life (t½). All the data acquisition systems yielded t½ values practically coincident at the probability level of 0.05, this confirming their substantial equivalence. Once the lager beer had been laced with increasing doses of a foam agent (i.e., tetrahydro-iso-α-acid) to enhance its foam persistence, the resulting foam half-life, as estimated using the above Rudin-based methods, was highly correlated (r2 = 0.99) to the foam collapse time, as derived from the NIBEM Foam Stability Tester. Finally, thanks to the LCIA acquisition system developed here, the Rudin test might represent a fast, flexible, and cheaper alternative to the generally recommended but expensive NIBEM tester, as well as other commercial automated Rudin apparatuses.

In this work, the lager beer clarification and stabilization process previously developed was further tested by replacing the 0.8-μm ceramic single-tube membrane module with a novel ceramic hollow-fiber membrane module having the same pore size to offset the known ineffectiveness of back-flushing cleaning techniques in ceramic multi-channel monolithic modules. In total recycle crossflow microfiltration (CFMF) trials, the quasi-steady state permeation flux (Jss) tended to a limiting flux (J*), that was found to increased with the crossflow velocity (vS) in the range of 0.5–6.0 m s−1. The ideal hydraulic pump energy consumption per unit liter of permeate recovered was practically independent of the aforementioned operating variables and of the order of (66.5 ± 0.5) W h L−1. Nevertheless, to obtain a quasi-state state permeation flux greater than the target permeation flux (i.e., 100 L m−2 h−1) for rough beer clarification via membrane processing in the absence of CO2 backpulsing, TMP had to be greater than 2 bar and vS to vary from 4 to 6 m s−1. Not only was the performance of the ceramic hollow-fiber membrane module at 10 °C, vS = 2.5 m s−1, and TMP = 2.4 bar with 2-min periods of CO2 back-flushing applied every 50–60 min superior to that of the polymeric hollow-fiber membrane process patented by Heineken and Norit Membrane Technology, but also the use of ceramic hollow-fiber membrane systems would extend the membrane life span up to ten years, this reducing the contribution of the annual membrane replacement to the overall operating costs of beer clarification.

Energy and water consumption, waste generation, and emissions to air are the main environmental issues of the brewing industry. Several strategies have been so far proposed to reduce its impact on the global climate. This study assessed the environmental impact of the industrial production and distribution of 1 hL of a pale lager, as packed in different formats by the Italian brewery Birra Peroni Srl (Rome, Italy) over the period April 2012–March 2013, in compliance with the Publicly Available Specification 2050 standard method. The estimated carbon footprint of 1 hL of lager beer packaged in 66-cL glass bottles, 33-cL glass bottles assembled in cardboards or cluster packs, 33-cL aluminum cans, or 30-L steel kegs was of the order of 57, 67, 74, 69, or 25 kg CO2e, respectively. Such a difference in the overall carbon footprint values was due to the diverse contributions of packaging materials and transportation. In particular, the impact of packaging materials was minimum in the case of kegs, in virtue of the high reuse coefficient, and maximum in the case of the 33-cL glass bottle cluster packs. The estimated carbon footprint values were considerably lower than those reported in the most recent literature, probably because of the large production scale and short distribution chain of Birra Peroni brewery, utilization of beer co-products as feed and anaerobic digestion of liquid wastewaters. Owing to the linearity of the mathematical model of the carbon footprint, its sensitivity to the change of one-emission factor-at-a-time allowed the main hot spots in the life cycle of beer (i.e., glass bottle production and barley cultivation) to be identified and targeted for mitigating the carbon footprint of any pale lager, both of them being not related to the brewery production scale examined here. The scientific value of this work relies on the choice of estimating the carbon footprint using wholly transparent data in order to allow its direct comparison to other estimates, as well as its straightforward re-calculation using better quality data, as available.

Fresh pasta is largely consumed in Italy and, given its widespread use worldwide, has been recently used as an important carrier of functional ingredients. In spite of its capability of strongly limiting blood cholesterol levels, β-glucans at high concentrations exert a negative effect on the sensory and texture quality of several the functional foods. This paper focuses on the sensory properties of two nutraceutical low-cholesterol fresh pastas made with wheat flour, semolina and pasteurized egg white and integrated with barley or oat flour high in β-glucans to assure 3 g of β-glucans per serving (100 g). Once the sensory profile of all pasta types examined had been characterized, the Principal Component Analysis allowed the sensory data to be discriminated using just two eigenvectors. In the final consumer test, the novel fresh pasta enriched with oat flour obtained higher scores for odor, external appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, and overall acceptability, than those of the conventional whole egg pasta. The darker color, rougher appearance and smaller homogeneity (dotting), as well as the hints and taste of cereals and fibrousness, gave this special fresh egg white pasta an aspect of craftsmanship and healthiness plus an enrichment of the aromatic bouquet, which increased the consumer preference.

During daily pasta cooking, the general consumer pays little attention to water and energy issues. The present study aimed to measure the cooking quality and environmental impact of a standard format of dry pasta by varying the water-to-dried pasta ratio (WPR) from 12 to 2 L kgIn the above WPR range, the cooked pasta water uptake (1.3 ± 0.1 g gCooking dry pasta in a large excess of water (ie, 10 L kg

Cimini A, Moresi M (2018) Mitigation measures to minimize the cradle-to-grave beer carbon footprint as related to the brewery size and primary packaging materials. Journal of Food Engineering, 236: 1-8. Brewing is quite an energy-intensive process, and its environmental impact has been the object of several life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. In this work, the potentialities of a series of options directed to mitigate the main hotspots of the beer life cycle were evaluated to minimize the cradle-to grave carbon footprint (CFC2G) of 1 hL of beer produced in three large- (LS), medium-(MS) and small-(SS) sized breweries and packed in 66-cL glass or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by using a previously developed LCA model. As the annual brewery capacity reduced from 3 106 to 600 hL/yr, the estimated CFC2G scores increased from ~127 to 192, or 103e169 kg CO2e hL1 for glass or PET bottles, respectively. Their main hotspots depended on the primary packaging material used, even in the case of PET bottles for the large-sized brewery only. By replacing progressively virgin materials with 100%-recycled glass or PET bottles, road transport with rail one, barley grown abroad using conventional agriculture methods with local organic one, fossil fuel energy with solar photovoltaic one, etc., CFC2G declined to 56e60, or 80 kg CO2e hL1 in the case of LS and MS, or SS breweries, respectively, independently of the primary packaging material used. Such an approach appeared to be useful to identify how to reduce effectively CFC2G, as well as to decide to invest on the collection of selected primary data or assessment of other environmental impact categories to avoid burden shifting.

In this work, the cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF) performance of a rough pale lager, produced in the industrial brewery Birra Peroni Srl (Rome, Italy), was assessed in a bench-top rig, equipped with a 0.8-μm ceramic hollow-fiber membrane module, to overcome the recognized inefficacy of back-flushing cleaning techniques in ceramic multi-channel monolithic modules. In total recycle CFMF trials, as the transmembrane pressure difference (TMP) was increased from 0.59 to 3.56 bar, the quasi-steady-state permeation flux (J*) tended to a limiting value increasing with the cross-flow velocity (v S). To minimize the overall membrane surface to be installed for a prefixed permeate recovery, it was found to be expedient to operate at the aforementioned high cross-flow velocity and TMP of 3.56 bar, thus obtaining quite a high quasi-steady-state permeation flux (mean, μ = 173 L m−2 h−1; standard deviation, sd = 7 L m−2 h−1; number of observations, N = 12). The energy consumption per liter of permeate collected was found to be practically independent of the operating variables v S and TMP selected (μ = 55 W h L−1; sd = 2 W h L−1; N = 21). Yet, a permeate flux greater than 100 L m−2 h−1 was achieved on condition that TMP was greater than 2 bar and v S varied from 4 to 6 m s−1. A few validation batch CFMF tests, carried out using pre-centrifuged, PVPP-stabilized, and cartridge-filtered rough pale lager at TMP = 3.56 bar, v S = 6 m s−1, and 10 °C under a predefined CO2 backwashing program, resulted in an average permeation flux (μ = 239 L m−2 h−1; sd = 24 L m−2 h−1; N = 2) by far greater than that (50–100 L m−2 h−1) claimed at 0–2 °C by the three CFMF processes commercially available. Finally, it was proved the easy transferability of the lager beer clarification and stabilization process, previously developed in a single-tube membrane module, to a ceramic hollow-fiber membrane module industrially upscalable.

In this work, the crossflow microfiltration (CFMF) performance of different lots of a rough pale lager, produced in the industrial brewery Birra Peroni Srl (Rome, Italy), was assessed in a bench-top plant, equipped with a 0.8-μm ceramic tubular membrane module, under constant crossflow velocity (6 m s −1 ), transmembrane pressure difference (3.74 bar), temperature (10 °C), and periodic CO 2 backflushing. The average permeation flux increased from (86 ± 8) to (252 ± 21) L m −2 h −1 , provided that the rough beer was fed as such or pre-centrifuged to minimize the fouling contribution of yeast cells and aggregates, respectively. In both cases, the permeate turbidity at 20 °C fulfilled that recommended by the European Brewery Convention standards; but, as expected, the chill haze at 0 °C was quite higher than 0.6 EBC unit. A preliminary stabilization of pre-centrifuged beer using 0.5 g L −1 of regenerable polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) at 0 °C for 24 h allowed the permeate chill haze to be reduced to (0.63 ± 0.22) EBC unit; but the average permeation flux fell to (161 ± 21) L m −2 h −1 . By removing the residual PVPP particles from stabilized beer using a 2.7-μm filter before CFMF, it was possible not only to re-enhance the average permeation flux up to 337 L m −2 h −1 (this value being in line with those achievable with conventional DE-filters), but also to obtain a chill haze-free permeate ready for aseptically packaging. By referring to an industrial plant capacity of 2 × 10 6 h L of lager beer, the estimated overall operating costs and global warming potential for this novel combined pale lager clarification and PVPP stabilization procedure reduced to about the 30% of those associated with the current industrial DE-filtration and regenerable PVPP stabilization procedures.

In this work, the main constraint (that is, beer chilling and chill haze removing) of the current beer conditioning techniques using Kieselguhr filtration and Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) treatment was overcome by developing a novel higher-throughput conditioning process, operating at room temperatures with no use of filter aids. The effect of filtration temperature (TA novel Kieselguhr- and PVPP-free rough beer conditioning process at room temperatures was set up. By submitting precentrifuged rough beer to commercial preparation Brewers Clarex ® and then to membrane clarification at 30 °C across a ceramic 1.4-μm hollow-fiber membrane module, it was possible to obtain a clear and stable beer with a throughput (1306 ± 72 L/m

The energy efficiency (hC), carbon footprint (CF) and operating costs (CC) of home dried pasta cooking were assessed. In particular, hC for the electric hot-plate (46±3 %), induction (33±5 %), or LPG (30±4 %) hob was found to be definitively smaller than the minimum energy efficiency performance requirements for EU domestic hobs. Pans of different size, but with the same high thermal diffusivity, had a negligible effect on hC at the probability level of 0.05. By covering the pan with its lid and setting the power rate of each cooking appliance initially to the maximum level to make the cooking water boil faster, and then to the minimum one to keep almost constant the cooking water temperature and allow starch granule gelatinization, GHG emissions reduced by 81, 73, or 86% with respect to those released with the LPG, electric, or induction hob adjusted at the maximum power setting, respectively. Such a cooking practice applied to the induction hob allowed CF and CC to be minimized to 0.67 kg CO2e and €0.47 per kg of pasta cooked. The resulting energy saving amounted to 31 or 18% of the energy consumed under the same procedure by the LPG or electric cooker, respectively. Such a cooking system in conjunction with the aforementioned practice might represent an eco-friendly solution to limit the environmental impact of dried pasta consumption. Italian Ministry of Instruction, University and Research, special grant PRIN 2015 - prot. 2015MFP4RC_002.

In this work, laboratory-made green beers were produced using a commercial hopped malt extract and used to study their cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF) performance in a bench-top plant, appropriately designed and equipped with ceramic tubular membrane modules with nominal pore size of 0.4, 0.8, or 1.2 μm, under different values of the initial green beer turbidity (H ≡ 0.7–61.9 European Brewery Convention (EBC) unit), feed superficial velocity (v S ≡ 2–6 m s−1), and transmembrane pressure difference (TMPD ≡ 0.97–4.73 bar) under constant temperature (~10 °C). Whatever the membrane pore size and rough beer turbidity, the minimum quasi-steady-state value of the overall membrane resistance $$ \left({\mathrm{R}}_{\mathrm{T}}^{*}\right) $$ was obtained at TMPD of 3 to 4 bar and v S = 6 m s−1. The 0.8-μm pore membrane was selected for the loss in the permeate density, and color was limited, while the volumetric permeation flux was high enough. Then, it was used to assess a double logarithmic trend between the quasi-steady-state permeation flux (J*) and beer turbidity with a limiting flux of 63 ± 6 L m−2 h−1 for H > 21 EBC units. Precentrifuged beer feeding resulted in 2.7- to 4.1-fold increase in J* with respect to the above limiting flux, provided that the haze level of rough beer had been reduced to 1.0 or 0.7 EBC unit, respectively. The cake filtration fouling mechanism was identified as the main reason for flux decline by analyzing mathematically the time course of both the experimental permeate volume and permeation flux data. By operating with the aforementioned clarified green beers at TMPD of 3.73 bar, v S of 6 m s−1, and periodic CO2 backflushing, the average permeation flux (300–385 L m−2 h−1) resulted to be from three to five times higher than that (80–100 L m−2 h−1) at 0–2 °C claimed by the three commercial CFMF processes currently available.