There are many eco-brands on food products. It can be confusing for the consumer to know which one to trust or choose and since July 2012, there is an EU law and a mandatory EU organic label that must be displayed on all food products marketed as organic, eco or bio.Organic brands from a consumer perspective have previously been studied in England. This is a similar study in the form of focus groups, to explore and examine how consumers perceive and trust organic brand or labels in Sweden. It also explores which knowledge consumers have regarding why a product has an organic brand and what it means.The study shows that consumers perceive organic brands by brand recognition rather than knowledge regarding what each label means. It also shows that the consumer is confused by and skeptical to the wide range of markings and symbols on organic food products.

The visions of the United Nations concerning sustainable development and conservation of biodiversity can only be realized if the human population succeeds in creating coexistence between human and wildlife. Landscape architects are able to influence on how landscapes are to be maintained and developed. The negative impact of infrastructure on wildlife has become a critical problem in Sweden and other parts of Europe. Wildlife crossings has been developed as a solution for the problems of road barriers in the landscape. The crossings are made to give animals a better opportunity to cross roads.

AbstractVäxjö University, School of Social SciencesBachelor thesisTitle: Varför en rädsla för alternativmedicin? En studie om hur EU?s kosttillskottsdirektiv har implementerats i Sverige.Author: Annica BlomstrandSupervisor: Anne Haglund-MorrisseyThe aim of this study is to investigate the process of legislation and implementation of the directive of the European Union on the food supplements, focused on member state of Sweden.There are two questions in this study: What was the process of legislation in the period when the Directive on the food supplements became established? and How does the implementation of EU?s decision on the food supplements works in reality? In order to answer these questions, two different methods were used. One was qualitative analysis of the available text and the other one case-study (qualitative including interviews)The conclusion is that the implementation has not been successful. The process of legislation has followed its traditional way, which in its turn did not leave so much space to the thorough implementation of the Directive. Unfortunately, this is a process that overlooks citizens and countries with different premises, affected by the decision.Keywords: EU, kostillskottdirektivet, lagstiftningsprocessen, implementering, organisationsteori, fallstudie.

The purpose of this essay was to in a specific project for unemployed youths between 18 and 24 years, from an ecological point of view, examine how the youths experienced their unemployment and also to compare the purpose and structure of the project with the participants' experience.Important questions in my essay were how the unemployment affected the youths' identity and social circumstances, if the participants found the project meaningful, and experienced that they could influence how the project was formed, if the purpose of the project was in accordance with the youths' experience and how the ecological perspective could be used to understand the situation of the youths.To answer these questions one interview was made with one of the employees and five interviews were made with participant youths.The results of the essay was that the youths' experience of the project were very much individual. All of the participants found something in the project meaningful and most of them thought that it was possible to influence the project in some way. Something that both the youths and the employee pointed out as important was the employees and their supporting role..

Due to an increased population in cities the need of densification of cities increases. This means that the amount of ecological elements in the city is at risk of decreasing. Ecological services contribute to the city?s climate by softening the negative impacts that densification of cities means. Thus increases the will and ambition in city planning in to preserve greenery.This is an interdisciplinary thesis within the subject of geography that studies Biotope Area Factor (BAF), a planning tool that is used in city planning with the purpose of compensating for lost ecological services associated with new housing estate.

This study examines the factors that influence the seasonal movements of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and can thus provide important information that helps to improve the protection of the species. There were two main purposes of this study. First, I wanted to analyze the difference between preferences of juvenile and adult Golden Eagles in their choice of southern or northern hibernation areas. Do younger eagles prefer moving longer distance to southern areas of Sweden? Second, I wanted to investigate how the climate influenced the choice of date of migration in the fall.

The purpose of my study has been to find out how four preschool teachers at four different preschools looks at the pedagogical meal from a health and overall learning perspective. I also want to examine how, through the pedagogical meal the preschool teacher works to promote children´s learning and give them an understanding of need to safeguard their health. To achieve my aim I set the following questions;What are the different types of learning preschool teachers believe that children can acquire the basis of the pedagogic meal?How do preschool teachers describe their work from the pedagogical meal to benefit children´s overall learning?How do preschool teachers describe their work at the pedagogical meal for the children to gain an understanding of their health?The study is based on a qualitative method with interviews and observations, triangulation. The theoretical approach to this study is based on the socio-cultural perspective to learning and development.

Problem: Företag ägnar sig åt ett seriöst hållbarhetsarbete, men det finns anledning att tro att detta inte speglas i deras marknadskommunikation. Förändringar i marknadskommunikation tenderar att vara konservativa, då företag väntar på en indikation från marknaden för ökat intresse av hållbara produkter.Syfte: Huvudsyftet med arbetet är att undersöka huruvida företag inom ?fast fashion?- och ?fast food?-industrierna som gör ett gediget hållbarhetsarbete också använder en marknadskommunikation som är ohållbar. Som en del av detta arbete kommer en grundläggande definition av ohållbar marknadskommunikation att konstrueras genom teoristudier.Metod: En kvalitativ undersökning har använts, då en fallstudie med bildanalys har genomförts, med empirisk data hämtad från företagens marknadskommunikation.Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen grundar sig i teorier kring marknadskommunikation, hållbarhetsaspekter och konsumtionssamhällets konstruktion.Resultat: Det empiriska materialet redovisas genom fallstudieberättelse, baserad på bildanalysen av marknadskommunikationsmaterial som utförts och den analysmodell som har konstruerats.Analys: Empiriska data som insamlats har jämförts med de teorier som vi använt oss av i den teoretiska referensramen. Resultaten har analyserats för att hitta övergripande likheter inom företagens marknadskommunikationSlutsats: Företag inom ?fast fashion?- och ?fast food?-industrierna som arbetar seriöst med hållbarhetsarbete kan också använda en ohållbar marknadskommunikation enligt den definition som har konstruerats..

Nuts of all kinds are common ingredients in food. For nut allergy sufferers the frequent use of nuts cause problems and "hidden" nuts in food products may elicit allergic reaction when such foods are consumed. Methods for detecting and quantifying walnut (and other nuts) with high sensitivity and specificity are therefore very important.The objective of this project was to verify the specificity of a rabbit antiserum against walnut with immunodiffusion and to determine the size of the dominant walnut antigens with Western blotting. In addition, a commercial sandwich ELISA for walnut quantification was validated and compared with a qualitative real-time PCR.The rabbit antiserum proved to be less specific but after absorption with cross-reacting nuts and seeds it showed high specificity. The ELISA kit reacted, except for walnut, with pecan and slightly with other nuts and seeds tested.

Verksamhetsutövare inom livsmedelsbranschen har ett ansvarar för att den mat som producerats är säker. År 2009 gjordes ändringar i den svenska livsmedelslagen där bland annat kraven försvann på att verksamhetsutövare måste ha skriftliga rutiner och dokumentation (Lindblad, Westöö, Lindqvist, Hjertqvist & Andersson, 2009). Oavsett om verksamhetsutövarna har skriftliga rutiner och dokumentation eller inte måste de kunna bevisa att de har tillräcklig kunskap för att arbeta med livsmedelshantering. Genom ett fungerande system för egenkontroll, alltså en egen kontroll av verksamheten, skapas säkra livsmedel och risken för matförgiftning minskar (Israelsson, 2006). Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka verksamhetsutövarna inom livsmedelsbranschens uppfattning om egenkontroll.

Urbanisation has increased the distance between the urban and the rural. Urban agriculture can be a solution to overcome that distance. The characteristic of urban agriculture is the intensive production in intra urban and peri-urban areas. Until 1950s food production in cities was an important part of the urban economy and the urban food supply. Since the 1950s the urban located production of food has almost ceased in Sweden, partly as a result of cheap food imports.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and develop a workflow for assessing and representing the value of ecosystems to professionals involved in municipal planning. A thorough literature review was conducted and supplemented by interviews and observations. Frameworks for ecosystem service assessments were analyzed and combined with methods in urban planning in order to assess social and ecological conditions. A workflow was set up and methods were evaluated by applying them to a case study in the area Åstråket in Uppsala. Experience from the case study was compiled in order to improve the workflow.Complex assessments were identified and simplified for the method to be useful for practitioners.

Due to better nutrition, veterinary and overall care, pet dogs? lifespan has increased. With more old dogs we see more health problems associated with age, among those cognitive decline, leading to deficits in learning and memory, disorientation, anxiety and other altered behaviors. Cognitive decline can have severe negative impacts on the life of both dog and owner, when the dog for example forgets being housetrained or starts being awake at night. Two pet food manufacturers have developed food with specific ingredients in order to improve cognitive functions or delay the onset of cognitive impairment. Hill?s Pet Nutrition has developed a dog food with supplements of a broad spectrum of antioxidants and mitochondrial nutrients, aiming to diminish oxidative damage in the brain, thereby maintaining brain function and improving learning ability.

This report is the result of a thesis work carried out on the Risifrutti production at the company Procordia Food AB. The thesis is at a master level and is the final work for the author to receive a Master of Science in Innovative production at Mälardalen University. The thesis comprises 30 credits and has lasted for 18 weeks. The thesis is mainly a research on whether it is possible to perform an Environmental Value Stream Map (E-VSM) in a food processing industry and an evaluation if the tools E-VSM and Green Performance Map (GPM) are useful in this type of industry. An extra part to this research is to use the results from the E-VSM and give Procordia Food AB information on improvement potentials in the Risifrutti production. The author has found it difficult to collect some of the quantitative data to the E-VSM, mainly regarding energy, but by using the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool and other Lean tools the author was able to identify and quantify several wastes in the Risifrutti production. Recommendations for improvements based on these wastes have been given to the company. In the research part of this report the utility of the Value Stream Map, Environmental Value Stream Map and Green Performance Map in a food processing industry have been analyzed. The author has found that the Value Stream Map has been a useful tool since waste and unevenness in the tact of the production has been identified. The Environmental Value Stream Map and the Green Performance Map are also great tools when a company wants to analyze their environmental impact and then invest in environmental improvements. However, no profound energy analyzes has been done in the Risifrutti production because of the lack of energy meters for steam, electricity and compressed air in the production lines..

This thesis aims to study the effects of the infrastructure project Västlänken in Gothenburg, a rail tunnel to be built through the city center. The study focuses on the community of Haga where one of the three exits will be constructed and also the surrounding urban environment, to see if the project can be sustainable. Sustainable urban development was selected as the theory, and the term "sustainable" is defined in this study using a number of criteria that two scientists developed. The criteria include economic, ecological and social perspectives on how a place or a geographical area can meet today's needs as well as possible needs in the future. The methods used were semi-structured interviews and content analysis of government documents. Interviews were conducted with various institutions in the city, and companies involved in the planning of the project in Gothenburg.