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A study on the relationship between organizational innovation, human resources and economic performance at the firm level is presented. This study is based on the research carried out in cooperation with IRES Emilia-Romagna and FLAI-CGIL-ER (Emilia-Romagna trade union for the food industry and agriculture).

In an era marked by the twin forces of globalization and agro-industrialization, global food markets are undergoing a shift from homogeneous markets to differentiated markets, a reorientation from national markets [...]

This study addresses nutrition labelling of food products and how it stimulates the consumption and production of healthful products.

Issues relating to decision support systems for usage in the food industry are examined in detail, with a focus on recipe classes as a solution.

Byline: Jean-Pierre Huiban (1), Zouhair Bouhsina (1) Abstract: The aim of our paper is to analyse the determinants of the innovation propensity of the firm. Among the numerous works devoted to this subject, the interest of our research is, firstly, to use a direct measurement of innovation, instead of the usual proxies, as R&amp D expenditures and patents statistics, secondly, to emphasise the role of labour factor quality as a major determinant of innovation. We first build a definition of labour factor quality, based on a double dimension: individual skill level and functional distribution of jobs inside the firm. At the end we consider that each job category can be involved in the innovation process, at the different steps of it: conception, decision, implementation. To explain the innovation propensity at the firm level, our logit model takes into account four explanatory dimensions: the quality of labour factor employed inside the firm, the firm structural characteristics (as size, for instance), the sectoral market structures and, finally, the quality of labour factor employed inside the firm sector, as a proxy for the R&amp D spillover effect. We use some individual firms data, including a direct measurement of innovation, that distinguished between several types: radical vs. incremental and product vs. process vs. organisational innovation. The French food industries with its 500.000 employees and 42 sectors, mostly composed of small firms, are our empirical field. The results emphasise the influence of the usual firm structure variables. Firm size, particularly, is very clearly positively related to the innovation propensity. At the same time, some more original facts appears, such as the influence of firm status: after controlling the sectoral influence, co-operative firms seem to innovate less than private ones. Labour factor quality appears to play a very significant role by itself, but mostly, helps us to analyse and specify the influence of other variables on innovation. At the end, it shows that innovation is a multiphase process, and that the relative importance of each phase greatly depends on the kind of innovation that is considered. Conception is the most important phase in the radical innovation case, which greatly involves formally high-skilled job categories as R&amp D employees or engineers. At the same time, the implementation phase, which seems to be particularly important in the incremental innovation case, emphasises the role of the intermediate categories know-how. At the end we can say that small industrial firms appear to be less innovative for two reasons: the usual scale effect argument is correct only in the process innovation case in relation to the capital intensity level. In some other cases as radical innovation, small firms are less innovative because of their job structure and particularly because of the lack of formal scientific capabilities (as the R&amp D personnel's one). Author Affiliation: (1) Departement d'Economie de l'Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Laboratoire d'Etude et de Recherche Economiques de Lille, BP39, F59651, Villeneuve d'ascq Cedex, France Article History: Registration Date: 06/10/2004

I. INTRODUCTION Since the pioneering work of Harberger (1954), there has been an immense amount of empirical work devoted to quantifying allocative efficiency losses caused by market power (Siegfried and [...]

The effects of economic reforms on the productivity of the food manufacturing industry in Bangladesh are studied. Results show that capacity realization in some firms improved following economic reforms affecting the convertibility of the currency, foreign investment and trade. It also argued that a significant amount of unrealized productive capacity in the food industry can be eliminated with additional reforms.

Microbiological research has established the structural characteristics of exopolysaccharides SFi39 adn SFi12 produced by the organism Streptococcus thermophilus. SFi39 has a one to one D-glucose, D-galactose molar ratio. SFi12 has a three to two to one D-galactose, L-rhamnose and D-glucose molar ratio. The tetrasaccharide repeating unit chemical structure of SFi39 is shown. The hexasaccharide repeating unit chemical structure of SFi12 is shown. The texturing properties of S. thermophilus are discussed.

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The use of transactions between two parties as the single unit of analysis is examined in the context of the governance of transactions between manufacturers and wholesalers in Sweden's food industry. The weaknesses of such a focus on the single transaction are identified. In particular, the single transaction's tendency to take for granted the fact that the transaction that takes place between two parties is normally a component of an entire system of transactions and relations with strong interdependent relationships is emphasized. The use of an entire transaction pattern within an industry as a unit of analysis is considered as more appropriate in order to understand the overall structure of the industry's forms of governance.