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Use of red palm oil fortified shortening was explored for combating vitamin A deficiency in Pakistan. Six types of cookies were prepared in which normal shortening was progressively replaced at the rate of 20 per cent with RPO fortified shortening. The carotenoids content of cookies varied depending on the content of RPO. A moderate loss was noticed after a 60‐day storage. An increase in moisture content was observed, while other chemical characteristics remained unchanged. Sensory analysis showed that cookies containing 40 per cent RPO were most acceptable, while those prepared from 80‐100 per cent RPO developed an oily flavour. The best treatment having 40 per cent RPO + 60 per cent NS provides 344.15 to 312.86 μg/10 g of carotenoids at 0 and 60 days respectively. Recommends that five cookies would provide 40‐50 per cent of RDA of vitamin A to school‐going children.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the channels through which Islamic and/or conventional banking can spur economic growth in MENA region.

The study uses a range of developed econometric approaches, including panel cointegration technique, panel Granger causality test and a panel-based vector error correction model (VECM), to analyze explicitly all the causal relationships among Islamic banking, conventional banking development and economic growth in a unified framework.

The empirical results show that Islamic banking in MENA countries not only leads to economic growth but also affects positively and significantly conventional banking development. Thus, Islamic banking has an active role and could be classified as “supply-following” since its development only leads to economic growth, whereas conventional banking, with passive role, could be classified as “demand-following” since it only reacts to economic growth in long run.

The study has two principal limitations. It is conducted within a relatively limited time period and sample of countries. Also, the used models did not take into account the impact of others financial and macroeconomic variables like stock market development, interest rate, inflation and financial crisis.

The results have two main implications. First, in MENA countries, well-functioning Islamic banking sector could not only promote economic growth but also can be served as a development factor for their conventional one. Second, unlike conventional banks, the customer of Islamic banks seems not to be motivated by interest and profits. Rather religious factors are recommended as the main motive for investing and saving in Islamic banks.

The study tries to perceive whether there exists a substitution or complementarity effect between Islamic and conventional banking in promoting economic growth for MENA countries. This situation is neither revealed nor clarified in the relevant literature.

Service failures evoke negative customer emotions, which human agents respond to through emotional labor. In turn, customers empathize with the human agent, providing a satisfying service recovery experience. However, robot agents could replace human agents and replicate emotional labor strategies. This study addresses whether customers empathize with apologetic robot agents and how it would affect the service recovery experience.

Drawing on emotional labor, social cognition and justice theory, two online scenario-based experiments (N1 = 411; N2 = 253) were designed in which customers watched a video simulating an interaction with a human or a robot agent during a service recovery procedure.

Study 1 shows that robot agents handle emotionally driven service recovery interactions and prompt desirable postrecovery behaviors (e.g. brand loyalty). Study 2 identifies customers’ empathy and compassion as mediators, explaining the effect of normative empathic display on customers' perceptions of interactional justice and behavioral intentions.

Robot agents are reliable substitutes for human agents in handling service recovery procedures. Customers can empathize with robot agents, leading to satisfying service experiences.

This study demonstrates customers’ capacity to empathize with robot agents during a service recovery procedure. It is also the first application in service research of the EmpaToM experimental procedure from social neuroscience to explore the social cognition dynamic between customers and service agents at the service encounter.

Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is a common problem in pregnancy and may influence the health of both mother and child. The purpose of this paper is to discuss current prevention and treatment strategies for pregnancy IDA and describe alternative methods, such as food‐based approaches that may be another way forward.

A literature review was conducted to locate and summarise up‐to‐date published studies within the field.

There is good evidence that iron supplements may be used to prevent and treat IDA in pregnancy. However, there is much debate about “the optimal” dose to recommend. High doses may contribute to oxidative stress and cause gastrointestinal symptoms while there still remain problems with compliance, even for lower dose iron supplements. Encouraging the daily consumption of functional foods containing suitable levels of iron may therefore be an alternative way to improve pregnancy iron status.

There is a wealth of important studying the health implications of iron supplements in pregnancy. More work is needed to establish whether functional foods containing iron could be an alternative way to help improve iron status.

Most papers and research focus on supplement use as a preventative measure and treatment for IDA; few discuss other approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to explore evaluating the nutritional quality of menus by using software in professional kitchens.

Nutritional quality and the core factors used when evaluating the nutritional quality of menus are discussed. The empirical data were collected in 2008 by theme interviewing nine municipal food service employees. The data were analysed by a thematic analysis.

The results indicated that both positive and contributing factors emerged as follows: productisation of menu; using a plate model; length of a control period concerning the nutritional quality of the menu; checking the nutrition content when making changes in menus, dishes and food items; dealing with the results of the evaluation in the meetings; including the results in the service agreements; employers' positive attitude displayed towards software suppliers' training; including nutritional quality as a part of service quality; and implementing nutritional quality according to the job descriptions.

A variety of courses should be offered for the students concerning the guidance of food production by using software in professional kitchens; integrating working life into the curriculum; continuous training of the food service personnel; and cooperation with the professional kitchen's software suppliers. Moreover, further implications could involve, for example, developing and diffusing the national model for the nutritional quality follow‐up; and taking the Sinfos‐product information data bank into use.

Active updating of the software and training of the employees are needed in order to ensure the nutritional quality of menus.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand how Caribbean tourism micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) perceive their corporate sustainability and social responsibility (CSSR) practices during design and implementation of new innovations. This knowledge helps our understanding of how the uniquely tourist-dependent region of the Caribbean can, through the social innovation practices of MSMEs, maximize its contribution to attainment of the 2030 sustainable development goals.

This study uses a responsibility–sustainability framework premised on seven core subjects of the International Guidance (ISO 26000) for Social Responsibility and goals from the 2030 Agenda to analyze interview data from tour operators in five Caribbean Community (CARICOM) territories: Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica and St. Lucia.

The results reveal that when designing new products and services, Caribbean tour operators contribute to sustainable development through social and economic change, responsible business model design, fair labor and operating practices, environmental sustainability and health and safety education. These behaviors do vary and are not consistent across the tour operators.

Social and business planners and policymakers should create deliberate and purposeful mechanisms designed for Caribbean tourism MSMEs to have a fulsome understanding of how they might maximize contributions to the 2030 Agenda.

This work represents the first instance of use of the ISO 26000 Guidance in a Caribbean tourism context and provides insight into tour operators’ views toward corporate sustainability and CSSR.

The purpose of an oversight structure or institution is to protect human subjects from research that would pose unacceptable dangers or deny human rights. Review boards provide an independent assessment of research proposals. This additional level of scrutiny is meant to provide an additional level of protection for human subjects. However, oversight of human subject research, as currently carried out in the bureaucratic, rule‐based, clinically‐biased American system, is too cumbersome with regard to online research. In addition, it is not conducive to the training of ethical Internet researchers. Internet research differs from traditional human subject research in many ways, and the oversight rules governing traditional research do not easily relate to the complexities of conducting research online. Online researchers do not oppose the foundational principles of non‐maleficence (avoiding harm) and autonomy, nor do they reject the ideals of informed consent and confidentiality, nevertheless, they face practical dilemmas in attempting to follow these principles and apply these ideals in the various Internet domains. The current oversight system is ill‐equipped to assist. A conservative response to this problem of fit might entail adjustments to the oversight system that, in the case of the American system, would entail modifications to the Common Rule and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). I will argue in this paper, instead, that re‐structuring is needed to allow more oversight authority for Internet researchers. I will utilize Consequentialism and Virtue Ethics in making this case.

The sensory quality and yield of mozzarella cheese deteriorate as the fat content in milk is reduced. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of sodium alginate as a fat replacer in low-fat buffalo mozzarella cheese on the basis of processing and storage (4 ± 1°C) quality.

Five treatments of buffalo mozzarella cheese, viz., control full-fat cheese (6.0 per cent milk fat; CFFC), control low-fat cheese (<0.5 per cent milk fat) without sodium alginate (CLFC), low-fat cheese with 0.1 per cent sodium alginate (LFC-1), 0.2 per cent sodium alginate (LFC-2) and 0.3 per cent sodium alginate (LFC-3), were comparatively evaluated.

Increase in the level of sodium alginate increased the percent yield of treated low-fat cheese than CLFC. Addition of sodium alginate to low-fat cheese resulted in decrease in hardness (p = 0.023) and chewiness than CLFC. Meltability was significantly decreased (p = 0.03) in low-fat cheese than CFFC. It was recorded as 1.5 ± 0.14 cm for CFFC to 0.2 ± 0.08 cm in LFC-3. Sensory panellists awarded LFC-3 highest and lowest to LFC-1; however, treated products at all selected levels were superior to CLFC. Oxidative stability and microbial stability were improved in LFC-3 than CFFC during storage.

Results concluded that 0.3 per cent sodium alginate is optimum for the development of extended shelf-life functional/low-fat/low-calorie buffalo mozzarella cheese.

Processing interventions can be successfully used to develop low-fat/low-calorie mozzarella cheese with acceptable sensory attributes and longer storage life.

Ice cream is one of the popular sweet throughout the world. However, it contains high fat and sugar but lacks natural antioxidants. Several herbs in Thailand which are traditionally used as food ingredients show high antioxidant properties such as ginger and lemongrass. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop reduced sugar herbal ice cream using lemongrass and ginger extract.

Two ice cream formulas were prepared by using the lemongrass or ginger extract at the levels of 10, 15 and 20 percent (w/w), respectively. Moreover, xylitol was added as a substituted sugar at 80, 90 and 100 percent (w/w). Sensory evaluation was conducted by nine-point hedonic scale. Moreover, the physical, chemical and microbiological properties of the final ice cream product were determined by comparing with the control formula.

Based on the sensory evaluation, the two herbal ice cream formulas (15 percent lemongrass or ginger extract) with 90 percent xylitol replacement have the highest overall acceptability score of 7.28 and 7.44 (like moderately), respectively. The viscosity, overrun value and hardness of the reduced sugar herbal ice cream were not significantly different as compared to control formula (p=0.05). The chemical composition analysis showed that the total sugar of the product decreased by 65 percent. Moreover, antioxidant activities of herbal ice creams were higher than the control formula. The number of total bacteria of reduced sugar herbal ice cream was less than 10 CFU/mL.

The reduced sugar consumption is useful for lowering the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), especially diabetes mellitus. This paper presented the reduced sugar herbal ice cream formulas with high antioxidant activity. Therefore, these data could be the prototype in order to develop herbal and healthy ice cream product.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has established that vinegar is a liquid only obtained by fermentation. Although in Pakistan mostly synthetic vinegar is marketed, production of vinegar through fermentation at industrial level is also carried out. However, vinegar produced by this method tends to be of inferior quality due to uncontrolled conditions. In industry a mixed culture of Acetobacter is used for the production of acetic acid but no attention is given towards its proper maintenance and culture is contaminated with other kinds of microorganisms and still no work has been done along these lines in Pakistan. There is a need to develop pure vinegar cultures for vinegar production so that the use of synthetic vinegar may be avoided as it is prohibited in most countries. Keeping in view all of these points, the present work was conducted to isolate a pure culture of Acetobacter aceti, the maintenance of this culture and finally its utilization in fermentation for vinegar production.

In this study efforts were made to isolate vinegar culture (Acetobacter aceti) from sugar cane juice, rotten apples, flowers, wine, canal water and vinegar as a primary source for Acetobacter by continuous sub‐culturing on standard medium glucose, yeast extract and calcium carbonate (GYC). The culture was identified on the basis of colony characteristics and morphology. It was finally confirmed by different biochemical/enzymatic tests and further specified by nutritional and temperature requirements for the growth. The isolated strain was later used for the production of vinegar through fermentation.

Among canal water, crushed apples, sugar cane juice, alcohol, vinegar and flowers, the alcohol and vinegar were found to be the most suitable sources for isolation of Acetobacter spp. The colonies of purified culture were found to be pale to off‐white, circular, raised, convex, smooth and not >3 mm in diameter with morphology of Gram‐ve, ellipsoidal, rods, squat bacilli, roundish, single, in pairs and in chains. The isolated and identified spp. gave excellent results for the production of vinegar and this vinegar was more acceptable rather than commercially available fermented vinegar.

At industrial level good quality vinegar can be produced by using pure culture of Acetobacter aceti for acetic acid fermentation.

The research carried out is one of an original type as no work has been done in Pakistan previously. Further, for the accuracy of the results, all the practices were carried out in triplicates.