Supplier Sunsweet claims its plum ingredients could present a pathway to cleaner labels as safety concerns over caramel colors prompt confectionery manufacturers to look explore alternatives.
How clued up are you on all the issues surrounding sustainable sourcing - and how closely have you been reading FoodNavigator? Take our quiz and find out!
Danish ingredients firm Chr Hansen claims it has produced carmine through fermentation, meaning a cheaper, vegetarian, halal and kosher version of the natural red colouring could be just a few years from commercial use.
Giving people money to encourage healthier lifestyles only works in the longer term when designed to stop negative behaviour rather than promote positive choices, suggests research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
UK-based researchers are seeking industry collaboration and inspiration for work creating electrospun nanofibres that could provide improved products and ingredient delivery systems for foods.
Consumers' affinity with beloved junk food brands can be strong – but trying to weaken it may be counter-productive by reducing preferences for healthy foods, say scientists.
The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) has advised the court Nestlé’s attempts to trademark the four-finger Kit Kat shape in the UK are uncompliant with EU law.
A mother's environment and dietary habits around the time of conception could permanently change the function of genes influencing the risk of diseases in her child, say researchers.
The top causes of food waste in homes include buying too much, preparing in abundance, unwillingness to consume leftovers, and improper food storage, say researchers from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.
The trend toward raw foods is being driven by a growing group of consumers looking for ‘clean food’ – not just those who consider themselves raw foodists, says Teresa Havrlandova, founder of raw food firm Lifefood.
A proprietary carrier particle can reduce sugar content and calories by more than 50% – without a loss in sweetness or a rise in costs, says Israeli company DouxMatok.
The use of whey protein fluid gels can produce ‘very stable’ foams that may be useful in the commercial production of food foams and areated products, say researchers.
It’s no secret the peer review system that is supposed to subject academic research to rigorous scrutiny before publication is not perfect, but a [mock] German professor has revealed just how much of a joke it often is.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) CEO says failing to reformulate products to reduce added sugars would be like slow food poisoning of the nation.
The Swedish National Food Agency (NFA) has begun an investigation into levels of nutrients and potentially undesirable substances present in common foods on the Swedish market.
Sugar binders in oat bars can be removed completely if certain process adjustments are made to leverage beta-glucan as the binding agent, says the bakery science manager at Campden BRI.
Special edition: Innovations in better-for-you confectionery
When compared to the same amount of glucose, consuming fructose could cause ‘significant’ weight gain, physical inactivity, and body fat deposition, say researchers.
A European push toward segregated certified sustainable palm oil may inadvertently exclude smaller producers from the supply chain, says GreenPalm manager Bob Norman.
The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has urged the European commissioner for health and food safety to practice caution when making ‘adjustments’ to health claim and botanical rules.
Many fruit snacks aimed at children contain more sugar than confectionery – but could be misconstrued as ‘healthy’ because of their association with real fruit, according to pressure group Action on Sugar.
Researchers from the Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Arizona Western College (AWC) concluded that dark chocolate confections containing only moderate amounts (60%) of cacao have an acute stimulating effect on the human brain and vasoconstrictive...
The food industry – the most water-intensive business on earth - is unprepared for global water shortages, according to a report which ranks the best and worst offending companies for their water management.
Brazilian confectionery makers are turning their sights to increasingly attractive foreign markets, as the country’s economic growth has rapidly decelerated in recent years.
Chewing gum may have been responsible for the death of a 19-year old girl – but there is little evidence to suggest artificial sweeteners were at fault, a UK inquest found yesterday.
The chocolate industry can curtail extreme poverty in the cocoa sector by implementing higher prices that can be passed from consumers to farmers, says Puratos Grand-Place.
Katjes International has issued a public offering and private placement to raise up to €60m ($67m) to pay off a previous bond and to bankroll acquisitions in Italy and Spain.
The German confectionery industry has slammed plans for a 19% tax proposal on sugar aimed at reducing obesity - but the social democrat party denies that such a 'sin tax' is on the cards.
Mondelēz International has continued to grow below the overall chocolate market in first quarter of 2015 after it was the first to raise wholesale prices last year. However, it expects its chocolate business to rebound in H2.
Special Edition: Beyond 2020 - The future of sustainable cocoa
The chocolate industry must ramp up support for good agricultural practices on existing cocoa farmland or else rainforest will be chopped down to make way for new plantations and it may face supply constraints, say stakeholders.
Special edition: Beyond 2020 - The future of sustainable cocoa
Rising temperatures could seriously change where cocoa is grown in the next half-century and global output could be threatened if the chocolate industry does nothing to protect its key crop.
The feeling of moral satisfaction that consumers get from eating ethical food change their taste experience for the better - and means they are willing to pay more, according to a European survey.
Italy’s confectionery major Ferrero has purchased almost 700 hectares of fertile agricultural land controlled by Serbian agricultural company Aleksa Santic for €7.95m ($8.64m).
Food and drink trade increased in most of Europe last year – though production in a few member states could have been better, said a representative at FoodDrinkEurope.
Wackaging – using cute and quirky language on a product’s packaging – seems to be everywhere. But with consumers becoming increasingly cynical, should manufacturers stop trying to be cool?
Front-of-pack labelling can be useful but health policy-makers are naïve if they think that this alone will result in healthier food choices, say researchers - environment, motivation and psychology must be actively influenced too.
More needs to be done by the European Commission to remove misconceptions about TTIP, a representative from FoodDrinkEurope has said, following the recent public backlash in Germany.
Nestlé has reported a better than expected sales jump of 4.4% with sales totalling CHF 20.9bn (€20.25bn), boosted by sales of bottled water and chocolate.
The Japanese diet can rival the Mediterranean diet for both health benefits and consumer pulling-power – with the added bonus of 'undiscovered' ingredients waiting to be developed by Western food manufacturers.
Unilever share prices surged more than 4% within a few hours of the company announcing that its first quarter sales had risen 12.3% to €12.8bn, exceeding expectations.
![Information about the food's ethicality often bears little or no implications for its nutritional and gustatory quality but [the ethical label] may positively influence taste, say the researchers.](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/9/3/4/6/1896439-1-eng-GB/Organic-fairtrade-taste-better-because-consumers-feel-morally-superior.jpg)
![IRI retail expert: 'It’s reasonable to assume that [retailers] could have done a lot better this year if they hadn’t sold out of eggs!'](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/9/1/7/8/1918719-1-eng-GB/UK-retailers-missed-5.2m-Easter-confectionery.jpg)
