On any given day, I receive 6-8 emails from food-or science-based organizations describing new information relevant to “issues in food science”. Below are a few just from this week. Note that this sampling covers several of the contemporary topics covered in this class.
1. From a food industry press release comes an announcement that Unilever, one of the largest food companies in the world, is “embarking on a journey to address obesity, food insecurity and food waste by carrying more plant-based products, switching to more sustainable packaging, supporting regenerative farming and cutting down on sugar, fat and sodium”.
2. A story in an ag business website reports that although the plant protein industry been on a bit of a slide, a company in Scotland received a large infusion of cash for their mycoprotein (i.e., fungi) based product.
3. An IFT email alerted me to a research paper in the journal Nature Food that describes how AI and machine learning tools were used to track the presence of antibiotic-resistant microbes in chicken farms and processing plants.
4. Finally, a press release from a startup company called Blender Bites announced they will soon be in Walmart. The product, packaged in pouches, contain concentrated organic smoothie ingredients that are then re-hydrated with water or other liquid.