Effects on Consumers

The protein content of plant foods is most of the time so different from that of animal-derived foods that large amounts of plants will have to be consumed with relatively little effect on consumer 5 N values. For an archaeologically meaningful interpretation of isotopic measurements this weighting problem needs to be considered. 

In communicating information about a food scare, there is recent evidence that the media might be more influential than one-on-one interactions. Empirical research conducted in April 1998 indicated that mass media had a negative impact on consumer risk perceptions, health concerns, and attitude and behavior toward meat. Compared to alarming reports of the press, personal communication (through butchers for meat products, for example) had only a small effect on consumer decision making (Verbeke et al., 1999). 

With respect to veterinary medicines, the US-FDA establishes tolerances to include a safety factor to assure that the drug will have no harmful effects on consumers of the food product. The US-FDA first determines the level at which the dmg does not produce any measurable effect in laboratory animals. From this, the US-FDA determines an acceptable daily intake (ADI), and the drug tolerance and withdrawal times are then determined so that the concentrations of dmg residues in edible tissues are below the ADI. Depending on the dmg, safety factors of between 100-fold to 2000-fold are included in the calculations used to set the tolerances. 

Both nonexperimental and experimental studies reveal that while DTCA increases the size of the overall sales of a particular therapeutic class, brand-specific DTCA does not appear to have a statistically significant impact on the share of any particular brand within the therapeutic class. By increasing the size of therapeutic class sales but not affecting shares within the class, DTCA has ambiguous effects on consumer welfare. In particular, there is some experimental evidence suggesting that in the case of antidepressants. 

The kiwi fruit is a cultivar group of the species Actinidia deliciosa. More than 80 compounds have been identified in fresh and processed kiwi [137]. Methyl acetate, methyl butanoate, ethyl butanoate, methyl hexanoate and ( )-2-hexenal have the most prominent effect on consumer acceptability of kiwi fruit flavour [137-140]. The volatile composition of kiwi fruit is very sensitive to ripeness, maturity and storage period [138, 139]. Bartley and Schwede [140] found that ( )-2-hexenal was the major aroma compound in mature kiwi fruits, but on further ripening ethyl butanoate began to dominate. Ripe fruits had sweet and fruity flavours, which were attributed to butanoate esters, while unripe fruits had a green grassy note due to ( )-2-hexenal [140]. The most important character-impact compounds of kiwi fruits are summarised in Table 7.4. 

There may be some effect on consumer views if clear health benefits are proven. However, ensuring a defined level of residues in food will be even more difficult than keeping the levels below a certain limit. As described below (see Indirect measurements of effects on health), if pesticide residues are good for health, organic foods will be better still because of their high content of natural pesticides. 

Although there is a considerable amount known about the effects of prey chemicals on predator feeding preferences, much less is known about the proximate or ultimate reasons why marine invertebrates avoid certain compounds. Even when compounds cause behavioral avoidance of a food, few studies have assessed how consumption of prey secondary metabolites affects the physiology (and ultimately the fitness) of invertebrate consumers. Two basic approaches have been used (1) comparing effects of natural prey items which naturally contain or lack various secondary metabolites, or (2) comparing the effects of artificially prepared diets with and without metabolites. Studies of the first group108 109 have been able to correlate metabolite presence with certain effects on consumers, but the effects of secondary metabolites are confounded by other traits (e.g., protein,... 

Dietrich, A., Cuppett, J., Edwards, M., Powers, K., Duncan, S., Bosch, D., and Kleczyk, E. (2005). Corrosion of copper plumbing and its effects on consumer health and economics. Proceedings of the 2005 NSF DMII Grantees Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, p. 14. 

The development of objectionable flavor compounds by oxidation has significant detrimental effects on consumer acceptability of edible oils. In the last four decades, much progress has been made in the chemistry of volatile products of lipid oxidation, mainly as a result of advances in separation techniques and analytical methodology, particularly gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. 

The court also found that the Commission failed to assess adequately the burdens of the signs, including their adverse effect on consumer purchases of slides. As the concurring opinion explained this aspect of the court s holding ... 

But the Commission is required to do more than determine whether there are many benefits to its regulation. Congress required it to consider the economic costs. In this case, those costs are the effects on the manufacturers, and the effects on consumers who will be frightened away from purchasing pool slides. The Commission s determination that benefits exist is not the only conclusion that must be supported by substantial evidence. Most importantly, the benefits and the costs must have such support. This is the argument pressed by Aqua Slide. 

In the US, a request to authorize a new food additive is presented to the FDA. A petition for an additive or a colorant must include data pertaining to the toxicity of the additive accompanied by toxicological tests on animals and even on humans. To evaluate whether an additive should be approved, the agency first considers the composition and attributes of the substance, the probable amount that will be ingested, the possible long-term effects on consumers and various additional safety factors. If the additive is approved, the FDA publishes regulations that may include the types of foods in which it can be used, the maximum quantities that can be added, and how it should be identified in the food labels. 

In summary, dietary CLA had a negative effect on the quality of chicken rolls because of increased darkness in color, hardness in texture, and decreased juiciness. Irradiation increased the redness of chicken rolls, and thus consumers preferred the color of irradiated chicken rolls. However, irradiation induced a metallic off-flavor in chicken rolls and had a significant negative effect on consumer accep-... 

There are concerns that partial lead pipe replacement may actually worsen the situation in terms of lead emissions at the tap, based on the recent AWWA (2008) study. The removal of an existing lead lateral can disturb the complex lead hydroxyl-carbonate scale that has formed on the inside of lead pipes over years of service. Flaking of disturbed deposits can elevate particulate lead concentrations. Mechanical disturbance due to partial lead pipe replacement has been shown to elevate lead concentrations at the tap in several other studies (Britton and Richards, 1981 Breach et al, 1991 Hulsmann, 1991 AWWARF, 1990 Wycock et al., 1991 Boyd et al., 2004) with high lead levels persisting for up to several months. In such circumstances, partial lead pipe replacement by water utilities may actual increase liability, particularly if adverse effects on consumers were demonstrated, for example by observations of increased levels of blood lead. Recently, an information notice from the US CDC has highlighted an... 

The requirement shown in Table 6.3 is not often reached. In some countries, cereal products are supplemented with folic acid in order to avoid deficiency, e. g., with 1.4mg/kg in the USA. Correspondingly, positive effects on consumer health have been observed. 

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