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To assess knowledge, perceptions and practices of grassroots‐level food safety regulators.

Knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) study using quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection. Quantitative data was collected using a pre‐tested knowledge assessment questionnaire. Qualitative data was collected by conducting a focus group discussion (FGD) and six in‐depth interviews among food safety regulators from all 23 districts of the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS package (version 14.5). The FGD and in‐depth interviews' recordings were transcribed verbatim and translated into English before compiling them into individual reports. These reports were read independently by a group of researchers before inferences were drawn.

The respondents' knowledge on basic food microbiology was limited. They attributed their inability to monitor all cases of food poisoning/adulteration to delay in receiving information and lack of laboratory facilities. They had sound knowledge of conventional adulterations, but were not equipped to check newer adulterations. Their knowledge on health/nutrition claims on food labels is almost nil. Orientation towards food safety issues other than adulteration is the need of the hour.

The results of the study can serve as the basis for developing an in‐service training module for food safety regulators.

A study was carried out to find the type and level of food colours added to various foods in the city of Hyderabad and rural areas around Hyderabad. The majority of foods from both urban and rural areas contained permitted colours while some foods sold at kiosks contained non‐permitted colours. The majority of the foods were found to contain colours exceeding the statutory limits. Of the eight synthetic permitted colours in India, only six were extensively used. Erythrosine whose ADI has been consistently reduced by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee for Food Additives is still being used. A wide variety of foods, which do not form part of the Prevention of Food Adulteration list of specified food items were found to contain colours. Constant vigilence is needed to ensure that manufacturers comply with regulations on food colours.

In India, there are various religions and cultures. Several festivals are celebrated through the year, and a variety of specific foods are prepared for each of the festivals. The aim was to study the extent of consumption of colours during festivals.

A household survey was carried out in the urban areas of Hyderabad among individuals in the age groups 1‐5 years, 6‐18 years and >18 years from three socio‐economic groups – high, middle, and low income – from government quarters. The respondents of the study were interviewed using a food frequency questionnaire to elicit information on the intake of colours during festivals. The festivals selected for the study were Sankranthi, Diwali, Holi and Christmas.

The consumption pattern of various foods among all the subjects of the study during the four festivals indicated that a majority of the subjects (44 per cent) consumed sweetmeats. The intake of tartrazine and sunset yellow was observed to be higher during festivals due to the extensive use of these colours in sweetmeats, savouries and beverages that are most commonly available during festivals. The present investigation showed that there has been a shift in the preferences for foods during festivals (i.e. mainly sweetmeats and the type of colours consumed).

As there was an excessive consumption of yellow colours like tartrazine and sunset yellow and lesser consumption of red colours like ponceau 4R and carmoisine, the Indian government needs to take into consideration such situations when setting maximum permissible limits.

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) have been extensively researched for their environmental and economic implications. However, these are now confronted with shortcomings such as supply chain resilience (SLR) and societal livelihood (SL) hindering growth. The purpose of this study is to revisit and critically analyze existing SFSC literature, with a focus on SLR, SL, sustainability and human-centricity elements, to propose redesigning attributes for SFSCs in the era of Industry 5.0.

The systematic review scope is confined to the SFSC domain with an analysis of contemporary articles published in the British Food Journal (BFJ). The meta-data and research papers are sourced from the Scopus database and the VOSviewer software is used for the analysis. The thematic, diversified geographies and method-wise investigation bring theoretical insights toward building sustainable and resilient SFSCs.

The study findings could serve as a fitting theoretical framework to redesign the SFSCs for resiliency, sustainability and societal aspects of the economy, environment and human livelihood, respectively. The results also discuss the prior accomplishments and elaborate on avenues for future research.

Emphasizing recent trends, challenges, policy design, conceptual framework and future research directions for the SFSC domain, considering SLR and SL, has extended the literature in line with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

This study offers comprehensive guidelines to the concerned stakeholders for redesigning the SFSCs by linking sustainability, resilience and societal livelihood dimensions.

The study derives comprehensive insights into how redesigning SFSCs has contributed to more sustainable and resilient food systems worldwide over 2 decades. It extends the BFJ’s literature body by establishing the linkages between SLR and SL concerning human-centric SFSC.

The increasing accumulation of synthetic plastic waste in oceans and landfills, along with the depletion of non-renewable fossil-based resources, has sparked environmental concerns and prompted the search for environmentally friendly alternatives. Biodegradable plastics derived from lignocellulosic materials are emerging as substitutes for synthetic plastics, offering significant potential to reduce landfill stress and minimise environmental impacts. This study highlights a sustainable and cost-effective solution by utilising agricultural residues and invasive plant materials as carbon substrates for the production of biopolymers, particularly polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), through microbiological processes. Locally sourced residual materials were preferred to reduce transportation costs and ensure accessibility. The selection of suitable residue streams was based on various criteria, including strength properties, cellulose content, low ash and lignin content, affordability, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, shelf-life, mechanical and physical properties, short maturation period, antibacterial properties and compatibility with global food security. Life cycle assessments confirm that PHB dramatically lowers CO₂ emissions compared to traditional plastics, while the growing use of lignocellulosic biomass in biopolymeric applications offers renewable and readily available resources. Governments worldwide are increasingly inclined to develop comprehensive bioeconomy policies and specialised bioplastics initiatives, driven by customer acceptability and the rising demand for environmentally friendly solutions. The implications of climate change, price volatility in fossil materials, and the imperative to reduce dependence on fossil resources further contribute to the desirability of biopolymers. The study involves fermentation, turbidity measurements, extraction and purification of PHB, and the manufacturing and testing of composite biopolymers using various physical, mechanical and chemical tests.

The paper aims to investigate organizational variables and develop their relationship with horizontal strategy. The cultural dimensions and organization structure have been considered as organizational variables. The study also aims to shed light on the implementation horizontal strategy in conglomerates.

A survey was carried out with 122 conglomerate firms for examination. These companies were chosen to be of different sizes and sectors. The multiple regression analysis was utilized to analyze the data.

The results reveal that conglomerate firms also have a horizontal strategy. Additionally, organizational cultural dimensions namely, collectivism, clan culture, market culture and long-term orientation; formal and informal relationship; and horizontal organization structure (HOS) have positive and significant relationship with horizontal strategy. No significant relationship was found between uncertainty avoidance and adhocracy culture, and horizontal strategy.

The major contributions of this study are explicitly identified as horizontal strategy exists in the conglomerate firms where the few organizational variables play a significant role in horizontal strategy implementation.

This study has been done in an effort to make supporting guidelines to fill the gaps in conglomerate firms. This study offers an effective role of cultural dimensions and structure as drivers of horizontal strategy implementation, and this study spells out and extends the literature and proposes a conceptual framework.

It is now well-established that good water quality is associated with economic prosperity, reduced incidence on public health and the good functioning of the various ecosystems found in our environment. Water contamination is mostly related to both diffused (agricultural lands and geologic rock degradations) and point sources of pollution. Mauritius has many water resources which depend solely on precipitation for their replenishment. Water parameters which are of relevance include total dissolved solids (TDS), temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved and particulate organic carbon and major cations and anions. The traditional methods of analysis for these parameters are mostly using electrical and optical methods (probes and sensors in the field), while chemical titrations, Flame AAS and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography techniques are carried out in the laboratory. Image Classification techniques using neural networks can also be used to detect the presence of contaminants in water. In addition to basic water quality parameters, the field sensors range have been extended to cover important major ions and can now be integrated with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based models for the prediction of variations in water quality to better protect human health and the environment, reduce operation costs of water and wastewater treatment plant unit processes.

There is no particularly efficient way to measure research output, but effectual assessment of research output is necessary to motivate and encourage researchers to enhance their research performance and disseminate knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the exacerbating pressure on Indian academics to deliver incessantly in terms of research output and identify an agreeable way to increase research output. The metric explores trends in management publications by Indian academics and presents an overview of collaborative practices by Indian management researchers that could shine a light on the trends of collaborative publishing future.

The study focuses on publications in the area of Business and Management. Scopus was used with advanced filters to draw relevant research papers. Data were then sorted and filtered on the basis of quality determined through Australian Business Deans Council rankings and diverse bibliometric information to understand the pattern of research output of Indian academics.

The research found that the rate of collaboration with researchers from the home country is low for top rated publications. Majority of publications were listed in Scopus indexed journals, whereas a handful featured in A and A* journals. A and A* journals were predominantly co-authored with academics from universities outside the country. Tradeoff was achieved by majority of authors by getting published in B, followed by C category journals to achieve research outputs.

The study is limited to publications in the area of Business and Management and may be extended to other disciplines such as economics, engineering, law, medical sciences, etc., to understand publishing trends at universities in the country. The study can also be conducted in understanding a similar dilemma with academics at other countries that are evolving in research culture.

The study would help management researchers to dig deep into the root cause and understand why and how collaborations within and outside the country impact the quality of publications. The results would further encourage ranking agencies to award suitable grades to colleges that promote collaboration within the country as well as international collaboration. The study also conducts a benchmarking exercise of the institutions in the country that would be useful for researchers, journals and colleges.

While earlier studies have highlighted the importance of foreign collaborations in academic publishing, there are a handful of studies that have focused on the role of collaboration within the home country. The practice of Indian authors collaborating with Indian counterparts at other universities would help understand the expertise of researchers at different universities and encourage the collaboration process and quality of publications in the country.

This research presents a comprehensive explanation of unethical pro-organisational behaviour (UPB), an emerging phenomenon in organisational behaviour and especially in moral behaviour research. The authors tested the fit of Culture-Identification-Ideology-UPB moral behaviour model. The results indicate that individuals having strong organisational identification and high relativism ethical ideology may indulge in the practice of UPB. Interestingly, our study also reveals that strong ethical organisational culture may not restrain, rather may facilitate UPB. The authors concluded with suggestions for the practitioners and future scope of research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption and implementation of supply chain management practices (SCMPs) on supply chain performance (SCP) and firm performance (FP) in the organized retail industry in a developing country like India.

An empirical study was conducted on a sample size of 125 responses collected from the supply chain heads of organized retail firms in India. A theoretical model was developed depicting the relationship between SCMPs, SCP and FP. The theoretical model was tested using mediating multiple regression analysis.

This research suggests that the SCMPs are positively related to SCP and FP. Customer relationship management and supplier relationship management are reported as the most important SCMPs, which had the maximum impact on the FP in the organized retailing context in India.

The research employed perceptual performance measures. Future studies can use actual performance parameters like profit and sales growth to better quantify the benefits of SCM in this context.

This research is an attempt to empirically test the impact of SCMPs on FP in organized retailing context in an emerging market, India.