No employer wants a workforce that depends heavily on overtime. But with European trade barriers coming down the pressure is now on for UK firms to ensure they don't get overtaken by leaner firms abroad.

Symrise, manufacturer of aroma chemicals and flavouring compounds, has developed a high temperature liquid chromatography method for analysing the sensory characteristics of foods.

Had we forgotten what real strawberries tasted like? That's what Create Flavours felt when it started a development programme to create its own new strawberry flavour.

Cocoa Treattarome Dark 9900 and Raspberry Treattarome 9845 are new additions to the range of 100% natural distillates from Treatt.

French equipment suppliers to the food processing industry - world renowned expertise is a comprehensive dossier covering a range of food-related topics.

Employment law can be a "nightmare" for small and medium-sized businesses, says Len Collinson, national chairman of the Forum of Private Business (FPB). The organisation has launched the latest edition of its Employment Guide to ease the burden for employers and help prevent costly tribunals.

Last November the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses discussed the addition of bioactive substances that are essential constituents to foods.

Designed to put readers in touch with contacts across the industry, The Grocer directory of manufacturers & suppliers 2007 UK edition is an invaluable resource.

The recently launched X-ray system from Ishida has come top in an independent European evaluation.

Avery Weigh-Tronix has launched an ATEX-compliant weighbridge for use in hazardous areas in the food industry. The weighbridges can be used in zone 1 and 2 areas as specified in the European ATEX fire and explosion regulations

Top quality equipment, high standards of workmanship and speed of installation helped CPS win two big orders from Nestlé UK when it wanted to upgrade plant at its site in Cuddington, Cheshire, which produces, among other things, Ski yoghurt.

Most existing compressed air systems for food applications probably comply with the Food Grade Compressed Air Code of Practice prepared by the British Compressed Air Society (BCAS) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC), says BCAS member Domnick Hunter. And those that don't can easily be updated, it adds.

TM Robotics has launched a ceiling mounted version of the Toshiba Machine TH450 pick and place robot arm, which will save space on the factory floor and allow access to the working area from above.

The SmartMixer is an innovative mixing system for the accurate real-time mixing of a wide range of cultured dairy products such as yoghurt and soured cream. It produces the right amount of the correct specification end product using three ingredients streams, any of which can contain fat and solids.

Uniq Foods is using a customised continuous ink jet printing system from Linx printing technologies to code Marks & Spencer sandwiches at its Northampton factory.

Stable Micro Systems has developed a test to evaluate how much spring there is in a loaf, and thus how fresh it is.

When Windward Banana wanted to upgrade its 3,500m² warehouse in Essex, it called in Ryebrook Resins to lay its Ryetech HT fast-cure floor finish. The resulting floor is extremely durable, providing excellent resilience against abrasion from heavy pallets and fork-lift trucks while providing a safe, slip-resistant seamless surface that is easy to clean.

A torque sensor from Sensor technology is helping to analyse the mixing properties of recipes in a project that could slash development costs in the food industry.

The chocolate industry is facing challenges from the increasing variety of recipes and smaller production batches. The new FlexiStamp multiple stamping head system developed by Bühler Bindler offers a flexible solution for batch production of filled chocolates.

Cheese importer Eurilait is renting an Ulma Smart tray sealer from D2 Food Systems for handling packs of Greek feta cheese, which is a brand new line for a major supermarket.

Taste specialist Quest International has introduced a range of berry fruit flavours based on the discovery of new flavour components that precisely replicate the flavours of real fruit at various stages of ripeness.

It would be easy to fill an entire magazine with arguments about the wisdom or idiocy of the trend towards natural flavours. People who have spent their working lives in the flavours industry get hopping mad about how out of touch consumers are with scientific evidence about the safety and effectiveness of synthetic ingredients.

Hygiena has launched an all-in-one Listeria screening test. Called InSite, it is the latest in the company's range of colour-change surface hygiene tests for pathogenic bacteria. The test gives results in 24-30h.

Wearing air-impermeable shoes and boots in food factories can cause skin problems. Stoko Foot Care is a special skin preparation to help protect feet when wearing occlusive footwear. It contains the skin protector EUCORIOL to make the skin stronger and build up and maintain full barrier function.

Spotting risks in the food chain is a growing challenge. A new database at CSL, the UK's public sector food laboratory, aims to provide vital information for growers, buyers and all those who need to comply with EU food contaminants and residue regulations.

Brookfield texture analysers offer an easy, accurate way to determine the characteristics of cheese and other dairy products

Two pocket-size infrared thermometers designed for monitoring foodstuffs are now available from Fluke. They can give quick and accurate food temperature readings by either contact or non-contact methods.

Next month the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will host an international workshop with the aim of identifying threats to food safety, improving the food industry and the government's ability to tackle problems. If you were thinking of attending, think again because the event was oversubscribed before the end of last year. As ever, food safety remains firmly at the top of the agenda for manufacturers, retailers, researchers and academics.

That first morning when Gavin Neath and Iain Ferguson started together as new recruits on Unilever's graduate training programme, neither could have imagined that 30 years later both would be heading up two of the biggest names in food manufacture. Neath went on to become the UK chairman of the company he first joined so many years before; and Ferguson chief executive of Tate & Lyle.

Closer attention will have to be paid to the sourcing of ingredients when the new Contaminants in Food (England) Regulations 2007 come into force on March 1, warns law firm Pinsent Masons.

How would your factory score for food hygiene? The Food Standards Agency (FSA) wants consumers to know. And, what's more, it wants you to tell them.

Neville Carruthers, operations director (designate), Wrights Pies

The food industry is learning to borrow from engineering. Automation technologies developed to save the car industry are helping the food industry. But just how far will robots and high tech take the food industry by the year 2020?

The latest efforts by retailers to cut lead-times, inventory and infrastructure investment are headed towards perdition rather than supply chain utopia.

Marks & Spencer's (M&S's) £200M bid to become carbon neutral by 2012 and Tesco's £500M move to label the carbon footprint of its products and cut carbon dioxide emissions from its stores, are just the latest developments in the 'greening' of the UK's food supply chain.

Grass is for cows and ageing hippies, right? But in 20 years' time, if we're not exactly eating the lawn, we'll be picnicking on its single cell proteins.

Brown's time has finally come, with the long-awaited chance to turn the Houses of Parliament upside down. Or has it?

The longer shelf-life achievable with multilayer films in particular, means that packing as well as converting operations are increasingly going overseas, says one industry expert.

Small and medium-sized food businesses in the London area could benefit from a £2M fund intended to encourage recycling and responsible waste management.

Fateful decisions about the collection and recovery of post-consumer polypropylene (PP) and possibly other polymers are likely over the next few months.

Does your production equipment email or text maintenance staff, predicting problems and offering solutions? Or do you still operate with panicky calls where the only certainty is that the line has stopped?

Innovative food research projects are being sought as part of the European Technology Platform (ETP) Food for Life programme, which is being led by the EU's Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries (CIAA).

I was struck recently by my daughter's horrified reaction to the vast quantities of packaging dumped at our local recycling point - she is definitely going to be a green consumer.

Ingredients supplier Cargill is seeking EU approval for Xtend Sucromalt, its newest slowly digestible sweetener.

Energy drink, tea and coffee manufacturers may have to rethink their ingredients formulations and claims, following the publication of a new study, which claims that caffeine does not make people more alert.

Changes in packaging technologies, as in other areas, are rarely as dramatic or comprehensive as long-term predictions tend to suggest they will be. It is only a matter of decades since the growing number of commercial polymers made some in the industry forecast the imminent demise of all non-plastic packaging.

Duckling-based dishes are on the menu at Silver Hill Foods, which supplies to the food and retail sectors.

Natural foods manufacturer Suma has redeveloped its Italian Sauces range using organic ingredients.

Consumers looking for a meaty treat can now look forward to a slightly softer bite as The Jerky Group introduces Beef Nugget Steaks. A more tender offering than traditional beef jerky, the nuggets are thought to appeal to women.

Celebrity chef Jean Christophe Novelli has worked with Findus to breathe new life into the frozen category with a range of restaurant-quality ready meals.

Bakers looking for a fresh angle in the cake category may be inspired by Dawn Foods' Extra Moist Muffin Mix. Available in original and chocolate flavours, the mix provides an open, irregular texture, which suspends inclusions well and always domes, claims the firm.

Crystals are usually recognised as a symbol of beauty, but for a while, this escaped the minds of cheese consumers, who worried that white pigment on their cheese meant the product was past its sell-by date.

The new front of pack nutrition labelling formats being introduced on many processed foods on sale in supermarkets will probably have more impact on eating habits than any government health initiatives.

Firms could save a fortune using a new tool that can monitor the sales successes and failures of new products and established brands, says market researcher Mintel.

While many manufacturers have launched products in specialist areas such as organic and functional foods, some forward-thinking firms have spotted a new trend for even more focused niche markets.

If you think it's tough complying with food and drink legislation now, you ain't seen nothin yet - at least that's one vision from the legal experts when looking to 2020.

Several column inches were devoted by The Times of January 17 to a madcap scheme, allegedly under serious consideration by the Conservatives, to set quotas for production of junk food and alcoholic drinks in order to reduce obesity and alcoholism.

Better prospects for British dairy processors this year could trigger a fresh round of price cuts by retailers anxious to increase their margins, warned independent consultancy The Dairy Group. But further cuts to milk prices could be catastrophic for farmers.

Fears that Tate & Lyle's moneyspinning sweetener Splenda sucralose may not be the long-term cash cow that investors had been led to believe intensified after the company admitted sales were running below expectations.

The government is looking at setting up a new food industry research club to bring industry and academia together over a number of collaborative pre-competitive projects.

The food and drink industry remains Europe's largest manufacturing sector, ahead of the automobile and chemical industries, with a turnover of euro 836bn in 2005, up 2.6% on 2004.

Man's eating habits have come a long way from the days of the hunter gatherer. Now, the closest consumers get to their ancestors is foraging for berries in Tesco's fruit aisle. Pretty advanced you might think, but not according to new product development (NPD) experts, many of whom are certain that 2020 will see a healthy eating revolution.

The cost of producing British pig meat is getting cheaper, according to latest figures from the British Pig Executive (BPEX), but it is still above the European average, while production costs in Brazil, Canada and the US are significantly lower than in the European Union (EU).

The soft drinks industry has dismissed as "simplistic" a scientific study claiming manufacturers added caffeine to soft drinks to get kids hooked on sugary drinks - often criticised as "liquid candy".

The food industry is being urged to re-think how it deals with waste amid claims that it throws away millions of pounds.

Leatherhead Food International (LFI) has launched a collaborative research project to explore the use of nanotechnology in controlling food ingredient functionality and performance.

Key British beef producers are to be given computers, software and IT training by Sainsbury to help them cut costs and improve their competitiveness.

An EU-funded project has been launched to assess new methods of extracting valuable ingredients from food waste.

A recent EU report suggested that over the past five years the EU's food manufacturing sector has been suffering from a continuing succession of closures, restructuring, mergers and the transfer of jobs offshore.

Dorset-based dairy, food and beverage engineer, Carlisle Process Systems (CPS), has been acquired by Tetra Pak.

The slimming foods market has shrunk by more than a quarter over the past five years, according to research from Mintel, which blames heavy-weight competition from natural lifestyle products.

Production of the iconic Courage beer brands, Best Bitter, Directors, Courage Mild and Courage Light Ale, will move to Bedford following their acquisition from Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) by Wells & Young's Brewing Company.

Ericsson chairman and outgoing head of Electrolux, Michael Treschow, will take over as non-executive chairman of Unilever from May.

Trading figures for Northern Foods' third quarter, which included the busy Christmas period but also saw the disposal of some major divisions, showed a 1.3% year-on-year decline.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has criticised public analysts for failing to use real-time DNA techniques to test food products.

Researchers at Loughborough University are preparing to lodge a patent application for a novel method of pasteurising food using military technology that breaks down nerve gas and biological agents, including anthrax.

A new distribution system helped pushed baker Inter Link Foods into the red in the six months to November 4, 2006.

The University of East Anglia and the Food Processing Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) are looking for partners to develop infrared sensing techniques to detect foreign bodies, particularly insects, in foods.

Food manufacturers have criticised the European Commission (EC) and governments over implementation of food labelling laws.

Consumers in the UK will eventually accept the benefits of genetically modified (GM) food, claimed the president of the Food and Drink Federation, Iain Ferguson.

The new president of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Iain Ferguson expects two food nutritional labelling schemes to emerge from a Food Standards Agency (FSA) evaluation. The study, which is about to start, will look at the impact of different front-of-pack labelling on shopping behaviour. The FSA is known to favour traffic lights over guideline daily amounts (GDAs) while the FDF prefers GDAs.

Ultimately, it all comes down to whether you're an optimist or a pessimist. Will it be a future of milk and honey for all, or one of opulence for the few and drought, starvation and pestilence for the many?

Nominations are being invited for this year's Rural Action Award, which celebrates firms that have made a positive impact in the rural marketplace, workplace, environment or community.

The penetration of third-party logistics providers (3PLs) in food and drink dropped significantly last year as retailers took greater control over their supply chains, according to a new report from grocery think tank IGD.

Young's Seafood chilled food plant in Gillett Street, Hull is to close with the loss of 203 jobs.

Cheddarvision, the webcam that shows slowly maturing cheddar at West Country Farmhouse Cheddar, received 23,500 hits within its first four days.

Cadbury could be summoned to Birmingham Magistrates Court in a matter of weeks if the City Council gets the go-ahead to take legal action over last year's salmonella contamination.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has accused the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of a perverse decision in failing to uphold complaints about animal welfare campaigner PETA's posters against meat. It plans to lodge a request for an independent review.

The European Commission (EC) is expected to drop proceedings against the UK for failing to enforce EU food hygiene rules in dairies, said industry body Dairy UK. The case will be discussed at a meeting in Brussels on March 23.

Premier Foods is likely to "aggressively pursue an exit" from its unprofitable fresh produce division and extend its Hovis brand into biscuits and breakfast cereals this year, according to analysts at Panmure Gordon.

The Food and Drink Federation has hit back at an MPs' report slamming the government for working with the food industry to combat childhood obesity.

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which represents the interests of Britain's food and drink manufacturers, has restructured to be able to better represent its members and get its message across to a wider audience.

There is insufficient evidence to prove that organic agriculture is more environmentally friendly than conventional agriculture, according to a new government-sponsored report.