2024 April

From Italian guanciale to South African droëwors, we break down our favorite cured meats from around the world. Time to up your charcuterie game.

About 69 percent of the global diet is "foreign," says a study that pinpoints the origin of 151 food crops.

If you've ever heard a wine expert call a vintage "minerally," you might have thought it meant it was nutritious. That term has a different meaning here.

The cost of food and beverages, including essentials such as bread and milk, have been on the rise for some time now. How have these increased costs influenced consumer behaviours?

L-enantiomers could be more stable than their existing, more common, forms

Caviar and champagne have become cultural symbols of affluence but it wasn't always that way. The consumption of fish eggs has a much more humble past.

The doubling in the price of cocoa would have pushed up the price of cocoa in a typical snack bar by just six cents.

A global demand for tea tree oil (TTO) has resulted in increased adulteration in commercial products. In this study, we use a novel enantiomeric gas chromatography mass spectrometry method for chiral analysis of key terpenes ((±)-terpinen-4-ol, (±)-α-terpineol, and (±)-limonene) and quantification of components present at 0.01% to test different methods of identifying adulterated TTO. Data from authentic Australian (n = 88) and oxidized (n = 12) TTO samples of known provenance were consistent with recommended ranges in ISO 4730:2017 and previously published enantiomeric ratios, with p-cymene identified as the major marker of TTO oxidation. The 15 ISO 4730:2017 constituents comprised between 84.5 and 89.8% of the total ion chromatogram (TIC) peak area. An additional 53 peaks were detected in all samples (7.3–11.0% of TIC peak area), while an additional 43 peaks were detected in between 0 and 99% (0.15–2.0% of the TIC peak area). Analysis of nine commercial samples demonstrated that comparison to the ISO 4730:2017 standard does not always identify adulterated TTO samples. While statistical analysis of minor components in TTO did identify two commercial samples that differed from authentic TTO, the (+)-enantiomer percentages for limonene, terpinen-4-ol, and α-terpineol provided clearer evidence that these samples were adulterated. Thus, straightforward identification of unadulterated and unoxidized TTO could be based on analysis of appropriate enantiomeric ratios and quantitation of the p-cymene percentage.

Invisible, omnipresent "forever chemicals" have been linked to a wide range of serious effects on human health, prompting growing calls for them to be banned.

Tasty and possibly healthy.

Climate change could create dramatic shifts in where wine is produced: making vineyards unsustainable in some regions, but opening up new opportunities in others. Researchers have mapped how the global distribution of vineyards is likely to change.

14% of American adults are affected by chronic kidney disease – and anyone in that category should be very careful about how much watermelon they eat. A new series of case studies examines how a favorite fruit can cause life-threatening issues.

Scientists from the Quadram Institute and the UK Health Security Agency have discovered that bacterial populations remain stable on the factory floor despite cleaning efforts in ready-to-eat food production ...

To engineer proteins with useful functions, researchers usually begin with a natural protein that has a desirable function, such as emitting fluorescent light, and put it through many rounds of random ...

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Why would you make a cocktail with ~curdled~ milk? Join George as he answers this question by accidentally making the best cocktail he’s ever tasted, thus ac...

Electroadhesion could find biomedical and robotic applications

Bitterstoffe beeinflussen das Verdauungssystem des Menschen positiv und helfen beim Abnehmen,

Evolution throws another curveball.

Earl Grey and English Breakfast are two of the post popular teas in the world. Did you know that only one ingredient separates the two brews?

We've never seen something like this before.

Vegetarian and low-carb diets aren’t ideal for our brains.

Food fraud costs billions globally. But blockchain and machine learning offer hope for a more transparent and safer food system.

A research team at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany has now found a bacterium that forms a team with a green alga. Both microorganisms support each other in their growth. Additionally, the ...

High levels of salt in food is becoming an increasing concern for healthcare professionals and consumers as the dangers of a high-salt diet becomes more widely understood. So how is the food industry tackling this issue?

This may be particularly good news for diabetes patients.

Spectrometers are crucial scientific instruments in various research fields and have consistently served as indispensable tools for foundational research. However, the unwieldy size of conventional spectrometers ...

Grapevine characteristics may be linked to climatic changes. The microbes that ferment grapes have received little attention.

From surprising ingredients, such as mustard to sumac, to popular spices, such as cinnamon or ginger, your glass of lemonade is about to get an upgrade.