Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are two megatrends in the economy. The Institute for Innovation and Technology (IIT) in Berlin has now carried out a study on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency to analyze where these trends could possibly collide or mutually enrich each other. The result was six scenarios with the respective starting points for a modern environmental policy.

In 2011, a scandal shook the food industry: In Germany, around 4,000 cases of infection with EHEC, the enterohaemorrhagic bacterium Escherichia coli, occurred, and a quarter of these cases were particularly severe. 53 people died. Contaminated sprouts were identified as the cause of the EHEC outbreak. Scientists at the Max Rubner Institute (MRI), the Federal Research Institute for Nutrition and Food, have now investigated the extent to which vegetables and salads are currently microbially contaminated. The results vary greatly, but reveal a major problem.

Fast food restaurants are often criticized by environmentalists because of the resource consumption of food and the large amounts of packaging waste. The fast food chain McDonald's now wants to tackle the packaging problem. It is currently testing packaging concepts with sustainable solutions in a live experiment in the Mall of Berlin shopping center's "Better M Store" branch. From 17 to 26 June, guests will be served the burger in grass paper, ketchup in a wafer tray and drinks in a returnable cup. The salad can be eaten from a paper box with wooden cutlery.

Many regions of the world's oceans are overfished. For some fish species, studies predict population collapse within the next 30 years. At the same time, fish and seafood are the staple foods in many regions, and demand continues to be high across the globe. Aquafarms, in which fish or seafood is bred, are therefore becoming increasingly important. However, the efficiency of aquafarm rearing is poor. A German research cooperation now wants to change this.

Over the decades, plant breeding has continuously increased the yield of arable plants. But would these modern high-performance varieties be superior to their predecessors from before the intensification of agriculture even without fertilizers, chemical pesticides and changing climatic conditions? Researchers at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, together with colleagues from other German universities and the Julius Kühn Institute, have presented empirical facts on this controversial question for the first time.

The history of surfactants began more than 4,500 years ago with the production of the first soap-like substance from olive oil and wood ash. Today, it is impossible to imagine everyday life without these active washing substances, which can be found in practically every detergent. As emulsifiers they have even found their way into food, because surface-active agents reduce the interfacial tension between two phases and make it possible to blend water and oil. Modern surfactants are also usually biodegradable.

Tailoring peptides is a declared goal of many researchers. Scientists are emulating nature in which microorganisms are able to assemble tiny protein molecules like on an assembly line. Researchers at Frankfurt's Goethe University had already taken an important step in peptide synthesis last year.