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The current era is characterized by hyperturbulence, population growth, attention to food security, the need to identify sustainable strategies to reduce pollution and poverty, and the disparity between developed and undeveloped economies. These circumstances force a global paradigm shift based on sustainable practices and processes that put people and the environment at the core of each activity, contributing to sustainable, social, and economic development and promoting well-being in the community.

In this spirit, a strong impulse can derive from the practices of Green Technology, considered here as that set of processes aimed at eco-sustainability that acquire undisputed relevance, especially for emerging economies.

This chapter focuses on the role that Green technology practices exert in generating local well-being in the world's fifth-largest country: Brazil. Dynamic growth and effective social policies lifted millions of people out of poverty in the 2000s, even if socio-economic development varies widely across the country. Brazil is a leading global agricultural, minerals, and oil producer. The natural environment represents the primary source of Brazil's development that deserves to be protected and push firms and citizens to find new sustainable solutions based on green policies. Drawing inspiration from a Brazilian case study, this chapter proposes a set of building blocks that foster sustainable business practices in emerging countries.

The chapter is organized as follows: the first part introduces the concept of green technology practices; the second highlights the opportunities of green technologies; the third focuses on a single case study.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the functionalities, safety regulations and product applications of herb Stevia rebaudiana extract. This plant material is embedded with multiple functionalities such as antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation and antimicrobial. The regulations released from global authorities are covered to ensure the safety premise of stevia. Besides, the product applications of the extract of aerial parts of the herb S. rebaudiana helps us to recognize its value from commercial side.

Relevant literatures are selected and obtained from main scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and trade magazines published between 2000 and 2023. The keywords and their possible combinations such as sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation, safety and product development were used to ensure the preciseness and completeness of literature searching. Major data such as sweetness, total phenolic content and dose together with latter critical conclusions from searched publications were appropriately used and discussed. In this review, approximately 150 scientific literatures were meticulously ordered and analyzed. In applications, it is the first time that sentiment analysis was used to obtain a market assessment of the stevia-containing products.

This review paper helps rearrange the scientific affairs of those stevia extract’s functions like sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics and inflammation. Sweetness indexes of steviol glycosides were summarized together for comparison while various in vitro and in vivo approaches were reviewed to quantify those functions’ capacities and to depict the related mechanism. The regulation of steviol glycoside compounds such as rebaudioside A was established by global authorities such as US Food and Drug Administration and Joint FAO/World Health Organization Expert Committee to ensure the safety endorsement before commercialization. Then, this study discussed about the market performance of stevia ingredients or products with the self-developed data analytics. This study also investigated the product development progress of stevia-containing food products in the categories of beverage, bakery, dairy and confectionery. Those stevia-containing food consumer goods can be acceptable by certain consumers.

This review paper precisely presents the evidential information about the stevia’s multiple functionalities with mechanisms and global regulation milestones. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is then the first time to probe the stevia-containing products’ market performance through data analytics.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of a Brazilian steelmaking company’s reheating process of the hot rolling mill.

The research method is a quantitative modeling. The main research techniques are data envelopment analysis, TOBIT regression and simulation supported by artificial neural networks. The model’s input and output variables consist of the average billet weight, number of billets processed in a batch, gas consumption, thermal efficiency, backlog and production yield within a specific period. The analysis spans 20 months.

The key findings include an average current efficiency of 81%, identification of influential variables (average billet weight, billet count and gas consumption) and simulated analysis. Among the simulated scenarios, the most promising achieved an average efficiency of 95% through increased equipment availability and billet size.

Additional favorable simulated scenarios entail the utilization of higher pre-reheating temperatures for cold billets, representing a large amount of savings in gas consumption and a reduction in CO2 emissions.

This study’s primary innovation lies in providing steelmaking practitioners with a systematic approach to evaluating and enhancing the efficiency of reheating processes.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the technical-economic process efficiency of obtaining simultaneous lipo-soluble (LSF) and water-soluble (WSF) fractions from annatto seeds.

The batches of annatto seeds were submitted to the refrigerated solid-liquid extraction process in four stages: pre-extraction, aqueous extraction, separation by decantation and filtration. After that, LSF and WSF from annatto seeds were obtained. The process efficiency and the quality of LSF and WSF were analyzed in terms of average yield and bioactive compounds (bixin, norbixin, phenolics and flavonoids) and their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Furthermore, they were economically evaluated in terms of costs of manufacturing and profitability parameters.

The process was efficient in terms of overall average yield (LSF = 8.68% and WSF = 2.76%) (w/w) and in terms of quality, mainly with higher average yields of bixin (82.34% in LSF) and norbixin (29.59% in WSF) (w/w). The concentration of bioactive compounds in the fractions promoted an increase in inhibiting free radicals (DPPH* and ABTS*+) and in the ferric-reducing power (FRAP). LSF showed a minimum inhibitory concentration of 0.06 mg mL-1 for S. aureus and 0.13 mg mL-1 for S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis. The lowest manufacturing costs were obtained for the LSF due to its higher extraction yield compared to the WSF. Plants on an industrial scale of 100 and 1000 L were considered economically viable, with a return on investment of 5 and 2 years.

Thus, fractions (WSF and LSF) can be applied as natural additives, as sources of bioactive compounds for nutraceutical and/or pharmaceutical, and in the development of other innovative processes. These results have practical applicability for pharmaceutical and food industry.

1. Green processing of annatto seeds obtains fractions rich in antioxidant compounds.

2. Efficiently presents a high yield of bixin and other bioactive compounds.

3. Effective in concentrating compounds that inhibit microbial growth.

4. Fractions are more accessible sources of bioactive compounds for isolation.

5. Cost of manufacturing (COM) and profitability are studied.

Green processing of annatto seeds obtains fractions rich in antioxidant compounds.

Efficiently presents a high yield of bixin and other bioactive compounds.

Effective in concentrating compounds that inhibit microbial growth.

Fractions are more accessible sources of bioactive compounds for isolation.

Cost of manufacturing (COM) and profitability are studied.

The aim was not to perform a systematic review but firstly to search in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science databases on the papers published in the last five years using tools for reviewing the statement of preferred information item for systematic reviews without focusing on a randomized analysis and secondly to perform a bibliometric analysis on the properties of films and coatings added of tocopherol for food packaging.

On January 24, 2022, information was sought on the properties of films and coatings added of tocopherol for use as food packaging published in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science databases. Further analysis was performed using bibliometric indicators with the VOSviewer tool.

The searches returned 33 studies concerning the properties of films and coatings added of tocopherol for food packaging, which were analyzed together for a better understanding of the results. Data analysis using the VOSviewer tool allowed a better visualization and exploration of these words and the development of maps that showed the main links between the publications.

In the area of food science and technology, the development of polymers capable of promoting the extension of the shelf life of food products is sought, so the knowledge of the properties is vital for this research area since combining a biodegradable polymeric material with a natural antioxidant active is of great interest for modern society since they associate environmental preservation with food preservation.