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Novel Approaches for Chitin/Chitosan Composites in the Packaging Industry
Published in Jissy Jacob, Sravanthi Loganathan, Sabu Thomas, Chitin- and Chitosan-Based Biocomposites for Food Packaging Applications, 2020
Victor Gomes Lauriano Souza, João Ricardo Afonso Pires, Carolina Rodrigues, Isabel Coelhoso, Ana Luisa Fernando
Another approach for improving the characteristics of chitosan films is the incorporation of lipids (e.g., waxes or resins), which can impart hydrophobicity to the film and reduce its moisture content (Galus and Kadzińska 2015). Research on chitosan also focuses on the identification of the active biocompounds that confer better antioxidant and antimicrobial capacities to edible films (Souza et al. 2018c). The advantage of these active packages is the avoidance of taste transfer to the food, which reduces organoleptic changes. Additional work must still be done to understand the interactions between chitosan and bioactive compounds, so that the film’s bioactivity and physical properties can be optimized (Souza et al. 2017). Research is also needed to overcome the challenge of keeping the performance of essential oil/extracts in films during the production process of polymers, which generally demand high temperatures (Atarés and Chiralt 2016). Nevertheless, it is also important to have information on the biodegradability of these bionanocomposites, as well on as their toxicity and ecotoxicity (Souza et al. 2018b).
The implications of social and economic barriers to safe drinking water for municipal level policy in Ghana
Published in Water International, 2021
Benjamin Dosu, Samuel M. Ofori Dei, Mohammed Abubakari, Gabriel Appiah
Even though all the variables contribute to households’ water security/insecurity, we found that water distance (sri2 = 0.20) has the highest coefficient contribution, followed by water payment (sri2 = 0.13), friendly water infrastructure (sri2 = 0.13) and water conditions (sri2 = 0.12), respectively. Our findings suggest that travelling long distances for water collection is not only tedious but also affects the quality of water even when the water is collected from improved sources. This means that improved water can be contaminated from the source to the point of usage depending on the distance travelled for water collection. This is largely attributed to poor and unsafe methods of water retrievals, including uncovered containers during water collection (87%) and unhygienic water collection containers. Based on this, the findings show that more than one-quarter (31%) of the study participants rated their drinking quality as either poor or very poor. We measured households’ perception of water quality based on organoleptic properties, including appearance, taste and smell. As a household head reiterated: ‘My children usually have to travel for a while before we could have water to use at home since the nearest stream has been contaminated. The worst part is that the water collected does not appear consumable […].’