01-May-2010 - Slowly, I lower the digestive into my tea. I watch it absorb the liquid like a sponge. The extra weight combined with the now softer texture weakens its structure. This is where skill and experience are required to decide the precise moment when to pull it out from the mug. Too soon, and you are left with a dry biscuit. Too late, and the submerged part of the biscuit disappears into the abyss, turning the drink into a muddy debacle. This is about as much risk I am happy to take.
01-May-2010 - The Food Standards Agency is planning to discuss whether so-called fat taxes have a role to play in improving the nation's diet.
01-May-2010 - With the recent hullabaloo about the EU back-tracking on nutrient profiling, I thought it might be interesting to highlight an academic paper just published online by the European journal of clinical nutrition.
15-Apr-2010 - I recently gave a lecture describing food industry successes in reducing salt, fat and sugar in foods. Sharing the platform were speakers from Heinz; the Food Standards Agency (FSA); and a representative from the catering sector.
15-Apr-2010 - Like Halley's comet, the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA's) second tranche of opinions on article 13.1 health claims has been a long time coming. And in many ways, it was a scientific and commercial earthquake, shattering the hopes of product developers and scientists alike.
15-Apr-2010 - You have been very naughty. Now go to your room and forget about dessert! Before you have any inappropriate thoughts, let me tell you that I am dead serious. You have been telling lies and you ought to be punished.
15-Apr-2010 - Forget the ongoing domestic debate about front-of-pack nutrition labelling. The real action is in Europe. By the time you read this, the European Parliament's (EP's) Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, ENVI, will have agreed its report on the proposed Food Information Regulation (FIR) firing the starting pistol for a complex negotiation that will impact every reader of Food Manufacture magazine.
15-Apr-2010 - I used to think that Birds Eye was just being ignorant when it put 'white fish' on the front of its packs and then I realised that it's because it has long packaging runs and can never guarantee which types of white fish go into each meal. That aside, I should applaud Birds Eye for the work it is doing with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to help ensure that we are all supporting the cause, which is sustainable seafood.
15-Apr-2010 - The recent Food Policy Council's second report recognises that a healthy, low-impact diet must be demand-led.This, by implication, is preferable to strategies based on government interference, attempts to browbeat the food industry into changing recipes, or manipulation of consumer choice by fiscal means.
01-Mar-2010 - SirThe EU Regulation (1005/2008) on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing came into force in January (Food Manufacture, February, p12).The law aims to prevent, deter...
01-Mar-2010 - Jasper has left me another parcel, right between the rose bush and the daffodils. Now and again, I come across his unpleasant and unwanted gifts....
01-Mar-2010 - A new challenge is emerging from the murky world of policy debate: how best to create a 'healthy, low impact diet' for tomorrow's low carbon...
01-Mar-2010 - I was pleased to hear that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is drawing up new guidance on the use of 'best before' and 'use by'...
01-Mar-2010 - The number of times I have seen poor packaging design ruin the opportunity for the success of new products. Packaging and the design of packaging...
01-Mar-2010 - A picture of the Conservative Party's overall food policy is hard to find. Apart from aiming to move the areas related to nutrition and diet...
05-Feb-2010 - "Is the food industry being unnecessarily secretive about nanotechnology? That was the criticism levelled at us by the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee, which published a major report on the topic last month.