EIT Food documentary on food waste
Great documentary created by EIT Food in collaboration with partners, startups and stakeholders to inspire you on the topic of food loss and waste, one of our main challenges in the area of Circular Food Systems.
A big THANK YOU to our colleague Dr Simona Grasso, Senior Research Fellow at the IFNH, for her great contribution to the video and for representing University of Reading.
You can watch the documentary by clicking on Food Waste – the story told
Sustainable menu pledge helping Reading lead the way on changing food habits
The University of Reading has become the first university in Europe to become a member of a network making meals served on campuses around the world healthier and more environmentally friendly.
The University has been admitted to the Menus of Change Universities Research Collaborative (MCURC). This means it will take an active role along with international researchers and food service leaders to seek new and innovative ways to encourage people to choose healthier, more sustainable options, such as replacing red meat with more environmentally friendly protein sources or using reusable drink cups.
Addressing food system challenges: making interdisciplinarity work
It was our great pleasure to hold the 3rd Annual IFNH Forum online just before Christmas. We have been holding the Forum each year since the Institute was set up in late 2017. Each Forum has a theme which allows us to showcase research from Reading (and partners) and how this connects with work done elsewhere, with presentations from highly respected external speakers.
MICROBIOME PUSH: Into the Microbiome Exploitation in Food Systems
Photo by Wesual Click on Unsplash
Researchers from the University of Reading (Alice Mauchline from SAPD, Yiorgos Gadanakis from SAPD, Anisha Wijeyesekera and Natalia Mansilla from FNS) worked in collaboration with other EIT Food partners to successfully deliver this exciting project, which aimed at using a challenge-based approach for students to explore the application potential of microbiomes in different parts of the food system, from primary production, to food transformation, waste valorisation and consumer health.
EUROSENSE 2020 – Early Career Research Seminar
Dr Simona Grasso, Senior Research Fellow at the IFNH was one of only 14 abstracts selected among 130 applications to do a 10 min presentation as part of the Early Career Research Seminar organised by EUROSENSE 2020.
Simona’s presentation was on hybrid meat products and it was a multi-disciplinary effort as it included a linguistic analysis carried out by another UoR academic, Dr Sylvia Jaworska, from the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics.
Food retailers winning trust through Covid-19 pandemic
The results of a EIT Food-funded project, Increasing consumer trust and support for the food supply chain and for food companies, led by Professor Richard Bennett, reveals that the ability of the food industry to continue to stock shelves despite the global pandemic has led to improved trust.
Consumers are more trusting in the food industry because of the COVID-19 pandemic with farmers and retailers seeing the biggest rise, according to new research.
Creating nutritious food that works for cancer patients
The new products are being developed as part of an EIT Food-funded project, led by sensory scientists at University of Reading, ONCOFOOD and will include a range of foods that address the nutritional, sensory and texture requirements of cancer patients that experience taste and smell alterations or have swallowing difficulties. New food technologies such as 3D food printing will be employed to develop foods particularly for patients that need a soft or pureed diet.
Making your cereal bar healthier
A team from the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences are working on a new cereal bar project through the EIT Food-funded SuReBar project, a partnership between leading industrial bodies and the University of Reading.
The sugar in cereal bars comes predominantly in the binders that are used to hold the cereal components together. The binders may contain syrups such as glucose syrup or honey, sometimes in addition to sucrose.
Food upcycling matchmaking service launched
Food producers can find other businesses to sell their food waste to, thanks for a scheme to help to reduce the binning of by-products in the food industry.
The EIT Food-funded Digital Marketplace for Side Streams will help companies find ways to ‘upcycle’ waste from producing food products by connecting them with firms that can reuse them.
New Centre puts farmers priorities at heart on innovation research
The Centre for Effective Innovation in Agriculture (CEIA) will see five of the most prestigious agricultural universities in the UK work together to address the gap between scientific research on innovation and real-life farming experience. The centre will focus on how research and development investment can best support innovation to be adopted by farmers.