01-Aug-2011 - You would not imagine that there would be a link between the News of The World (NoTW, now deceased) and nutrition health claims.
22-Jun-2011 - Racing driver, Spitfire pilot, concert pianist, prima ballerina. Let’s face it, food factory manager or food technologist are not up there with the traditional dream professions for children destined to be the ‘brightest and best’ of tomorrow.
01-May-2011 - I recently visited Danisco’s Health & Nutrition Research Centre in Finland and I was seriously impressed with its scientists, facilities and research initiatives.
01-May-2011 - Does the Responsibility Deal match the challenges ahead? Strong and enduring partnerships, including enhanced engagement of smaller businesses, will be key to maintained momentum with salt and trans fat reduction.
01-May-2011 - March saw the launch of the grandiose-sounding Public Health Responsibility Deal (PHRD) and the end of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC).
05-Apr-2011 - We live in uncertain times. I am sure I’m not alone in being concerned by recent global events that are the backdrop to other worries closer to home, such as the fragile state of our economy and the impact of swingeing public sector cuts.
01-Apr-2011 - In February 2010, Nature magazine presented to the world the first glimpse of the human genome: a garland of approximately 3bn nucleotides. Genomic analysis has revealed that, at the DNA level, humans are 99.9% identical. This implies that much of the biological and nutritional variability between individuals is due to the remaining 1% of the genome.
01-Apr-2011 - As an industry we spend a great deal of time and money developing ‘healthy’ food solutions and menus for schools and support the ‘food’ education of children in school. However, once a child leaves the school gate there is very little support and, in many cases, that education stops when he or she gets home.
01-Apr-2011 - With the ‘responsibility deal’ on salt reduction in food supported by major retailers and manufacturers, others should be asked to sign up to responsibility deals of a different kind.
01-Mar-2011 - I recently presented a paper on reformulation at a food and health debate run by The Grocer. I described Leatherhead research to cut salt, fat and sugar in foods but still maintain taste and texture. The research showed how micro-particulate salt could be used on crisps to fool the tongue into overestimating the salt present and how water-in-oil-in-water emulsions could cut the fat in mayonnaise. Those in industry also shared their reformulation successes.
01-Mar-2011 - The queen marched on, confident of her move. The bishop stayed near her, knowing that his position was vulnerable to attack. If the enemy struck, he would be the victim. Yet it would be an honour to die protecting his queen. The moment was tense. Then, out of nowhere, came the black knight. A weakness in my strategy had left my queen exposed after all. In a flash, her majestic figure came crashing down. Her fall signalled the end of our game.
01-Mar-2011 - It’s going to be another challenging year for industry. With VAT increases, soaring fuel costs and extreme weather conditions influencing ingredients, it hasn’t begun well.
01-Mar-2011 - Responsibility for food labelling in England moved to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) last year. Since then, there has been a deafening silence on the fate of the draft Date Marking Guidance and decision tree.
03-Feb-2011 - The media described the recent incident concerning dioxin in pork and egg products from animals fed with dioxin-contaminated feed as ‘a scandal’. But this is compounded by the needless and wasteful slaughter of expensively reared animals and the destruction of food that would not have hurt any consumer.
28-Jan-2011 - The Foresight report, Global Food and Farming Futures, is expected to shape the agenda. It looks to 2050 and takes a global view of the food system, considering demand, production and supply, as well as broader environmental issues.
28-Jan-2011 - At a recent Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council workshop, I was discussing food security and world hunger. I won’t rehearse the well-known ‘perfect storm’ paradigm, but suffice to say that food might run short.
28-Jan-2011 - If you throw your watch into a crowd, you don’t expect to see it come back!
24-Dec-2010 - I thought I was doing well. The employee at the till had entered a frightening scanning frenzy, throwing cans of beans and packs of chicken breast at me. My wife seemed unaware of my marathon-beating performance.
24-Dec-2010 - I recently visited British Sugar's Wissington factory and was impressed by its energy efficient and sustainable processing.
24-Dec-2010 - Anticipating and meeting the next generation of consumer needs, while ensuring products offer taste, texture and visual appeal, is vital to stay ahead in this fast-moving industry. Manufacturers need a helping hand to achieve this on a mass scale.
24-Dec-2010 - As we enter 2011 it seems appropriate to anticipate what we can expect in the year ahead.
06-Dec-2010 - A recent survey suggested that the average Briton can make 10 meals from scratch without having to look at a recipe. The meals were: spaghetti Bolognese, roast dinner, chilli con carne, lasagne, cottage or shepherd’s pie, meat or fish stir fry, beef casserole, macaroni cheese, toad in the hole, meat, fish or vegetable curry.
06-Dec-2010 - According to the BBC, the most boring day of the 20th century was Sunday April 11 1954 when the main news was Belgium’s fourth general election since the war and the theft of a cup worth £50. In those days food issues were not even on the radar. Food rationing did not end until July 1954.The focus was on whether you could get enough food rather than whether it was safe, let alone its country of origin.
03-Dec-2010 - I can’t wait to be a grandfather. I’ll take my grandchildren to the zoo and impart my wisdom to them – unless they find the answer first on Wikipedia. Of course, there’s pain with the pleasure. In the form of a stabbing feeling in the pocket since a recent survey puts the cost of a grandchild at £50,000.
03-Dec-2010 - In recent years the food and drink sector has been active in making genuine environmental improvements, focusing on the areas over which they have the most control. Such thinking underpins the Food and Drink Federation’s Five-fold Environmental Ambition, under which our sector has been making a real difference in areas such as carbon, water, waste, packaging and transport.