Valorisation of food waste to produce new raw materials for animal feed.

This study assesses the suitability of vegetable waste produced by food industry for use as a raw material for animal feed. It includes safety and nutritional viability, technical feasibility and environmental evaluation. Vegetable by-products were found to be nutritionally and sanitarily appropriate for use in animal feed. The drying technologies tested for making vegetable waste suitable for use in the animal feed market were pulse combustion drying, oven and microwave. The different meal prototypes obtained were found to comply with all the requirements of the animal feed market. An action plan that takes into account all the stages of the valorisation process was subsequently defined in agreement with local stakeholders. This plan was validated in a pilot-scale demonstration trial. Finally, the technical feasibility was studied and environmental improvement was performed. This project was funded by the European LIFE+ program (LIFE09 ENV/ES/000473).

[Preliminary study aimed at the construction of a questionnaire for referral from primary care to mental health services]. / Estudio preliminar dirigido a la construcción de un cuestionario de derivación de la atención primaria a los servicios de salud mental.

The high prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in primary care, the growing perception of the need for specialized help by the least severe patients and the lack of accuracy in referrals, contribute to the increasing overload in mental health services. So it seems necessary to design diagnostic tools in order to improve the detection of more severe patients and to help in the referral decision. With this purpose in mind, we have designed the multidimensional heteroadministrated Scale Referral Criteria for Mental Health (CRMH). This paper presents the preliminary results of a pilot study on its application in a sample of 198 patients by a group of Primary Care Physicians (PCP). The data show the detection of a high percentage of potential psychiatric patients (46.9%) and 4% of patients who having the possibility of being referred. The results also illustrate the low ability of PCP to detect these disorders. CRMH has a moderate correlation with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and with detection of psychopathology by PCP. Other factors, apart from clinical severity evaluated through CRMH, possibly belonging to doctor-patient relationship, which should be analyzed, seem to influence the mental health referral. In a future article, we will present the validation of this scale in our care setting.