Persistent pink in beef patties and hamburgers is a problem in the meat industry that has been known for a few decades. It is a costly problem as it can give rejections of food by consumers. Studies around the world have tried to solve the problem but it still remains a mystery. There are many different theories of what is causing the red colour. Some of the most likly theories are reducing hemocromes, high microbiological loads, contamination of nitrite or organic/non organic substanses, DFD meat etc.

As demand for renewable energy is increasing rapidly, the market for biomass pellets is expected to continue to grow in the near future. Most of the new raw materials that are discussed for pellet production have one thing in common; the production costs will increase compared to using traditional raw materials such as sawdust and planer shavings. The aim of this thesis is to investigate to what degree increased use of new raw materials for pellet production will affect the general pellet prices in Sweden and to survey what plans Swedish pellet producers have concerning new raw materials. To investigate the raw material situation of the Swedish pellet producers an industry survey was performed. Literature studies were also made on previous research in the subject field. Calculations of the production costs for pellets were done for the raw materials sawdust, wet sawmill chips and energy wood respectively. New raw materials are already used by the large-scale pellet producers in Sweden.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of activities, flows and waste in a company's production process. By performing a value stream analysis, non-value adding activities are identified in a production process and then the suggested improvements that can reduce lead times will be stated. The value-stream mapping identifies the flow of information and the flow of material in a production process and this provides the basis for the identification of non-value adding activities.We conducted the study at Lammhults Möbel AB in Lammhult Sweden, where the production flow of Spira-21 has been investigated. This to identify any non-value adding activities that affect the flow negative and consumes time and money in a non-value adding way.A reasonable approach for the project was taken by studying the methodologies and theories. We conducted interviews and site surveys at Lammhults Möbel AB where the flow of information and material in the production process were investigated.

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..

How affected are the sugar production in Mozambique and Tanzania by EU sugar regime? What does the EU sugar reform constitute in these countries?Using theories regarding free trade and anti-free trade, I am able to answer these questions. The aim of this paper is to study how the various sugar agreements with EU affect the sugar production in Mozambique and Tanzania. Therefore I am using a method called a most similar system design in this comparative case study. The conclusion is that the EU sugar regime is the main reason to how the sugar productions in developing countries are.

The purpose of this report is to survey Swedex AB?s production costs and to gather all info into a manageable calculation tool. This was made by time and motion studies, interviews of the personnel. All factors were gathered into an Excel chart.The calculation was made according to an additional-charge-method that was considered to satisfy Swedex AB?s goal.

During the spring semester of 2009 I have participated in what was to become the project The Allotment Plot; a collaboration between the Swedish University of Agriculture and the Wanås Foundation. As one of six students in landscape architecture I have experienced a group based learning process with the point of departure in the designing of an organic and experimental kitchen garden at Wanås, a sculpture park for contemporary art. The project came out as neither us nor any other of the people engaged could have guessed. What was meant to be a garden turned out to become an entire cultivation movement. As students, we have gained a lot of experience through praxis; experience that will be valuable for our future profession. The project has also opened up the possibility to question and reflect upon what our profession and education could or should be about. This thesis focuses on the role of communication and the production of communicative tools in design processes and landscape architectural practice. It discusses how communication may be used in an exploratory and ?un-securing? way, and how this may dislocate the professional role, especially in situations where the design action, as in the case of this study, demands a high degree of transdisciplinarity and collaboration. .

FYROM has a long tradition of producing wine. Wine production in FYROM is one of the greatest contributors of the agricultural share of their GDP. The aim of the thesis is to see if the wine production in FYROM has a comparative advantage compared to other countries that produce wine and if FYROM is able to sustain the advantage in the future. The countries chosen for comparison are Bulgaria, Croatia, France and Italy. The methods used in the thesis are the Balassa Index and Porter?s Diamond of National Advantage.

The Swedish processor Findus contracts approximately 500 pea producers annually to secure the company?s supply of green peas for human consumption. A production contract, which has had roughly the same design for decades, regulates the relation between Findus and the pea producers. Agriculture is typically a risky business. The main sources of risk in agricultural production are production risk and price risk.

The purpose of this study is from a case study develop a model that aims to cost effectively improve productivity in a manufacturing production process. The study highlights the importance of having knowledge about customer needs and using a holistic process perspective when improving productivity to identify the relations between the process stations and by this find problems that cause waste and losses in productivity. Tools and methods used to make production more efficient such as single minute exchange of die, spaghetti diagram, 5s and master production schedule is presented an applied in the model to see how these effect costs, productivity etc.Maintenance effects on quality and productivity in a manufacturing company will as well be covered in this thesis. The results and conclusions finally reveals how the process improvement tools, maintenance and production planning for example effects each other and why it is important to establish an attitude in the company where continuous process improvement should be emphasized..

During the 19-century a global warming has been observed, which includes increases in global air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of ice and snow, and rising global sea level. There is a clear connection between emissions of greenhouse gases caused by the human and the increase in temperature. Climatic changes caused by global warming can be stopped trough decreased emission of fossil fuels, for example by an increased use of biogas. Biogas is a renewable energy source which is produced through anaerobic (oxygen free) digestion of organic material. The gas is a mixture of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and can be among others used as fuel in vehicles.

Det fenomen som varit föremål för den här studien är psykosocial arbetsmiljö. Fenomenet har undersökts med inriktning på tillverkningsindustrin och organisationsformen Lean production. Studien syftar till att erhålla en djupare förståelse av hur medarbetarna i den här specifika kontexten upplever den psykosociala arbetsmiljön. De frågeställningar som studien ämnar besvara är:-Vad innebär en god psykosocial arbetsmiljö för medarbetarna i organisationen? -Hur upplever medarbetarna den psykosociala arbetsmiljön i organisationen? Studien genomfördes med ett induktivt förhållningssätt.

The aim of this thesis is to form a theory of the green consumer power and to distinguish whether this phenomenon could indicate a movement toward the ecological citizenship. To do so, scientific theories regarding the responsibility of companies have been used, as well as the public choice theory, to link individuals as citizens to individuals as consumers. The motives of corporate environmental responsibility, along with consumers ability to bring pressure in different dimensions, are later drawn on as indicators applied to empirical information. The largest producer of ecological products in Sweden, Arla Foods, is employed as case study to explore if the green consumer power can and does exist. The ecological citizenship uses the ecological footprint, to define in what ways we can minimize our part of environmental degradation.The study seems to strengthen the theory, consumers do have a power to make companies go green and they tend to use it increasingly.

ABSTRACT For hundreds of years there has been a tradition with tethered dairy cows in Sweden. The last decades the old fashioned way to hold cows have been questioned and the number of dairy cows in loose housing has been increasing. Last year (2004) 19 percent in total of all farms with milk production in Sweden had their cows in loose housing. Because of EU-legislation concerning all Organic production no farms are allowed to build tie stalls any more and after 2010 all organic dairy cows are supposed to live in loose-housing systems. The aim of the thesis was mainly to find out the number of farms with tethered organic dairy cows and if they will continue after the year 2010. Furthermore the purpose was to study if there are any regional differences, how countries similar to Sweden interpret the EU-decision about tethered cows and differences in buildings between organic and conventional farms and the reasons to them.

The focus of this study was to examine the nutrients and benthic organisms of the bay ?Mönsteråsviken?, which is influenced by eutrophication. The purpose was also to look at an interesting gradient forming in the bay, namely the distance from the river outflow of Lillån. At 18 sampling sites in the bay samples of water, sediments and benthic organisms were collected in late April of 2011. The water was analyzed for nitrate, phosphate and chlorophyll.