Synthesis of Prepolymers of Poly(glycerol-co-diacids) Based on Sebacic and Succinic Acid Mixtures.

In this study, poly(glycerol-co-diacids) prepolymers were produced using different ratios of glycerol (G), sebacic acid (S), and succinic acid (Su) (molar ratios: GS 1:1, GSSu 1:0.9:0.1, GSSu 1:0.8:0.2, GSSu 1:0.5:0.5, GSSu 1:0.2:0.8, GSSu 1:0.1:0.9, GSu 1:1). All polycondensation reactions were performed at 150 °C until reaching a degree of polymerization of ≈55%, inferred by the water volume collected from a reactor. We concluded that the reaction time is correlated with the ratio of diacids used, that is, the increase in succinic acid is proportional to a decrease in the duration of the reaction. In fact, the reaction of poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS 1:1) is twice as slow as the reaction of poly(glycerol succinate) (PGSu 1:1). The obtained prepolymers were analyzed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Besides its catalytic influence in poly(glycerol)/ether bond formation, the presence of succinic acid also contributes to a mass growth of ester oligomers, the formation of cyclic structures, a greater number of oligomers detected, and a difference in mass distribution. When compared with PGS (1:1), and even at lower ratios, the prepolymers produced with succinic acid presented mass peak characteristics of oligomer species with a glycerol unit as its end group in higher abundance. Generally, the most abundant oligomers have molecular weights between 400 and 800 g/mol.

Sustainable diet from the urban Brazilian consumer perspective.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sustainability and food, and other possible associations with the socio-demographic characteristics and consumer segmentation, as well as to identify the characteristics of sustainable and unsustainable foods and the sustainable diet concept from a consumer perspective. One hundred and fifty consumers responded a questionnaire with word association, free listing, and sentence completion tasks. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the terms. Sustainability and food were associated with the categories health, food of plant origin, and organic food. Healthy was considered the main characteristic of a sustainable food and degradation to the environment was the characteristic of unsustainable food. Regarding the sustainable diet concept, the terms healthy diet and sustainable production stood out. Individuals of higher educational level associated food and sustainability with natural resource preservation and reuse, while individuals with lower educational levels reported the association with healthy food, nutrition, and food of plant origin. The present findings can help designing strategies to integrate food and nutrition education and formulation of public policies, as well as identifying the target market and understanding how the product or service can meet the consumer's needs.

Sixty years of the National Food Program in Brazil / Sessenta anos do programa nacional de alimentação escolar no Brasil

School meals were introduced in the Brazilian political agenda by a group of scholars known as nutrition scientists' in the 1940s. In 1955, the Campanha de Merenda Escolar, the first official school food program, was stablished, and sixty years after its inception, school food in Brazil stands as a decentralised public policy, providing services to students enrolled in public schools, which involve the Brazilian federal government, twentyseven federative units, and their 5,570 municipalities. Throughout its history, school food has gone through many stages that reflect the social transformations in Brazil: from a campaign to implement school food focused on the problem of malnutrition and the ways to solve it, to the creation of a universal public policy relying on social participation and interface between other modern, democratic, and sustainable policies, establishing a strategy for promoting food and nutrition security, development, and social protection. In this article, the School Food Program is analyzed from the perspective of four basic structures that support it as public policy: the formal structure, consisting of legal milestones that regulated the program; substantive structure, referring to the public and private social actors involved; material structure, regarding the way in which Brazil sponsors the program; and finally, the symbolic structure, consisting of knowledge, values, interests, and rules that legitimatize the policy.

A alimentação escolar foi inserida na agenda pública brasileira por um grupo de intelectuais, os chamados cientistas da nutrição, nos anos 1940. Em 1955 foi decretado o início do Programa de Alimentação com a instituição da Campanha de Merenda Escolar, subordinada ao Ministério da Educação. Após sessenta anos de história, a alimentação escolar no Brasil se destaca como uma política pública descentralizada de atendimento aos estudantes matriculados na rede pública de ensino a qual envolve o governo federal brasileiro, as 27 entidades federativas e seus 5.570 municípios. Ao longo de sua história, a alimentação escolar passou por várias etapas que refletem as transformações sociais do Brasil: partindo de uma campanha para a merenda escolar, focada no problema da desnutrição e nas formas de resolvê-la, passou para a criação de uma política pública universal contando com a participação social e interface entre outras políticas modernas, democráticas e sustentáveis, estabelecendo uma estratégia de promoção da segurança alimentar e nutricional, desenvolvimento e proteção social. Neste artigo, o Programa de Alimentação Escolar é analisado a partir de quatro estruturas básicas que o sustentam como política pública: a estrutura formal, composta pelos marcos legais que normatizam o programa; a substantiva, referente aos atores sociais públicos e privados envolvidos; a material que diz respeito à maneira como o Estado brasileiro financia o programa e, por fim, a estrutura simbólica composta pelos saberes, valores, interesses e regras que legitimam a política.