04-Oct-2010 - As a marketing professional, I see potentially difficult times ahead for the food industry. The viability of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is under review and genetically modified (GM) foods and nanotechnology are progressing up the agenda.
06-Sep-2010 - If there's one thing I hope that the 21st Century will become known for, it's joined-up thinking. 'Silo' thinking led to World Wars I and II.
06-Sep-2010 - I dedicate this column to Leatherhead Food Research chairman Dr Alistair Penman, who died on August 3 after a long battle with illness.
03-Sep-2010 - Phew, what a scorcher! Not the weather, but the blistering pace at which the Coalition has set about delivering a programme for government during its first 100 days.
03-Sep-2010 - Forget embezzlement and insider trading. If you really want to shock colleagues, one crime tops them all: use of a spreadsheet.
03-Sep-2010 - At 12 minutes past eight on the morning of February 3 1783, Antoine Lavoisier placed a guinea pig in an ice machine.
03-Sep-2010 - As a great believer in giving consumers a mix of culinary pleasure and technology-led products, I am encouraged by the investments being made in the UK’s food manufacturing industry.
03-Sep-2010 - The European Parliament’s (EP’s) call for milk labelled as ‘fresh’ to be under seven days old raises the question of the meaning of ‘fresh’ in relation to any food.
01-Aug-2010 - I read with interest John Dunn’s item on factory design in the July 2010 issue (p63), which raised many key issues.
01-Aug-2010 - Recent announcements about the future of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) dealt with the handover of country of origin labelling (COOL) to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
01-Aug-2010 - Do I detect a faint whiff of optimism circulating through our sector?
01-Aug-2010 - We are born, we grow up, and then we die, making way for the next generation. Such is the circle of life. Otherwise, the world would be a very crowded place.
01-Aug-2010 - At a recent Leatherhead conference, a speaker from Mintel said the number of new products making 'natural' and 'green' claims increased steadily between 2005 and 2009. But I'm not convinced that consumers understand all these claims.
01-Aug-2010 - As a consumer, caterer, chef and food developer, I have found the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to be a great source of clear and concise information that has helped me to make more informed choices and, more importantly, produce food safely. It has lived up to its mission statement: 'safer food, better business'.
05-Jul-2010 - Had the merchant bank been called Lehman Sisters, it would probably never have gone bankrupt in 2008, precipitating one of the world's biggest financial crises ever recorded.
02-Jul-2010 - Over 50 years ago, Charles Percy Snow CP Snow the acclaimed scientist and novelist, presented his Rede lecture at the University of Cambridge titled 'The two cultures'.
02-Jul-2010 - Grains of rice have been produced weighing as much as 78mg each. This is way above the typical weight of 23mg per grain.
02-Jul-2010 - Oh dear. The furore surrounding the Food Standards Agency's (FSA's) project on genetic modification (GM) is an unwelcome reminder of how a small group of campaigners remains absolutely determined to derail any sensible debate in the UK about the pros and cons of using new biotechnologies in the food sector.
02-Jul-2010 - Since this is supposed to be an ingredients column, I thought I'd tell you about the latest ingredients research at Leatherhead.
02-Jul-2010 - It's that time of year when, as you drive the length and breadth of the country, you see signs at the roadside advertising country shows, festivals, fêtes and fairs. Being someone who always likes to cover new ground, I usually go if I have a spare day at the weekend.
02-Jul-2010 - I agree wholeheartedly with David Gregory, chairman of Assured Food Standards, that our sector skills councils should co-ordinate their efforts to "enable skills transfer across the industry" (Food Manufacture, June 2010, p7).
02-Jul-2010 - The national newspapers had a field day in their reporting of the European Parliament's (EP's) rejection of traffic-light food labelling. Reports described the reaction of food and health lobbies as anything between 'dismay' and 'outrage'. The EP was accused of "caving in" to industry pressure.
09-Jun-2010 - We risk becoming a “scientifically illiterate society”, warned David Gregory, chairman of Assured Food Standards, in this year’s Institution of Food Science and Technology’s annual lecture.
04-Jun-2010 - I was in Frankfurt chairing a conference on low fat, salt and sugar when the Icelandic volcano discharged its cloud of volcanic ash.
04-Jun-2010 - The second issue of the Food Standards Agency's magazine Bite focused on nanotechnology and its potential for developing novel foods.
Food Manufacture food safety conference:‘What have we learnt from recent crises?’
West Midlands / Conference