Consumer Perspectives on Processing Technologies for Organic Food

Over the last years, consumer demand for natural and healthy convenient food has increased, and with it the demand for organic convenience food. With convenience food, the processing level increases, which consumers are sceptical of. This holds especially for organic consumers who prefer natural, healthy, and sustainable food products. In the literature, consumer preferences are investigated for processed conventional food, but rarely for organic products. Therefore, this study investigates consumers' knowledge, expectations, and attitudes towards selected processing technologies for organic food. Nine focus groups with 84 organic consumers were conducted, discussing preservation technologies of organic milk and orange juice. Results showed that participants had little knowledge about processing technologies but were interested in their benefits. Organic processing technologies should include fewer processing steps, low environmental impact, while keeping the product as natural as possible. Since consumers want to know benefits but not details of processing, asking consumers for their specific preferences when developing new processing technologies remains challenging. This paper shows how consumers' benefit and risk perception including their want for naturalness, and scepticism for new technologies shape their evaluation of (organic) food processing technologies. Two consumer groups with different attitudes towards processing could be identified: 'organic traditionalists' and 'organic pragmatics'.

[Long-term therapy of familial hypercholesterolemia in young patients with colestipol: availability of minerals and vitamins]

Longterm treatment for 5 years of young patients with familial hypercholesterolemia was accompanied by monitoring of plasma levels of calcium, iron, sodium, parathyroid hormone and water- and fat soluble vitamins, since interference of the ion exchange resin with absorption of numerous substances as well as abnormal plasma levels of some of the above had been described in several studies. Treatment was effective in the group with good compliance (lowering of plasma cholesterol at the end of 5 years by 19% and, compared to the control group, by 23%). Adverse drug effects with respect to the above parameters were not found. Plasma levels of carotinoides and vitamin E were elevated in the patients according to elevated concentrations of lipoproteins which are carriers of these vitamins.