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Prof. Dr. Paula Vaz-Fernandes
Open University, Portugal

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Research Keywords & Expertise

0 food insecurity
0 Food Literacy
0 health environment
0 Sustainable diets
0 food waste recovery

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Short Biography

Paula Vaz-Fernandes is currently assistant Professor at the Portuguese Open University at the Department of Sciences and Technology. She has a bachelor’s in food and Nutrition Sciences by the University of Oporto (1994), a MSc in Public Health by the University of Coimbra (1998) and a PhD in Biology by the Nova University of Lisbon (2008). As a researcher she is integrated at CAPP, Centre for Public Administration & Public Policies at the Institute of Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Lisbon. Her main research interests are focused on the Sustainable Diets; Health Promotion; Nutritional Epidemiology; Food Waste and Sustainability; Environmental Health; Quantitative Methodologies. He has a professional card number 1261N of the Order of Nutritionists, Portugal.

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Journal article
Published: 24 April 2021 in Sustainability
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This paper focuses on the contribution of an upcycling food organization to a balanced diet, which rescues and redistributes fresh or freshly cooked food to low-income households. To determine the nutritional balance of food hampers provided by our case study organization, according to the Portuguese food guidelines, we have weighed all items of food hampers in three weighing rounds over a period of four months. The results suggest that upcycled foods can contribute to a more balanced diet in terms of “Potato, Cereal and Cereal Products”, “Vegetables”, “Meat, Fish, Seafood and Eggs” and “Fruits”, both according to the Portuguese Food Wheel and compared to that of the general Portuguese population. The novelty of this study is the evaluation of the contribution to the balanced diet of the population in a vulnerable situation, of perishable foods such as freshly cooked, in traditional restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and hotels, or is naturally fresh (fruit and vegetables food aid services) up-cycled by a food aid organization.

ACS Style

Anne Nogueira; Fátima Alves; Paula Vaz-Fernandes. The Contribution of Up-Cycled Food Waste to a Balanced Diet of Low-Income Households. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4779 .

AMA Style

Anne Nogueira, Fátima Alves, Paula Vaz-Fernandes. The Contribution of Up-Cycled Food Waste to a Balanced Diet of Low-Income Households. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (9):4779.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anne Nogueira; Fátima Alves; Paula Vaz-Fernandes. 2021. "The Contribution of Up-Cycled Food Waste to a Balanced Diet of Low-Income Households." Sustainability 13, no. 9: 4779.

Journal article
Published: 08 October 2019 in International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
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Life long training and education in food safety is a crucial issue in particular for professionals working in the field. At the same time there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of that training in particular when is given in e-learning. The purpose of this explorative work is to evaluate the Food Safety and Quality e-learning course within a Master program offered in the National Distance Learning University in Portugal. Following a case study methodology a mixed methods approached was used, based on an online questionnaire survey to students that enrolled the course, followed by a Focus Group Discussion to better discuss the weak points addressed by the students in the questionnaire. The questionnaire aimed to assess students perceptions about the course organization, recourses, assignments, acquired competences, change attitudes and behaviour and link with the professional activity Students who enrolled the course during 2016/17 and 2017/18 were surveyed in the fourth semester of the curricular year, in the period of development of the master thesis dissertation. In addition a quantitative analysis was conducted in the temporal distributions of messages published on the Moodle platform (learning analytics) to evaluate students’ interactions and engagement during the course. This study has shown that overall, students are very satisfied with the course, however they suggested improvements that are needed considering the pedagogical model used and their availability to learn as students with full time jobs, most related with the food science. This explorative research aimed to contribute to the improvement of food safety and quality training based also on recent tools and recommendations within e-learning in science education.

ACS Style

Paula Vaz-Fernandes; Sandra Caeiro. Students’ perceptions of a food safety and quality e-learning course: a CASE study for a MSC in food consumption. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 2019, 16, 1 -22.

AMA Style

Paula Vaz-Fernandes, Sandra Caeiro. Students’ perceptions of a food safety and quality e-learning course: a CASE study for a MSC in food consumption. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. 2019; 16 (1):1-22.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Paula Vaz-Fernandes; Sandra Caeiro. 2019. "Students’ perceptions of a food safety and quality e-learning course: a CASE study for a MSC in food consumption." International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 16, no. 1: 1-22.

Comparative study
Published: 01 December 2017 in Science of The Total Environment
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This study's aim was to develop and implement an integrative epidemiologic cross-sectional study that allows identifying and characterising exposure pathways of populations living and working on the shores of a contaminated estuarine environment. Population residing in Carrasqueira, located on the Sado estuary with known contaminated areas was compared to another population on a noncontaminated estuary (Vila Nova de Mil Fontes - VNMF), considered a nonexposed population. Simple random samples of individuals were selected in each study population from the National Health Service Lists: 140 individuals were selected in Carrasqueira and 219 in VNMF. Participation rates were higher in the exposed group (62.5%, n=102 in Carrasqueira and 48.3%, n=100 individuals in VNMF). The same structured questionnaire was used in both populations, including questions on occupational activities, leisure activities, consumption of food (including fish and mollusks from the estuary) and use of water for human intake and agriculture. Results showed that a significantly higher proportion of Carrasqueira participants reported doing tasks in their job that promote direct (48.8% vs 1.2% in VNMF, p-value<0.001) or indirect (30% vs 11.9% in VNMF, p-value=0.004) contact with water from the estuary. Regarding seafood consumption, the exposed population of Carrasqueira had a higher frequency of consumption of cuttlefish (23.5% vs 9% in VNMF, p-value=0.007), sole (22.5% vs 4% in VNMF, p-value<0.001) and clams (18.6% vs 5.0 in VNMF, p-value=0.004). The comparative study design, with exposed and nonexposed populations living on the shores of two different estuaries allowed us to confirm the hypothesis of a higher risk of contamination from the contaminated estuarine environment. The study design and the selection of both populations were adequate for this type of epidemiologic study of potential routes of human contamination in a mixture of contaminated estuarine environment and can be used in other estuarine areas with similar environmental risk.

ACS Style

Ausenda Machado; Ana Paula Fernandes; Eleonora Paixão; Sandra Caeiro; Carlos Matias-Dias. An epidemiological approach to characterise the human exposure pathways in a contaminated estuarine environment. Science of The Total Environment 2017, 601-602, 1753 -1761.

AMA Style

Ausenda Machado, Ana Paula Fernandes, Eleonora Paixão, Sandra Caeiro, Carlos Matias-Dias. An epidemiological approach to characterise the human exposure pathways in a contaminated estuarine environment. Science of The Total Environment. 2017; 601-602 ():1753-1761.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ausenda Machado; Ana Paula Fernandes; Eleonora Paixão; Sandra Caeiro; Carlos Matias-Dias. 2017. "An epidemiological approach to characterise the human exposure pathways in a contaminated estuarine environment." Science of The Total Environment 601-602, no. : 1753-1761.

Journal article
Published: 01 July 2017 in Ocean & Coastal Management
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Environmental risk assessment of complex ecosystems such as estuaries is a challenge, where innovative and integrated approaches are needed. The present work aimed at developing an innovative integrative methodology to evaluate in an impacted estuary (the Sado, in Portugal, was taken as case study), the adverse effects onto both ecosystem and human health. For the purpose, new standardized lines of evidence based on multiple quantitative data were integrated into a weight of evidence according to a best expert judgment approach. The best professional judgment for a weight of evidence approach in the present study was based on the following lines of evidence: i) human contamination pathways; ii) human health effects: chronic disease; iii) human health effects: reproductive health; iv) human health effects: health care; v) human exposure through consumption of local agriculture produce; vi) exposure to contaminated of water wells and agriculture soils; vii) contamination of the estuarine sedimentary environment (metal and organic contaminants); viii) effects on benthic organisms with commercial value; and ix) genotoxic potential of sediments. Each line of evidence was then ordinally ranked by levels of ecological or human health risk, according to a tabular decision matrix and expert judgment. Fifteen experts scored two fishing areas of the Sado estuary and a control estuarine area, in a scale of increasing environmental risk and management actions to be taken. The integrated assessment allowed concluding that the estuary should not be regarded as impacted by a specific toxicant, such as metals and organic compounds hitherto measured, but by the cumulative risk of a complex mixture of contaminants. The proven adverse effects on species with commercial value may be used to witness the environmental quality of the estuarine ecosystem. This method argues in favor of expert judgment and qualitative assessment as a decision support tool to the integrative management of estuaries. Namely it allows communicating environmental risk and proposing mitigation measures to local authorities and population under a holistic perspective as an alternative to narrow single line of evidence approaches, which is mandatory to understand cause and effect relationships in complex areas like estuaries.The present research was financed by FCT, Portugal, and co- financed by the European Community FEDER through the program COMPETE (project reference PTDC/SAU-ESA/100107/2008). The authors acknowledge the contributions from Miguel Pinto, Henriqueta Louro, Susana Silva, Ines Coelho, Mario Diniz and Angel Del Valls (from University of Cadiz, and consultant in the project) to this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ACS Style

S. Caeiro; Ana Paula Figueira Vaz Fernandes; Ana Paula Teixeira Martinho; Pedro M. Costa; Maria Joao Silva; J. Lavinha; Carlos Matias Dias; A. Machado; Isabel Castanheira; Maria Helena Costa. Environmental risk assessment in a contaminated estuary: An integrated weight of evidence approach as a decision support tool. Ocean & Coastal Management 2017, 143, 51 -62.

AMA Style

S. Caeiro, Ana Paula Figueira Vaz Fernandes, Ana Paula Teixeira Martinho, Pedro M. Costa, Maria Joao Silva, J. Lavinha, Carlos Matias Dias, A. Machado, Isabel Castanheira, Maria Helena Costa. Environmental risk assessment in a contaminated estuary: An integrated weight of evidence approach as a decision support tool. Ocean & Coastal Management. 2017; 143 ():51-62.

Chicago/Turabian Style

S. Caeiro; Ana Paula Figueira Vaz Fernandes; Ana Paula Teixeira Martinho; Pedro M. Costa; Maria Joao Silva; J. Lavinha; Carlos Matias Dias; A. Machado; Isabel Castanheira; Maria Helena Costa. 2017. "Environmental risk assessment in a contaminated estuary: An integrated weight of evidence approach as a decision support tool." Ocean & Coastal Management 143, no. : 51-62.