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Italy is the second largest producer in the world of olive oil, preceded only by Spain. Although olive oil can be considered as a “green gold” all over the world, the treatment of its by-products is a critical aspect to cope with. Indeed, the polluting character of such by-product together with its high costs for an effective disposal strongly penalize the olive oil industry. In particular, 50 % of oil production costs depend on its waste disposal. In this context, the aim of this work was to evaluate a potential exploitation of olive pomace as a feedstock for the production of flavours of interest for the food industry.

Citrus cultivation is one of the most important agricultural sectors in the world and the main uses of these products are the market of fresh produce and the production of juices, pulps, purees, jams and ready-to-eat salads. The citrus processing by-product mainly contains water and many compounds which can have remarkable biological properties, and can therefore be considered as a source of high.value substances, a source of fiber and antioxidants

In cystic fibrosis (CF) patients the normal community of commensal bacteria in the gut can be affected by intestinal exocrine alfunction, antibiotic usage and swallowing of infected respiratory mucus. However, CFrelated gut dysbiosis has only recently been subjected to detailed investigation. Herein we report on the integrated metaproteomic, metagenomic and metabolomic workflow for monitoring gut microbiota composition. Twenty-four faecal samples were collected from cystic fibrosis young patients (age range 0-6 years) and 6 faecal samples from healthy children. All samples were processed for peptide, DNA and metabolite analysis. Protein content was analyzed with a shotgun metaproteomic approach by a nano-scale LC-MS2 set-up (Bruker amaZon-ETD) and filtered for operational taxon units (OTUs) assignment. OTUs were corroborated by hybridization of the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene variable regions against the human intestinal tract microarray platform HITChip. In order to evaluate the volatile metabolites a gas-chromatographic (GC)–mass spectrometer (MS)/solid-phase microextraction (SPME) analysis was performed. 1H-NMR spectra were acquired on a Varian 400 MHz Mercury-plus NMR. Pre-analytical steps of the metaproteomics workflow were devised to improve hit coverage, while the OTUs repository was guaranteed by metagenomics entries. 1H-NMR and GC-MS/SPME were used to identify and quantify fecal metabolites. The application of integrated meta-omics-based approaches to the characterization of the membership and dynamics of the polymicrobial communities colonizing the gut is expected to have important predictive potential in translational medicine, specially in CF-related gut dysbiosis.

… European Biotechnol Themat Network Assoc

This study examines the effects of the EU biofuel policy on European agriculture. The requirements in terms of feedstock and arable land of the EU biofuel targets have been evaluated by assuming scenarios of different price levels for agricultural commodities and the possibility of the EU biofuel industry to be alternatively supplied by European crops or through import. The research has also investigated the technical adaptation of agricultural holdings, the consequences of the prospective CAP changes, and the impact on the EU food industry and on the environment (land resources, biodiversity, GHG balances, sustainable feedstock production).

"The 1980's are to be considered a decade of squandered opportunities in so far as a more equitable distribution of resources is concerned. The economic growth registered by certain industrialized countries in both the East and West ran parallel to the stagnation and recession afflicting Africa and Latin America,where poverty brought into sharper relief the gap between the rich and poor nations. " The problems of hunger and malnutrition are anything but solved and the food supply needed to meet increasing demand remains one of the key issues to be faced in the coming millennium. Assessing against such a backdrop the economic importance and the role of the cattle industry in its varying social contexts and surveying its typologies, range of production practices and the particular development that distinguishes them are but part of a far more multifaceted and complex world than may, at first glance, seem to be the case. Indeed, understanding and defining this sector are complicated even further by the far-reaching changes that have occurred over the last few years in the agricultural policies and trade relations of the world's leading agricultural producers as well as by the rapid transformation in the political and social fabric of both the former command-economy countries and those of the southern hemisphere. Then, too, the ongoing evolution in the modern dietary regimen and in the consumption patterns of meat and dairy products puts any interpretation of what is happening in the sphere of wishful thinking and makes any attempt to define the development prospects for the cattle industry very debatable., The Bovine Practitioner, No. 29 (1995 September)