The aim of the study was to examine the nutritional behaviour of young adults depending on gender. A survey was conducted among 467 young adults using the “Questionnaire for the study of nutritional behaviour and opinions on food and nutrition”. Questions concerned the frequency of consumption of selected groups of food products. The questionnaire was supplemented by questions regarding the number of portions of fruits and vegetables consumed, putting sugar in drinks, putting salt in dishes and the number of glasses of water drunk. Differences in nutritional behaviours were determined using the χ² test, at p < 0.05. The dietary choices of women more often than those of men corresponded to the principles of healthy nutrition, related to a greater number of meals consumed during the day, more frequent consumption of fruits and vegetables and the selection of products with lower energy value or preferring healthier methods of culinary processing. Health education programs should prevent the emergence of unfavourable dietary habits such as skipping breakfast or other meals or limiting the consumption of fruits and vegetables and frequently replacing them with high-energy snacks.

The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the global economy before the eyes of the entire world. Due to evolving consumer needs and expectations during the pandemic, the supply and demand for various goods and services varied from the pre-COVID-19 period. This article aims to understand the changes in purchasing and food choices, focusing particularly on meat and meat products, made by consumers and households in response to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also indicates the impact directions of these changes and assesses the magnitude of the contribution of various determinants that influenced them. The literature review from 2020 to 2023 was conducted using Scopus and the Web of Science scientific databases. The study identified sociodemographic and individual factors as the main determinants influencing consumers’ purchasing or eating behavior. Positive shifts (e.g., implementing strategies to better manage food at home through activities like creating shopping lists, the average increase in consumer spending during store visits, and decrease in visit frequencies) or negative changes (e.g., shortages of food products in stores due to consumer panic buying, unusually high demand resulting from stockpiling, purchasing fewer fresh products, increased consumption of unhealthy foods and snacking, among other factors) during isolation were influenced by various individual factors (e.g., motivation, mental state) or sociodemographic factors (e.g., gender, age, income level, education). While individual factors had a greater impact on changes in consumer behavior in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, socio-demographic factors became more important as the pandemic progressed.

Social pressure on increased protection and welfare of animals results mainly from the initiative of people living in the urbanized parts of the world. The respect for the right to freedom of religion, which is indisputably one of the fundamental liberal rights, must be taken into account. The right to freedom to religion also includes the right to follow a religion’s dietary recommendations. The aim of the literature analysis was to systematize the knowledge on the ethical aspects and quality of meat obtained from carcasses of animals subjected to conventional and ritual slaughter. Consistent with the importance of ritual slaughter for humans of two major faiths (Islam and Judaism), it is important that scientists be objective when evaluating these practices from an animal welfare and meat quality point of view. To evaluate the welfare of the slaughtered animal, it is necessary to openly discuss ritual slaughter and the improvement of its methods. The quality of meat and the degree of bleeding of animals do not always correlate with the ritual slaughter method used.

This work aimed to comprehensively analyze the factors (slaughter method, gender, and muscle type) that determine the kosher status of beef and assess their influence on the selected quality characteristics of raw meat. The muscles were obtained from 40 carcasses of heifers and 40 carcasses of young bulls. In the first stage of the experiment, pH values were measured. The water, protein, fat, minerals, and collagen contents were determined. Then, the shear force, forced drip, and thermal drip were measured. The experimental results indicated that all the investigated parameters have an impact on the final quality of beef. Statistically significantly lower pH₁ values were noticed in the longissimus thoracic muscle of young bulls obtained through kosher slaughter methods. However, 24 and 48 h after slaughter, higher pH values were observed in the meat of young bulls obtained by the kosher slaughter method, where the meat samples were subjected to kosher treatment. The koshering process (salting and washing) resulted in a significant reduction in both forced and thermal drip values of the meat sample, but this decrease was not affected by gender.

The primary objective of this investigation was to assess the influence of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and the duration of cold storage on the physicochemical, technological, and sensory attributes as well as the nutritional composition and shelf life of meat. The experimental framework involved utilizing samples derived from the semimembranosus muscle of pork. Each muscle obtained from the same carcass was segmented into six distinct parts, with three designated as control specimens (K) and the remaining subjected to vacuum packaging and subsequent exposure to high hydrostatic pressure (200 MPa at 20 °C for 30 min). Comprehensive laboratory analyses of the meat were conducted at 1, 7, and 10 days post slaughter. The meat was cold-stored at +3 ± 0.5 °C. The findings of the study elucidated that the application of high hydrostatic pressure exhibited a favorable impact on the extension of the raw meat’s shelf life. The tests showed a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the total number of microorganisms compared to the control sample after 7 (K: 4.09 × 10⁵, HHP: 2.88 × 10⁵ CFU/g) and 10 (K: 7.40 × 10⁵, HHP: 2.42 × 10⁵ CFU/g) days of cold storage. It was also found that using HHP increased the pH value after 1 (K: 5.54, HHP: 5.77) and 7 (K: 5.60, HHP: 5.87) days of storage.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of various drying methods: freeze drying, vacuum drying, convection drying, and convection-microwave drying at microwave powers of 50 W and 100 W, along with process temperatures (40 °C, 60 °C, and 80 °C), on the drying kinetics, selected physicochemical properties of dried celery stems, and their grindability. The Page model was employed to mathematically describe the drying kinetics across the entire measurement range. Convection-microwave drying significantly reduced the drying time compared to the other methods. The longest drying duration was observed with freeze drying at 40 °C. The product obtained through freeze drying at 40 °C exhibited the least alteration in color coordinates, the highest antioxidant capacity, and the greatest retention of chlorophylls and total carotenoids. At a specific temperature, the quality of the product obtained from vacuum drying was slightly lower compared to that from freeze drying. The most substantial changes in the physicochemical properties of the dried product were observed with convection-microwave drying at a microwave power of 100 W. The drying method selected had a significant impact on the energy consumption of grinding, average particle size, and the grinding energy index of the dried celery stems; these parameters worsened as the drying temperature increased. The product with the best quality characteristics and disintegration parameters was achieved using freeze drying at 40 °C.