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Objective: To investigate food insecurity (FI) prevalence in two favelas in Brazil in the early weeks of the social distancing policy, from 27 March 2020 to 1 June 2020.Design: A cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire to elicit information on socio-economic and demographic characteristics, the types of stores visited to buy food, and FI screening. The FI experience was evaluated according to the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. Factors associated with moderate or severe FI were investigated using the logistic regression model.Setting: São Paulo city, Brazil.Participants: Totally, 909 householders.Results: Eighty-eight per cent of the households included young women working as cleaners or kitchen assistants and in sales services. One-fifth of the participants were involved in the federal cash transfer programme, called Bolsa Família. There were 92 % households with children. The most frequent experience reported was uncertainty about food acquisition or receiving more (89 %), eating less than one should (64 %), not being able to eat healthy and nutritious food (46 %), and skipping a meal (39 %). Forty-seven per cent of the participants experienced moderate or severe FI. Factors associated with moderate and severe FI were low income, being a Bolsa Família recipient, having a low level of education and living in a household without children.Conclusions: Half of the participants experienced moderate or severe FI, and almost 10 % experienced hunger. Our data suggest that families with children were at a lower risk of moderate to severe FI. It is possible that nationally established social programmes such as Bolsa Família were protecting those families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to develop an efficient industrial fermentation process that promotes the increase of sporulated biomass in a single batch of Bacillus coagulans BVB5. Preliminary studies of various culture media were performed in Erlenmeyer flasks for 96 hours in a shaker at 44 °C and 240 rpm, and the degree of sporulation was analyzed. The culture media tested were glucose, yeast extract, peptone based medium (GYP), GYP with salts (GYPs), glucose, yeast extract, tryptone based medium (GYT), soy protein, yeast extract, sodium chloride based medium (FNY), 50% FNY (FNY50), glucose, soy protein, potassium salts based medium (DSK) and 50% DSK (DSK50). The results had shown that the FNY50 medium obtained a higher degree of sporulation of 100% followed by FNY with 99.99%, whereas media containing relatively large amounts of glucose such as GYP, GYPs and GYT did not exhibit satisfactory sporulation. The reduction of the cost and consequent increase of the efficiency in the preparation of a probiotic microorganism of BVB5 in the DVS format are the main benefits of reducing the time of the fermentation/sporulation process. For this, more studies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]