Peer-reviewed
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FoodBase corpus: a new resource of annotated food entities
Gorjan Popovski, Barbara Koroušić Seljak & Tome Eftimov (2019) in Database: The journal of biological databases & curation
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Trends in the Use of Low and No-Calorie Sweeteners in Non-Alcoholic Beverages in Slovenia
Edvina Hafner, Maša Hribar, Hristo Hristov, Anita Kušar, Katja Žmitek, Mark Roe, Igor Pravst (2021) in Foods.
Excessive added sugar intakes, particularly of free sugars (all monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, and fruit juices), are associated with obesity, chronic diseases, and poor oral health. Non-alcoholic beverages are often high in free sugars, making reformulation with low and no-calorie sweeteners a common choice. This study analysed labelling information from more than 1000 non-alcoholic beverages (juices, nectars, energy drinks, sports drinks, and soft drinks) in Slovenian grocery stores, and found low and no-calorie sweeteners in 13.2% and 15.5% of non-alcoholic beverages in 2017 and 2019, respectively. The most commonly used low and no-calorie sweeteners were acesulfame K, aspartame, cyclamates, and sucralose. As expected, the use of low and no-calorie sweeteners in beverages was associated with lower calorie and sugar contents. Increased low and no-calorie sweeteners use in Slovenia was expected but long-term benefits are not clear. Low and no-calorie sweeteners are just one option for sugar reduction and producers can reformulate products in other ways, also encouraging consumers to adapt to less sweetened beverages.
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FoodEx2vec: New foods’ representation for advanced food data analysis
Eftimov, Tome, Popovski, Gorjan, Valenčič, Eva, Koroušić Seljak, Barbara (2020) in Food and Chemical Technology
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A Survey of Named-Entity Recognition Methods for Food Information Extraction
Popovski, Gorjan, Koroušić Seljak, Barbara, Eftimov, Tome (2020) IEEE Xplore.
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COVID-19 pandemic changes the food consumption patterns
EFTIMOV, Tome, POPOVSKI, Gorjan, PETKOVIĆ, Matej, KOROUŠIĆ-SELJAK, Barbara, KOCEV, Dragi (2020) in Trends in food science & technology
According to analysis of almost 80 000 recipes on allrecipes.com people worldwide looked at different recipes during COVID-19 lockdowns. Recipes with beans, peas, and lentils were more visited more often during lockdown than before. We also looked for more soup recipes, as well as recipes for comfort foods like cupcakes, pancakes, and stews.
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FoodViz: visualization of food entities linked across different standards
Stojanov, R., Popovski, G., Jofce, N., Trajanov, D., Koroušić Seljak, B., Eftimov, T. in Lecture notes in computer science, vol.LNCS 12566
Studying foods and nutrition across cultures remains a challenge. In part, because data are recorded using different terms and standards and, therefore, not comparable (e.g., 250 ml porridge compared with a cup of oatmeal). This heterogeneity is addressed by FoodViz, a new tool that makes links between different food terms, standards, and resources. FoodViz helps users become more familiar with food annotation, particularly the semantics of food and ingredient names, ensuring that research or dietary menu preparation is easier and more accurate.
FoodViz is a single page application developed with React, a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, served by a back-end containing pre-processed recipes annotated and mapped by the developers. Designed to be user-friendly, FoodViz makes it easy to find ingredients and recipe descriptions, and is able to filter more than 23,000 recipes by name or category.
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Diets, nutrients, genes and the microbiome: Recent advances in personalised nutrition
Matusheski, N., Mezgec, S., Koroušić Seljak, B., et al.
Dietary recommendations are based on population averages, but many would like to know what we should eat individually. Complex interactions among genetics and environment make individualised advice difficult at least for the moment, … read more
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Exploring Knowledge Domain Bias on a Prediction Task for Food and Nutrition Data
Ispirova, G., Eftimov, T., & Seljak, B. K. (2020) in IEEE Xplore
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Improving pesticide uptake modeling into potatoes: Considering tuber growth dynamics
Xiao, S., Y. Gong, Z. Li, Fantke, P. (2021) in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
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Applications of Wild Isolates of Saccharomyces Yeast for Industrial Fermentation: The Gut of Social Insects as Niche for Yeast Hybrids’ Production
Di Paola, M., Meriggi, N., & Cavalieri, D (2020) in Frontiers in Microbiology
Specific organoleptic characteristics of wine, beer or bread can come from the yeast communities used to produce them and, more precisely, environments where these yeasts grow. Scientists have used wasps to breed yeasts of biotechnological interest, like Saccharomyces cerevisiae (also known as brewer’s or baker’s yeast). By employing social insects to host yeasts in their gut, yeast survival and biodiversity can be enhanced naturally through formation of hybrid yeasts without the use of technology. In the future, the fermented beverages industry could benefit significantly from breeding insects and using them to produce new yeast varieties.
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Workflow for building interoperable food and nutrition security (FNS) data platforms
Emara Y, Koroušić Seljak B, Gibney ER, Popovski G, Pravst I, Fantke P (2022) in Trends in Food Science & Technology
A seemingly simple food research question such as, ‘How does the sugar content of breakfast cereals differ among European countries?’ is not easy to answer. Analysing datasets from multiple sources that are increasingly diverse, heterogenous, fragmented, and/or have differences in syntax and semantics, make study of food systems difficult or impossible. Interoperable platforms that allow datasets to “communicate” and “work together” are needed to address questions that rely on diverse sources. Such platforms must use consistent file formats, terminology, and reporting systems, making data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (i.e., FAIR). A step-by-step action plan for building FAIR data platforms is described and being tested with FNS-Cloud using typical food research questions. Platforms like this will allow (semi-)automated food nutrition security data integration needed to answer important research questions that involve multiple and diverse datasets: from food composition, authenticity, toxicity, and sustainability to food consumption, behaviour, and socioeconomic impacts and, finally, health biomarkers and disease outcomes.
Posters & Presentations
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The food nutrition security cloud in Europe
2020| |5th IMEKOFOODS – online
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Open data in the context of FNS-Cloud and METROFOOD-RI
2020 | 5th IMEKOFOODS | online
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Toward improved semantic annotation of food and nutrition data
2020 | 23rd International Multiconference Information Society – Data mining and Data Warehouses
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Exploring a standardized language for describing foods using embedding techniques
2020 | IEEE Big Data 2029 | Atlanta – US
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Using deep learning for food and beverage image recognition
2019 | IEEE Big Data 2029 | Los Angeles – US
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Food Nutrition Security Cloud: Standardisation & Interoperability Changes
2019 | IEEE Big Data 2029 | Los Angeles – US
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FoodIE: A Rule-based Named-entity Recognition Method for Food Information Extraction
2019 | Proc. 2019 ICPRAM |Prague – CZ
