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News: All categories

Lifelong learning is the key to a successful agrifood sector

FUTURE OF FOOD - The agrifood industry is facing a series of challenges due to climate change, population movement and economic uncertainty. So what developments are bringing about change? The food and drink industry is enormously important to the UK economy: it contributes £28.2 billion a year,...

Egg contamination: 'No-one needs to be worried'

700,000 contaminated eggs imported into the UK but ‘No-one needs to be worried’ – states Heather Hancock - Chair of the Food Standards Agency Trust in the integrity of the food supply chain is once again top of the news agenda as the Fipronil in eggs story hits the headlines. Heather Hancock was...

Playing Chicken with Food Safety

The news last week was awash with chlorine-soaked worry about potential changes to UK food safety standards. This particular story comes from fears that the UK may need to revise its laws and regulations in order to gain trade deals with non-EU countries after Brexit – in this case chicken from the...

New MSc graduate: 'I thought it would be impossible'

‘I thought it would be completely impossible’, states Becky Tavernor as she graduates with a Masters with Distinction. The AFTP and Aberystwyth University are proud to announce their first Masters graduate in Sustainable and Efficient Food Production. To mark the occasion Aberystwyth University...

Antimicrobial Resistance in the Food Chain

A three-week online course developed by the AFTP covering Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the Food Chain will run again in August 2017 on the FutureLearn MOOC platform, and it will be completely free to study. Antimicrobial Resistance is a term that we are increasingly coming across, on news...

Could you become an AFTP Executive Board Member?

The AFTP is a partnership of six leading internationally recognised research institutions with the scientific credentials to provide innovation and training in the technical skills needed by the UK agriculture and agrifood industries. Our mission is to educate and challenge agrifood industry...

Coco-nuts? The Rise and Fall of a Superfood

Hello everyone, I’m Craig, the newest member of the AFTP family. It’s only been a few weeks since I was kidnapped by scientists enthusiastically joined the University of Reading, and it was with some trepidation that I was asked to take a look at the backlash against the newest ‘superfood’ –...

AFTP defines its place in the UK skills space

AFTP Director, Carol Wagstaff, reflects on our recent launch event at the Geological Society in London. Full videos from the event are also available at the bottom of this page. I write this article with a sense of both pride and relief. The official launch of the AgriFood Training Partnership...

Not sweet enough? Sugar vs Sweetner

Earlier on this week I was having a coffee or several with my friend and colleague Lisa Methven, Associate Professor in food and sensory science and director of the Sensory Science Centre here at the University of Reading. We were reviewing a previous AFTP module, Diet Quality & Health that had...