Food waste and by-products are intricately linked to sustainable food production, as reducing waste can play a significant role in achieving a more sustainable and efficient food system. Sustainable utilization and recovery of by-products can significantly contribute by creating strategies that can lead to cost savings and increased efficiency across the food supply chain. Worldwide, more than 40% of whey from cheese production is discarded, resulting in the loss of valuable nutrients and potentially polluting the environment. Effective use of whey reduces environmental impact and enhances manufacturing sustainability. Thus, a circular approach to food waste management in the dairy industry supports sustainability goals and creates opportunities for innovation. Whey contains most of the soluble components of milk, including a large number of serum proteins and all the essential amino acids, making it suitable for producing beverages with high nutritional value. This study aims to produce whey-based beverages with different additions to obtain dairy products with high nutritional value. Three different ingredients, sea buckthorn, ginger, and cinnamon, were chosen for their numerous health benefits to the consumer. Six samples were prepared utilizing both unmodified and deproteinized whey in a 75% proportion, with the addition of 25% sea buckthorn juice, 0.75% ginger juice, and 0.2% cinnamon powder. The resultant samples were packaged in 200 mL bottles and maintained at a controlled temperature of 6 °C to ensure optimal preservation. Given the paramount importance of consumer acceptability in novel beverage development, a comprehensive evaluation was conducted to assess the sensory properties of the formulated beverages. In addition, physico-chemical properties and their evolution over 14 days of storage were examined. The sample containing whey, sea buckthorn juice, ginger juice, and cinnamon powder received the highest marks from the tasters. The values of the physico-chemical parameters varied depending on the type of whey used and the storage period. Thus, a pH of approximately 5 and an acidity between 30 and 80 °T were recorded. The average lactose content was 4%, the average protein content was 2.5%, and the total soluble solids content was 11.5 °Brix. The beverages developed in this study represent viable alternatives for diversifying food production through sustainable, environmentally friendly technological variants. By applying circular economy principles, these products contribute to reducing food waste in the dairy industry.

Ensuring a sustainable management in the field of SMEs is an essential condition of the market economy and is the premise of an efficient and successful collaboration between the public and the private environment. The continuation of the structural reforms meant to support the mechanisms of the competitive economy represents an essential condition of the Romanian state in its social-economic development efforts. Considering the role of the SME sector in ensuring a favorable climate for the national economic progress, this paper addresses a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the small business sector in Romania, aiming to identify the main challenges that the Romanian state faced during the period 2008-2017. This analysis aimed to establish the main weaknesses and strengths that Romania has demonstrated during the period analyzed in order to outline a set of recommendations that the Romanian state should follow in implementing its policies in the SME sector, in order to be ensure sustainable and prospective economic development management.

Doing business in the twenty-first century, a period marked by globalization, terrorism, limitation of natural resources, environmental problems, is a real challenge and managers must make efforts in order to create a healthy and new organizational culture, whose goal is long-term financial performance, but also the well-being of the whole planet. In recent years, more and more companies are focusing on integrating sustainability into their core business, understanding that this can become a source of innovation and lasting value. This paper aims to capture what sustainability is and what are the advantages it can bring, at the company level, looking at how to create lasting value through social and environmental performance. The new challenge for companies is to find a new way to measure and manage business performance, not only by maximization of shareholders value, but by maximizing stakeholders’ value. Creating sustainable value is a new paradigm in the development of companies, based on the inclusion of intangible assets and human capital in the value of the company. Therefore, the factors that generate economic value have changed, and the theory of the shareholder company has become the theory of the partnership company, which emphasizes the well-being of all partners: employees, customers, community, shareholders, etc. Sustainable value is created from the shared interests of stakeholders and shareholders and to achieve it, modern companies must have a new approach based on identifying the key value drivers and design long-term strategies, which automatically requires a new way of seeing and treating the world.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most important measure of economic activity in a country. It represents the total value of all goods and services produced in a particular country in a given period. GDP can be calculated using three methods, namely, the production approach, the income approach, and the expenditure approach. In this paper, we will focus on the Expenditure Method. The Expenditure Method of calculating GDP involves adding up the total value of all final goods and services purchased by the four groups of spending agents: households, firms, government, and foreign buyers. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the components of GDP using the Expenditure Method influence GDP. Specifically, we will explore the relationship between each component of GDP and GDP as a whole, considering also the impact that inflation has on the real growth of the economic activity, and which is the real trend of this macroeconomic result indicator.

Approaching the concept of economic crisis in contemporary reality draws attention to the complexity of this phenomenon, as analysing the elements that define the economic cycles proves to be insufficient, since the world’s economies converge more and more towards a global economy. In this regard, the interconnection and the strong mutual dependence of the markets determine a particularly high sensitivity on establishing and maintaining a global balance. If the economic crisis of 2008 had a strong negative impact on the world’s economies, leading to unprecedented economic and social action, the question arises as to whether the economic policy makers of the states have managed to properly manage this situation and whether they have managed to appropriate a set of “good practices” to anticipate, prevent and effectively combat a new economic crisis. The current economic reality puts world economies to a new test which seems to be more than a predictable cyclical evolution of production cycles. It cannot be said that we are in a period of well-defined economic boom, and it is clear that in the current context the economic crisis that is emerging will be much more complex and diverse than what we experienced in 2008. The present paper aims to offer a pragmatic approach to the possible causes and effects that tend to characterize the new economic crisis that is emerging in front of us.

Analysis of the role and implications of the funds coming from the European Union have on the national economy is very complex and complicated at the same time, because of the multitude of issues and indicators that this process shapes and drives, depending on the source of funding, the modality of funding and on the destination for which it has been allocated. Using mathematical models to assess the impact of European funding on the national economy is paramount valuable as it brings important information that can be used by policy makers in decision making sewage inputs and financial resources, in view of adopting optimal economic policy