Food Navigator
Anne Hathaway leverages celebrity status and invests in ‘animal-free protein’ and precision fermentation. Will it drive consumer acceptance?
Actress Anne Hathaway’s investment in food-tech startup The Every Co., announced yesterday, brings more than capital – it also brings ...
Viewpoint: Plant-based foods need tighter environmental and regulatory scrutiny
So far, research on meat substitutes has emphasised commercialisation, technological enhancements and lowering costs, with little attention paid to regulatory ...
‘Agrivoltaics’: Crossover of farming and solar power could advance food security and synergize climate goals with farmer needs
So, for the uninitiated, what is agrivoltaics? The term refers to the simultaneous use of areas of land for both ...
Getting over GMO food fears: Inside Japan’s slow but progressive march towards embracing genetic modification
Japan has been conducting studies on GM food crops including soybeans and rapeseed since 2006, and the latest 2020/2021 report ...
Challenging global wheat shortage: Finding ‘hidden breeding resources’ to supercharge yields
Climate change is placing pressure on productivity. Yields have steadily increased from a global average of only just over 1 ...
Do British grocery shoppers want to try lab-grown meat? A deep dive into UK eating habits
If lab-grown meat was authorised for commercialisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, would consumers be willing to eat it? ...
Nutrition, productivity, climate adaptability: Surge in African crop biotechnology research poised to address malnutrition and food security
Scientists are using genomics to tackle malnutrition in Africa and more. The African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC), founded in 2011, ...
Viewpoint: What are key environmental trade-offs and advantages in transitioning to organic farming?
Producing enough food to provide adequate nutrition for the growing global population without wrecking the planet in the process is ...
Lab-grown oysters? Here’s why seafood of the future will be cell-based and sustainable
Pearlita Foods has set out to make the first cultivated oyster meat. Its mission is to “harvest the ocean's finest ...
Viewpoint: Organic milk requires expensive feed and labor. Not even huge subsidies can save this supposedly sustainable market from scams and inefficiency
US organic dairy export volumes have consistently fallen since 2017. Since that year, organic fluid milk exports have fallen 76%, ...
As organic foods go mainstream and prices remain high, survey shows ‘growing skepticism about organic claims’
As organic continues to go mainstream with broader reach outside of the natural channel where it began, it faces increased ...
Viewpoint: Politics and scientifically outdated anti-GMO sentiment undermines Europe’s regulatory lab-grown food embrace
The precision fermentation landscape is somewhat unbalanced. While the US and Europe both boast a growing number of start-ups working ...
Giraffe meat? Bengal tiger burgers? Start-up using cell cultures to create exotic new tastes without harming animals
Cultivated meat companies most frequently focus on the largest meat categories- beef, chicken and pork. However, Primeval Foods has stepped ...
‘Paying the price for productivity’: Studying ancient barley, safflower and lentil grains can help us recover lost nutrients
What can we learn from the past to address modern problems in food quality and nutrition? This is the question ...
What’s on the alternative meat UK menu: Plant-based proteins, cultivated meat and edible insects
New research from the Food Standards Agency is investigating how willing consumers are to taste test alternative protein products. The ...
Ethical concerns drive embrace of plant-based proteins — but not cultivated meat
The ultimate success of cell-cultured meat depends on consumer acceptance. What factors are driving, or hindering, uptake? Consumer studies indicated ...
Latest CRISPR food innovation: Nutritionally super-charged lettuce
[PhD student Yarin] Livneh's most recent research is leveraging gene editing technology CRISPR/Cas to... improve the nutritional quality of an ...
The world’s most popular banana variety is under threat of extinction — and genetic engineering solutions are blocked. Here are alternatives.
Since the 1990s a new strain of the fungus TR1 (or panama disease), which wiped out the Gros Michel banana ...
Animal-free real dairy products are beginning to roll out
General Mills moves into the emerging ‘animal-free’ dairy category with a brand called Bold Cultr – a lactose-free cream cheese ...
‘Lab grown coffee can be a reality’: Cell-derived coffee on the horizon as demand for java soars, exceeding global supply
Coffee is the third-most drunk beverage in the world, behind water and tea, and global consumption is on the rise ...
‘Hybrids are coming’: Cell-cultured and plant-based meat blends are in development
From soy-based sausages to pea protein burgers, the plant-based category is booming. According to EU data, Europeans’ consumption of plant-based ...
Most plant-based proteins are made from soy. From microalgae to fermented fungi, these surprising sources are bringing us the faux meat of the future
What will take on the ubiquitous soy and pea? As well as chickpea, other plant proteins have come to the ...
Cow methane ‘burps’ are one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions. Could bovine genetic selection reduce climate change impacts?
Using genetics… scientists have isolated the gene in cattle which causes excess methane production. Through selective breeding, it claims this ...
Edible wood? By tapping into the ‘natural genetic potential of microorganisms’, tree waste can be transformed into food-grade protein
The protein sector is squeezed between the drive to reach net zero emissions by 2050 – required if global warming ...
Viewpoint: Cell-based meat on sale in Europe within 3-5 years? While the rest of the world innovates in food technology, politics and bureaucracy paralyze EU
[In December 2020,] Singapore became the first country to authorise the commercialisation of cultivated meat. Understandably, Europeans want to know ...
‘Compassionate caviar?’ Cell-based fish egg technology could make an exclusive food accessible to everyone — and reduce our carbon footprint
Caviar is renowned as an exclusive luxury typically only enjoyed by champagne-swilling elites in five-star suites or on-board first-class flights ...
Fermentation and sustainability: Synthetic biology poised to bring us dairy-free milk and cheese that taste like the real thing
Fermentation is a type of biotechnology that uses microorganisms to create a chemical change that can produce food additives and ...
‘Cell-based fish is a logical answer’: With improved nutrition and lower CO2 emissions, cultivated fish can sustainably satiate our growing appetite for seafood
[Berlin-based startup Bluu Biosciences] claims that producing cell-based fish without harming the ecosystem and at competitive prices can make a ...
