How chemical reactions deplete nutrients in plant-based drinks

OAT MILK ANYONE

University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science

 

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Plant-based drinks in the lab

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Credit: Jakob Helbig

Over the last decade, the global market for plant-based beverages has seen remarkable growth, with oat, almond, soy and rice drinks emerging as popular alternatives to cow’s milk in coffee and oatmeal during this time.

One of the likely reasons for millions of liters of plant-based drinks ending up in the shopping baskets of consumers is that their climate footprint is often lower than that of cow’s milk. But consumers would be mistaken if they considered plant-based beverages healthier than cow’s milk. This is highlighted in a new study conducted by the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the University of Brescia, Italy.

In the study, researchers examined how chemical reactions during processing affect the nutritional quality of ten different plant-based drinks, comparing them with cow’s milk. The overall picture is clear:

“We definitely need to consume more plant-based foods. But if you’re looking for proper nutrition and believe that plant-based drinks can replace cow’s milk, you’d be mistaken,” says Department of Food Science professor Marianne Nissen Lund, the study’s lead author.

Long shelf life at the expense of nutrition

While milk is essentially a finished product when it comes out of a cow, oats, rice, and almonds require extensive processing during their conversion to a drinkable beverage. Moreover, each of the plant-based drinks tested underwent Ultra High Temperature (UHT) treatment, a process that is widely used for long-life milks around the world. In Denmark, milk is typically found only in the refrigerated sections of supermarkets and is low-pasteurized, meaning that it receives a much gentler heat treatment.

“Despite increased plant-based drink sales, cow milk sales remain higher. Consequently, plant-based drinks undergo more intense heat treatments than the milk typically sold in Denmark, in order to extend their shelf life. But such treatment comes at a cost,” says Marianne Nissen Lund.

UHT treatment triggers a so-called “Maillard reaction”, a chemical reaction between protein and sugar that occurs when food is fried or roasted at high temperatures. Among other things, this reaction impacts the nutritional quality of the proteins in a given product.

“Most plant-based drinks already have significantly less protein than cow’s milk. And the protein, which is present in low content, is then additionally modified when heat treated. This leads to the loss of some essential amino acids, which are incredibly important for us. While the nutritional contents of plant-based drinks vary greatly, most of them have relatively low nutritional quality,” explains the professor.

For comparison, the UHT-treated cow’s milk used in the study contains 3.4 grams of protein per liter, whereas 8 of the 10 plant-based drinks analyzed contained between 0.4 and 1.1 grams of protein. The levels of essential amino acids were lower in all plant-based drinks. Furthermore, 7 out of 10 plant-based drinks contained more sugar than cow’s milk.

Heat treatment may produce carcinogens

Besides reducing nutritional value, heat treatment also generates new compounds in plant-based drinks. One such compound measured by the researchers in four of the plant-based drinks made from almonds and oats is acrylamide, a carcinogen that is also found in bread, cookies, coffee beans and fried potatoes, including French fries.

“We were surprised to find acrylamide because it isn’t typically found in liquid food. One likely source is the roasted almonds used in one of the products. The compound was measured at levels so low that it poses no danger. But, if you consume small amounts of this substance from various sources, it could add up to a level that does pose a health risk,” says Marianne Nissen Lund.

Additionally, the researchers detected α-dicarbonyl compounds and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in several of the plant-based drinks. Both are reactive substances that could potentially be harmful to human health when present in high concentrations, although this is not the case here.

While professor of nutrition Lars Ove Dragsted is not particularly concerned about the findings either, he believes that the study highlights how little we know about the compounds formed during food processing:

“The chemical compounds that result from Maillard reactions are generally undesirable because they can increase inflammation in the body. Some of these compounds are also linked to a higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Although our gut bacteria break down some of them, there are many that we either do not know of or have yet to study,” says Lars Ove Dragsted of the Department of Nutrition, Execercise and Sports.

Professor Dragsted adds: “This study emphasizes why more attention should be paid to the consequences of Maillard reactions when developing plant-based foods and processed foods in general. The compounds identified in this study represent only a small fraction of those we know can arise from Maillard reactions.”

Make Your Own Food

According to Professor Marianne Nissen Lund, the study highlights broader issues with ultra-processed foods:

“Ideally, a green transition in the food sector shouldn’t be characterized by taking plant ingredients, ultra-process them, and then assuming a healthy outcome. Even though these products are neither dangerous nor explicitly unhealthy, they are often not particularly nutritious for us either.”

Her advice to consumers is to: “generally opt for the least processed foods and beverages, and to try to prepare as much of your own food as possible. If you eat healthy to begin with, you can definitely include plant-based drinks in your diet – just make sure that you’re getting your nutrients from other foods.”

At the same time, Professor Lund hopes that the industry will do more to address these issues:
“This is a call to manufacturers to further develop their products and reconsider the extent of processing. Perhaps they could rethink whether UHT treatment is necessary or whether shorter shelf lives for their products would be acceptable.”

 

 

 

[FACT BOX] MORE INFORMATION ON CARTONS… PLEASE

Producers are currently required to label the overall nutritional content of their products. While protein, carbohydrates and fat content are listed, such labeling does not indicate details such as the amount of essential amino acids. Professor Lund believes that this would be a valuable addition:

“If there were requirements for producers to specify on cartons how many essential amino acids the drink contains, it would give consumers a clearer picture of protein quality. Today, they are already required to disclose the amount of saturated and unsaturated fat and the proportion of carbohydrates from fiber versus sugar. Many people think of protein as just protein, but that’s not the case. There is a significant difference in protein quality from product to product.”

 

 

[FACT BOX] KEEP IT COOL

“I’ve noticed some supermarkets storing plant-based drinks in the refrigerator, which is a good practice. This keeps levels of Maillard reaction products lower than if they are stored at room temperature. As a consumer, you can do the same thing after purchasing these drinks. Store them in the fridge instead of your kitchen cupboard,” advises Professor Marianne Nissen Lund.

 

 

[FACT BOX] ABOUT THE STUDY

• The study examined two types of UHT-treated cow’s milk and 10 types of UHT-treated plant-based drinks sold in Scandinavia from three different producers. These included six oat drinks, one soy drink, one rice drink, one almond drink, and a drink based on a blend of soy, rice, almond and oat.
   
• The scientific article detailing the study has been published in Food Research International.
   
• The researchers behind the study are Halise Gül Akıllıoğlu, Marta Bevilacqua and Marianne Nissen Lund from the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen, as well as Mariachiara Pucci and Giulia Abate from the University of Brescia, Italy.

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Journal

Food Research International

DOI

10.1016/j.foodres.2024.115418 

Article Title

Investigation of Maillard reaction products in plant-based milk alternatives

 

Stretchable, flexible, recyclable. This plastic is fantastic

Researchers use inexpensive material to combine qualities not typically found in manufactured materials

Princeton University, Engineering School

 

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Princeton University

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Credit: Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

Princeton engineers have developed an easily scalable 3D printing technique to manufacture soft plastics with programmed stretchiness and flexibility that are also recyclable and inexpensive—qualities not typically combined in commercially manufactured materials.

In an article in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, a team led by Emily Davidson reported that they used a class of widely available polymers called thermoplastic elastomers to create soft 3D printed structures with tunable stiffness. Engineers can design the print path used by the 3D printer to program the plastic’s physical properties so that a device can stretch and flex repeatedly in one direction while remaining rigid in another. Davidson, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, said this approach to engineering soft architected materials could have many uses, such as soft robots, medical devices and prosthetics, strong lightweight helmets, and custom high-performance shoe soles.

The key to the material’s performance is its internal structure at the tiniest level. The research team used a type of block copolymer which forms stiff cylindrical structures that are 5-7 nanometers thick (for comparison, human hair measures about 90,000 nanometers) inside a stretchy polymer matrix. The researchers used 3D printing to orient these nanoscale cylinders, which leads to a 3D printed material that is hard in one direction but soft and stretchy in nearly all others. Designers can orient these cylinders in different directions throughout a single object, leading to soft architectures which exhibit stiffness and stretchiness in different regions of an object.

“The elastomer we are using forms nanostructures that we are able to control,” Davidson said. This allows designers a great degree of control over finished products.  “We can create materials that have tailored properties in different directions.”

The first step in developing this process was choosing the right polymer. The researchers chose a thermoplastic elastomer, which is a block copolymer that can be heated and processed as a polymer melt, but which solidifies into an elastic material when it cools. At the molecular level, polymers are long chains of linked molecules. Traditional homopolymers are long chains of one repeating molecule, whereas block copolymers are made of different homopolymers connected to each other. These different regions of a block copolymer chain are like oil and water- they separate instead of mixing. The researchers used this property to produce material with stiff cylinders within a stretchy matrix.

The researchers used their knowledge of how these block copolymer nanostructures form and how they respond to flow to develop a 3D printing technique that effectively induces alignment of these stiff nanostructures. The researchers analyzed the way that printing rate and controlled under-extrusion could be used to control the physical properties of the printed material.

Alice Fergerson, a graduate student at Princeton and the article’s lead author, spoke about the technique and the key role played by thermal annealing — the controlled heating and cooling of a material.

“I think one of the coolest parts of this technique is the many roles that thermal annealing plays— it both drastically improves the properties after printing, and it allows the things we print to be reusable many times and even self-heal if the item gets damaged or broken.”

Davidson said that one of the goals of the project was to create soft materials with locally tunable mechanical properties in a way that is both affordable and scalable for industry. It is possible to create similar structures with locally controlled properties using materials such as liquid crystal elastomers. But Davidson said those materials are both expensive (upwards of $2.50 per gram) and require multi-stage processing involving carefully controlled extrusion followed by exposure to ultraviolet light. The thermoplastic elastomers used in Davidson’s lab cost about a cent per gram and can be printed with a commercial 3D printer.

The researchers have shown their technique’s ability to incorporate functional additives into the thermoplastic elastomer without reducing the ability to control material properties. In one example, they added an organic molecule developed by Professor Lynn Loo’s group that makes the plastic glow red after exposure to ultraviolet light. They also demonstrated the printer’s ability to produce complex and multi-layered structures including a tiny plastic vase and printed text that used sharp turns to spell out PRINCETON.

Annealing plays a key role in their process by increasing the perfection of the order of internal nanostructures. Davidson said annealing also enables self-healing properties of the material. As part of the work, the researchers can cut a flexible sample of the printed plastic and reattached it by annealing the material. The repaired material demonstrated the same characteristics as the original sample. The researchers said they observed “no significant differences” between the original and the repaired material.

As a next step, the research team expects to being exploring new 3D printable architectures that will be compatible with applications such as wearable electronics and biomedical devices.

The article, Reprocessable and Mechanically Tailored Soft Architectures Through 3D Printing of Elastomeric Block Copolymers, was published Sept. 24 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. Besides Davidson and Fergerson, authors include Benjamin H. Gorse ’24, Shawn M. Maguire, postdoctoral researcher, and Emily C. Ostermann, a graduate student in chemical and biological engineering. Support for the project was provided in part by the National Science Foundation through Princeton PCCM SEED funds from the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, and Princeton Project X Innovation Funds.

3D printed plastic

Unlike similar materials that require complex processing, the plastic can be created with a 3D printer

Credit

Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

 

Material is stretchable and flexible

By controlling the material's internal structure, engineers can create objects with a range of properties.

Credit

Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

 

 

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Journal

Advanced Functional Materials

DOI

10.1002/adfm.202411812 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Reprocessable and Mechanically Tailored Soft Architectures Through 3D Printing of Elastomeric Block Copolymers

 

Fifteen percent of global population lives within a few miles of a coast—and the number is growing rapidly

Mississippi State University

 

NICE FULL WINDSOR KNOT TIE

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Arthur Cosby

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Credit: Grace Cockrell

STARKVILLE, Miss.—In 2023, the world’s population surpassed 8 billion. Mississippi State Social Science Research Center faculty are utilizing novel technology from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to estimate the growth and settlement of those billions along the Earth’s coast.

In a new article recently published in Scientific Reports-Nature, MSU SSRC Professor Emeritus Arthur G. Cosby and a team of researchers across the U.S. use data from ORNL’s Global LandScan Project to develop high-resolution estimates of coastal populations. The article “Accelerating Growth of Human Coastal Populations at the Global and Continent Levels: 2000–2018” is available at www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-73287-x.

MSU’s Cosby and co-author Viswadeep Lebakula, ORNL research scientist in Human Geography, also recently published an article about their findings in The Conversation, available at https://theconversation.com/15-of-global-population-lives-within-a-few-miles-of-a-coast-and-the-number-is-growing-rapidly-240672.

The team developed new data science techniques for estimating at specific intervals, finding growth concentrated in coastal areas worldwide. For example, the team found that “1.72 billion people were within 50 km of shoreline in 2000.” About two decades later, the coastal population had increased to 2.2 billion, an increase of about 26%. The closer to Earth’s coastline, the more condensed the population, with the most significant increases occurring nearest the shoreline.

“Our estimation techniques are quite involved. We developed a technique of estimating the population in 5 km bands along the coast of the entire globe. For example, we found that 2.2 billion individuals were within 10 km of the shoreline. This means that something like 14% of the world’s population is living in the small band along the shore that composes only 4% of the world’s inhabitable land,” Cosby said.

He explained that as populations of coastal areas expand faster than inland areas, they face unique benefits and risks, including sea-level rise, soil erosion and exposure to extreme weather events. At the same time, coastal regions often are wealthy places with opportunities that drive population growth.

“We estimated that since the turn of the century in 2000, there are about a half billion new inhabitants within 50 km of the shoreline. Just imagine how much additional human waste is being concentrated in a small geographic area. This one factor alone creates huge problems of waste management and treatment, infrastructure development, and increased human exposure to pathogens. Clearly, this is a growing public health issue that is occurring on a global scale. It is doubtful that many of the poorer countries are prepared for this threat,” Cosby said.

Cosby led this study alongside Viswadeep Lebakula, a lead scientist on the LandScan Global Project ORNL; Ciarra Smith, Mississippi State University; David Wanik, University of Connecticut; Karissa Bergene, George Mason University; Amy Rose, ORNL; David Swanson, University of California Riverside; and David Bloom, Havard University.

Scientific Reports is the fifth most cited journal in the world and contains research from all areas of the natural sciences, psychology, medicine and engineering.

MSU’s Social Science Research Center is online at www.ssrc.msstate.edu.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-73287-x 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Accelerating growth of human coastal populations at the global and continent levels: 2000–2018

 

Exposure to remote wildfire smoke drifting across the US linked to increased medical visits for heart and lung problems

New study found increased medical visits for heart and respiratory problems in Baltimore on poor air quality days from western Canadian wildfires

University of Maryland School of Medicine

 

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Hazard mapping system data outlining the course of the smoke plume originating from provinces in Western Canada in June 2023.

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Credit: University of Maryland School of Medicine

Wildfire smoke has long been known to exacerbate health problems like heart disease, lung conditions, and asthma, but now a new study finds that smoke from these fires can lead to poor health thousands of miles away. Researchers from the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC) found that medical visits for heart and lung problems rose by nearly 20 percent during six days in June, 2023, when smoke from Western Canadian wildfires drifted across the country, leading to very poor air quality days in Baltimore and the surrounding region.

The new findings were published today in the journal JAMA Network Open.

During the summer of 2023, severe Canadian wildfires created a vast plume that drifted 2000 miles across the country, leading to poor air quality on the East Coast of the United States, and many individuals experiencing breathing issues that led them to the doctor’s office.

“Baltimore had very dark skies, and we could all smell the smoke in the air,” said Mary Maldarelli, MD, pulmonary critical care fellow at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) who is the first author on the study. “But most importantly, my patients came in to me saying they were coughing quite a bit more and needed their medications more often, so they felt much sicker than they usually did when these wildfires occurred.” Dr. Maldarelli is also a resident in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

To determine whether the smoke-filled days led to quantifiable health consequences, she partnered with data scientists and visualization experts at the UM-IHC, which has access to nearly 2 million de-identified patient records from the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS).  

The researchers analyzed satellite data and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data to identify six “hotspot” days in June 2023 with high levels of wildfire smoke-related air pollution in the Maryland area. These were days that exceeded the EPA’s standards for safe air quality in all 23 counties in Maryland.

The team then culled through the de-identified electronic health records from UMMS, comparing medical visits for heart-lung or cardiopulmonary conditions from June 2023 with medical visits during June 2018 and June 2019. These included emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and outpatient clinic visits.

“We found that hotspot days were associated with an 18 percent increased likelihood of patients going to the doctor for complications related to a cardiopulmonary condition,” said study corresponding author Bradley Maron, MD, Professor of Medicine at UMSOM and Co-Executive Director of the UM-IHC. “We also found a 55 percent increase in the risk for an outpatient visit for heart and lung conditions; these patients tended to be older, non-smokers, and more socio-economically affluent than typical patients who see their doctors for cardiovascular conditions on good air quality days.”

That finding could highlight the importance of healthcare access and may indicate that more economically disadvantaged patients are not getting the medical care they need on high-risk days filled with wildfire smoke.

With more climate events expected in the future, doctors may require better tools to help disadvantaged patients on hotspot days.

“We have the opportunity to leverage the capabilities of the UM-IHC to proactively identify patients who are most at risk and provide them with anticipatory care,” said UMSOM Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, who is the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. “There may be crucial ways we can prevent cardiovascular complications on polluted smoke air days simply by providing them with telehealth visits or other ways to access care.”

Amir Sapkota, PhD, and Hyeonjin Song, PhD, of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, performed the satellite and EPA analyses for the study. Study co-authors also included faculty from the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, and the University of Maryland Medical System.

“Being able to access clinical data at a granular level and our ability to apply advanced analytical tools such as this is critical and essential to the future of health care and enables UMMS to be at the forefront of innovative medicine that will help drive patient care in the years ahead,” said study co-author Warren D’Souza, PhD, Co-Director of the UM-IHC and Senior Vice President/Chief Innovation Officer at UMMS.  

Funding for the study was provided by Montgomery County, Maryland, and The University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, a formal collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.50759 

Method of Research

Case study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Polluted Air from Canadian Wildfires and Cardiopulmonary Disease in the Eastern US

Article Publication Date

13-Dec-2024

COI Statement

Dr. Maron reports personal fees from Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Tenax, Regeneron, and grants from Deerfield Company.

 

Four new 6G projects to drive sustainability, resilience, and inclusive innovation

University of Oulu, Finland

 

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Europe is investing heavily in the future of telecommunications, with four major 6G projects involving the University of Oulu launching in January 2025. 

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Credit: University of Oulu

Europe is investing heavily in the future of telecommunications, with four major 6G projects involving the University of Oulu launching in January 2025. Funded through the SNS JU (Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking), these initiatives represent a substantial EU commitment, with a total budget of €39.6 million across the projects. Collectively, the projects aim to tackle critical challenges in sustainability, resilience, collaboration, and human-centric innovation.

SNS JU’s role in shaping Europe’s 6G development is significant. The SNS JU was established as part of the EU’s broader strategy to ensure Europe remains competitive in the global race for 6G leadership, countering major investments from regions like the US and Asia.

By funding ambitious projects, the SNS JU ensures research aligns with Europe’s goals of digital sovereignty, competitiveness, and inclusivity. The four projects (SUSTAIN-6G, 6G VERSUS, AMBIENT 6G, and SNS-CO OP) reflect this vision, addressing sustainability, resilience, human-centric design, and collaboration. Together, they demonstrate the multidisciplinary approach needed to link technological progress with societal impact.

“These projects reflect Europe’s commitment to advancing not just technology but also the societal and environmental priorities that come with it. By funding projects that combine innovation with responsibility, we are shaping a 6G future that benefits everyone,” says professor Ari Pouttu from the University of Oulu. He is 6G Flagship’s Vice Director and chairperson of the Expert Advisory Group of Networld Europe.

 

Here’s a closer look at the mission and goals of each project.

SUSTAIN-6G: Leading Sustainability in 6G Development

Duration: January 2025 – June 2027

Funding: €13M (Total Budget), €570K (University of Oulu)

Contact: Marja Matinmikko-Blue

Designated as the Sustainability Lighthouse project for SNS JU, SUSTAIN-6G’s mission is to embed environmental, social, and economic sustainability principles into the foundations of 6G development. The project’s overarching goal is to create a digital ecosystem that meets the demands of next-generation connectivity and aligns with global sustainability objectives.

To achieve this, SUSTAIN-6G will focus on designing energy-efficient networks to minimise environmental impact and developing advanced ways to reduce waste—just some examples of its broader commitment to tackling key sustainability challenges. At the same time, it seeks to promote equitable access to 6G technologies, ensuring that connectivity benefits are distributed inclusively across society. The project also explores how 6G can actively support global efforts to lower carbon emissions and enable sustainable digital solutions.

By combining technological innovation with sustainability principles, SUSTAIN-6G aims to set a new global benchmark for responsible digital infrastructure, shaping networks that are as ethical as they are advanced.

6G VERSUS: 6G Vertical Trials for Sustainability

Duration: January 2025 – December 2027

Funding: €14.5M (Total Budget), €12.1M (Grant), €930K (University of Oulu)

Contact: Sanna Tuomela

6G VERSUS is a pioneering initiative designed to bridge technological innovation with strategic experimentation to achieve tangible sustainability outcomes. Leveraging advanced 6G research platforms across Europe, the project conducts large-scale trials and pilots to explore sustainable solutions in five environmentally conscious vertical industries.

The project introduces a novel methodology that transforms existing use cases into 6G applications, structured as Vertical Apps (V-Apps), Network Apps (N-Apps), and AI-assisted Apps (AI-Apps). This triadic framework optimises the data and control planes of 6G systems. It facilitates seamless information flow and decision-making processes

With the support of six 6G platforms spanning across Europe, 6G-VERSUS aims to demonstrate the profound sustainable, economic and societal impact of 6G technology, propelling towards a more sustainable and prosperous society.

AMBIENT 6G: Creating a Sustainable IoT Ecosystem

Duration: January 2025 – December 2027

Funding: €8M (Total budget), €778K (University of Oulu)

Contact: Onel López

The AMBIENT-6G project tackles the urgent need for sustainable IoT solutions in an era where billions of connected devices are set to reshape daily life. Traditional battery-powered devices bring environmental challenges and high maintenance costs. To manage this, the project is set to develop intelligent energy-neutral devices (ENDs) and a supporting 6G network infrastructure.

This project focuses on designing, prototyping, and validating hardware and software solutions for ultra-low-power 6G networks. Innovations include energy harvesting, wireless power transfer, intelligent resource management, and on-device machine learning. The project aims to reduce waste and significantly improve energy efficiency by enabling devices to operate without reliance on traditional batteries.

A key aspect of AMBIENT-6G is its active role in 3GPP ambient IoT standardisation activities, ensuring the project's breakthroughs set the foundation for a sustainable IoT ecosystem. With these advancements, AMBIENT-6G addresses environmental responsibility and establishes standards that will drive the next generation of IoT connectivity.

SNS-CO OP: Fostering Collaboration for 6G Innovation

Duration: January 2025 – June 2027

Funding: 4,1 M€ (Total), 70 k€ (University of Oulu)

Contact: Ari Pouttu

SNS-CO OP (Smart Networks and Services Cooperation) focuses on collaboration, within Europe and globally. It aims to strengthen Europe's position in the global 6G landscape by fostering partnerships between research institutions, industries, and policymakers.

The project emphasises knowledge sharing and coordinated efforts to set international standards for 6G. It works to ensure that European innovation is not siloed but contributes to shaping global norms. By aligning research agendas and pooling resources, SNS-CO OP wants to keep Europe at the forefront of 6G development.

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Method of Research

News article

 

Clarification on commercial law grey area

A new study from the University of Adelaide has revealed key markers that influence how commercial behaviour is perceived by courts, clarifying the line between legal and illegal conduct in commercial law

University of Adelaide

A new study from the University of Adelaide has revealed key markers that influence how commercial behaviour is perceived by courts, clarifying the line between legal and illegal conduct in commercial law.

Study author Dr Mark Giancaspro explains that Australian Consumer Law prohibits businesses and consumers from engaging in ‘unconscionable conduct’ in trade or commerce.

“Essentially, unconscionable conduct is defined as seriously repugnant or unacceptable commercial conduct, such as exploiting someone’s disadvantages for profit,” says Dr Giancaspro, whose study was published in UNSW Law Journal.

“Examples would be pressuring an elderly person into buying an expensive car, convincing someone who is intoxicated to sell their house for a pittance, or using overwhelming sales tactics to corner someone into signing a contract.

“Unconscionable conduct is illegal, but conduct that is considered merely ‘unfair’ is not. The problem is, it isn’t clear when conduct crosses the line from unfair to unconscionable.”

Through his analysis of cases where unconscionability was alleged but not proven, Dr Giancaspro found that courts tend to perceive commercial behaviour along a spectrum.  

“In short, unconscionable conduct lies at one end of the spectrum, and immoral or unfair conduct at the other,” he says.

“Where in that spectrum the courts place a particular behaviour depends on a range of opaque factors which apply differently from case to case. However, my research identified what can be described as a 'default' perception by judges as to the gravity of various forms of business conduct.

“Courts often accept that commercial parties occasionally act in ways that might be seen as 'unfair', and that more is needed to cross the line from becoming unethical to illegal. My research identified patterns in how judges make this distinction.”  

Dr Giancaspro’s paper provides insight into a largely underexplored area of commercial law, which often analyses when commercial behaviour is unconscionable rather than when it is not unconscionable.

The findings offer practical guidance for consumers, businesses, and legal professionals on navigating the grey areas of commercial conduct and ensuring fair practices in the marketplace, and there is potential for further research in this area.

“A broader sample of cases in which unconscionability was alleged but not proven would help to provide an even more representative spectrum of commercial behaviour,” Dr Giancaspro says.

“It would also be helpful to perform an analysis with consumers and businesses to understand how their perception of commercial conduct aligns or runs contrary to that of judges.”

Dr Giancaspro is an expert in the field of commercial law and consumer protection, with his new book, Consideration in Contract Law, having launched in October this year, and others on the way in 2025.

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Journal

University of New South Wales Law Journal

Method of Research

Case study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Pushing Equity’s Envelope: Probing the Arbitrary Distinction between Immoral and Unconscionable Commercial Behaviour

Article Publication Date

13-Dec-2024

 

ERC Consolidator Grant: 4 million euros to Bielefeld sociologists

Professor Dr Minh Nguyen and Professor Dr Carsten Sauer have both received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC)

Bielefeld University

 

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In his new project, Professor Dr Carsten Sauer examines the mechanisms that are contributing to the gender pay gap between women and men.

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Credit: Photo: Bielefeld University/Sarah Jonek

Two researchers from the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Professor Dr. Minh Nguyen and Professor Dr. Carsten Sauer, have been awarded prestigious Consolidator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC). Together, their projects have been allocated approximately 4.4 million Euro in funding. In her new ERC project, Nguyen is investigating the process of financialisaton, i.e. the increasing importance of financial markets and logics,  for working lives in Asia. Sauer is investigating in his project the issue of gender-based wage differentials in Europe. The ERC announced on Tuesday, 3 December, the winners of the new ERC Consolidator Grants.

‘Minh Nguyen and Carsten Sauer having been awarded these ERC Consolidator Grants speaks to the exceptional calibre of their research. I am very pleased for both of them,’ says Professor Dr. Angelika Epple, Rector of Bielefeld University. ‘Their projects bring sophisticated methods to bear on highly relevant social issues – making an important contribution to our research university.’

Financial markets and their impact on workers in Asia

In her project “FinancialLives,” Professor Dr. Minh Nguyen is considering how the everyday lives of workers in countries like China, Vietnam, and Laos are increasingly subject to the logics of financial markets. These countries combine socialist politics with market-economy principles. Increasingly, working people must integrate financial strategies into their daily lives in order to ensure livelihoods and wellbeing. ‘In this new project, we are trying to understand how financialised risk has become normalised in these societies, and what this implies for work, for working people, and for social and political life more broadly,’ says Minh Nguyen. For her analysis, Nguyen draws on long-term ethnographic research with observations and interviews gathered from extensive fieldwork. This project builds upon her ERC Starting Grant project entitled „WelfareStruggles,“ which was completed this year. In this project, Nguyen showed how, due to precarious working conditions, workers in China and Vietnam are resorting to financial solutions because the social security systems in their countries provide little protection from market risks.

Pay Disparities in Europe

In his project “FAIRGAP,” Professor Dr. Carsten Sauer is investigating the mechanisms behind the gender pay gap in Europe. He is pursuing the question of why women often earn less than men, despite efforts to eliminate gender-based disparities in compensation. Sauer and his team are focusing on the subjective perceptions of fair pay. Due to prevailing gender norms, employees and employers often implicitly perceive men earning more as fair. Using experimental surveys and other novel methods, Sauer and his team are investigating how unconscious patterns of thought and norms influence the outcomes of wage negotiations. Sauer will be analysing these mechanisms in several European countries. ‘We want to find out how individual, organisational, and societal factors converge to create – and maintain over time – gender inequalities in terms of both pay and perceptions of what is fair,’ explains Carsten Sauer. Drawing upon comprehensive data, the project aims to identify scientifically proven approaches for fairer pay negotiation processes and labour market practices.

An expert in social transformations

Professor Dr. Minh Nguyen studied English and sociology at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi. She completed a Master’s in Social Planning and Development at the University of Queensland, Australia, and earned her doctoral degree in Social Research in International Development at the University of East Anglia, UK. Prior to her professorship at Bielefeld University, she worked for five years as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany, where she delved deeper into research on social transformations in East and Southeast Asia. Since 2018, she has been a professor of social anthropology at Bielefeld University, with specialisations in welfare, migration, and mobility, along with gender and class in East and Southeast Asia.

An expert in social disparities

Professor Dr. Carsten Sauer studied sociology, philosophy and economics at the University of Konstanz and earned his doctoral degree at Bielefeld University. He served as a research fellow in the Radboud Excellence Initiative at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and as a professor of sociology at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany. In 2021, he was appointed as a professor of social structure analysis of social inequalities at Bielefeld University. Sauer’s main research interests include labour and organization research, empirical research on inequality and justice, and empirical methods.

Significant financial support

These ERC Consolidator Grants will enable both researchers to conduct their ambitious projects over a period of five years. Professor Dr. Nguyen will receive some 2.42 million Euro for her new research, and Professor Dr. Sauer will receive approximately 2 million Euro for his work. ERC Consolidator Grants are aimed at outstanding researchers whose own working group is currently at the consolidation stage. In this funding round, Bielefeld University is one of seven research locations in North Rhine-Westphalia whose scientists have acquired new CoG. In previous years, seven researchers and their projects at Bielefeld University received funding from the ERC Consolidator Grant programme. The European Research Council (ERC), established by the European Union in 2007, is the leading European funding organisation for excellent cutting-edge research, supporting scientists of all nationalities and ages across Europe.