News on Health and Nutrition

April 21, 2009

Unilever makes a commitment to reduce salt

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...

April 11, 2009

Be careful working with industrial fryers

A 28-year-old man who works at the Cavendish Farms french fry plant in Jamestown was airlifted to the Minneapolis St. Paul burn unit on Thursday evening following a workplace accident, WDAY reported Friday.

April 11, 2009

Purple Heart: New Zealand's Purple Potatoes

New Zealand potato breeder Plant and Food Research has added a new attractive purple skinned variety to its range, which may have added health benefits. With a vivid purple skin and distinctive speckled purple flesh inside, Purple Heart was one of 16 c...

Thermo Fisher Scientific Arena 20 autoanalyser

April 07, 2009

Thermo Fisher offers asparagine analysis

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...

April 07, 2009

Simplicity is the new selling point for food products

Haagen-Dazs's new line of ice cream, Five, doesn't hide the ingredients in tiny type on the back of the carton. Every one -- milk, cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla bean -- is prominently displayed in bright-orange capital letters.

Potato Variety Management Institute (PVMI)

April 07, 2009

PVMI offers Purple Pelisse, a colorful high anti-oxidant potato

All new potato varieties developed by the Pacific Northwest Tri-State Breeding Program are now licensed to PVMI (the Potato Variety Management Institute), a non-profit marketing and administration organization for the Tri-State Potato Breeding Program.

April 06, 2009

Texas Restaurant Association supports trans fat ban

Texas Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso and Rep. Carol Alvarado of Houston, both Democrats, are pressing for legislation that would phase in bans of trans fats in restaurant foods — a move they said would help fight obesity and reduce health insurance co...

April 06, 2009

Restaurants and catering companies bring in calories on menus

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...

April 05, 2009

Want Salad With That? Make It Fries

Fast-food chains have recently deflected criticism of their menu offerings by adding healthy items like salads. But a paper soon to be released in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that the presence of healthy options on a menu can induce some ...

April 05, 2009

La crisis aumenta el consumo de comida rapida en chile... y asciende el sobrepeso

as noticias de que la crisis golpeaba al mundo en el último trimestre de 2008 no disminuyeron los ingresos de las grandes cadenas de comida rápida ni el apetito de sus clientes. Por el contrario, la gente siguió comiendo como antes e incluso más. Así l...

March 27, 2009

Menu-labeling bill withdrawn in Maryland

Doyle Niemann, a delegate in the Maryland General Assembly, agreed Thursday to withdraw his menu-labeling bill after it failed to draw much support from lawmakers. The Restaurant Association of Maryland, which actively opposed the measure, praised Niem...

March 19, 2009

Salt replacements could be deadly, say renal specialists

Renal specialists have called for clear labeling on products that use potassium chloride as a salt replacer because it could pose a hidden risk for dialysis patients. Potassium chloride has been seen as a potential candidate for salt replacement becaus...

March 19, 2009

Fries face competition in Tennessee school cafeterias with $1.4M veggie grant

French fries and pizza may soon have more competition in school cafeterias in Tennessee.Grants worth $1.4 million in public dollars are being used to spur fresh vegetable consumption at some Tennessee public schools next school year. Priority will be g...

March 16, 2009

Acrylamide not linked to endometrial cancer

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...

March 13, 2009

Calgary's trans fat initiative dismantled as a result of reorganisations

The province Alberta has put an end to Calgary's trans fat initiative. In January 2008, the Calgary Health Region began limiting the amount of trans fats restaurants could use to less than two percent. It was the first part of a multi-phase initia...

March 12, 2009

Reduced snack portions cut calorie intake

Portion-controlled packaging for snacks could play a dual role in fighting raging obesity rates by reducing consumer calorific in-take and heightening awareness to portion size, finds new research from the US. Scientists at the University of Colorado D...

March 11, 2009

Canola Council of Canada invest in research on health benefits of Canola oil

The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) today announced a new wave of investment - $350,000 - into research on the role of canola in the prevention and treatment of heart disease and diabetes.The announcement of funding under the Canola Product Research Fun...

March 11, 2009

Potato Chips vs. Prozac: Salt May Be Natural Antidepressant, Study Finds

Ever wonder why those French fries taste so good when you are depressed?Here’s one theory: Salt is a natural antidepressant, which might explain why we have a tendency to over-ingest it.Kim Johnson, a psychologist from the University of Iowa, discovere...