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Applying external quality control in food testing labs

2 September 2017 | By

Quality control (QC) in food testing laboratories is often considered a necessary burden. A lot of time, money and effort goes into establishing QC mechanisms, especially for accreditation purposes. Mark Sykes, Scientific Advisor to Proficiency Testing at Fera Science, explains why the QC process should be normal, routine and have…

The Future of Food Labelling

1 September 2017 | By

The dust has barely settled from the implementation of the Food Information for Consumers Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 (EU FIC Regulation) and we are already seeing new developments across Europe with the potential to impact future food labelling. In this article Chartered Scientist and Fellow of the Institute of Food…

New Rules. New Labels.

1 September 2017 | By

It has been over a year since the Directive 2009/39/EC on foodstuffs was repealed. The directive was targeted at particular nutritional uses known as the PARNUTSs Directive and was replaced by the new Regulation (EU) 609/2013 on Food for Specific Groups (FSG Regulation) which entered into force on 16 July…

The Sound of the Crowd

1 September 2017 | By

The drinks can is increasingly becoming the consumer’s drink pack of choice, with growth of the craft beer movement, and now soft drinks, playing a key role in changing the general perception of the can’s aesthetics. European consumers, it seems, share a cluster of primary needs when it comes to…

Why food safety should come first

1 September 2017 | By

Any food producer will know that retailers and hospitality businesses that sell and serve food hold great responsibility as the face of the food industry. In this article NFU Mutual’s Darren Seward explains why they have a duty to fulfil their obligations to consumers as a trustworthy source to purchase…

Brexit and British farming: Crisis or opportunity?

1 September 2017 | By

Brexit continues to dominate not just UK and European headlines but it seems the whole world is watching. The British economy owes a lot to the food and beverage industry, which employs an estimated 13% of the population and in turn is heavily dependent on British farming. Roy Manuell, Junior…

Super foods!

1 September 2017 | By

When the term ‘superfood’ was coined back in 1990 few could have envisioned how ubiquitous it would become. Fast forward 27 years and it seems every food outlet sells quinoa and kale as a staple ingredient of every dish, and every month some other food claims the title for itself.…

The great gluten confusion

1 September 2017 | By

The global gluten free market is expected to be worth over $8bn by 2020. The number of people diagnosed with a gluten intolerance or coeliac disease is rising rapidly and consumers are ever more eager to pursue healthier diets and lifestyles. Despite all this standards and accreditations around gluten remain…

The fall of white gold?

1 September 2017 | By

Over recent years, consumers have made clear their desire for healthier diets. Governments across the world are seeking to cut the amount of sugar found in foodstuffs and the general public has become much more aware of the health risks associated with sugar. Meanwhile, alternatives and substitutes have quietly chipped…

Industry 4.0 and the food and beverage industry

1 September 2017 | By

Industry 4.0 is the development of manufacturing technologies that enable higher levels of interconnectivity, leading to greater communication between machines and decentralised/local processing of data. The result is smart factories in which machinery is increasingly autonomous, with the ability to manage its own service and maintenance requirements and adapt instantly…

Origin – what do we really mean?

1 September 2017 | By

Not for the first time, issues surrounding authenticity have hit the headlines. The European Commission’s Food Fraud Network dealt with 156 cases in 2016, compared with 108 in 2015 and a mere 60 in 2014 and recently the founder of the UK’s largest supplier of supermarket chicken has been called…

Food Brexit: the unsolved issues

1 September 2017 | By

Ask him to predict the precise ramifications of Brexit and Nostradamus himself would have smashed his crystal ball, hurled his tarot cards at the wall and spent the rest of his days deliberately not looking at a single palm. Nevertheless, a recent paper published by researchers at three leading UK…