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News: All categories

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...

“Cold?” “Mais, non, c’est comme d’habitutde”

Once again I have spent a good chunk of the last few months working away from the UK in the south of France and, in all that time, I reckon we have seen rain once. There have been some devastating forest fires near where I live and my department of Hérault is officially on a fire alert status of...

Road to Rio

Reading the press coverage of the preparations for the Olympic games in Rio over the last week or so I suppose it is to be expected that the focus is on the sensationalistic bad news stories (the Zika virus, doping scandals, security issues, infrastructure not being ready to name but a few), rather...

Can we have our cake and eat it?

Exercising my right to vote is something I feel very strongly about. People died so that ordinary women and men (yes, men too) like me could vote. In some countries it is illegal not to but here in the UK we still rely on people’s willingness to make a difference and a desire to have their voices...

A ‘sugar tax’ on soft drinks brought a less-than-enthusiastic reaction from my dining companions this evening.

George Osborne’s announcement today that he plans to impose a ‘sugar tax’ on soft drinks brought a less-than-enthusiastic reaction from my dining companions this evening. We were a disparate group, united by a passion for riding horses, and – myself excepted – with no professional connection to the...

Tesco recently announced that they will donate their unsold food to charity organisations.

Tesco recently announced that they will donate their unsold food to charity organisations. And they aren’t the only supermarket giants to be putting serious effort into waste reduction. In France, it is a legal requirement to dispose of food waste via the charity route with heavy fines for...

Making the most of our natural capital

Issues facing agriculture today are well-documented, perhaps the main conflict being between producing enough food for a growing population and the need to reduce our impacts on the natural environment. Ruminant production has come under close scrutiny, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas...