Views

Organic food is selfish

Weekly comment

Organic food is selfish

The rise of organic food is a knee-jerk reaction to consumer health
fears, and threatens to unhelpfully steer us away from improving
the quality of food generally.

Cadbury's mistake

Weekly Comment

Cadbury's mistake

Chocolate has a nice feeling to it - tasty, fun, luxurious and
slightly sinful. This is comfort food, accessible to all and
epitomised in the recent film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Chasing down obesity

Weekly comment

Chasing down obesity

It is time to admit that society is fighting a part-time battle
against the bulge, willingly lambasting soft drinks, burgers and
chocolate, while shuffling silently away from a fairly dismal
exercise rate.

Working at self-regulation

Weekly comment

Working at self-regulation

By Ahmed ElAmin

Self-regulation has become the mantra of food groups who argue that
laws are not always necessary - but can industry be trusted when it
has failed so spectacularly in the past?

The benzene trail

Weekly Comment

The benzene trail

By Chris Mercer

The gamble by US authorities 15 years ago to let the industry deal
with benzene residues in soft drinks has failed, and instead only
kept those who needed to know in the dark.

The bad research debate

Weekly Comment

The bad research debate

The dust is settling on the WHI trial. First came the news that
low-fat diets didn't reduce the risk of breast or colorectal cancer
or cardiovascular disease, then came news that vitamin D and
calcium supplements don't protect...

Time to ditch the FFQ

Weekly Comment

Time to ditch the FFQ

Little wonder consumers are confused about which foods are good for
them, and which bad, when scientists use methods with almost no
chance of meaningful results.

Some news is good news

Weekly comment

Some news is good news

I am beginning to feel like a freak among journalists. Good or bad,
my reporting is the product of hours of questions, fact-hunting and
often-times editorial debate. Yet, despite this rigour, every day
we receive emails from people...

The reach of lobbying

Weekly Comment

The reach of lobbying

The oft-said adage that there are two things people don't want to
see being made - sausage and legislation - falls apart at the doors
of the EU's parliament.

Death by food support

Weekly comment

Death by food support

If the EU keeps hiding its agriculture sector behind huge pay
cheques instead of devoting more time to food research funding, the
bloc's whimpering and wailing will only get worse.

Food safety for all

Weekly Comment

Food safety for all

After all the increased safety procedures put in place over the
past decade, one might have been lulled into thinking that
poisonings and deaths from food contamination would be rarer than
before. While it is true that the new regulatory...

Junk Food Babes

Weekly Comment

Junk Food Babes

If education is meant to deliver knowledge and wise choices, why
are we doing so little to educate our children about food?

McDonald's: facing fat

Weekly comment

McDonald's: facing fat

There is nothing so redolent of a corporate mid-life crisis as the
strategic equivalent of a new car, new girl and new image, set
firmly on the shoulders of the same old idea. McDonald's, it seems,
is firmly in the throes of...

The science behind food

Weekly comment

The science behind food

The words clinical trial or scientifically proven on a label carry huge cachet. But behind the claims of scientific evidence, consumers expect a base level of rigour in ensuring thatfood or personal care products actually deliver the benefits they claim.

Water wastage syndrome

Weekly comment

Water wastage syndrome

Praise where praise is due. And it is certainly due for one
small-time drinks firm in southern Britain, which is spear-heading
answers to global water shortages that threaten to wreak havoc on
food producers everywhere.

In food makers we trust?

Weekly comment

In food makers we trust?

In among the hollers about obesity and the concerns over nutrition,
food companies now need to work hard to ensure they clinch public
trust, as a matter of insurance. This means more than compliance on
traceability and labeling. This...

Turning food into trash

Weekly Comment

Turning food into trash

Water, we save. Energy, we conserve. But food, it seems, we can
waste, junk and bin and no-one cares. Except one crusader, whose
20-year project has proven what should have been obvious in the
first place: our attitude to food is...

Making GI a quality mark

Weekly Comment

Making GI a quality mark

Whether it is a pork pie from Melton Mowbray or olive oil from
Nimes, every Tom, Denis and Haemon seems to believe their local
food deserves the EU's protection from big, bad corporations.

The business of food safety

Weekly Comment

The business of food safety

One cannot envy the chief executive faced with a scientific study
that casts doubt over the efficacy or safety of his core product.
But avoiding a sales slump, media vilification and even charges of
fraud means squaring up to such...

Let food be thy medicine

Weekly comment

Let food be thy medicine

A society that views food as taste-bud entertainment rather than a
basic of well-being was always bound to run into health problems.
But with obesity now afflicting 300m people, and diabetes set to
reach similar numbers within two...

Who is afraid of GMOs?

Industry comment

Who is afraid of GMOs?

It is a perversion of the 21st century that while affluent
societies continue the quest to slice the fat from their
increasingly obese populations, five million children die from
hunger each year, and more than 850m people go chronically...

Whining about wine

Monday comment

Whining about wine

France is a fading power in the world of wine. And will continue to
be, until it turns its face towards a globe where consumers buy
what they know.

Time for a fair trade

Monday comment

Time for a fair trade

The UK government must introduce a compulsory new supermarket code
ofconduct if it is to make up for past mistakes and save the food
industryfrom a spiral into anti-competitive practices.

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