For over 40 years, scientists and physicians have thought eating a high-fibre diet lowered a person’s risk of diverticulosis. A new US study of 2,104 people shows this may not be accurate. The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at the Chapel Hill School of Medicine found that eating high fibre diets raised, as opposed to lowered, the risks of developing diverticulosis. The study also suggests the commonly-held belief that constipation increases the... ...Read more »

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, in the United States, claim to have identified a human receptor that can detect fat – irrespective of taste. Their research suggests that some people may be more sensitive to the presence of fat in foods. The researchers found that people with a particular variant of the CD36 gene are far more sensitive to the presence of fat than others. Their study is available online in the Journal of Lipid Research. The researchers studied 21 people... ...Read more »

A UK-based independent research organisation, has predicted the food and drink trends set to make an impact in 2012. The top 10 food and drink trends identified by Leatherhead Food Research are: Health and wellness  Leatherhead say that health and wellness is a trend which has had an over-arching influence on the developments of the food and beverage industry in recent years and this influence is set to continue into 2012. Key priorities for companies will include the continued efforts to meet guidelines... ...Read more »

Australian and U.S. scientists claim to have demonstrated for the first time that a hormone that helps people feel “full” after eating can be delivered into the bloodstream orally. Scientists at Syracuse University, in New York, and Murdoch University, in Perth, Western Australia, led by chemist Dr Robert Doyle had their study published this week in the American Chemical Society’s ‘Journal of Medicinal Chemistry’. The scientists are now hoping to find an application for the hormone as an... ...Read more »

Introducing a tax on saturated fat in foods is “regressive” and is not the way to reduce obesity levels in Australia, the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) warned today. Yesterday, Australian Food News reported on Denmark being the first country in the world to introduce a tax on processed food products high in saturated fats. In a statement released today, the AFGC said food taxes in Australia are “regressive” as they penalise people who are least able to afford it. AFGC Chief Executive... ...Read more »

In a world first, Denmark has introduced a tax on food products high in saturated fats. Despite the move sparking fresh calls for a similar tax law to be introduced in Australia, food industry opinion-makers are divided. The new tax law, implemented in Denmark on Saturday 1 October 2011, aims at discouraging unhealthy diets as well as offsetting the economic costs of obesity in Denmark. The law imposes a tax of 16 Danish Krone (A$2.96) per kilogram of saturated fat on meat products, certain dairy... ...Read more »

A new smartphone application with the controversial traffic light system has been launched by the Obesity Policy Coalition, which aims to reduce obesity levels in Australia. The Obesity Policy Coalition’s new smartphone app gives a Traffic Light rating based on the amount of total fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium per 100 grams – green for ‘low’, amber for ‘medium’ and red for ‘high’. Because it is merely a smartphone app, its usage remains voluntary. To use the app, consumers... ...Read more »

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) and consumer advocacy group CHOICE continue to disagree over the choice of different front-of-pack methods for food product labels to display nutritional information about the food. A Newspoll online survey published this week, commissioned by the AFGC, has found 78 per cent of Australian consumers are familiar with the AFGC-promoted scheme of Daily Intake Guide food labels. Daily Intake Guide labels use thumbnail symbols that outline the amount of energy,... ...Read more »

Palm oil Bill unworkable and will cost industryA palm oil Bill – which compromises the nation’s food and grocery labelling system – is unworkable in its current form and must be referred to a House of Representatives Committee for further discussion and examination, the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) urged today. The Australian Food and Grocery Council today called the recent Palm Oil labelling bill, passed in the Senate with amendments last week, “unworkable”,... ...Read more »

The Senate has passed an amendment to the Food Act requiring that products containing palm oil be explicitly labelled, rather than described as ‘vegetable oil’. The bill was passed by Coalition votes, and driven by Greens senator Rachael Siewert and Independent senator Nick Xenophon, both of whom have been vocal in their campaigns on the subject of palm oil. Most of the world’s supply of palm oil, an extremely common ingredient in foods and food additives, is produced in Malaysia... ...Read more »