Academic literature on the topic 'Food contact material (FCM)'

Since the advent of commercial production of Food Contact Materials (FCM) and their extensive use in day to day life, many harmful effects on health were reported to be caused due to ingestion of food contaminated with constituents that migrated from FCM. Over the years, this aspect of food safety from FCM rose to be an important research interest and thus added scientific information on FCM. Based on the scientific evidence and new issues being raised (E.g. BPA replaced by other substances), these regulations are also being molded from time to time across the world. Therefore this review aims at providing an overview of regulations and amendments on FCM in various countries with emphasis on important aspects (e.g. traceability and safeguard measures of EU framework regulations, Food contact notification of USFDA, etc.) in FCM laws. Hereunder, for a better understanding of these regulations, various countries reviewed in this article are grouped into 3 categories, i.e. – countries having 1) specific regulations 2) Non- specific/ few regulations 3) No data available on FCM regulations. Though these regulations differed from one country to other, all were formulated with a primary objective, of ensuring consumer food safety. This review will not only help in ensuring food safety but also helps in, to strengthen regulatory framework and grow in trade, fulfilling the gaps with global FCM regulations.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemical compounds widely used in different industry fields including food contact materials (FCM), providing resistance to fat and humidity, and non-stick properties. PFAS enter into the food chain directly from the intake of contaminated food or indirectly from the migration of the FCM into the food. This exposure published in different research highlights a public health concern. Therefore, it is necessary to perform analysis of the content of different FCM and evaluate the migration from the FCM under normal conditions of use and storage. This bibliographical review proves that different perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds are detected in fast food packaging, microwave popcorn bags, and frying pans, among others. Furthermore, it shows the conditions or factors that favor the migration of the PFAS from the FCM into the food.

Health and welfare of population are priority reasons to study the toxic effects of chemical pollutants. These effects can directly produce deterioration of health or can cause less healthful environment toxicity and restricting food production. Thereby, preventing such a consequence is important for human health risk assessment. In recent times, the use of recycled materials for packaging has undeniably been intensified. Nevertheless, recycling systems could not effectively eliminate the potential effect of chemical pollutants (alkyl phenol, phthalates, aldehydes, etc.) existent in such packages. The migration process and/or the ability of these pollutants to be absorbed into the recycled material, subsequently released by the packaging material, and then trapped by the matrices they contain, has become a potential source of exposure to consumers. This process is controlled by the nature of the packaging, time, temperature, and the physicochemical properties of the contaminant. The literature suffers from a lack of data related to the physicochemical (aqueous solubility, vapor pressure, Henry’s constant, etc...) of these contaminants. In this work, we are going to describe the experimental devices used for aqueous solubility, vapor pressure and octanol/water partition coefficient determination.

Serious alert and border rejection notifications on food contact materials (FCM) retrieved from the RASFF database were analyzed for the first time regarding the period 2012–2019. The findings indicate that China was the main transgressor country for both types of notifications. Official controls were responsible for most FCM serious alerts (91.78%), and border rejection (90.82%) notifications. Another novelty proposed herein, is the criterion for “lag phases” (time from sampling to notification dates). Overall percentage distributions of lag phases, for all RASFF Member States, for the intervals of 0–50 days and 51–≥101 days, were 25.09% and 67.87% for serious alert notifications and 65.21% and 29.34% for serious border rejection notifications. Differences in percent shares of lag phase intervals were observed between the top-four notifying countries, indicating a lack of harmonization in timely reporting of serious alert and border rejection notifications for FCM. Migration of primary aromatic amines and of metals were the most frequently notified hazards overall in the period of analysis. A decreasing trend is observed in the two more recent biannual averages of serious alert notifications for primary aromatic amines and metals, while decreasing for metals but increasing for primary aromatic amines in serious border rejection notifications.

Food contact materials (FCM) are defined as the objects and materials intended to come into direct or indirect contact with foodstuff, while food contact articles are defined as objects, being equipment, containers, packaging and various utensils which are clearly intended to be used for the manufacture, preparation, conservation, flow, transport or handling of foodstuffs [...]

Abstract Objectives Artisanal cooking pots constructed with recycled aluminum and scrapped car body parts are widely used in the developing world for large scale cooking of food for ceremonies, roadside sells and small-scale food processing. Assessment of the potential health risks of pots fabricated with recycled metal/alloy is the objective of this work Methods Three food stuffs; rice, beans and tomato, and five pots; new aluminum pot (NAP), pitted aluminum pot (PAP), artisan aluminum pot (AAP), stainless steel pot (SSP) and artisan alloy pot (AAY) were used to conduct the study. Each pot was used to cook and store each food item for 0, 12 and 24 h. This mimics the usual style of overnight keeping of cooked food inside these pots. Metal contents of the cooked and stored foods were determined with a spectrophotometer and estimate of health risk was calculated based on the tolerable limits specified by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2008.. Specific Release Limit (SRL) of metals based on ALARA principles for food contact material (FCM) was also referenced (Council of Europe, 2013). Results Lead migration into cooked food occurred most (4.32 ± 0.18 mg/kg) in AAY pot and least (0.13 ± 0.05 mg/kg) in SSP while Al migration occurred most in AAP. The mean quantities of Al and Pb ions released by all the pots except SSP into cooked food were above the tolerable limits (Pb = 0.01 mg/kg food; Al = 0.1 mg/kg food). In all cases, metal ion migration increased with increase in food/pot contact time. The average range of Pb content in the food samples were 0.03 to 00.75 mg/kg, 0.23 to 2.63 mg/kg, and 0.84 to 4.19 mg/kg for the raw, cooked and after 24 h storage, respectively. In terms of SRL, AAY and AAP were least favored. Irrespective of pot type used, tomato had the highest level of metal ion content followed by beans and then rice. The work demonstrates that the problem of Pb and Al leaching into cooked food correlates with the type of cooking pot, contact time between food and pot as well as the nature of the foodstuff. Conclusions We conclude that artisanal cooking pots as FCM release Al and Pb ions at potentially toxic levels that poses health risks to the population. Stainless steel surface is suggested as better FCM at all levels of food processing. Our results support the need for countries in the developing world to ban the use of artisanal (uncoated) metal/alloy as FCM. Funding Sources This research was self sponsored.

In February 2021, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority came out with their risk assessment on formaldehyde exposure from melamine crockery with bamboo fiber to especially young children. In this short commentary, I will critique their assessment of this type of food-contact material (FCM). The main flaws are at least: (i) absence of a proper valuation of the available principal scientific literature yielding a biased risk assessment; (ii) discounting the endogenous formaldehyde formation that outweighs background exposure substantially; (iii) ad hoc positing of an unjustifiable and unfounded low background exposure levels to formaldehyde whereby risks of exposure to melamine formaldehyde is grossly exaggerated. This biased assessment has created societal unrest that is wholly uncalled for. Additionally, it has wide-ranging European consequences for the use of all melamine FCM.

Abstract Food contact materials (FCM) may contain complex mixtures of estrogenic chemicals. A yeast estrogen screen performed on high performance thin-layer chromatography plates (planar-YES, P-YES) is promising for analysis of such mixtures, as it could allow for better elucidation of effects compared with established methods in microtiter plates. However, the P-YES has not been directly compared with established methods. We compared the performance of a microtiter plate YES (lyticase-YES, L-YES) to P-YES on silica gel HPTLC plates using 17β-estradiol (E2), 20 chemicals representative of migrants from plastic FCM, and three migrates of coated metal food cans. Effective doses (ED10, ED50) and estradiol equivalencies were calculated for each chemical. Thirteen chemicals had calculable EDs in the L-YES or P-YES, with average EDs 13-fold (range 0.63–36) more potent in P-YES than in the L-YES. Normalized to E2, the median estrogenicity was within 1.5-fold (0.43–8.8) between the assays. Therefore, P-YES was as or more sensitive than L-YES but potencies relative to E2 were comparable between assays. With chromatography, the P-YES detected estrogenicity in coated metal cans, effects that were unmeasurable in L-YES. With the sample preparation methods used in this study, both YES assays are sufficiently sensitive to detect bisphenol A below the specific migration limit for plastic packaging (0.05 mg/kg food). This study demonstrates that P-YES outperforms L-YES because it is more sensitive, provides comparable estradiol equivalents, and circumvents confounding mixture effects. The P-YES will be useful for routine monitoring of FCM and toxicant identification in problematic materials.

Background: Non-targeted screening of food contact materials (FCM) for non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) reveals a great number of unknown and unidentified substances present at low concentrations. In the absence of toxicological data, the application of the threshold of toxicological concern (TTC) or of EU Regulation 10/2011 requires methods able to fulfill safety threshold criteria. In this review, mammalian in vitro genotoxicity assays are analyzed for their ability to detect DNA-damaging substances at limits of biological detection (LOBD) corresponding to the appropriate safety thresholds. Results: The ability of the assays to detect genotoxic effects varies greatly between substance classes. Especially for direct-acting mutagens, the assays lacked the ability to detect most DNA reactive substances below the threshold of 10 ppb, making them unsuitable to pick up potential genotoxicants present in FCM migrates. However, suitability for the detection of chromosomal damage or investigation of other modes of action makes them a complementary tool as part of a standard test battery aimed at giving additional information to ensure safety. Conclusion: improvements are necessary to comply with regulatory thresholds to consider mammalian genotoxicity in vitro assays to assess FCM safety.

The purpose of this thesis work was to develop a headspace solid phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) method to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in board samples and to statistically investigate potential correlation between chromatographic data and flavor data obtained from a trained panel. The developed method would hopefully serve as a complement to the already established routine analyses at Stora Enso and gain an increased understanding of which VOCs in the board influence its flavor properties. The impact of incubation time and adsorption time on the area under curve (AUC) was studied with a Design of Experiment screening using the software MODDE. The screening data showed a correlation between large AUC and low repeatability measured as relative standard deviation (RSD). The data was hard to fit to a model due to the large RSD values for the replicates, AUC for identified compounds as response gave an acceptable fit. The regression coefficients for the model showed that a longer adsorption time gave larger AUC, while incubation time had no significant impact on the response.  Instead of following up the screening with an optimization, the focus was shifted to improving the repeatability of the method, i.e. lowering the RSD. The high RSD was believed to mainly be the result of leakage of analytes and unstable temperature during adsorption, preventing the system from reaching equilibrium. Different heating options and capping options for the vial was tested. Septum in crimp cap ensured a gas tight seal for the vial, giving lower RSD values and larger AUC compared to the other alternatives, showing that there was indeed a leakage. Using oil bath ensured stable temperature during the adsorption and detection of a larger number of VOCs but created a temperature gradient in the vial due to it not being fully submerged in the oil. Oil bath gave larger AUC, but still high RSD due to the temperature gradient making the method sensitive to variance in fiber depth in the vial. The final method was performed with 2 g of board sample in a 20 ml headspace vial sealed with a crimp cap with septa. The incubation and adsorption were performed with the vial immersed in a 90-degree oil bath. 20 min incubation time was chosen based on the time it took to get a stable temperature gradient in the vial, and 20 minutes adsorption time was chosen as a good compromise between large AUC and low RSD. Compared to Stora Ensos routine analysis, the developed SPME method gave chromatograms with an improved signal-to-noise ratio for the base line and several more peaks with larger AUC. For the board sample used during method development, the SPME-method identified 34 VOCs, while the routine analysis only identified 12. The developed method was applied on 11 archived board samples of the same quality that were selected based on their original flavor properties, to get a large diversity of samples. Flavor analysis was performed by letting a trained flavor panel describe the flavor based on intensity and character of the water that had individually been in indirect contact with one of the 11 board sample for 24 h. Potential correlation between chromatographic data obtained with the developed method and the flavor experience described by the flavor panelists was statistically investigated with the multivariate analysis software SIMCA. The correlation study showed that a combination of 12 VOCs with short retention time are most likely the main source of off-flavor which of 5 could only be identified with the developed SPME method. VOCs with long retention time did not contribute to an off-flavor and might have a masking effect on flavor given by other VOCS, however not confirmed in this study. Furthermore, the age of the board samples proved to be a good indicator for prediction of the flavor intensity, whereas the total AUC of the samples was not. Possible correlation between detected VOCs in the samples and flavor character given by the flavor panel were seen, however the variation in the data and the sample set were too small, preventing from making conclusions on individual VOCs impact on the flavor experience. The developed HS-SPME-GC-MS method would serve as a complement to the already established routine analyses at Stora Enso and has slightly increased the understanding of which VOCs in the board influence the flavor properties

An Lebensmittelverpackungen wird heutzutage durch die zunehmende Nachfrage nach einfach zubereitbaren Fertigprodukten eine Vielzahl von Anforderungen gestellt. Diese Verpackungen sollen das Lebensmittel zum Beispiel vor Licht und Mikroorganismen schützen, weiterhin sollen sie verformbar, temperaturbeständig, mechanisch und chemisch belastbar sein. Sie sollen das Lebensmittel vor Aromaverlust bewahren, einen Gasaustausch ermöglichen und einen konstanten Feuchtigkeitshaushalt erhalten. Für den Verbraucher dagegen sind hauptsächlich das optische Erscheinungsbild und die Qualität des verpackten Lebensmittels von Bedeutung. Um diesen hohen Anforderungen entsprechen zu können, sind moderne Lebensmittel-verpackungen technologisch sehr hochwertige Produkte, die sich durch eine Kombination von unterschiedlichen Materialien auszeichnen. Im vielschichtigen Aufbau der Verpackung liegt gleichzeitig die Migrationsproblematik begründet. Durch den Einsatz von unterschiedlichen monomeren Ausgangsstoffen und resultierenden Reaktionsprodukten besteht ein Migrationspotential, welches von der Verpackung auf das Lebensmittel ausgeht. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, die Migration aus verschiedenen Konservendosen und Kunststoffverpackungen, welche zum größten Teil derzeit als Verpackung im Lebensmittelsektor eingesetzt werden, zu untersuchen. Dazu wurden Gesamtmigrate mit unterschiedlichen Simulanzien (für wässrige, alkoholische und fetthaltige Lebensmittel und Milchprodukte) hergestellt. Einen Schwerpunkt stellte dabei die Analytik von speziell in fetthaltige Simulanzien migrierende Substanzen dar, da es sich hierbei um den sogenannten worst case handelt. Zusätzlich wurde versucht die migrierenden Substanzen mittels chromatographischen Methoden zu identifizieren und quantifizieren. Die kommerziell erhältlichen Standardsubstanzen beziehungsweise die isolierten Migrationsprodukte und die Gesamtmigrate wurden in einem Zellkulturtest (Neutralrottest) an humanen Zelllinien (Hep-G2, HT-29) auf ihr zytotoxikologisches Potential untersucht und bewertet. Ein Hauptaugenmerk sollte dabei auf migrierende Substanzen mit einem Molekulargewicht von unter 1000 Da gelegt werden. Moleküle von dieser Größe bilden eine mögliche Gefahr für den menschlichen Organismus, da sie durch den Gastrointestinaltrakt potentiell absorbierbar sind. Im Migrat des untersuchten Epoxyanhydrid-Coating (EP-AH-Coating) wurden die gesetzlich geregelten Substanzen BADGE, BADGE*2H2O und BPA identifiziert und quantifiziert. Deren Anteil an der Toxizität des Gesamtmigrates war mit circa 0,5 % sehr gering. Zur weiteren Aufklärung der Gesamttoxizität wurde das Migrat in vier Fraktionen (< 400 Da, 400-700 Da, 700-1000 Da, > 1000 Da) eingeteilt. Es wurde gezeigt, dass eine Fraktionierung des Migrates keinen Verlust des zytotoxikologischen Potentials auslöste. Weiterhin konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Fraktionen < 400 Da und > 1000 Da keinen zytotoxischen Effekt hervorriefen, im Gegensatz zu den Fraktionen zwischen 400-700 Da und 700-1000 Da. Die Fraktion 400-700 Da besaß das höchste zytotoxikologische Potential. Die Effekte der einzelnen Fraktionen lagen aber unter den bestimmten zytotoxikologischen Effekten im Gesamtmigrat. Bei der Untersuchung der gesammelten Fraktion 400-1000 Da konnte festgestellt werden, dass sich das zytotoxikologische Potential im Gegensatz zum Gesamtmigrat erhöht hat. Dies lässt auf Wechselwirkungen zwischen den Molekülen der einzelnen Fraktionen schließen, wobei offensichtlich die Substanzen < 400 Da und > 1000 Da eine inhibierende Wirkung auslösten. Neben den genannten gesetzlich geregelten Substanzen wurde die Substanz Cyclo-diBADGE als Leitsubstanz für die Fraktion 400-700 Da identifiziert, quantifiziert und im Zelltest untersucht. Durch diese vier (BADGE, BADGE*2H2O, BPA, Cyclo-diBADGE) Substanzen konnten nun 18 % (Hep-G2) bzw. 22 % (HT-29) der Gesamttoxizität des Gesamtmigrates unter der Annahme von additiven Effekten aufgeklärt werden. Für die Ketchupverpackung konnte der Aufbau der einzelnen Schichten aufgeklärt werden. Von der lebensmittelzugewandten Seite wurden 60 % des Gesamtmigrates durch migrierende Kunststoffadditive aufgeklärt und 17 % des Migrates von der Außenseite. Ein Problem stellte dabei das Antioxidans Irgafos 168 dar, welches sich während der Probenvorbereitung und der Probenlagerung zu seinem Oxidationsprodukt umwandelte und somit als Summenparameter bestimmt wurde. Die anderen migrierenden Substanzen lagen nach der Probenvorbereitung und Lagerung der Probe unverändert vor. 97 % der migrierenden Substanzen aus der Innenseite der Verpackung und 38 % aus der Außenseite besaßen ein Molekulargewicht < 1000 Da und waren somit toxikologisch relevant. Im Migrat der lebensmittelzugewandten Seite wurden die Substanzen TBAC, DEHA, DBP, N-Ethyltoluolsulfonamid, Ölsäureamid, Erucamid, Irgafos-168-Äquivalente und Irganox 1076 identifiziert und quantifiziert. Diese Substanzen stellten 58,9 % des Gesamtmigrates dar. Das Migrat der Außenseite konnte nur zu 17,1 % durch die Substanzen TBAC, DEHA, DBS, DBP, N-Ethyltoluolsulfonamid, Ölsäureamid und Erucamid aufgeklärt werden. Von den in den Migraten der Kunststofffolie identifizierten Substanzen konnte nur für TBAC, DBP, N-Ethyltoluolsulfonamid und Ölsäureamid ein IC50-Wert im Neutralrottest ermittelt werden. In Abhängigkeit der untersuchten Zelllinie wurde ebenfalls für die genannten vier Substanzen der Anteil an der Toxizität des Gesamtmigrates unter Annahme, dass additive Effekte vorherrschen abgeschätzt. Dementsprechend konnte für die dem lebensmittelzugewandte Seite 16 % (Hep-G2) bzw. 9 % (HT-29) und für das Migrat der Außenseite 11 % (Hep-G2) bzw. 5 % (HT-29) der Gesamttoxizität aufgeklärt werden
Today many of demands are make on food contact material particularly in the field of convenience food. The packaging should protect the food before light and microorganism; the packaging should be also flexible, temperature and mechanical resistant and chemical inert, but also the nutrient-providing elements of foods ought to be protected. For the consumer are primarily the appearance and the quality of the food from interest. To meet these high requirements modern food contact materials are products of high technological quality. They mostly consist of a combination of variably materials, resulting in a multilayer structure. This composition of the packaging causes not only the desired positive effects, but also the migration risk of substances and substance groups from the packaging material into the food. Analyzing the migrating substances from different cans and plastic packing materials, which for the most part are currently in use in the food industry, was the aim of this work. For this purpose overall migrates were made with different kinds of food simulants (aqueous food (100 % H2O), alcoholic beverages (10% EtOH), diary products (50% EtOH) and fatty food (95% EtOH)). The main focus was set on the analytic of the migrating substances in fatty foods or simulants respectively, which is also called as the worst case. At first the migrating substances were identified and quantified chromatographically. Afterwards the cytotoxic potential of the commercial standard substances and isolated migrating substances were investigated by a cell culture assay (Neutral Red Assay) on human cell cultures (Hep-G2, HT-29). The attention was set on migrating substances with a molecular weight below 1000 Da. These substances are potentially able to be absorb by the gastrointestinal and so they might be a risk for the human health. The legally regulated substances BADGE, BADGE*2H2O and BPA were identified and quantified in the migrate of the investigated epoxy anhydride coating (EP-AH-Coating). Only 0.5 % of the cytotoxicity of the overall migrate could be explained via this three substances. For the further investigation of the cytotoxic effect of the overall migrate, the migrate was divided in four parts with different molecular weights (< 400 Da, 400-700 Da, 700-1000 Da, > 1000 Da). The single fractions were also determined in the neutral red assay for their cytotoxic potential. The fractions < 400 Da and > 1000 Da did not inhibit the cell viability. The fraction with the molecular weight 400-700 Da induced the highest cytotoxic effect on both cell lines. The single cytotoxic effects of the fractions 400-700 Da and 700-1000 Da were lesser than the effect of the overall migrate. But the effect of the fraction 400-1000 Da was higher than the effect of the overall migrate. Obviously there are interactions between the molecules of the single fractions, whereas the substances with a molecular weight < 400 Da and > 1000 Da had an inhibitive effect of the cytotoxic potential of the overall migrate. In the fraction 400-700 Da Cyclo-diBADGE was identified as a marker substance. Cyclo-diBADGE was isolated, quantified and investigated in the neutral red assay. Finally 18 % (Hep-G2) or 22 % (HT-29) of the cytotoxic effect of the overall migrate was estimate under the assumption of additional cytotoxic effects by these four (BADGE, BADGE*2H2O, BPA, Cyclo-diBADGE) substances. The multilayer structure of a second food packaging material for single ketchup portions was clarified. About 60 % of the migrating substances from the food contact side of the lamination were characterized by plastic additives and 17 % of the migrating substances of the non food contact side. 97 % of the migrating substances from the food contact side of the lamination exhibited a molecular weight below 1000 Da and might be a toxicological relevant. TBAC, DEHA, DBP, N-Ethyltoluolsulfonamide, Oleamide, Erucamide, Irgafos-168-äquivalents and Irganox 1076 were identified and quantified in the migrate on the food contact side of the lamination. In the neutral red assay a cytotoxic effect (IC50) was determined for the substances TBAC, DBP, N-Ethyltoluolsulfonamide and Oleamide. Depending on the investigated cell line 16 % (Hep-G2) and 9 % (HT-29) of the migrating substances from the food contact side of the lamination and 11 % (Hep-G2) and 5 % (HT-29) of the migrating substances of the non food contact side explained the cytotoxic effect of the overall migrates respectively

Neben der Sicherheit für Lebensmittel stehen auch immer mehr die Lebensmittelverpackungen im Fokus der Öffentlichkeit. Der Übergang von Stoffen aus der Verpackung in das Lebensmittel ist unerwünscht und gesetzlich reglementiert. Um den Verbraucherschutz zu gewährleisten, müssen Grenzwerte und gesetzliche Anforderungen eingehalten werden. Der Übergang von rechtlich geregelten und nicht geregelten Substanzen muss überprüft werden, was eine analytische Herausforderung darstellt. Die Untersuchung der migrierenden stickstoffhaltigen Substanzen aus Doseninnenbeschichtungen mittels eines Screenings aller migrierenden nicht-flüchtigen stickstoffhaltigen Substanzen mit einer molaren Masse kleiner 1000 Da wurde durchgeführt. Die Anwendbarkeit eines Stickstoff-selektiven Detektors für das Screening von Coating-Extrakten, welche stickstoffhaltige Verbindungen enthalten konnte gezeigt werden. Gegenstand der Untersuchung waren Vernetzersubstanzen, Flüssiglacke sowie Migrate der fertigen Beschichtung. Stickstoffhaltige potenziell migrierende Substanzen wurden zunächst in den Ausgangsmaterialien der Beschichtung identifiziert, um diese dann im Migrat der Beschichtung zu quantifizieren. Es sollte gezeigt werden, ob Substanzen, welche als Ausgangsstoffe im Lack eingesetzt werden, oder entstehende Reaktionsprodukte in ein Lebensmittelsimulanz migrieren. Um die Relevanz der migrierenden stickstoffhaltigen Verbindungen im Hinblick auf weitere nicht stickstoffhaltige migrierende Verbindungen zu zeigen, wurde das Gesamtmigrat der zur Verfügung stehenden Coatings bestimmt. Es zeigte sich, dass der Anteil von NCS an den insgesamt migrierenden Verbindungen zwischen 0,2 und 6,3 % liegt. Der Fokus des zweiten Teils der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt auf Lebensmittelverpackungen aus Kunststoff. Zunächst wurde eine HPLC-Methode mit Hilfe des Verdampfungslichtstreudetektors zur Bestimmung der Gesamtmigration mit dem Simulanz Sonnenblumenöl etabliert werden. Das Ziel dieser Untersuchungen ist, den Einfluss von Temperatur, Zeit und Schichtdicke auf das Migrationsverhalten von Siegelschichten für den Hochtemperaturbereich (> 70 °C) mit fetthaltigen Lebensmitteln mit Hilfe von statistischer Versuchsplanung vorherzusagen. Mit Hilfe einer statistischen Software konnte eine Regressionsgleichung zur Berechnung der Gesamtmigration auf der Grundlage eines Box-Behnken-Versuchsplans erstellt werden. Dabei hatte die Temperatur den größten Einfluss auf die Gesamtmigration. Die Einflüsse von Zeit und Schichtdicke waren im untersuchten Bereich des hier gezeigten Modells linear und stiegen mit Erhöhung der Temperatur. Weiterhin konnte je 10 °C Temperaturerhöhung eine Verdopplung des ermittelten Gesamtmigrationswertes beobachtet werden. Die Bestimmung der Additive aus den Ersatzsimulanzien 95 % Ethanol und Iso-Octan von Verpackungen sollte ebenfalls gezeigt werden. Ein Screening-Gradient zur Bestimmung von 25 Additiven in den Ersatzsimulanzien wurde etabliert. Die Identifizierung der migrierenden Additive erfolgte mittels der Detektoren UVD (DAD), FLD, ELSD und CLND. Mit Hilfe der verschiedenen Detektionsarten ist es möglich, die strukturelle Vielfalt der eingesetzten Additive abzudecken. Eine Absicherung der Ergebnisse konnte zudem über MS-Detektion erfolgen. Mit Hilfe der Untersuchungen wurden die gesamtmigrierenden Substanzen aus Verbundfolien zu 50 % (95 % Ethanol-Migrat) bzw. 10 % (Isooctan-Migrat) aufgeklärt. Die Konzentration der quantifizierten Additive zeigte im Verhältnis gesehen annähernd gleiche Werte. Der Unterschied in den ermittelten Gesamtmigraten (95 % Ethanol: 1,2 mg/dm2, Iso-Octan: 5,6 mg/dm2) konnte demnach nicht über die migrierenden Additive erklärt werden. Als weitere migrierende Substanzen wurden Ethylen-Oligomere identifiziert. Die Quantifizierung dieser erfolgte erstmals mit Hilfe der 1H-NMR-Spektroskopie. Die nahezu vollständige Aufklärung der Gesamtmigration einer Verbundfolie in den Ersatzsimulanzien konnte gezeigt werden. Die migrierenden Ethylen-Oligomere des Iso-Octan-Migrats wurden eingehender untersucht. Mit Hilfe von verschiedenen chromatographischen und spektroskopischen Methoden gelang eine Charakterisierung dieser im Migrat identifizierten Substanzen
Besides the safety of food the focus on food packaging material increases in public. The migration of substances from the packaging into food is undesired and regulated by law. To ensure consumer protection legal limits and requirements have to be kept. The migration of regulated und not regulated substances has to be verified which means an analytical challenge. The determination of nitrogen containing substances (NCS) from food can coatings by screening of migrating, non-volatile substances with a molecular mass below 1000 Da from the coatings was carried out. The applicability of a nitrogen selective detector for the screening of coating extracts which contain nitrogen containing susbtances was shown. For the investigations crosslinking substances, liquid lacquers as well as migrates of the finished coatings have been available for determination. Nitrogen containing and potential migrating substances have been identified first in the raw marterial of the coating in order to quantify them in the migrates of the coating. It should be shown if substances from the raw materials or reaction products migrate into the food simulant. In order to show the relevance of the migrating nitrogen containing substances in respect to other non nitrogen containing compounds the overall migration of the available coatings was determined. It could be shown that the amount of NCS in the overall migrating substances was between 0.2 and 6.3 %. Focus of the second part of the work was on food packing made of plastic. First an HPLC-method with ELS detection for the determination of the overall migration in sunflower oil was developed. Purpose of this determination was to predict the influence of temperature, time and thickness of the layer on the migration behavior with fatty food of sealing layers in high temperature range (> 70 °C) by means of design of experiments. A statistical software computed a regression equation for the calculation the overall migration based on a Box-Behnken-Design. The highest influence could be shown for the temperature. The modell showed a duplication of the determined overall migration with 10 °C increase of temperature. The determination of plastic additives out of the 95 % ethanol and isooctane migrates of packaging material should also be conducted. An HPLC-screening method for the determination of 25 additives in the fat substitutes was established. The identification of the migrating additives was carried out with UV detection (DAD), FLD, ELSD and CLND. By means of the different detection systems it was possible to cover the structural diversity of the mainly used additives. To insure the results MS detection was used. By means of this investigations a clarification of the total migrating substances of a multilayer film was 50 % (95 % ethanol) and 10 % (isooctane), respectively. The concentration of the migrating substances on the scale of things is nearly identical. The difference in the overall migration (95 % ethanol: 1.2 mg/dm2, isooctane: 5.6 mg/dm2) can not be clarified by migration of additives. As other migrating substances ethylen oligomers can be identified. The quantification was carried out for the first time with 1H﷓NMR spectroscopy. An almost complete identification of migration substances of the overall migrate in food simulants can be shown. The migrating ethylen oligomers have been further investitgated. With the help of different chromatographic and spectroscopic methods a further characterisation of the migrating ethylen oligomers was successul

En raison de leurs excellentes propriétés, les polyoléfines telles que le polypropylène et le polyéthylène sont largement utilisées dans des applications d'emballage alimentaire. Cependant, tout au long de leur cycle de vie ou de la première utilisation, les polyoléfines peuvent être exposées à des milieux contaminés qui limitent leur recyclabilité en contact alimentaire. Par conséquence, le recyclage de polyoléfines au contact alimentaire nécessite des niveaux de décontamination rigoureux et donc une technologie de décontamination avancée. L’objectif de ce travail consiste dans un premier temps à étudier la faisabilité et la potentialité de l’extraction par CO2 supercritique en mode batch pour la purification de polyoléfines (extraction d’additifs et de contaminants modèles). On s’est plus particulièrement attaché à étudier l’effet des paramètres du procédé sur la cinétique de l’extraction ainsi que l’influence de l’extraction supercritique sur les comportements rhéologique et thermique des matériaux purifiés. Dans un deuxième temps, on s’est intéressé au développement d’un nouveau procédé continu d’extraction par couplage de l’extraction supercritique et l’extrusion bi-vis. Les résultats les plus importants ont montré la potentialité de l’extraction par CO2 supercritique en mode batch pour la purification de polyoléfines sans influencer significativement les propriétés de la matrice
Due to their excellent properties, polyolefins such as polypropylene and polyethylene are widely used in food packaging applications to preserve and protect foodstuffs. However, throughout their lifecycle or first use, polyolefins can be exposed to contaminated media which limit their recyclability in food contact applications. Therefore, the recycling of polyolefins into direct food contact applications requires rigorous decontamination levels and thus effective and advanced recycling technology. The objective of this work is, at first hand, to study the feasibility and the potential of supercritical CO2 extraction in batch process for the purification of polyolefins (extraction of additives and model contaminants). In the whole, we investigated the effects of process parameters and contaminant structure on the extraction kinetic, and the influence of the supercritical CO2 extraction on the rheological and thermal behaviors of the purified materials. On the other hand, we aimed at the development of a novel continuous extraction process by coupling supercritical extraction technique and twin-screw extrusion. The most significant results showed the potential of supercritical CO2 extraction in batch mode for the purification of polyolefins without influence significantly the matrix properties

The aim of this degree project was to study the use and presence of plastic in municipal large-scale catering establishments from preschool to high school and in geriatric care. It was also to get a deeper knowledge about the substance BPA and the plastic PVC and their connection with food. The third aim was to lay forward some suggestions for Eskilstuna about continued work and substitution in their municipal large-scale kitchens. The means for data gathering was databases, websites, scientific reports, on site visits, interviews, online survey and communication by phone and email. The result from the case study was that plastic articles as containers, disposable materials, utensils and food packages for storing food were used in hot, ambient, cold and freezing temperatures. Nine types of plastic were found: PP, PE, PC, PVC, PA, PS, PET, melanin and SAN. All large-scale kitchens had disposable gloves, plastic films and plastic bags. In the first two examples, some brands were made of PVC-plastic. PC-plastic was found in some drinking glasses, plastic food pans, utensils, bowls and jugs. BPA is a common additive in production of PC-plastic and therefore these articles may contain BPA. Between all ten municipal large-scale kitchens, there are some differences and similarities. Of all the kitchens, no one had exactly the same articles or methods, and some had also special routines that differed from the others. The suggestions to Eskilstuna municipality were to remove those articles that contained BPA or chlorinated plastics (especially those products that already had an alternative on the procurement contract), contact the suppliers and wholesalers and ask which products that both are made of PC and contain BPA or other bisphenols, develop a exchange plan for products that do not fulfil the future regulations of KRAV and finally demand in procurement that the product do not contain BPA, PVC or other chlorinated plastics.
KRAV-certifiering av kommunala storkök inom Eskilstuna kommun

Sports center in Hradec Králové. The Sports center area accommodates various sport opportunities such as: squash, fitness area, climbing wall, sauna, massages and a possibility for other activities. The Sports center also includes refreshments – a with summer garden overlooking the grounds. It is two stories high, climbing wall is three stories high and squash is 1,5 m below the ground made with brick system Heluz with flat roof. There is a comfort for the visitors thanks to the air-conditioning in the object.

O Polietileno Tereftalato (PET) é o principal polímero para a produção de garrafas de água e refrigerantes, sendo cada vez mais importante, no contexto global, o combate ao desperdício e descarte através da reciclagem deste importante recurso. Neste trabalho, seis resinas processo mecânicos aprovados pela EFSA foram avaliadas. As propriedades de cor, viscosidade intrínseca, temperatura de fusão, concentração de benzeno, limoneno, oligómeros e substâncias não intencionalmente adicionadas (NIAS) foram avaliadas. No que toca à determinação das concentrações de Benzeno, Limoneno e Oligómeros, foram encontrados valores superiores comparativamente ao reportado em bibliografia. As concentrações obtidas foram de 30 – 410 μg kg-1 PET para o benzeno, 20 – 66 μg kg-1 PET para o limoneno; 52 – 78 mg kg-1 PET para o dímero e 999 – 1394 mg kg-1 PET para o trímero. A concentração de NIAS detetada nas resinas conduz a um nível de exposição estimado (considerando uma garrafa de 8,5 g e 0,3 L) inferior ao correspondente à Classe 3 de Cramer da abordagem TTC para o limite de risco toxicológico. A análise estatística dos dados pelo modelo paramétrico univariado agrupou as amostras em 3 sub-grupos de homogeneidade: o primeiro grupo compreende as amostras IN, NO e F, o segundo as amostras F, FBL e BA e o terceiro a amostra MO. A análise por componentes independentes (ICA) confirmou alguns dos resultados deste teste. Foi possível verificar a similaridade das amostras MO e BA pelos conteúdos em nonanal, F e FBL pelo etilhexilacetato, dodecano e o difenil éter e as amostras FBL e IN pelo farneceno. A amostra NO foi a única que não apresentou correlação com as restantes.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most important polymer for the production of bottles for water and soft drinks, being increasingly important globally to reduce waste by recycling this material. In this work, six PET resins from different mechanical recycling processes, with positive opinions from EFSA, were evaluated for the properties: color, intrinsic viscosity, melting temperature and for the concentration of benzene, limonene, oligomers, and non-intentionally added substances (NIAS). Regarding the determination of Benzene, Limonene, and Oligomers, the samples in study have higher concentration values than those found in the literature. The obtained concentrations are 30 – 410 μg kg-1 PET for benzene, 20 – 66 μg kg-1 PET, for limonene and 52 – 78 mg kg-1 PET for PET dimer and 999 – 1394 mg kg-1 PET for trimer. The unknowns and NIAS concentration detected in the resins, yield and estimated exposure levels (considering a bottle of 8,5 g and 0,3 L) lower than that corresponding to the Cramer Class 3 of TTC approach for toxicology risk. The statistical analysis by univariate approach grouped the samples into 3 subsets: one group including the samples IN, NO, and F, the second group including the samples F, FBL, and BA, and NO as the only sample in the third group. The ICA approach confirmed some results from the univariate model: it was found out that MO and BA correlate by nonanal, F and FBL by the ethylhexylacetate, dodecane and diphenyl ether, and FBL and IN by farnesene. NO showed no correlation with the remaining.

The book ends with a chapter devoted to discussing interactions between microbes and higher plants and animals. Symbiosis is sometimes used to describe all interactions, even negative ones, between organisms in persistent, close contact. This chapter focuses on interactions that benefit both partners (mutualism), or one partner while being neutral to the other (commensalism). Microbes are essential to the health and ecology of vertebrates, including Homo sapiens. Microbial cells outnumber human cells on our bodies, aiding in digestion and warding off pathogens. In consortia similar to the anaerobic food chain of anoxic sediments, microbes are essential in the digestion of plant material by deer, cattle, and sheep. Different types of microbes form symbiotic relationships with insects and help to explain their huge success in the biosphere. Protozoa are crucial for wood-boring insects, symbiotic bacteria in the genus Buchnera provide sugars to host aphids while obtaining essential amino acids in exchange, and fungi thrive in subterranean gardens before being harvested for food by ants. Symbiotic dinoflagellates directly provide organic material to support coral growth in exchange for ammonium and other nutrients. Corals are now threatened worldwide by rising oceanic temperatures, decreasing pH, and other human-caused environmental changes. At hydrothermal vents in some deep oceans, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria fuel an entire ecosystem and endosymbiotic bacteria support the growth of giant tube worms. Higher plants also have many symbiotic relationships with bacteria and fungi. Symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legumes and other plants fix more nitrogen than free-living bacteria. Fungi associated with plant roots (“mycorrhizal”) are even more common and potentially provide plants with phosphorus as well as nitrogen. Symbiotic microbes can provide other services to their hosts, such as producing bioluminescence, needed for camouflage against predators. In the case of the bobtail squid, bioluminescence is only turned on when populations of the symbiotic bacteria reach critical levels, determined by a quorum sensing mechanism.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

Infection with Giardia intestinalis, a common flagellate protozoan that colonizes the lumen of the small intestine, is acquired by ingesting environmentally resistant cysts of the parasite, typically in water or food, or after contact with faecal material from infected individuals. Strains of the parasite that can potentially infect humans are also harboured by various mammals, including dogs and cattle. Manifestations include watery diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, distension and pain, nausea and vomiting, weight loss, and malabsorption, with the infection typically being persistent and severe in individuals with certain immunodeficiencies. Chronic G. intestinalis infection can lead to micronutrient deficiencies, and impairment of growth and cognitive development in children.

Characterization of the contact pressure patterns under the foot provides significant insight into pathological conditions such as diabetic peripheral neuropathy [1]. The finite element method (FEM) is widely used in foot biomechanics for predictive simulations of plantar pressures in barefoot and shod conditions [2–6]. In the analysis of the foot, mesh generation accounts for most of the labor in model development, due to the complex structure of the foot including highly partitioned, embedded, and branching geometries. In FEM, hexahedral elements are preferred over tetrahedral elements because of their superior performance in terms of convergence and accuracy of the solution [7]. This becomes more apparent as the convergence behavior of the simulations are hindered by large deformation, material incompressibility, and contact with friction, mechanical features which are commonly seen in foot biomechanics. Unfortunately, unlike tetrahedral meshing which is highly automated [8], hexahedral mesh generation is a time consuming process requiring considerable operator intervention. Despite their reputed advantages, the relative performance of tetrahedral meshes in foot models has not been well established; to our knowledge, there has not been a comprehensive study comparing the performance of hexahedral and tetrahedral elements when material and geometric nonlinearity are included combined with material incompressibility and shear force loading conditions. Hence, the objective of the present study was to evaluate various types of meshes that can be used to model the interaction of a bone-soft tissue construct and rigid floor complex under compressive and shear loading in a heel-pad analog model.

: At the moment there exists a predominant prevalence of the combined packaging (i. e. cardboard is covered with polyethylene) in the food packaging market, which provides the necessary barrier properties for a packaged product. However, there also exist a great number of problems regarding the issue such as packaging sorting, recycling, waste management, and economic losses. According to the latest data, 65 enterprises in Lithuania are currently working in the recycling industry. They can recycle different types of packaging. The issue of ecology is highly relevant in the printing industry. It is not a secret that the global population is growing rapidly. As the demand for food and non-food product packaging increases, the production volume increases accordingly. In the future, it is expected that the volume of packaging production will increase accordingly. MMK cardboard can be called a revolution in the industry of packaging. Until now, packaging which has direct contact with food must be laminated with films such as PE. Plastic waste is one of the most common types of waste that takes a very long time to decompose. Normally, plastic packaging can take up to several hundred years to decompose in landfills, while cardboard is easily recyclable and takes up to half a year to biodegrade. The aim of this research is to investigate the physical and mechanical properties and characteristics (in order to offer analog materials in the perspective) of the new materials with the necessary properties and compared to the properties of the most using materials.

In consultation with ASTM and other stakeholders in Tissue-Engineered Medical Products (TEMPs) industry, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated a project designed to produce Reference Material scaffolds for tissue engineering. The rationale for Reference Material scaffolds was developed through several NIST/Industry workshops. In brief, Reference Material scaffolds have multiple uses: facilitating the development and the validation of new test methods that measure interactions among various components of a TEMP; comparison with other scaffolds and scaffold materials in terms of cellular responses, biodegradation, and releases of growth factors; and comparisons of responses among various cell lines. The primary customers for Reference Material scaffolds are expected to be the TEMPs industry, academic researchers, regulators, and standards developing organizations. There are many properties of a TEMP that warrant development of multiple Reference Material scaffolds. Currently, NIST is defining a set of Reference Material scaffolds based on geometric descriptors such as permeability, pore volume, pore size distribution, interconnectivity, and tortuosity. In consultation with ASTM, NIST is testing three candidate scaffolds produced by: three dimensional (3-D) printing, stereolithography, and fused deposition modeling (FDM). Scaffolds made by these methods have been obtained from Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) (Cleveland, OH), and Osteopore International (Singapore), respectively, for structural characterization. These prototype scaffolds, with well-defined architectures, have been selected to address the following items of interest: 1) establishment of useful functional definitions of porosity content, interconnectivity, and pores; 2) evaluation of testing methods listed in the Standard Guide for the Porosity of Polymeric Scaffolds for Use in Tissue-Engineered Medical Products, which is being drafted by ASTM. Currently, NIST and the Center for Devices and Radiological Health of the Food and Drug Administration, as well as other groups from US and foreign laboratories, are actively carrying out cross-validation test of these prototype scaffolds.

An ultrasonic design based on the indirect transmission of ultrasonic energy from the ultrasound emitter through to the material to be dried was investigated to assist in low temperature drying of food materials. The application of the improved design tested in this work was found to enhance the low temperature drying by shortening the overall drying time of up to 45% (i.e., lower energy consumption and may enable better retention of product quality). This offers a promising approach towards a better applicability of ultrasound in industrial operation, since no direct contact between the sample and the ultrasonic emitter is needed. Keywords: ultrasound; drying; low temperature; drying intensification

Quality assurance monitoring and material characterization is of great importance in the pharmaceutical industry. If the tablet coating and/or core are defective, the desired dose delivery and bioavailability can be compromised. Tablet coatings serve a wide variety of purposes such as regulating controlled release of active ingredients in the body, contributing to the bioavailability of a particular drug or combination of drugs, during certain times and locations within the body, protecting the stomach from high concentrations of active ingredients, extending the shelf life by protecting the ingredients from degradation from moisture and oxygen, and improving the tablet's visual appeal. If a coating layer is non-uniform and/or contains surface or sub-surface defects, the desired dose delivery and bioavailability can be compromised. The Food and Drug Administration has initiated a program named the Process Analytical Technology (PAT) in order to ensure efficient quality monitoring at each stage of the manufacturing process by the integration of analytical systems into the procedure. Improving consistency and predictability of tablet action by improving quality and uniformity of tablets is required. An ideal technique for quality monitoring would be non-invasive, non-destructive, rapid, intrinsically safe and cost-effective. The objective of the current investigation was to develop, non-contact/non-destructive techniques for monitoring and evaluating drug tablets for mechanical defects such as coating layer irregularities, internal cracks and delamination using a laser-acoustic approach. In the proposed system, a pulsed laser is utilized to generate non-contact mechanical excitations and interferometric detection of transient vibrations of the drug tablets. Three novel methods to excite vibration in drug tablets are developed and employed: (i) a vibration plate excited by a pulsed-laser, (ii) pulsed laser-induced plasma expansion, and (iii) an air-coupled acoustic transducer. Nanometer-scale transient surface displacements of the drug tablets are measured using the laser interferometer. Signal processing techniques are then applied to these transient displacement responses to differentiate the defective tablets from the nominal ones. From the analysis of frequency spectra and the time-frequency spectrograms obtained under both mechanisms, it can be concluded that defective tablets can be effectively differentiated from the nominal ones.

The use of edible biofilms in food packaging reduces the use of petrochemical polymers that are harmful to human health, such as PE, PP, PET. The second most common biopolymer in nature, chitosan is a nontoxic, nonantigenic, biocompatible and biodegradable polymer. Considering these features, it is frequently used in food packaging applications. Increasing needs for food amount and quality canalized food ındustry to fund in new packaging techniques that improve storage life and grade of foods. Active packaging systems, one of these methods, can be designed as a sensor, antimicrobial or antimigrant in order to extend the shelf life of the food product and to inform the shelf life in possible degradation. Essential oils, which are antimicrobial environmentally friendly packaging material additives, are used due to their effective biological activities. Essential oils that have known antimicrobial properties include lavender, rosemary, mint, eucalyptus and geranium. These oils are also edible. In this study, it is aimed to produce antimicrobial, ecofriendly, edible, printable biofilm for active packaging, using chitosan and peppermint essential oil. For this purpose, chitosan biofilms containing different rates (0, 1, 2.5, 5, 10%) of peppermint essential oil were produced by solvent casting method. Surface morphology were examined by SEM. The transparency of biofilms was determined by UV spectroscopy. Antimicrobial properties of the obtained films were determined against S. aureus and E. coli. Biofilms were printed with screen printing. The color, gloss, contact angle, surface tension values of all printed and unprinted samples were examined. As a result, chitosan biofilms which are loaded with peppermint essential oil were successfully produced. Biofilms are colorless, highly transparent and have good printability. It is concluded that the amount of peppermint essential oil increased inhibitory feature against S. aureus and E. coli. When the obtained results are examined, it is determined that the printable, ecofriendly, edible biofilms can be used in active food packaging applications.

Changes in consumer preferences in order to reach safe food have led to innovations in packaging technologies. Intelligent and active packaging is a constantly developed packaging technology that plans to offer safer and higher quality products. Active packaging refers to the inclusion of additives in the package in order to maintain and / or extend shelf life and product quality. Intelligent systems, on the other hand, are systems that monitor the status of packaged food during this entire period to provide information about the quality of the packaged during storage and transportation. The aim of this study is to produce a completely natural intelligent packaging material using rosehip extract and biopolymer, which is a substance that naturally changes color with pH. In this study, cellulose acetate butyrate biobased films containing different rates (1, 2.5, 5, 10 wt%) of rosehip extract were produced by solvent casting method. The chemical structure the rosehip containing biobased film and blank biobased film were characterized by ATR-FTIR. The transparency of prepared five different films were determined by UV spectroscopy. The color characteristic of blank and rosehip containing films measured with spectrophotometer. Surface energy of all films and contact angles were determined with goniometer. Biobased films were printed and printability parameters such as color, gloss, contact angle, surface tension were examined. It is concluded that blank biobased film is colorless, transparent and all biobased films have good printability. It was determined that the amount of rosehip extract increased the color change visibly. The biobased films obtained are pink in acidic medium and yellow-green in alkaline medium. The results prove that biobased film produced with rosehip extract and cellulose acetate butyrate can be used in intelligent packaging applications.

Galling of materials is a severe surface damage characterized by macroscopic material removal when two solid surfaces experience relative sliding under high load. This mode of wear is of particular interest in applications where design constraints require assembly components to slide against each other without adequate lubrication. Examples are high-pressure ball valve with metal-to-metal seal contact, sheet metal forming process and medical/food processing instruments where lubrication is sometimes non-existent due contamination concerns. In addition to sliding at high load, materials in these applications can be exposed to aggressive environments which lead to combined tribological and corrosive degradation phenomena. Progress in this field depends largely on the understanding of the interaction between corrosion and wear processes. In this paper, we describe a new testing instrument capable of testing galling and sliding wear behavior under dry and wet conditions. Design of this instrument is guided by ASTM standards G98 for galling, G99 for pin-on-disk, G133 for ball-on-flat and G199 for tribocorrosion. Galling configuration consists of two concentrically aligned hollow cylindrical specimen loaded along their longitudinal axis with constant load (max 5000 N). The upper specimen is held stationary while the lower specimen is rotated a number of cycles at a selected speed. During the test, the friction torque is measured using special torque/thrust load cell. For the combined galling/corrosion test, the specimen’s contact surface is submerged in an electrolytic solution and three-electrode type electrochemical cell is set-up using the specimens as working electrode. Galling/corrosion tests can be performed under open circuit potential or under controlled potentials. In the first type, the corrosion potential is monitored before, during and after rubbing, whereas in the second type, the corrosion potential and corrosion current are controlled before, during and after rubbing. In addition to galling, the instrument can also be used to conduct pin-on-disk and ball-on-flat tests under dry and wet conditions.

Nowadays, soft grippers, which use compliant mechanisms instead of stiff components to achieve grasping action, are being utilized in an increasing range of engineering fields, such as food industry, medical care and biological sample collection, for their material selection, high conformability and gentle contact with target objects compared to traditional stiff grippers. In this study, a three-fingered gripper is designed based on a simple actuation mechanism but with high conformability to the object and produces relatively high actuation force per unit mass. The electrostrictive PVDF-based terpolymer is applied as the self-folding actuation mechanism. Finite element analysis (FEA) models are developed to predict the deformation of the folded shape and grasping force of the gripper with two grasp modes, i.e. enveloping grasp and parallel grasp. The FEA models achieved good agreement with experiments. Design optimization is then formulated and a parametric design is conducted with objectives to maximize free deflection and blocked force of the gripper. The design variables are the thicknesses of the active and passive materials, and the nature of the passive layer. It is found that there exists an optimal terpolymer thickness for a given scotch tape substrate thickness to achieve maximum free deflection, and the blocked force always increases as either thickness of terpolymer or scotch tape increases. As the length of the notch increases, free deflection also increases due to more pronounced folding behavior of the actuator, but the blocked force decreases since the actuator is less stiff. The tradeoff between free deflection and blocked force is critical for the final decision on the optimal design for a particular application.