Liliana Tudoreanu

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper

Surgical castration of piglets without pain relief is still common practice in many countries. Possible alternatives for surgical castration are application of pain relief or anaesthesia or production of boars (entire males) and immunocastrates. Each of these alternatives faces advantages and disadvantages which may result in different citizen attitudes and consumers acceptability. Understanding which practice is acceptable to whom and why may further stimulate implementation. Consumer (n = 3251) and stakeholder (n = 1027) attitudes towards surgical castration without pain relief, surgical castration with anaesthesia, immunocastration, and production of boars were surveyed from April to June 2020 via an online questionnaire in 16 countries (>175 respondents per country). Surgical castration without pain relief was separated from each of the alternatives due to animal welfare and showed the lowest acceptability (32%). Within the alternatives, a further partitioning between the alternatives was based on perceived quality and food safety, with an acceptance of 85% for applying anaesthesia, 71% for immunocastration, and 49% for boar production. Differences depending on professional involvement and familiarity with agriculture could be observed, mainly for the acceptance of surgical castration without anaesthesia, immunocastration, and boars. Castration with anaesthesia was highly accepted by all types of respondents.

The aim of this exploratory work, because of the existing bias on the size of the sample and some of the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, was to investigate the Eastern European consumers’ beliefs and attitudes toward animal welfare, to perform a cross-country segmentation analysis and to observe possible differences with their Western European counterparts. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 5508 consumers from 13 Eastern European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, North Macedonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine) using a questionnaire with nine statements about consumers beliefs regarding animal welfare (aspects of management, ethical issues about animals, and consequences of animal welfare on meat quality and price), one statement about the willingness to pay more for meat produced under better welfare conditions, and four statements regarding attitudes toward animal welfare. Differences between countries were detected for all the statements. Moreover, three clusters of consumers were identified: one with consumers indifferent towards animal welfare; one with consumers concerned about animal welfare, but they believe it is difficult to achieve; and one with consumers concerned about animal welfare, and they believe it is possible to achieve it.

This study goal was to evaluate the effects of 3 different cooking methods (boiling, roasting, and microwaving) on mineral concentrations of shrimps from the Bucharest market. Mineral content in shrimp samples was evaluated by ICP-OES, and relative humidity was assessed by thermogravimetry. Cooking method insignificantly influenced the level of Fe. Ca and K levels were higher in cooked samples compared to raw shrimps, independent of cooking method. Essential (Cu, Se, and Zn), and non-essential and toxic (Al, Cd, Ni, and Pb) elements levels were significantly increased in boiled shrimps, compared to raw and the other 2 types of cooked samples. Generally, after cooking the lowest values of essential trace elements concentration was registered in roasted samples. The highest percentage of water loss was found in boiled samples. In general, thermal preparation increased mineral concentrations in cooked samples compared to raw shrimps.

BACKGROUND: Following public concern on the use of synthetic food antioxidants, there is an increasing demand for the application of mixed or purified natural antioxidants to maintain quality of meat products quality during storage. The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of ethanolic extract of hawthorn berry, compared to butylated hydroxylanisole (BHA), on lipid peroxidation, myoglobin oxidation, protein electrophoresis pattern, consistency and firmness of minced pork during refrigeration at 4 °C, and to identify the relationship between chemical modifications and consistency variation.RESULTS: After 6 days of refrigeration it was found that the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances value of minced pork containing 200 mg GAE kg⁻¹ total phenolics in minced meat (200 HP) was significantly lower (0.1543 ± 0.006 mg) compared to BHA‐treated meat. The ratio of oxymyoglobin to metmyoglobin in treated minced pork was respectively 0.845 for 200 HP and 0.473 for BHA‐treated minced meat. Concentrations of 100 HP or 300 HP will generate statistically higher firmness than BHA in minced pork.CONCLUSION: Hawthorn berry ethanolic extract was more effective than BHA in reducing lipid oxidation and protein degradation, for maintaining firmness and consistency of minced pork during 6 days of refrigeration at 4 °C. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry

The present research was conducted to provide information on the influence of stunning methods in conjunction with refrigeration and freezing time on the textural and rheological properties of raw meat. Pork raw meat, commercially available, was analyzed for textural properties such as hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness and fracture force. Sample were analyzed fresh, after 3 days of refrigeration, and 15 days, 30days and 60 days freezing time in commercially available refrigerators mimicking the storing conditions used by consumers. For pork raw meat, hardness increased sharply after 3 days of refrigeration and showed no significant differences after 15days of freezing compared to 3days refrigeration time. After 30 days of freezing the raw pork meat samples’ hardness decreased significantly compared to the hardness of the samples freeze for15 days. Hardness of gas stunning raw pork meat samples compared to electrical stunning raw pork meat samples was 2.57 times higher indicating a better firmness of the gas stunning raw pork meat. The cohesiveness of the raw pork meat from gas stunned animals maintained its levels after 60 days of freezing while the meat from electrically stunned animals showed significant modificatio

Introduction: Consumers preferences for solid food are, for the majority of foods groups, influenced by their textural properties. Romanian traditional cuisine is rich in meat foods and therefore this food group has an important contribution to the total mineral intake as well as the ingestion of potentially toxic metals such as Cd and Pb. Although beef liver is an important source of minerals for human consumption, its concentrations in Cd and Pb and heterogeneous textural properties may hinder its acceptability. Aims: The purpose of the work was to estimate raw and cooked beef meat and offal mineral quality including Cd and Pb concentrations and their contribution to a balanced human diet and health as well as the influenced of thermal preparation on their mineral and textural properties. Materials and methods: Beef liver, kidney and longissimus dorsi muscle were bought from local markets. Thermal preparation was conducted by microwave and boiling with no water contact. Texture profile analyses was conducted for quantifying textural properties such as Hardness, Cohesiveness, Springiness, Springiness Index, Chewiness, Adhesiveness and Stiffness. The mineral concentrations of the raw and cooked samples were analyzed by ICP-MS. Conclusion: The offal textural parameters variability was very large within the same organ and compared to the muscle textural parameters variability too. Muscle and offal thermal preparation strongly influenced their minerals’ concentrations as well as their textural properties. Thermal preparation significantly decreased beef liver and kidney samples’ total K and Na concentrations. It is suggested that for improving beef liver acceptability, the consumer has to be advised on the influence of the thermal preparation on beef liver parts’ textural properties as well as minerals concentrations.

BACKGROUND: Cadmium accumulates in sheep tissues and often approaches the legal limit for human consumption in kidneys. Previous models have focused on transfer from plants to sheep but have restricted value due to seasonal and species variation in plant cadmium concentration. We created a model for the accumulation of cadmium in sheep using empirical relationships previously derived for accumulation in sheep kidney and liver from feeds, together with equations for accumulation in feeds derived from soil characteristics. The combined model relates soil cadmium to liver and kidney concentrations. RESULTS: Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the kidney accumulated cadmium faster than the liver and the greatest influence was the total cadmium concentration in the soil. The weight gain of the sheep and soil pH where the feed was grown had relatively minor influences on cadmium concentration in liver or kidney. CONCLUSION: A combined model of soil, plant and sheep kidney and liver characteristics enables concentrations of cadmium in sheep liver and kidney to be predicted from soil characteristics. This will enable the long-term risks of specific sites to be predicted with greater accuracy than if just plant cadmium concentrations were utilized. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry

Linear regression of published values for soil parameters and cadmium concentrations in plant tissues offers the opportunity to develop uptake coefficients that can be applied in a wide range of circumstances. A widespread literature search was performed which identified publications from the last 20 years containing information on cadmium uptake by maize and rye grass plants. After discarding experiments with inadequate data or parameters, 10 and eight papers were chosen for maize and rye grass respectively to develop linear models that related pH and cadmium concentration in the growth media (soil in pots or nutrient solution) to cadmium concentration in maize or rye grass plants (excluding roots). Cadmium concentrations in both maize and rye grass were positively correlated with soil cadmium concentration, and in the case of maize negatively correlated with soil pH. They were also negatively correlated with the product of soil cadmium concentration and soil pH, demonstrating that at high soil cadmium concentration a high soil pH reduced plant cadmium concentration. A further model of data generated from one experiment with soya beans demonstrated that other factors, such as soil temperature, can have a major influence on uptake. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry