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The purpose of this research is to introduce a class of FRC (fuzzy random coefficient) volatility models and to study their moment properties. Fuzzy option values and the superiority of fuzzy forecasts over minimum mean‐square forecasts are also discussed in some detail.

Fuzzy components are assumed to be triangular fuzzy numbers. Buckley's data‐driven method is used to determine the spread of the triangular fuzzy numbers by using standard errors of the estimated parameters.

The fuzzy kurtosis of various volatility models is obtained in terms of fuzzy coefficients. Fuzzy option values and fuzzy forecasts are illustrated with examples. Fuzzy forecast intervals are narrower than the corresponding MMSE forecast intervals.

This paper will be of value to econometricians and to anyone with an interest in financial volatility models.

Yoghurt is most popular and more acceptable throughout the world because of its general positive image among consumers because of its diverse nutritional and therapeutic properties and can be the most suitable probiotic carrier. Key factors for consumer’s inclination towards functional foods are increased awareness for healthy foods because of health deterioration resulting from busy lifestyles, growing healthcare cost and the aspiration for an improved quality life in later years. Yoghurt is still not consumed in certain parts of the world because of a lack of a cultural tradition of consuming yogurt and further people are not aware of the health benefits associated with yogurt consumption. In this study an attempt has been to project probiotic yoghurt as a functional food in the current era of self-care and complementary medicine.

Attempt has been made to review the literature on the biochemical activities of yoghurt cultures and their behavior in association with diverse probiotic cultures. Both review and research papers related to biochemical activities and functional properties of yoghurt cultures in association with probiotics and their health benefits published in diverse journals under Pub Med and Science Direct have been considered. Keywords used for data search included functional foods, yoghurt, probiotic, health benefits, etc.

Functional properties of yoghurt can be further enhanced with fortification of minerals and vitamins or inclusion of probiotic cultures. Diversity in biochemical behavior yoghurt cultures in association with different probiotic cultures has been reported. Conjugated application of probiotics with yoghurt cultures would result in a product with enhanced functional properties to extend health benefits.

Inclusion of probiotic cultures in yoghurt is suggested to extend the functional properties of normal yoghurt, thus providing necessary nutrients, improving health and preventing or reducing nutrition-related diseases. Regular intake of probiotic yoghurt is suggested for healthy lifestyles, as it will help in retaining their health and reduce the potentially long-term risk of disease. Food industries can have profit-driven business by projecting the probiotic yoghurt as a functional food.

In the recent past, academic researchers have noted the quantity of food wasted in food service establishments in educational institutions. However, more granular inputs are required to counter the challenge posed. The purpose of this study is to undertake a review of the prior literature in the area to provide a platform for future research.

Towards this end, the authors used a robust search protocol to identify 88 congruent studies to review and critically synthesize. The research profiling of the selected studies revealed limited studies conducted on food service establishments in universities. The research is also less dispersed geographically, remaining largely focused on the USA. Thereafter, the authors performed content analysis to identify seven themes around which the findings of prior studies were organized.

The key themes of the reviewed studies are the drivers of food waste, quantitative assessment of food waste, assessment of the behavioural aspects of food waste, operational strategies for reducing food waste, interventions for inducing behavioural changes to mitigate food waste, food diversion and food waste disposal processes and barriers to the implementation of food waste reduction strategies.

This study has key theoretical and practical implications. From the perspective of research, the study revealed various gaps in the extant findings and suggested potential areas that can be examined by academic researchers from the perspective of the hospitality sector. From the perspective of practice, the study recommended actionable strategies to help managers mitigate food waste.

The authors have made a novel contribution to the research on food waste reduction by identifying theme-based research gaps, suggesting potential research questions and proposing a framework based on the open-systems approach to set the future research agenda.

This study aims to determine the probiotic potential of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 from Fiti sachets, in four widely consumed pulses, namely, black-eyed pea, pigeon pea, kabuli chickpea and desi chickpea. The secondary objective was to determine the viability of the fermented pulses during 21 days of storage at 4°C.

Each pulse sample was mixed with a Fiti sachet (one gram of freeze-dried consortium of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Streptococcus thermophilus C106) and fermented for up to 120 h. To assess the samples’ storage potential, they were refrigerated at 4°C for 21 days. Microbial enumerations and pH measurements were collected during fermentation and storage to determine the viability and fermentation potential of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Fiti, respectively.

There was a significant (p = 0.01) difference in mean microbial counts in all pulse samples throughout fermentation. At 24 h of fermentation, the mean bacterial count of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 in black-eyed pea, pigeon pea, kabuli chickpea and desi chickpea were 1.32 × 10⁹ ± 0.11, 1.01 × 10⁹ ± 0.16, 1.52 × 10⁹ ± 0.14 and 0.80 × 10⁹ ± 0.05 CFU/mL, respectively. Fermentation of pigeon pea, kabuli chickpea and desi chickpea at 48 h yielded the highest bacterial count for Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 while black-eyed pea reached its highest bacterial count at 72 h of fermentation. The bacterial concentration of all pulse samples remained at around 10⁹ CFU/mL during the refrigeration period of 21 days at 4°C. Furthermore, the pH of all pulse samples were below 4.6 during both fermentation and refrigerated storage.

Since 2004, the Fiti initiative has economically empowered hundreds of women in East Africa by teaching them how to produce and sell probiotic yogurt containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1. As a result, Fiti probiotic yogurt was made accessible to vulnerable populations in East Africa who face malnutrition, infectious diseases and environmental toxins. Because of recent climatic changes, milk has become more expensive and inaccessible for local communities. Furthermore, this study found that black-eyed pea, pigeon pea, kabuli chickpea and desi chickpea can be viable and non-diary probiotic alternatives to the Fiti probiotic yogurt in Eastern Africa. This is also the first study of its kind to provide preliminary evidence showing pulses as non-dairy alternatives to Fiti probiotic yogurt.

The purpose of this paper is to apply okara flour in the elaboration of a product, verifying the effect of the fermentation by Lactobacillus plantarum BG 112 on the antihypertensive activity and to develop probiotic sauce with gums and low lipid content.

During the fermentation process, the inhibitory activity of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and production of organic acids were determined. The simplex-centroid mixture of guar gum, xanthan gum and pregelatinized cassava starch was used for studying the variables water holding capacity, viscosity and firmness. Counts of probiotics and in vitro survival of probiotics in simulated gastrointestinal conditions were made.

The fermented soymilk showed ACE inhibition capacity above 50 percent with 32 h of fermentation, increasing the levels of lactic acid and acetic acid progressively. Based on the regression analysis and response surfaces, the binary mixture with guar gum and xanthan was chosen as the most suitable for the formulation of the sauce, having over 30 days of storage counts above 8.5 log CFU.g⁻¹ and above 6 log CFU.g⁻¹ after simulation of gastrointestinal conditions. The global acceptance was 7.0 corresponding to the moderately liked.

The findings suggest that the sauce developed has been well accepted by potential consumers and can be incorporated into the diet and can result in health benefits for the consumer when regularly ingested. The fermentation process of soymilk promoted an increase in antihypertensive capacity. Despite the reduction in viable cell counts throughout storage, counts remained high in the product, having a high survival rate after exposure under simulated gastrointestinal conditions.

The use of okara flour in the diet is viable and helps to improve the nutritional composition of foods. The use of okara flour in sauce showed potential applicability and could be incorporated into different products. The fermentation process of soymilk with okara flour produces benefits beyond the sensorial characteristics. The elaborated probiotic sauce presented physical–chemical and microbiological stability throughout the storage, being an alternative for people with food restrictions.

In recent years, global demand for functional foods grew tremendously due to the rising trend of health-conscious consumers. Driven by increased awareness of probiotic products, consumption of yogurt drink is gaining popularity across all age groups. In the present study, the authors aimed to assess sensorial, nutritional and technological properties of synbiotic yogurt drink enriched with prebiotic inulin.

Sensory analysis, proximate compositions, viscosity, viable count and DPPH radical scavenging activity were examined in control (without inulin) and 3 variants of inulin-supplemented synbiotic yogurt drink, namely F1 (4%, inulin), F2 (4.5% inulin) and F3 (5% inulin).

Evaluated by 75 consumer panellists on 9-point hedonic scales, F3 showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher overall acceptability (5.79 ± 1.94) compared to control. In addition to lower calorie content (36.52 kcal/100 ml), nutritional and technological properties of F3 [total dietary fibre content (4.03 ± 0.04 g/100 ml), viscosity (28 ± 6.93 cP), viable count (87.00 ± 4.00 × 106 CFU/ml S. thermophilus; 14.67 ± 3.51 × 106 CFU/ml L. bulgaricus) and antioxidant activity (50.40 ± 1.80%)] were significantly (p < 0.05) improved compared to control. Remarkably, the new formulation complied with nutrient criteria for Healthier Choice Logo Malaysia in addition to meeting requirements for “low fat” and “high dietary fibre” contents according to Malaysia Guide to Nutrition Labelling and Claims. Hence, we conclude that 5% inulin improved nutritional and technological characteristic in synbiotic yogurt drink without compromising consumers' acceptance.

This novel study showcases the incorporation of prebiotic inulin in the development of synbiotic yogurt drink. Remarkably, this new formulation complied with the nutrient criteria for Healthier Choice Logo Malaysia in addition to meeting the requirements for “low fat” and “high dietary fibre” contents according to Malaysia Guide to Nutrition Labelling and Claims. More importantly, results have contributed knowledge to existing literature as well as benefits food manufacturers in creating healthy yogurt drinks to better meet the needs and expectations of health-conscious consumers without compromising hedonic perceptions.

This article contributes to the fuzzy logic application literature in accounting by examining a key issue in the use of fuzzy logic: how to find an optimum number of classes to minimize the decision maker's cost. Two costs are assumed: (1) we assume fuzziness is costly and thus should be minimized and (2) we assume that adding categories is costly. In order to address the issue of finding the optimal number of classes, we define the objective function as being cost minimization. We seek to determine the costs and benefits of increasing the number of classifications and ask whether an internal optimum is identifiable and achievable. We assume, ceteris paribus, less fuzziness is preferable to more fuzziness, but fuzziness can only be reduced through the use of more categories whose creation is costly. More fuzziness is costly, but so is the creation of additional categories to alleviate the fuzziness. When we arrive at the optimal number of clusters that corresponds to a minimal total cost, that number may not be the same as the “natural” number of categories. It is, nonetheless, a useful and practical way of deciding on the number of classifications. The approach we employ in this study is not confined to a management accounting information environment. It can be applied to any information environment where measurable classifications exist.

This study aims to test Singer’s suggestion that ‘over the next 20 years meat could follow smoking into disrepute” using the findings of the recent literature on meat consumption, education and smoking and data from consumers in Switzerland in 1990–2017.

We hypothesise that meat consumption in developed countries has increasingly shifted to people with less education, as has been observed for smoking in previous studies. Using trend analysis by regressions, we describe the consumption dynamics of nine sorts of meat in Switzerland and estimate meat consumption trends for populations with and without university education separately.

Our results partly confirm the hypothesis. Less educated households consume more non-fish meat per person than households with at least one member educating or having finished education at university. For most categories of meat, the relative decline in consumption has been significantly higher for households in which at least one person holds a university education.

Our study contributes to the studies on sociology of meat eating and suggests paying more attention to risks related to meat consumption and to awareness of the population about these risks.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0335

Exact confidence interval estimation for the new extreme value model is often impractical. This paper seeks to evaluate the accuracy of approximate confidence intervals for the two‐parameter new extreme value model.

The confidence intervals of the parameters of the new model based on likelihood ratio, Wald and Rao statistics are evaluated and compared through the simulation study. The criteria used in evaluating the confidence intervals are the attainment of the nominal error probability and the symmetry of lower and upper error probabilities.

This study substantiates the merits of the likelihood ratio, the Wald and the Rao statistics. The results indicate that the likelihood ratio‐based intervals perform much better than the Wald and Rao intervals.

Exact interval estimates for the new model are difficult to obtain. Consequently, large sample intervals based on the asymptotic maximum likelihood estimators have gained widespread use. Intervals based on inverting likelihood ratio, Rao and Wald statistics are rarely used in commercial packages. This paper shows that the likelihood ratio intervals are superior to intervals based on the Wald and the Rao statistics.

Calls for theoretically informed interventions and a more reflexive stance are apparent in social marketing. Moving from a “prove” to “improve” mentality requires evaluations that learn from experience gained to identify improvements to inform future programme success. This paper considers the value of inclusion of stakeholders in process evaluation.

Two participant groups (n = 90, n = 182) and one key stakeholder group (n = 22) were surveyed in person, over the phone and online. Open-ended qualitative responses were analysed for recurring themes.

Key stakeholders contribute unique and valuable insight into programme implementation and engagement, expanding evaluation beyond participant feedback. Most notably, the process evaluation illuminated the engagement insight of programme volunteers, mid-level expansion opportunities offered by participating chefs and the perceived value of involvement across all stakeholder groups.

The study is limited by a lack of systematic stakeholder identification and to a single context, namely food waste.

This paper affirms the importance of process evaluation and application of stakeholder theory to social marketing. These contributions suggest a widened focus for the widely accepted NSMC benchmark criteria which centre attention on the end users targeted for change. Stakeholders should be included in process evaluations given they contribute important and unique partnership insights.

This paper extends stakeholder theory use in social marketing providing showcasing potential for this approach to deliver a more reflexive stance.