Food safety

How is the food industry supporting childhood nutrition? GettyImages/Image Source

How is the food industry supporting childhood nutrition?

By Donna Eastlake

From infancy through to adolescence, nutrition is essential in ensuring a healthy body and mind for our youngsters. So how can this be achieved and what it the food industry doing to help parents?

Researchers in Italy and Germany have sought to better understand hemp's nutritional potential in food. GettyImages/ollo

Is hemp the next functional food in vegetarian nutrition?

By Natasha Spencer-Joilliffe

As regulatory restrictions ease, researchers studying Cannabis sativa L. identify its nutritional benefits and potential in vegetarian diets while highlighting the need for clarity on the safety of some concentrated extracts.

Halal certification is important to assure consumers a product really is halal. Image Source: Getty Images/LisaInGlasses

What is required for halal certification?

By Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

With a growing Muslim middle class in countries such as the UK, and even many non-Muslims increasingly buying halal products, halal certification is more important than ever for businesses selling them.

The product is nutritionally similar to gluten-containing wheat flour. Image Source: Ulada/Getty Images

Gluten-free but wheat? Coeliac-safe wheat flour developed in Spain

By Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

Gluten-free substitutes such as rice and corn flour have for decades aimed to take the role of wheat flour in baked goods, so that those with coeliac disease can consume them. Now there is a new substitute: wheat flour itself.

The BTOM will affect GB/EU trade. Image Source: Getty Images/emarto

How will the BTOM impact food imports into Great Britain?

By Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), the first stage of which came into force on 31 January, will have a significant impact on how the EU trades with Great Britain. Over three stages throughout 2024, new checks and declarations will be required for...

Quality assessment is an important part of the food production process. Image Source: Getty Images/Monty Rakusen

3 start-ups boosting food quality in Europe

By Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

Food quality technology plays a vital role both in ensuring that food is safe to eat, therefore reducing food waste, and providing insights around its health and composition. Three European start-ups tell FoodNavigator how technology can help them understand...

The terms 'vegan,' 'vegetarian' and 'plant-based' are not legally defined. Image Source: Getty Images/Vincent Ryan

'Vegan' labels don't always mean free from animal products

By Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

Despite common public understanding that the word ‘vegan’ means free from animal products, there is no legally binding definition for the term in the UK and EU. This means that products labelled ‘vegan’ can contain trace amounts of eggs or dairy. Furthermore,...

Despite the laws and technology aiming to prevent it, food contamination and safety risks remain a serious issue. Image Source: Tim Platt/Getty Images

Food contamination risks: Old is not new

By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe

Despite laws, technology and more information, food contamination and safety risks remain, prompting calls for an integrated and collaborative approach and strong, well-funded regulatory governance.

The AI presents a more efficient way to detect the presence of microplastics in food. Image: Alistair Berg/Getty Images

Finding microplastics with AI: A boon for the food industry?

By Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic debris which are often found in food. When consumed, they can lead to negative health effects. A recent study has developed a way to use artificial intelligence to help find microplastics more efficiently, which...

GettyImages/Supatman

5 start-ups that caught our eye in 2023

By Flora Southey

From upcycling ‘spent hens’ into flavour enhancers to recreating breast milk in a lab, we round-up five of the most innovate start-ups we interviewed in 2023.

ESFA has launched TKPlate, a new platform that proposes food safety testing without using animals. GettyImages/Cultura RM Exclusive/Sigrid Gombert

Is animal-free testing for food on the horizon?

By Natasha Spencer-Joilliffe

The European Food Safety Authority (ESFA) develops a new platform to model and predict the toxicity of chemicals, signalling the potential to end animal testing.