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Obesity: A taxing solution

23-Dec-2008 - Benjamin Franklin once said that nothing is certain in life but death and taxes, conveniently forgetting the human race’s desire to avoid both inconveniences at any cost.

Why is food science the ‘baddie' for consumers?

15-Dec-2008 - It sometimes seems as if life is a pantomime, and food science is the baddie, complete with boos and hisses from the audience.

Coping with health claim hurt

08-Dec-2008 - One of the most fiercely debated and amended pieces of European Union food law history is playing out before our eyes, and its effects are beginning to be felt.

Why farm support puts food on plates

01-Dec-2008 - “Four legs good, two legs bad.” When the pigs take over the land in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, they have no hesitation; any creature with four legs is beyond reproach and any human is bad, mad and dangerous to know.

Conjuring with calories: Regulation and labeling changes

24-Nov-2008 - There was something magical about the recent news that the caloric value of both gum arabic and erythritol have been officially lowered, but whether it turns out to be a sleight of hand or a real change remains to be seen.

Tackling obesity is no fair-weather game

17-Nov-2008 - The long shadow cast by obesity over public health means that encouraging healthier eating should be high on the agenda of every food firm, come financial rain or shine.

Beijing Olympic Games clean-up a dirty business

10-Nov-2008 - This year’s Beijing Olympic Games may have been good for China’s public image but the smooth running of the event was built on multiple state-prompted sacrifices and the food ingredients industry was one of the lambs that copped it in the neck for ‘the greater good’.

A menu for American food policy

03-Nov-2008 - At the time of writing, the US is poised to go to the polls. The next two days are going to be hugely exciting. And when it’s all over, after the victor gets some well-earned rest… he’ll rub his sleepy eyes and ask: ‘What’s for breakfast?'.

The hour of stevia is nigh

27-Oct-2008 - The course of true love never did run smooth. The same could be said of stevia’s road to regulatory approval as a food ingredient. One final concerted effort is needed to ensure approval of this hot ingredient.

Banks’ rescue package points the way for food crisis remedies

20-Oct-2008 - Question: When is a crisis not a crisis? Answer: When it’s a food crisis. Compare the two responses to failures in the food system and financial markets.

Waking up to smell the caffeine

13-Oct-2008 - Before reading this you’re probably going to need a coffee, in fact why not have a few? After all who’s to say when enough is enough in our hunt for a caffeine kick.

Bringing organic back down to earth

06-Oct-2008 - Organic has an image problem. As some consumers fear they are, quite literally, priced out of the farmers market, it’s time to stir up more debate about organic as a set of principals, not as a status symbol.

What to do when safety studies smell a rat

29-Sep-2008 - Using animals, and specifically rats, to build the science behind ingredients is vital, but dismissing conflicting studies just because a rat is not a human is not acceptable.

What to do when safety studies smell a rat

29-Sep-2008 - Using animals, and specifically rats, to build the science behind ingredients is vital, but dismissing conflicting studies just because a rat is not a human is not acceptable.

Consumers fear the packaging - a BPA alternative is needed now

22-Sep-2008 - “I have a bad feeling about this.” Luke Skywalker’s warning in the movie blockbuster Star Wars could equally be applied to consumers’ concerns about Bisphenol A (BPA).

Dietary supplements win Olympic gold

15-Sep-2008 - To coin a phrase oft-used by winning athletes, Beijing was 'a good games’ for an increasingly mature dietary supplements industry.

Hurricane wake-up call for business and boy scouts

08-Sep-2008 - Louisiana was holding its breath when Hurricane Gustav made landfall last week. It promised to be the mother of all storms as it roared towards the Gulf Coast but fortunately the region, along with the food industry it supports, was spared.

Why food is the new oil

11-Aug-2008 - “Food is a weapon – don’t waste it.” This message, which featured on a Second World War poster issued by the US Office of War Information in 1943, is a lesson from history we would do well to heed.

Bringing an end to the food waste shame

04-Aug-2008 - Have you ever scavenged through a supermarket bin looking for your next meal? It’s a strange question to put to business readers – and most would shrink at the thought. But that’s just how the ‘freegans’ decide what’s for dinner.

Can we believe the Danisco – Apax rumours?

28-Jul-2008 - Rumour, according to the Romans, is a feathered beast with a myriad eyes and tongues. Last week she went bristling through the Danish business pages, spreading the news that Danisco could be bought by a private equity firm.

Budweiser to be Belgian? Big deal

21-Jul-2008 - The news that all-American brewer Anheuser-Busch is to be sold to Belgium’s InBev for $52bn has made sports bar patrons across the US weep into their Budweisers. But the idea that an American firm must remain American for all time runs counter to the world of global commerce.

Diet better than statins in kids' cholesterol control

15-Jul-2008 - The prescribing of statins for eight years-olds is tantamount to saying that food and diet have failed, and that children are incapable of changing their eating habits and lifestyle.

A half measure of alcohol reforms

07-Jul-2008 - Knife crime, obesity and skiffle music. Out of all the evils currently threatening the welfare of Western teenagers, recent US headlines finger the main culprit as the caffeinated alcoholic beverage.

The food industry after Lisbon

30-Jun-2008 - In the face of another rejection of a European Union treaty, the bloc's food industry has one glaring path ahead: business as normal.

The value of hyperactive curiosity

16-Jun-2008 - For a little yellow flower, it's ignited a huge debate. Believe the headlines and St John's wort won't help hyperactive kids, but last week's study asks more questions than it answers. It's time to put funding disclosures in the dock.

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