News on Health and Nutrition from Europe

McCain Foods (GB) is proud to produce high quality products which allow our consumers to enjoy the natural, nutritious and great taste of potatoes as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

“The reformulation of our well loved McVitie's brand was the latest in a long line of projects that have delivered a significant health benefit for consumers – without any compromise on taste” Alice Cadman, Head of Strategic Projects, United Biscuits.

“At PepsiCo, our goal is to support healthier lifestyles by providing a range of great-tasting products that are as healthy as possible. We're very proud of the work we've done to transform the nutritional profile of some of the nation's favourite foo...

To tap into the growing consumer trend for nostalgic brands, United Biscuits UK , a leading UK manufacturer of snacks, biscuits and cakes, has redesigned its Brannigans range to generate extra sales. Available now, the new design draws inspiration from...

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) recently published a range of toxicological fact sheets. These factsheets aim to give a concise overview on topics such as Dioxins and PCBs, Acrylamide, Aspartame, Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Tin and Arsenic, Myc...

The snacks industry has responded positively to demands from consumers for healthier snacks by reformulating, but there is an urgent need to further improve the nutritional profile if market share is not to be lost as consumers search for alternatives ...

In May 2009 the Agency published revised salt reduction targets for 2012, for 80 categories of foods. These are more challenging than the previous targets for 2010. The earlier voluntary salt reduction targets were published in March 2006 for 85 catego...

Commission Recommendation 2007/331/EC on the monitoring of acrylamide levels in food of 3 May 2007 requires the Member States to perform annually in 2007, 2008 and 2009 the monitoring of acrylamide levels in certain foodstuffs. These data have to be t...

New research that uses an innovative approach to study, for the first time, the relative contributions of food and exercise habits to the development of the obesity epidemic has concluded that the rise in obesity in the United States since the 1970s wa...

Dietary intakes of acrylamide are not related to increased risks of brain cancer, says a new study from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.Acrylamide intake, at levels commonly consumed in the Dutch diet, had no impact on the risk of brain cancer...

Nutrition labelling is a hot topic since a new regulation that would make one standardised system mandatory across the EU is currently being debated. At present many different schemes are used in the EU, and indeed within individual member states, whic...

Consumption of foods containing acrylamide does not increase the risk of lung cancer in men, and in women, it may actually reduce the risk.   In a related editorial, Dr. Lorelei A. Mucci and Dr. Hans-Olov Adami, from Harvard School of Public Health, Bo...

Unilever today announced the launch of a global salt reduction strategy for its Foods portfolio, covering over 22 000 products.Unilever has committed to a reduction in salt across its products to target a dietary intake of 6g of salt per day by the end...

Snack makers on the alert for acrylamide formation in their baked products have a new tool at their disposal to rapidly analyse asparagine levels.   Thermo Fisher Scientific claims its automated photometric method is a "simple and effective&quo...

Eighteen major catering companies, including many high street brands, will introduce calorie information on their menus for the first time. The list of trailblazers, announced today by Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo and the Food Standards Agenc...

Seven years ago, alarms were sounded that acrylamide, a compound found in foods heated at high temperatures, could cause cancer. However, studies have not uncovered links to colon cancer or breast cancer, and now comes word from a Swedish study indicat...

Walkers, the UK’s No. 1 crisps and snack manufacturer, has introduced new packaging across its successful £37 million Walkers Baked brand, to reflect the brand’s real food credentials and drive continued growth. Walkers Baked has been the most successf...

The United Kingdom has become Pepsico's testing ground for a revolutionary manufacturing process for potato chips: "Continuous Kettle Fried Potato Chips". This new process results in a "fresher-tasting, delicious product with the perfec...