Food labelling is a means of communication between food business operators and consumers, representing an important factor in consumer purchasing decisions. The enforcement of the new food labelling policy is aimed to improve food safety and public health through the mandatory indication of information and nutritional values. To understand the usefulness of the information provided for consumers, a survey was carried out to assess the efficacy of the information presented in food labelling. Principal component analysis was performed to obtain a smaller number of uncorrelated factors regarding the usefulness of food labelling. Results showed consumers usually do not read food labels due to lack of time and excessive information. Additionally, food labelling was observed to be more useful for specific consumer groups, such as, athletes, consumers with health conditions or consumers concerned with a healthy lifestyle. The results of the present study highlight the need of information campaigns by public health authorities to show the importance and advantages of reading food labels as well as the development of essential information which should be quickly and clearly seen and understood by consumers.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy coupled with chemometric methods to detect fish adulteration. Muscles of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) (SS) and Salmon trout (Onconrhynchus mykiss) (OM) muscles were mixed in different percentages and transformed into mini-burgers. These were stored at 3 °C, then examined at 0, 72, 160, and 240 h for deteriorative microorganisms. Mini-burgers was submitted to Soxhlet extraction, following which lipid extracts were analyzed by FTIR. The principal component analysis (PCA) described the studied adulteration using four principal components with an explained variance of 95.60%. PCA showed that the absorbance in the spectral region from 721, 1097, 1370, 1464, 1655, 2805, to 2935, 3009 cm−1 may be attributed to biochemical fingerprints related to differences between SS and OM. The partial least squares regression (PLS-R) predicted the presence/absence of adulteration in fish samples of an external set with high accuracy. The proposed methods have the advantage of allowing quick measurements, despite the storage time of the adulterated fish. FTIR combined with chemometrics showed that a methodology to identify the adulteration of SS with OM can be established, even when stored for different periods of time.

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Food fraud is a growing problem and happens in many ways including mislabelling. Since lack of consumers’ knowledge about mandatory food labeling information and different types of food fraud may impact public health, the present work assesses consumers’ knowledge about these issues. Principal component analysis was performed to obtain a smaller number of uncorrelated factors regarding the usefulness and confidence of information displayed in food labels and the perception of food fraud. Results indicated that information displayed in food labels is useful, however the way it is presented may decrease consumer interest and understanding. Regarding respondents’ confidence in foodstuffs, over half of them stated that information provided in food labels is reliable. However, a lack of confidence about food composition is observed in those processed foodstuffs such as meat products. Food fraud is recognized by more than half of respondents with a higher perception of those practices that imply a risk to public health than those related to economic motivation. Age and education of consumers influenced the perception of the information displayed in the food labels, their confidence and knowledge about food fraud. Implementation of education programs to increase consumer knowledge about food labelling and fraud is essential. Respondents’ perception results could be use as guidelines by the food industry to improve food label design in order to enhance consumer understanding.

Every year, agri-food industries in industrialised countries produce approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food loss and waste. The adoption of a circular economy policy has received special attention by the agri-food industries, allowing for the creation and development of new food products made of by-products that would otherwise be wasted or used for secondary applications. The present work, of an exploratory nature, aims to assess how consumers conceptualise the circular economy in order to identify consumer recognition of the use of by-products from the food industry to upcycle food products and to evaluate attitudes towards the circular economy. To this end, a mixed-methodology was applied to 340 participants. The first part was qualitative and used free word association to evaluate consumers’ conceptualisation of the circular economy and use of by-products as foods. Data were analysed by grouping the responses into exclusive and exhaustive categories and a correspondence analysis was also performed to originate perceptual maps. Additionally, a questionnaire was designed to evaluate major concepts and attitudes correlated with the circular economy. Data were reduced by principal component analysis (PCA) and participants grouped through clustering. Results showed that consumers understand circular economy as related mainly into Sustainability, Economy, and Circularity dimensions. Participants had great difficulty identifying the by-products used as foods or as food ingredients. From the quantitative data, four groups were identified based on the associations to the six principal components originated by the PCA. However, the results highlighted a very low association with all clusters of the Food Valorisation dimension within the concept of the circular economy, and also a lack of a clear understanding of consumers’ attitudes towards food products from the circular economy. Greater promotion and dissemination by the competent entities aimed at the general public may contribute towards greater integration, participation and acceptance of the circular economy concept for the upscaling of food by-products.