Beshir M Ali

The objective of the study is to assess effect of consumers' food choice motives, and consumers' personal and socio-demographic characteristics on their willingness to buy new food products, that are aimed to be more sustainable and healthy by the use of microbial applications during crop production. Here, we register the hypotheses of the study prior to conducting an online survey.

The Swedish risk management case of Baltic fatty fishes, in which dioxin levels may be too high, is a typical multidimensional food safety decision problem involving public health, economic, environmental and socio-cultural aspects. To effectively address the dioxin food safety problem, the multiple dimensions and conflicting interests of stakeholders have to be considered systematically when evaluating competing risk management options. The objectives of this study were to illustrate the applicability of the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method for multidimensional food safety risk management problems, and to evaluate the Swedish dioxin risk management using MCDA. The results show that the MCDA method is indeed a relevant tool for modelling the multifactorial Swedish dioxin problem and for initiating discussions amongst stakeholders to increase the acceptance of chosen strategies. Abolishing the derogation from the European Commission’s maximum limits for the presence of ...

Analysis of consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainable foods produced using new agri-food technologies is required to enhance the uptake of innovations that accelerate the transition towards sustainable food systems. Consumers’ willingness to buy new food products, with no or limited consumption experience, mainly depends on their food choice motivational orientations (promotion- vs prevention-orientation). The objective of this study was to elicit consumers’ WTP for foods that are produced with microbial applications during the plant production phase with the aim to reduce the use of synthetic chemicals in crop farming, as well as to understand the associations of food choice motives, personal and socio-demographic factors with the WTP. We used contingent valuation to elicit consumers’ WTP for three food products (wheat bread, consumer potatoes and tomato sauce) through online surveys. Data were collected from 291 consumers, primarily from Italy, Germany and ...

Abstract Risk analysis consists of risk assessment (RA), risk management (RM), and risk communication (RC). In most countries, RA and RM of food safety are separated to achieve a high scientific integrity, and typically occur in sequential order. However, in case of a food safety incident, even though being separate processes, RA and RM are performed simultaneously due to great time pressure and expected high impacts. The aim of this study was to analyze and evaluate the observed interactions between RA and RM processes, during three major food incidents in Europe, and to provide suggestions for possible improvement. Based on the differences observed between the three cases, strengths and weaknesses of each system have been identified. The enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) crisis in 2011 in Germany, the horsemeat scandal in 2013 in Ireland, and the fipronil incident in 2017 in the Netherlands were used as case studies. Timelines of these incidents and crisis management procedures in place in each of the three countries provided the basis for further analysis. First, results showed that details of the communication processes between RA and RM bodies were frequently lacking in crisis management protocols. Second, RA, RM, and RC processes differed for each incident, due to differences in estimated risk for public health, but also due to differences in the organization within a country. Based on our results, we recommend that crisis management protocols should contain a section on communication between RA, RM, and on communication between member states in the EU.

A stochastic bio-economic farm model was developed to assess the impact of innovations on pig farm performance. The model accounts for emissions of greenhouse gases by using the shadow price of CO2 and for stochastic prices. The model was used to assess the impact of using co-products in pigs’ diets on private and social profits for a typical Brazilian farrow-to-finish pig farm. The results show that social profits are 2.2-3.6% lower than private profits in all the standard and alternative cases. The stochasticity of profits is large (with coefficients of variation 52% to 61%) following from the volatility of prices.

The LocalPork project aims to improve the efficiency of pork production in Brazil. Pigs in Brazil are usually fed a diet based on corn and soybean. Growing these pigs on a diet that includes local alternative ingredients raises a number of questions related to breeding for such an environment. First, what is the economic and environmental impact of alternative local diets. Second, what are the purebred-crossbred genetic correlations and the extent of genotype by environment interaction. Third, how to accurately predict breeding values based on crossbred performance. Performance of pigs in Brazil that are fed a reference or alternative diets was predicted and alternative diets that include Macauba or other co-products were found to improve the economic and environmental performance of pork production. Genotype by feed interaction was investigated in crossbred pigs that were fed either a corn and soybean based diet or a diet based on wheat, barley and co-products. Genetic correlations...

Recently developed innovations may improve the economic and environmental sustainability of pig production systems. Generic models are needed to assess the impact of innovations on farm performance. Here we developed a stochastic bio-economic farm model for a typical farrow-to-finish pig farm to assess the impact of innovations on private and social profits. The model accounts for emissions of greenhouse gases from feed production and manure by using the shadow price of CO2, and for stochasticity of economic and biological parameters. The model was applied to assess the impact of using locally produced alternative feed sources (i.e. co-products) in the diets of finishing pigs on private and social profits of a typical Brazilian farrow-to-finish pig farm. Three cases were defined: a reference case (with a standard corn-soybean meal-based finishing diet), a macaúba case (with a macaúba kernel cake-based finishing diet) and a co-products case (with a co-products-based finishing diet). ...

Food security (FS) is one of the most elusive and sought-after objectives worldwide. Securing a country’s self-sufficiency— in the current COVID-19 pandemic era, more than ever—has become a prioritized mission. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, FS is adversely affected by, among others, the scarcity of freshwater, harsh environment, regional conflicts, and rising temperatures. Following the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, exporters placed export restrictions on key food crops, affecting FS in import dependent regions, such as the MENA countries and, more specifically, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This paper presented a conceptual framework on the key enablers for the UAE agri-food supply chains to obtain the necessary resiliency to achieve FS, through improving policy-making capacity. The proposed approach started with the assessment of the main vulnerabilities of the food system in a global context; from there, the factors that influence vulnerability were in...