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Herbicide residues in genetically modified, herbicide-resistant crops

1 May 2012 | By Gijs A Kleter, RIKILT; John B Unsworth, Private Consultant and Caroline A Harris, Exponent International

Global agriculture has witnessed a continuously increasing adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops, both in terms of the area covered with these crops and the number of countries where these crops are grown. In 2011, the total worldwide acreage of these crops amounted to 160 million hectares, with the top…

LCMS as a reliable tool for monitoring food allergens contamination

1 May 2012 | By Linda Monaci, National Research Council of Italy (ISPA-CNR)

Food allergen research has considerably expanded its field of interest in recent years probably due to the increasing incidence of food allergies throughout the population. According to the last legislation issued on this issue, there is a current trend to develop reliable methods tailored to the detection of food allergens…

The changing face of water stewardship: It’s about much more than philanthropy

1 May 2012 | By Daniel W. Bena, Senior Director of Sustainable Development, PepsiCo, Inc and Tara Acharya, Director of Global Health and Agriculture Policy, PepsiCo, Inc

As the title suggests, the concept and practice of water stewardship in the food and beverage industry has seen some significant evolution over the past decade. Part of this evolution was natural, but much of it, arguably, was the result of external stressors and diverse stakeholder voices which facilitated this…

The risk of mycotoxins in foods – factors affecting production and control measures

30 April 2012 | By Elli Amanatidou, Higher Scientific Officer, Chemical Safety Division Mycotoxins, Food Standards Agency

This article is an introduction to mycotoxins, providing general information on mycotoxin potential health effects, control measures and due diligence for businesses. Mycotoxins are ubiquitous in nature. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), at least 25 per cent of the world’s food crops are…

Appropriate controls for PCR detection of foodborne pathogens

30 April 2012 | By Martin D’Agostino, Microbiologist, The Food and Environment Research Agency

Over the years, there has been a great increase in the number of PCR based assays for foodborne pathogen detection. For example, a very basic search for ‘salmonella food PCR assay’ using the PubMed.gov database will produce over 600 results. Clearly, this has led to a huge choice of PCR-based…

Thermal processing in the food industry

30 April 2012 | By Matteo Campagnoli, Research Manager, Barilla G&R Fratelli

Nowadays in the food industry, there are innovative technologies with some very interesting applications on an industrial scale and finished products on the market. In spite of this, heat remains the main process used to preserve foods. The aim of this article is to give an overview of the main…

Propraline project delivers a number of solutions for chocolate industry to improve praline quality

6 March 2012 | By Lilia Ahrné, Coordinator, ProPraline and Director Process and Technology Development at SIK – Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology

The ProPraline project is now finalised and after three years of intensive research, the project has delivered a number of solutions. Four booklets containing scientific information to help SMEs to produce pralines of high quality and extended shelf-life have been developed during the project and are now available to download…

Quick and simple sensory evaluation of your products

6 March 2012 | By Dr. Lene Meinert, Consultant, Department of Raw Meat Quality, Danish Meat Research Institute

Imagine that you have found a new and cheaper supplier of spice mixes for one of your popular products. Imagine too that you want to change the raw material composition of the product. Indeed, there are many parameters that could be modified. But how do you get an easy and…

The total product experience and the position of the sensory and consumer sciences: More than meets the tongue

6 March 2012 | By Garmt Dijksterhuis, Sensation, Perception & Behaviour, Unilever R&D Vlaardingen

Traditionally, much food research focuses on the physical and chemical product characteristics, using the so called ‘hard-sciences’. The consumer science side of the product, its use, its perception and its choice rely on the psychological sciences. In the ‘harder’ sciences, a number of recent insights appear which we introduce in…

Research for industrial implementation

6 March 2012 | By Astrid Stevik, Research Scientist, SINTEF

In 2007, the Norwegian Research Council and several other funders enabled the (so far) largest competence building project in Norway within superchilling of fresh food, KMB Competitive Food Processing in Norway. SINTEF Energy Research has conducted the work together with dedicated industrial and research partners, and after five years of…

On-line NIR for monitoring and control of fat in batches of meat trimmings

5 March 2012 | By Jens Petter Wold, Nofima AS

In the meat industry, the profit margins are small and profitability depends on optimal utilisation of the carcasses. From slaughter to final product, the industry controls much of the production according to certain quality criteria such as muscle quality, fat and connective tissue content. One of the main products from…

Ensuring water quality in food processing

5 March 2012 | By Anett Winkler and Dirk Nikoleski, EHEDG Members

Water is used in food processing for many different purposes. Among other applications it is used in direct contact with the food or food contact surfaces (as an ingredient, steam, etc) or indirectly as a processing aid. Therefore, water quality used in a food manufacturing plant has to be managed…

Cooperation in Europe to enhance technology transfer

5 March 2012 | By Ariette Matser, Charon Zondervan and Andrea Seleljova, Wageningen UR; Fabien Boulier, Agropolis International; and Emma Holtz, SIK

Technology transfer or knowledge exchange is considered to be very important for increasing the innovation potential of the food industry in Europe. Reaching the large group of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Europe with state-of-the-art knowledge available in universities and research organisations is considered especially essential, but also very…

National Starch: Goole Operations

5 March 2012 | By Jon Wilson, Projects and CI Manager, National Starch and Simon Mason, Site Manager, National Starch

National Starch Food Innovation is a leading global supplier of nature-based functional and nutritional ingredients, starch and sweetener solutions to the food and beverage industries. With more than 10,000 employees, the company is active in approximately 50 countries, operating a worldwide network of manufacturing facilities, ingredient development centres and sales…