News on Food Trends from Europe

Physical activity has little role in tackling obesity - and instead public health messages should squarely focus on unhealthy eating, doctors say.

Smashburger restaurant chain makes its way to the United Kingdom, with 35 restaurants expected to open.

Researchers from Ghent University and the International Potato Center have discovered that sweet potatoes naturally contain genes from a bacterium. Because of the presence of this 'foreign' DNA, sweet potato can be seen as a 'natural gmo'.

Permira announces today that a company backed by Permira Europe III has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Iglo Foods Holdings Limited (“Iglo Group”, or the “Group”), Europe’s largest frozen food business, to Nomad Holdings Limited (“Nomad”) for €2.6 billion.

Early April the Danish Minister of Trade and Development Mogens Jensen visited potato starch manufacturer KMC and the AKK-factory in Karup.

Fresh-food specialist for the hotel and restaurant industry Rungis and HZPC are bringing the ancient potato varieties from the Andes back on to the plate in Dutch restaurants.

BrandOpus, a strategic design agency specialising in brands, has worked with McCain Foods (GB) , the best selling frozen potato brand in the United Kingdom, to create a new range of Fries designed to appeal to an adult audience.

Bayer CropScience en Farm Frites zijn onlangs in een Food Chain Partnership gestapt, met als doel duurzame landbouwmethoden te implementeren in de aardappelteelt in België en Nederland.

Bayer CropScience and Farm Frites recently started a Food Chain Partnership initiative designed to implement sustainable agricultural practices in potato cultivation in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 173.8 points in March 2015, down 2.6 points (1.5 percent) from its revised February value and nearly 40 points (18.7 percent) below its level in March 2014.

Information Technology is developing rapidly: the Internet of Things, Big Data, Sensors, RFID, global connectivity, all are having an impact on how factories and production chains operate now and in the future.

The Heinz 'Aunt Bessie' potato factory in Norfolk that was scheduled to close this April, will be sold to potato company Albert Bartlett.

In this week 'Nature Plants', scientists from Wageningen University and The Sainsbury Laboratory report the identification of a resistance gene that enhances resistance against potato late blight from a South American wild relative of cultivated potatoes.

At the Anuga FoodTec trade fair from 24 to 27 March in Cologne, Insort presents the latest innovation in process monitoring for food production with its 'Sherlock food analyser'.

Late last week, the Potato Council published its annual GB Potatoes Market Intelligence report, wrapping up all key information about the GB potato market in order to inform decision-making and provide answers for common questions about the industry.

Pizzoli S.p.A., Italy's largest operator in the potato sector and Bio-on S.p.A., the leader in eco-sustainable chemical technologies, will collaborate to build Italy's first PHAs bioplastic production plant using waste product from the potato agro-industrial process.

TOMRA Sorting Food will reveal the latest addition to its steam peeling portfolio at Anuga FoodTec, later this month. The Odyssey steam peeler is the ideal cost-effective steam peeling solution for seasonal processing companies and emerging markets.

Científicos del Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario, NEIKER-Tecnalia han realizado el estudio de la estructura genética de Phytophthora infestans -causante del tizón tardío de la papa- y han identificado por primera vez en España la existencia del genotipo Blue13 (13_A2). El hallazgo es fruto de los resultados obtenidos en la tesis doctoral del ingeniero agrónomo Néstor Alor, presentada en la Universidad de Lleida y dirigida por el Dr. José Ignacio Ruiz de Galarreta.