Fight to curb food waste increasingly turns to science

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

1 of 11

Apples are washed and inspected at the BelleHarvest packing and storage facility, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022 in Belding, Mich. BelleHarvest is the second largest packing and storage facility for apples in the state of Michigan. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Hate mealy apples and soggy french fries? Science can help.

Restaurants, grocers, farmers and food companies are increasingly turning to chemistry and physics to tackle the problem of food waste.

Some are testing spray-on peels or chemically enhanced sachets that can slow the ripening process in fruit. Others are developing digital sensors that can tell — more precisely than a label — when meat is safe to consume. And packets affixed to the top of a takeout box use thermodynamics to keep fries crispy.

Experts say growing awareness of food waste and its incredible cost — both in dollars and in environmental impact — has led to an uptick in efforts to mitigate it. U.S. food waste startups raised $4.8 billion in 2021, 30% more than they raised in 2020, according to ReFed, a group that studies food waste.

“This has suddenly become a big interest,” said Elizabeth Mitchum, director of the Postharvest Technology Center at the University of California, Davis, who has worked in the field for three decades. “Even companies that have been around for a while are now talking about what they do through that lens.”

In 2019, around 35% of the 229 million tons of food available in the U.S. — worth around $418 billion — went unsold or uneaten, according to ReFed. Food waste is the largest category of material placed in municipal landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which notes that rotting food releases methane, a problematic greenhouse gas.

ReFed estimates 500,000 pounds (225,000 kilograms) of food could be diverted from landfills annually with high-tech packaging.

Among the products in development are a sensor by Stockholm-based Innoscentia that can determine whether meat is safe depending on the buildup of microbes in its packaging. And Ryp Labs, based in the U.S. and Belgium, is working on a produce sticker that would release a vapor to slow ripening.

SavrPak was founded in 2020 by Bill Birgen, an aerospace engineer who was tired of the soggy food in his lunchbox. He developed a plant-based packet — made with food-safe materials approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — that can fit inside a takeout container and absorb condensation, helping keep the food inside hotter and crispier.

Nashville, Tennessee-based hot-chicken chain Hattie B’s was skeptical. But after testing SavrPaks using humidity sensors, it now uses the packs when it’s catering fried foods and is working with SavrPak to integrate the packs into regular takeout containers.

Brian Morris, Hattie B’s vice president of culinary learning and development, said each SavrPak costs the company less than $1 but ensures a better meal.

“When it comes to fried chicken, we kind of lose control from the point when it leaves our place,” Morris said. “We don’t want the experience to go down the drain.”

But cost can still be a barrier for some companies and consumers. Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, ended its multiyear partnership with Goleta, California-based Apeel Sciences this year because it found consumers weren’t willing to pay more for produce brushed or sprayed with Apeel’s edible coating to keep moisture in and oxygen out, thus extending the time that produce stays fresh.

Apeel says treated avocados can last a few extra days, while citrus fruit lasts for several weeks. The coating is made of purified mono- and diglycerides, emulsifiers that are common food additives.

Kroger wouldn’t say how much more Apeel products cost. Apeel also wouldn’t reveal the average price premium for produce treated with its coating since it varies by food distributor and grocer. But Apeel says its research shows customers are willing to pay more for produce that lasts longer. Apeel also says it continues to talk to Kroger about other future technology.

There is another big hurdle to coming up with innovations to preserve food: Every food product has its own biological makeup and handling requirements.

“There is no one major change that can improve the situation,” said Randy Beaudry, a professor in the horticulture department at Michigan State University’s school of agriculture.

Beaudry said the complexity has caused some projects to fail. He remembers working with one large packaging company on a container designed to prevent fungus in tomatoes. For the science to work, the tomatoes had to be screened for size and then oriented stem-up in each container. Eventually the project was scrapped.

Beaudry said it’s also hard to sort out which technology works best, since startups don’t always share data or formulations with outside researchers.

Some companies find it better to rely on proven technology — but in new ways. Chicago-based Hazel Technologies, which was founded in 2015, sells 1-methylcyclopropene, or 1-MCP, a gas that has been used for decades to delay the ripening process in fruit. The compound — considered non-toxic by the EPA — is typically pumped into sealed storage rooms to inhibit the production of ethylene, a plant hormone.

But Hazel’s real breakthrough is a sachet the size of a sugar packet that can slowly release 1-MCP into a box of produce.

Mike Mazie, the facilities and storage manager at BelleHarvest, a large apple packing facility in Belding, Michigan, ordered around 3,000 sachets this year. He used them for surplus bins that couldn’t fit into the sealed rooms required for gas.

“If you can get another week out of a bushel of apples, why wouldn’t you?” he said. “It absolutely makes a difference.”

The science is promising but it’s only part of the solution, said Yvette Cabrera, the director of food waste for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Most food waste happens at the residential level, she said; lowering portion sizes, buying smaller quantities of food at a time or improving the accuracy of date labels could have even more impact than technology.

“Overall as a society, we don’t value food as it should be valued,” Cabrera said.

___

AP National Writer and Visual Journalist Martha Irvine contributed from Belding, Michigan.

__

This story has been corrected to show that food waste startups raised $4.8 billion in 2021, 30% more than they raised in 2020, not $300 billion in 2021, double the amount raised in 2020.

Oregon lawsuit spotlights destruction of Black neighborhoods

By ANDREW SELSKY

- In these photos provided by the Fouther Family Archives and Ariel Kane are Elizabeth Fouther-Branch and Bobby Fouther as children standing in front of their great-aunt’s home and in 2021 standing in the front of the parking lot where the house used to stand in Portland, Ore. The siblings are now among 26 Black people who either lived in the neighborhood or who are descendants of former residents who are suing Portland, the city's economic and urban development agency and Legacy Emanuel Hospital for the "racist" destruction of the homes and forced displacement. 

(Della Williams/Fouther Family Archives and Ariel Kane via AP)

A home that was a fixture of Bobby Fouther’s childhood is now a parking lot, the two-story, shingle-sided house having been demolished in the 1970s along with many other properties in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.

“Growing up there was just all about love,” Fouther said.

Fouther and his sister, Elizabeth Fouther-Branch, are now among 26 Black people who either lived in the neighborhood or are descendants of former residents and are suing Portland, the city’s economic and urban development agency and Legacy Emanuel Hospital, accusing them of the “racist” destruction of the homes and forced displacement.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Portland, shines a light on how urban improvement projects and construction of the nation’s highways often came at the cost of neighborhoods that aren’t predominantly white.

“In many cases, city and state planners purposely built through Black neighborhoods to clear so-called slums and blighted areas,” according to a 2020 report by Pew Charitable Trusts, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit public policy group.

People who were part of racial minorities were often obligated to live in those neighborhoods because of “redlining” — banks discriminating against home loan applicants based on race — and even due to laws that maintained all-white neighborhoods.

In 1934, Fouther’s great-aunt and her husband bought a house, which he and his sister visited almost daily, in the Albina neighborhood of Portland, according to the lawsuit.

But even after buying homes and building lives in Albina, residents were forced to move by so-called urban renewal and highway building.

Albina had already been partially destroyed and carved up in the 1950s and ’60s by the building of Interstate 5 and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the original home of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. But then a hospital expansion was announced.

Between 1971 and 1973, the Portland Development Commission demolished an estimated 188 properties, 158 of which were residential and inhabited by 88 families and 83 individuals. A total of 32 business and four church or community organizations were also destroyed, according to the lawsuit. Of the forcibly displaced households, 74% were Black.

A first phase, in the 1950s and ’60s, involved city officials secretly agreeing to compensate the hospital for the full cost of the purchases and demolitions, the lawsuit said. The homeowners were intimidated by hospital representatives and told that if they didn’t leave, the city would take their homes. They were not fairly compensated and in some cases not compensated at all, according to the lawsuit.

“This case is about the intentional destruction of a thriving Black neighborhood in Central Albina under the pretense of facilitating a hospital expansion that never happened,” the lawsuit says, adding that the loss of homes “has meant the deprivation of inheritance, intergenerational wealth, community, and opportunity.”

Much of the land that used to be a thriving neighborhood, where Black families felt safe and had social and spiritual connections, became parking lots or stood vacant.

“I was taken out of my safe and loving community. I was moved into a neighborhood that saw me as a nuisance and to a school where I was one of three Black children,” said Connie Mack, one of the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit said the defendants are benefiting from “unjust enrichment” from “this horribly racist chapter from Portland’s past.”

Legacy Health, which owns Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it is evaluating it. Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission, also said it is evaluating the complaint and had no additional comment. City officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Albina is now called the Eliot neighborhood, which boasts trendy shops, cafes and eateries.

“Our neighborhood, in the heart of the former city of Albina, is a great place to live, work and play,” the Eliot Neighborhood Association proclaims on its website.

Many of the plaintiffs’ homes, if they had not been destroyed, would have been worth more than $500,000 today, the lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages from defendants in amounts to be determined at trial.

Chevron a lead investor in carbon storage efforts

Chevron supports modular CCS technology under development by Canada's Svante.

Chevron said it was a lead investor in efforts to support the technology necessary to pull carbon dioxide from industrial polluters and send it off for other users.

 File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 16 (UPI) -- The clean energy arm of U.S. energy major Chevron said it was a lead investor in a fundraising effort targeting carbon sequestration efforts from Canadian abatement company Svante.

Chevron New Energies said it was the lead investor in a Svante-sponsored fundraising round, which drew in a total of $318 million to support carbon sequestration technology.

"This funding will support Svante's commercial-scale filter manufacturing facility in Vancouver, which is anticipated to produce enough filter modules to capture millions of tons of carbon dioxide per year across hundreds of large-scale carbon capture and storage facilities," Chevron announced.

This is the second announcement of its kind from Chevron New Energies this week. The company on Wednesday said it identified a location in Nevada to explore further opportunities for geothermal energy at a site that's already proved to have some potential.

RELATEDNew federal building standards seek to cut energy use and emissions

Less than 2% of the world's total energy comes from geothermal resources, though scientists suspect it could be a near-inexhaustible source of energy.

Using specialized adsorption materials, meanwhile, Svante is developing modular technology for carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCUS) to capture CO2 from industrial flue gas and concentrate that CO2 for industrial end users, such as the beverage industry.

"We are advancing a full value chain carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) business and believe Svante is poised to be a leader in enabling carbon capture solutions," said Chris Powers, a vice president of carbon programs at Chevron's clean energy arm. "Innovation is key to enabling these types of breakthrough technologies and lower carbon solutions, and we look forward to applying our experience and expertise to help drive this effort forward."

RELATED Enbridge, Oxy review CCS technology for U.S. Gulf Coast

Carbon capture technologies promise to scrub CO2 from the flumes and exhaust pipes of coal and gas plants. The captured carbon can be permanently buried underground or sold for other uses like making fertilizers or boosting oil extraction. High costs have prevented wide-scale adoption, however.

Korean firms team up to build autonomous outdoor robots

By Kim Yoon-kyoung & Kim Tae-gyu, UPI News Korea

KT AI robotics business division chief Lee Sang-ho (L) holds an agreement with Neubility CEO Lee Sang-min to cooperate in developing an outdoor autonomous robot in a signing ceremony held at a KT office in Seoul on Friday. Photo courtesy of KT

SEOUL, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- South Korea's telecom giant KT announced Friday it is partnering with a local robotics company, Neubility, to create autonomous mobile robots.

Under the agreement, KT will provide the know-how for the robotics platform and wireless network, while Neubility will contribute the software and hardware.

Founded in 2017, Neubility has succeeded in developing affordable robotics, such as the camera-based autonomous driving robots, the kind that can operate without expensive lidar sensors.

The Seoul-based startup has produced a self-driving delivery robot, named "Neubi," accumulating data and streamlining the autonomous navigation system along the way.

Autonomous mobile robots are expected to take over such tasks as last-mile delivery, urban cleaning services and even certain hospitality functions.

Delivery robots, in particular, are projected to be commercialized the fastest as demand increases for doorstep deliveries that do not require human drivers.

According to U.S. business tracker Allied Market Research, the global delivery robot market could grow from $3.53 billion in 2020 to $30.05 billion by 2030, registering an annual growth rate of 24.5%.

"It's a great opportunity for Neubility, the company with an advantage in autonomous driving technology and related data," KT's AI robotics business division head Lee Sang-ho said in a statement.

"The collaboration will allow us to create a new kind of robot that businesses need in daily outdoor settings," he said.

The share price of KT went down 0.95% Friday on the South Korean stock exchange. Neubility has yet to go public.

Space company Maxar plans to go private with $6.4 billion deal


Sirius XM's latest broadcasting satellite, SXM-7, is shown where it was built at Maxar Technologies' plant in Palo Alto, Calif. Maxar announced an agreement Friday to go private through a deal with Advent International.

 File Photo courtesy of Sirius XM/Maxar


Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Space company Maxar announced an agreement to go private on Friday in an acquisition led by private equity firm Advent International.

The deal gives Maxar a value of $6.4 billion. Advent will take a $3.1 billion stake in the space company, with British Columbia Investment Management Corporation making a $1 billion equity contribution.

"Today's announcement is an exceptional outcome for stockholders and is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, the value Maxar has created and the reputation we have built in our industry," said Daniel Jablonsky, president and CEO of Maxar.

"Advent has a proven record of strengthening its portfolio companies and a desire to support Maxar in advancing our long-term strategic objectives. As a private company, we will have enhanced flexibility and additional resources to build on Maxar's strong foundation, further scale operations and capture the significant opportunities in a rapidly expanding market."

Maxar shares closed at $23.10 on Thursday. The agreement with Advent at $53 represents a nearly 130% increase.

"We have tremendous respect and admiration for Maxar, its industry-leading technology and the vital role it serves in supporting the national security of the United States and its allies around the world," said David Mussafer, chairman and managing partner of Advent

Maxar's agreement with Advent is a 60-day "go-shop period," which means the company has until Feb. 14 to consider other offers.

Researchers develop antimicrobial lipstick using cranberry extract


Researchers at Valencia Catholic University Saint Vincent Martyr in Spain have experimented with cranberry extract as an antimicrobial additive to lipstick.

 File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Researchers in Spain have developed a novel way to create antimicrobial lipstick with cranberry extract.

Researchers Alberto Tuñón-Molina, Alba Cano-Vicent, and Ángel Serrano-Aroca reported in ASC Applied Materials & Interface that they were able to reduce microorganism colonies in samples that contained cranberry extract added to cream lipstick base. Their research was funded by Valencia Catholic University Saint Vincent Martyr and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has speeded up the race to find materials that could help limit or avoid the spread of SARS-CoV-2, while infections by multidrug-resistant bacteria and fungi are now becoming a serious threat," the authors wrote in the report. "In this study, we developed a novel bio-based lipstick containing cranberry extract, a substance able to inactivate a broad range of microorganisms."

The study showed that fungal and bacterial colony growth was greatly reduced in test samples that contained cranberry extract.

"The proposed antimicrobial lipstick offers a new form of protection against a broad range of microorganisms, including enveloped and non-enveloped viruses, bacteria, and fungi, in the current COVID-19 pandemic and microbial-resistant era," the report said.

The American Chemical Society, which published the study, was founded at New York University in 1876 and currently has over 151,000 members in 140 countries.

Retired football players more likely to report age-related diseases

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News



NFL players, especially former linemen, had fewer disease-free years and earlier high blood pressure and diabetes diagnoses, a recent study found. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Former elite football players may age faster than their more average peers, a new study suggests.

NFL players, especially former linemen, had fewer disease-free years and earlier high blood pressure and diabetes diagnoses. Two age-related diseases, arthritis and dementia, were also more commonly found in former football players than in other men of the same age.

This research was part of the ongoing Football Players Health Study at Harvard University.

"We wanted to know: Are professional football players being robbed of their middle age? Our findings suggest that football prematurely weathers them and puts them on an alternate aging trajectory, increasing the prevalence of a variety of diseases of old age," said senior investigator Rachel Grashow, director of epidemiological research initiatives for the Football Players Health Study.

"We need to look not just at the length of life but the quality of life," she said in a university news release. "Professional football players might live as long as men in the general population, but those years could be filled with disability and infirmity."

For this research, nearly 3,000 former NFL players completed a survey for investigators at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.

"Our analysis raises important biological and physiological questions about underlying causes but, just as importantly, the results should serve as an alarm bell telling clinicians who care for these individuals to pay close attention even to their relatively younger former athlete patients," Grashow said. "Such heightened vigilance can lead to earlier diagnoses and timelier intervention to prevent or dramatically slow the pace of age-related illness."

Researchers were intrigued by conflicting reports in which athletes reported feeling older than their chronological age, while past research showed they lived as long as or longer than men in the general population. Sports medicine physicians who treat players had also reported that these athletes often experience an earlier onset of age-related chronic health conditions.

Participants in the study were 2,864 Black and White former pro football players, ages 25 to 59.

Researchers also used survey data to measure how long the athletes lived without developing four health conditions (dementia/Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, hypertension or diabetes), comparing the results to other non-NFL men ages 25 to 59 who had been part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and the National Health Interview Survey.

In each decade of life, the former athletes were more likely to report that they'd been diagnosed with dementia/Alzheimer's disease and arthritis, the study found.

Younger players, ages 25 to 29, were more likely than the average population to report high blood pressure and diabetes.

The effects persisted even after the researchers accounted for body mass index and race.

The research team also analyzed player health for different game-related aspects, such as what position the athletes played. They found that linemen, who are known to have more physical contact during games, had shorter health spans and developed age-related disease sooner than those who were not linemen.

Later diagnosis and treatment for metabolic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes could have long-term effects on heart health and cognition, study senior author Dr. Aaron Baggish said in the release. He is director of in-person assessment studies at the Football Players Health Study.

"The duration of one's life is very important, but so, too, is the quality of one's life," added Baggish, a professor of medicine at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. "This study was conducted to probe the latter and now provides an important perspective on how early-life participation in the great game of football may accelerate the onset of certain common forms of chronic disease."

Future studies will focus on the biological mechanisms that are causing this premature aging among football players and interventions to help them live healthier lives, Grashow said.

The findings were published Thursday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the health impacts of hypertension and diabetes.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

FDA approves diabetes pill for cats

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first pill to improve control of diabetes in some cats. 

File Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/UPI | License Photo

Owners whose cats have diabetes now have a new option to care for the condition in their otherwise healthy pets.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first pill to improve control of diabetes in some cats.

The drug, called Bexacat (bexagliflozin tablets), is not insulin and is not meant for cats who have the type of diabetes that requires treatment with insulin. Rather, it is what is called a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor.

The active ingredient in this pill prevents the cat's kidneys from reabsorbing glucose into the blood. This excess glucose leaves the body through the urine, lowering blood sugar levels.

RELATEDHumans have been bonding with cats for thousands of years

As part of the approval, the FDA requires that Bexacat labels include a boxed warning about the importance of patient selection. Only certain cats should take the drug, determined through careful screening.

Potential patients must be screened for kidney, liver and pancreatic disease, as well as ketoacidosis, a high level of a type of acids known as ketones in the blood.

Bexacat also shouldn't be used in cats who are being treated with insulin or in those who have previously been treated with insulin.

The drug should not be started in cats who are not eating well or who are dehydrated or lethargic at diagnosis.

Cats taking this medication should be monitored regularly with exams and blood tests, as well as watched for lack of appetite, lethargy, dehydration and weight loss.

Cats who are treated with Bexacat may be at an increased risk of serious adverse reactions, including diabetic ketoacidosis, the FDA said. This can be fatal and should be treated as emergencies.

RELATEDHaving a dog in childhood may reduce risk for Crohn's disease

In a news release about the approval, the FDA explained that like in humans, the cells of a cat's body need sugar in the form of glucose for energy. Cats with diabetes can't properly produce or respond to the hormone insulin. Insulin helps cells use glucose for normal function.

Without any treatment, diabetic cats will have high levels of glucose in their blood and urine. They may experience symptoms such as increased thirst and urine, weight loss and increased appetite.

Typically cats with diabetes are treated with diet and insulin therapy, including twice-daily injections given 12 hours apart.

Bexacat is a once-daily flavored pill given with or without food to cats who weigh at least 6.6 pounds.

The FDA cited two field studies that were six months long and an extended field study in its approval. The studies found the medication was more than 80% effective in improving blood sugar control in cats with diabetes.

Veterinarians and clients should report any adverse events to the FDA.

More information

Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine has more on diabetes in cats.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.



Read MorePets help owners stay active, manage stress

Death toll rises to 22 in Peru amid growing political protests


The death toll from ongoing political protests in Peru climbed to 22 on Friday while the country’s new caretaker president Dina Boluarte (R) refused calls to resign.

 Photo by Paolo Aguilar/EPA-EFE

Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The death toll from ongoing political protests in Peru has climbed to 22, officials said, as the country's newly installed caretaker president, Dina Boluarte, refused calls to resign.

Two demonstrators died after clashing with police in central Peru on Friday, bringing the death toll to 22 amid widespread protests, authorities said.

Boluarte refused calls to resign, saying such a move will not stop the violence. The president said she would travel to protest-stricken areas and speak directly with demonstrators.

The violence led two of Boluarte's ministers to resign on Friday. Education minister Patricia Correa and culture minister Jair Perez announced their resignations on Twitter. Both cited the escalating death count as the reason why.

RELATED Seven dead as Peruvians protest ouster of former president Castillo

Protests began earlier this month after the ouster of former President Pedro Castillo.

Peru's  Supreme Court ordered Castillo to be held in pretrial detention for 18 months.

The 53-year-old former school teacher was impeached and arrested hours after he tried to dissolve Peru's congress, triggering deadly national protests. Dozens of people have been injured so far, in addition to the 22 fatalities.

RELATED

Peru airport closes as two killed during protests over presidential impeachment

An airport in southern Peru was closed after CORPAC, the country's aviation agency, said the airport has faced vandalism and fires since Saturday afternoon.

Castillo maintains he did not "commit the crime of conspiracy or rebellion." He originally took office in June 2021. Boluarte was sworn into office as a caretaker immediately after Castillo was impeached.

Protestors are demanding that Bolurarte's government close Congress and move up the next general election.

RELATED Former Peru President Pedro Castillo jailed for 18 months in pretrial detention

A Friday vote in Peru's legislature that would have moved the election up to 2023, however, fell short of the necessary two-thirds required to pass. The election is still slated to take place in 2026, when Castillo's five-year term ends.

Police along with the Peruvian armed forces issued a joint public statement Wednesday saying they would abide by the constitution, calling Castillo's effort to dissolve Congress an attempted coup.

Univ. of Calif., striking academic workers reach tentative agreement 

The University of California announced the tentative agreement with striking academic workers includes "multiyear pay increases." File Photo by Coolcaesar/Wikimedia Commons

Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The University of California says it has reached a tentative labor agreement with 48,000 student researchers and other workers, potentially ending the biggest academic strike in U.S. history.

The school announced Friday it has struck a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers to end the 32-day work stoppage. Under its terms, 17,000 UC graduate student researchers would get minimum salary scales for the first time.

The agreement also entitles the student workers multiyear pay increases, paid dependent access to UC health care and enhanced paid family leave, school officials said.

If approved, the contracts will be effective through May 31, 2025. Members will vote on ratifying the agreements next week.

The sides agreed to enter into private mediation last week conducted by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.

University of California President Michael Drake thanked Steinberg and negotiators for both sides for "coming together in a spirit of compromise to reach this tentative agreement. This is a positive step forward for the University and for our students, and I am grateful for the progress we have made together."

"These tentative agreements include major pay increases and expanded benefits which will improve the quality of life for all members of the bargaining unit," UAW President Ray Curry said in a statement

"Our members stood up to show the university that academic workers are vital to UC's success. They deserve nothing less than a contract that reflects the important role they play and the reality of working in cities with extremely high costs of living."

The UAW said the UC graduate researchers' vote to unionize last year was "a huge boost for the growing academic worker movement, which has gained steam in recent years," joining similar recent moves by students at Harvard, Columbia and the University of Washington.

The UC workers have been on strike since Nov. 14, demanding higher pay, public transport passes, better child care benefits and increased annual raise

Union members have accused the university system of taking "a wide range of unlawful actions" since negotiations began early last year and authorized the strike in response to what they characterized as unfair labor practices in negotiations.

University officials said last month they have offered the UAW "generous proposals" that would raise salaries for all graduate student employees by 12.5% to 48.4% over three years, as well as "increased child care reimbursements, campus fee remissions and other benefits."