Browsing by Title

Active and intelligent packaging technologies, are emerging as innovations in the food industry, aimed at enhancing food quality, safety, and sustainability. However, research indicates that, consumer awareness and acceptance, of these new technologies remains limited. This study review examined current evidence on consumer perceptions and attitudes regarding active and intelligent food packaging. Active packaging interacts directly with food products to extend shelf-life, while intelligent packaging monitors conditions and conveys information about food quality. Studies reveal that consumer awareness is moderate, with higher recognition of intelligent versus active packaging functions and technologies. Consumers generally understand potential benefits like improved food safety, quality, and freshness, but lack in-depth technical knowledge of the specific active and intelligent packaging technologies being used. Attitudes are mixed, with concerns about increased costs to consumers, uncertain environmental sustainability impacts, and potential unintended interactions between packaging ingredients and food contents. Consumers expect high standards of safety, quality, environmental sustainability, and affordability from these new technologies. However, willingness to pay a premium for active and intelligent packaging remains uncertain, highlighting the need for more consumer education and transparent communication. Further evidence-based research into the cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and safety of these technologies is critically needed to increase consumer acceptance and adoption. Additional studies should explore effective educational approaches and innovative packaging designs that address consumers' informational needs, ethical concerns, and expectations. With strategic development and commercialization, active and intelligent packaging presents a promising opportunity to enhance food systems sustainability while better serving consumer interests.

This thesis highlights consumer perceptions of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) in food products. BSG is a by-product of beer production that has good potential to be used in food products because of its high nutritional value. It is a readily available and sustainable ingredient, but it is underexploited in food production due to some challenges it faces, including poor technological quality, logistics and easy spoilage. The subject of this thesis aligns with the scope of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: one of the targets is to halve food waste by 2030 and reduce food losses in production. Presently, 13.8% of food is lost in the production and supply chain, and therefore, some companies have started employing circular economy practices using the outputs of food production as inputs for new innovative products. These foods are often termed upcycled foods. This research is about new food product development using BSG as an ingredient and this study tests consumer acceptance of BSG fortified granolas. A multi-method survey was deployed, containing both quantitative and qualitative questions to obtain a comprehensive picture of how consumers perceive the use of BSG in food products. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the research was conducted in an uncontrolled environment at participants’ homes, using elements of both sensory tests and product concept tests. Participants (N=45) evaluated three BSG fortified granolas and one commercial granola used as a control product. All participants expressed interest in consuming BSG enriched food products. All four granola samples were rated on taste, sweetness, smell, structure, appearance and overall pleasantness. According to this study, the participants accepted this type of upcycled food and would be interested to purchase BSG fortified products. No statistically significant differences were observed between consumer groups when comparing genders, age groups, diet groups, beer enthusiasts and environmentally conscious consumers. For further research about consumer perceptions towards BSG, a larger sample size is recommended as well as conducting the research as a traditional sensory test in a controlled laboratory setting. Also, further product concept tests or these types of hybrid tests combining elements from both sensory and product concept tests can provide added value for new product development purposes. This master’s thesis is part of the Funbrew transnational project (Biotransformation of brewer’s spent grain: increased functionality for novel food applications) part of the ERA-Net SUSFOOD2 with funding provided by national sources (FORMAS, Sweden; MMM, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland; MIUR, Ministero Italiano dell’Università e della Ricerca) and co-funding by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.

Food consumption is changing, and consumers show increasing interest for how food is being produced and processed. Insights into consumer wants and needs has therefore never been more important for a food company developing a new product. The goal of this thesis is twofold. First, to investigate sensory characteristics in liquid meat stocks and second, to study Finnish consumers’ attitudes towards such stock products. This was achieved by performing a sensory study on three newly developed meat stocks, using a generic descriptive analysis method. A consumer survey was conducted investigating 551 Finnish consumers’ usage frequency and factors influencing purchase intentions of stock products. In SPSS, ANOVA tests were used to identify significant mouthfeel, appearance and flavour differences between five meat stock samples. Socio-demographic differences in user frequency of stock products and other factors influencing purchase intentions were determined using an ordered logit model, in STATA. The results from the sensory study suggest that roasting of meat, bones and vegetables before cooking leads to darker colour and stronger flavours but is not perceived to consistently improve overall pleasantness. Results from the consumer study suggest that stock cubes are the most popular type of stock product purchased. Furthermore, the most important factors when purchasing stock products are flavour, previous experience with the product and convenience. Interest in origin of raw materials, environmental-friendliness and animal welfare was shown to be affected by consumers’ age and area of living (urban/rural). Similarly, differences in gender, age and area of living affect user frequency. To conclude, these results suggest that both extrinsic and intrinsic meat stock attributes are relevant to differentiate liquid stocks from other stock products and provide novel input into future marketing strategies.

This thesis focuses on online pharmacies and the consumers who order oral nutritional supplements through these purchase channels. This thesis aims to investigate the factors that influence consumers' choices to buy oral nutritional supplements from online pharmacies and what motivates them to do so. The consumers using oral nutritional supplements can be generalized as a segment of elderly consumers. The thesis has a relevant topic, since already almost one third of Finland’s population is over 65-year-olds and the number of elderly consumers will increase in the future. As the population gets older demand for products and services that improve health, mobility, and overall quality of life increase. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in the demand for purchasing pharmacy products online, not only in Finland but also globally. Although online pharmacy services are relatively new, especially many elderly consumers have turned towards them as a result of the pandemic. General lack of trust in e-commerce and poor electronic service skills are barriers for senior consumers to adapt the use of online pharmacies. The thesis was done in co-operation with a Finnish online pharmacy and company x. The research was carried out as a quantitative study using a questionnaire with 83 consumers who had used an online pharmacy at least once to purchase oral nutritional supplements. The data was analyzed using statistical programs (Microsoft Excel 2203 and IBM SPSS Statistics 28). An online pharmacy was seen as a good purchase channel to buy oral nutritional supplements. Those who ordered oral nutritional supplements online used the online pharmacy as a purchase channel only for these products. Based on these research results the elderly find buying oral nutritional supplements from online pharmacies important because of their heavy weight, but they still prefer buying other pharmacy products from brick-and-mortar stores.

Protein-energy malnutrition and mineral deficiencies are two of the three forms of nutritional deficiencies that affect most developing countries due to inadequate access to food and diets based on a sole crop. Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the staple crop of Nicaragua and it has the potential to improve the nutritional status of the poorest group of the nation. Its high content of both protein and nonhaem iron provides many nutrients, but inhibitors also may prevent absorption of iron and zinc by the human consumer. A proper production chain must be followed to ensure the best grain quality for the consumer. To achieve food security, both production and high nutritional content must be maintained. Four nationally important accessions of common bean, with different harvesting dates, were selected to be submitted to two treatments: to evaluate the impact of storage conditions on the end quality of the grain. The duration of the study was six months with sampling every six weeks, and the two treatments were controlled one stored at 40°C and 75 RH %, and the other was stored in in-situ conditions. Proximate and mineral composition was evaluated as well as tannin, phytate and bioavailability. Significant differences among different accessions were found, being the most significant in protein, Fe and Zn content, tannins and phytate. Protein values ranged from 21-23%. Iron content was 61-81 mg/kg but only 3-4% was bioavailable. Zinc content was 21-25 mg/kg and 10-12% was bioavailable. The concentration of phytate ranged from 8.6-9.6 mg/g while tannin values ranged within 37.7-43.8 mg/g. Storage at high temperatures was demonstrated to have an impact on certain nutritional compounds and proved detrimental to final grain quality. Soluble sugar content and tannin content decreased after six months in both storage conditions, IDF decreased in the in-situ and SDF in the stress. The iron content and bioavailability in INTA Biofortificado were not as outstanding as expected, so experiments should be conducted to compare its iron uptake and delivery with other cultivars.

The purpose of this study is to explore the economic and operational environment factors that are contributing to the development of the secondhand smartphone market. The secondhand smartphone market is a fascinating subject. The market is relatively young, only coming into existence in the last eighteen years after the introduction of the first smartphones. However, it is in recent years that the market has seen massive growth and is considered to hold a great amount of potential for further growth. The case of secondhand smartphones and its growth are intriguing from a circular economy perspective. The example that smartphones represent for product life extension, added value creation and circular flows of consumption via systems of recycling, refurbishing and reselling offer insight into the potential of circular economy frameworks for other industries and product categories. Seeking to understand what factors are contributing to the secondhand smartphone markets development also offers insights for actors, such as businesses, policy makers and academics. Such research enables the various actors to better understand the dynamics of their operating environment. Essentially, understanding what factors are contributing to the market’s development allows actors to make more informed decisions, to develop sound strategy and to allocate resources. This study was conducted as a combination quantitative and qualitative research. A quantitative approach has allowed for the sampling of a population of industry actors and to measure specific concepts, such as economic factors, via a survey. With the procurement of such data statistical analysis has been applied to understand the frequencies, correlations, and significance of the specific concepts under measurement. A qualitative approach has allowed for a more in-depth understanding and context of the survey results or where the survey results have been minimal. The results show a tendency for the business environment to be populated by companies that are vertically integrated, relatively new enterprises and have relatively small annual revenues. Additionally, the results show several clear factors that are contributing to the secondhand market’s development. The factors highlighted include the following: - The price of wholesale stock is not the main point of supply competition. With other sales terms playing such as available volumes, payment terms and stock quality playing a major role in terms of competition. - The improvement over time in the availability of smartphone devices on the wholesale market. - The strong role of relationships and developing long term partnerships. - The low barriers to entry and ease of acquiring secondhand smartphones on the wholesale market. - The growth in business networks and the need for specialization in business acumen and establishing industry wide standards. - Repairability of new models of smartphones is critical to growth and the protectionist position of OEMs. The finding paints a picture of a business environment that has low barriers to entry, generally localized small players.

Strawberries (Fragaria sp.) are perennial plants that belong to Rosaceae family. According to flowering habit, strawberries are classified as seasonal flowering and perpetual flowering strawberries. Environmental factors regulate flowering in plants. Among them, photoperiod and temperature are two important cues to affect flowering in strawberries. Besides, FT is a general flowering activator in many plant species. This thesis explored the flowering habits and FT expression level of two diploid strawberries F. bucharica and F. nilgerrensis under short and long day at cool temperature at 11 °C. The results were compared with F. vesca which has been studied earlier. After 2, 4 and 6 weeks of cool temperature (11 °C) treatment, all F. vesca and the majority of F. bucharica flowered regardless of photoperiod. As for F. nilgerrensis, there was no floral induction under SD and 20 % flowering rate after 6 weeks of LD treatment. After 4 weeks of the treatment, the expression of FT was down-regulated in F. vesca and F. bucharica compared with control groups under long day at 20 °C. In conclusion, the cool temperature at 11 °C induced flowering both in F. vesca and F. bucharica. The photoperiod affected flowering in F. vesca, while not in F. bucharica. As for F. nilgerrensis, the treatments were not strongly inductive for flowering. It may need more time for floral induction. The FT1 expression was down regulated after 4-week cool temperature treatments in F. vesca and F. bucharica, which was negatively correlated with flower induction. The photoperiod and temperature significantly affect branch crown formation in F. nilgerrensis, while the temperature had significant effects on runner formation and leaf formation in these three species.

Yritysvastuullisuus metsäsektorilla on noussut viime vuosina entistä tärkeämmäksi aiheeksi ilmastonmuutoksen ja viimeisimpänä hiilinielukeskustelun takia. Tämä tutkimus tuo lisää tietoa siitä, kuinka metsäyritysten vastuullisuusraportointi on muuttunut ja kuinka YK:n vuonna 2015 lanseeraamat kestävän kehitykset tavoitteet ovat vaikuttaneet metsäyritysten raportointiin. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on sisällönanalyysiä hyödyntäen selvittää, kuinka suomalaiset metsäyritykset UPM, Stora Enso ja Metsä Group käsittelevät vastuullisuutta raportoinnissaan ja miten se on muuttunut tarkasteluaikavälillä vuosina 2009 – 2018. Lisäksi tutkitaan sitä, kuinka YK:n kestävän kehityksen tavoitteet näkyvät yritysten raportoinnissa ja kuinka yritykset suhtautuvat tavoitteisiin. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena tutkimuksena. Aineisto kerättiin yritysten vuosi- ja vastuullisuusraporteista ja niitä täydennettiin yritysten asiantuntijahaastatteluilla. Analyysin perusteella vastuullisuusraportoinnissa käytetyt peruslähtökohdat pysyivät tarkasteluajanjaksolla samoina, mutta uudemmissa raporteissa oli nähtävillä, että lähtökohdat oli sidottu globaaleihin näkökulmiin paikallisen sidonnaisuuden sijaan. Lisäksi raportoinnissa korostui sidosryhmien merkitys. Yritykset kokivat kestävän kehityksen tavoitteet merkityksellisiksi, mutta ei täysin ongelmattomiksi. Merkittävimmät motiivit liittää kestävän kehityksen tavoitteet raportointiin liittyvät sidosryhmiin sekä mahdollisuuksiin hyödyntää kestävän kehityksen tavoitteita yrityksen vastuullisuusviestinnässä.

This exploratory study aims to analyze the CR reporting by eleven largest forest products companies in North America. Both annual reports and sustainability reports produced in year 2006 by eleven largest forest products companies in North America were chosen for this very study. To ensure the comparability of the results, the study adopts the similar variables in operationalizations by Routto (2008), who studied the CR reporting of European forest products companies. The methodology applied in the study is content analysis. Mean, T-test and One-way Anova analysis were used in data analysis. Though all the three pillars of CR (economic, environmental, and social) were covered in their CR reporting, the North American companies seem to give more weight to Social Focus, followed by Economic Focus and Environmental Focus respectively, whereas the largest European companies considered Environmental Focus as the most important area, Social Focus the second, whereas Economic Focus was least emphasized. A number of notable differences and similarities between the European companies and the North American companies towards CR reporting were also identified. For example, the North American companies obviously seek for more efforts to co-operate with interest groups and business partners to ensure responsible actions than the European companies. The European companies emphasize energy consumption more frequently than the North American companies. Neither the European companies nor the North American companies perceived environmental welfare at the expense of corporate profits an important element concerning Economic Focus. It would be interesting to note that neither the European companies nor the North American companies considered shareholders, NGOs and forest owners as primary target audience groups in their CR reporting, since the communication benefits were not frequently mentioned for these stakeholder groups. The study also observes some variation of CR practices within a common industrial and cultural environment. The results suggest that the US companies seem to particularly emphasize a number of issues more than the Canadian companies, namely: 1) Business behavior, 2) Social principles & guidelines, 3) Internal communication, 4) Social focus, 5) External communication, and 6) Audience. No significant difference was found concerning Social & ethical accounting and Economic focus between the US companies and the Canadian companies. Sector of Integrated forest products placed notably much more weight on Social & ethical accounting than Sectors of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging in this study, whereas no other significant difference was indicated by the pair-wise comparison of means between Sector and the nine summative variables respectively. In addition, sustainability reports seem to have much clear focus on environmental-related issues than annual reports, whereas issues concerning Social Focus and External Communication received more attention in annual reports than in sustainability reports. No further significant difference was suggested between Type of report and the nine summative variables in this study. In short, the comparison between the reports by North American companies and those by the European companies showed some regional variations in CR reporting. These regional characteristics include 1) the emphasis on Social Focus by North American companies, and Environmental Focus by European companies, 2) the emphasis on partnership by North American companies, and workplace safety by European companies, 3) the emphasis on employees’ benefits by North American companies, and customers’ benefits by European companies, 4) the emphasis on commitment of top management to CR by North American companies, and existence of CR policy statements by European companies, 5) the emphasis on recycled raw materials by North American companies, and energy consumption by European companies, and 6) the emphasis on profitability by North American companies, and investing to socially/environmentally responsible targets by European companies. Such differences could also be argued to be related to the different institutional arrangements in the regions. The comparison between different sectors suggests that, Sector of Integrated forest products emphasized Social & Ethical Accounting more than Sector of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging, whereas Sector of Consumer products paid more attention to Economic Focus issues than the other two sectors. The results also suggests that, sustainability reports emphasized Environmental Focus more than annual reports, whereas annual reports clearly focused on Social Focus and External Communication more than sustainability reports.

Need for higher productivity motivates and forces farmers to adapt new technological solutions. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have enabled several solutions to increase efficiency specially in field operations in terms of assisted or automatic steering, yield monitoring and precision farming. Accuracy of raw GNSS-data is poor and not suitable for any field operation. Methods to minimize error caused by different sources are in conclusive role to adapt positioning solutions to agriculture and to field operations. Aim of this study was to compare different GNSS correction methods by means of static and dynamic measurements. Results of the measurements occurred that high precision is achievable. Ground Based Augmentation Systems (GBAS) were more precise (RTK base station, AgriVRS and Centerpoint RTX) than Space Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) (Omnistar G2 and Egnos). RMS values in 8 hour static measurements were between 0.004 and 0.406 m. Autonomic positioning RMS value was 1.014 m. In dynamic measurements scale was from 1.610 m to 0.015 m. Correction methods performed better in relative positioning than in repeating same position in subsequent days. Automatic steering is possible with every correction method. When using paid license corrections accuracy rises. Accuracy should be chosen by need of the field work, for example seeding needs higher accuracy than broadcasting of fertilizer. Due to Northern location of Finland SBAS are not available everywhere. Correction sent from satellite can be blocked for example by tree line. Also radio signal is hard to utilise in data transfer due to scattered field structure. Finland has excellent cellular network. Corrections loaded via cellular to receiver were available in test sites most practically.