New report gives the lay of the land on grazing livestock's climate impact.

New report gives the lay of the land on grazing livestock's climate impact.An international research collaboration has shed light on the impact that grass-fed animals have on climate change. Its new study adds clarity to the debate around livestock farming and meat and dairy consumption. The newly published report dissects claims made by different stakeholders in the debate about so called 'grass-fed' beef, the greenhouse gases the animals emit, and the possibility that, through their grazing actions, they can help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It evaluates these claims and counterclaims against the best available science, providing an authoritative and evidence-based answer to the question: Is grass-fed beef good or bad for the climate? "Grazed and Confused? Ruminating on cattle, grazing systems, methane, nitrous oxide, the soil carbon sequestration question -- and what it all means for greenhouse gas emissions" is written by Dr Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network at the University of Oxford, Cécile Godde at Australia's national science agency the CSIRO and a team of international experts. The report finds that while grazing of grass-fed animals can boost the sequestration of carbon in some locally specific circumstances, that effect is time-limited, reversible, and at the global level, substantially outweighed by the greenhouse gas emissions they generate. more

Faster Salmonella test boosts food safety for humans and animals.

Faster Salmonella test boosts food safety for humans and animals. A new test allows accurate, rapid testing for Salmonella, a bacteria that is one of the leading causes of food-borne illness across all regions of the world. Salmonella can infect animals as well as people, with commonly reported cases of people falling sick after handling pets and livestock.A new test allows accurate, rapid testing for Salmonella, a bacteria that is one of the leading causes of food-borne illness across all regions of the world. Tests that used to take days now take 24 hours, with a hundredfold improvement in detection for at least one type of Salmonella -- called Salmonella Dublin -- that is an emerging concern and is difficult to grow in culture, making diagnosis difficult. The new method, first developed for automated food safety testing and then adapted by Cornell scientists for a wider range of sample types, can detect the bacteria from environmental and clinical samples, including swabs, feces, milk and blood. more

Women who get frequent UTIs may reduce risk by drinking plenty of water.

Women who get frequent UTIs may reduce risk by drinking plenty of water.Women who suffer from recurrent urinary tract infections may reduce their risk by drinking more water, according to a new study. Drinking an additional three pints of water a day may keep the urinary tract infection (UTI) away -- at least for women who are prone. Women are more likely to get UTIs than men in part because the urethra is shorter, meaning it is easier for bacteria to travel from the rectum and vagina to the bladder. Drinking more fluids increases the rate of flushing of bacteria from the bladder and also likely reduces the concentration of bacteria that enter the bladder from the vagina. This reduces the opportunities for bacteria to attach to cells that line the urinary tract, which is necessary to cause an infection. see

Smartphone-controlled smart bandage for better, faster healing.

Smartphone-controlled smart bandage for better, faster healing. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Harvard Medical School and MIT have designed a smart bandage that could eventually heal chronic wounds or battlefield injuries with every fiber of its being. The bandage consists of electrically conductive fibers coated in a gel that can be individually loaded with infection-fighting antibiotics, tissue-regenerating growth factors, painkillers or other medications. A microcontroller no larger than a postage stamp, which could be triggered by a smartphone or other wireless device, sends small amounts of voltage through a chosen fiber. That voltage heats the fiber and its hydrogel, releasing whatever cargo it contains.more

Palm oil boosts world food prices: FAO

Palm oil boosts world food prices: FAO. World food prices rose slightly last month driven by higher vegetable oils prices, and palm oil in particular, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Blendhub.

Blendhub launches a new hub hosting food powder blends in Indian domestic market.This solution reduces costs and risks, facilitating the launch of new products and entering new markets for agri-food businesses. The company is about to open its second hub[1] in India as part of a global network of factories covering 40 locations in the coming years. Premium Ingredients Food Services India, part of Blendhub, a company supporting food brands with formulation, raw material searching and purchasing, and supply chain optimization, will open its second hub in Chennai to host food powder blends for the domestic market and introduce CloudBlending in Asia. CloudBlending is a new business model boosting an end-to-end supply chain system and giving companies access to food powder blends as a service anywhere in the world at the best price. As a complete solution, it allows Indian companies, using and selling food powder blends, to position themselves in any market and launch new products both domestically and worldwide, optimizing costs. Likewise, any other business with interest in entering or operating in India can use the CloudBlending. more

Digital transformation in the food industry.

Digital transformation in the food industry. We live in a period of unprecedented technological and digital revolution, which is directly affecting all sectors. 

One consequence of this digital transformation is what is known as Industry 4.0. In this new stage, globalization, the relationship with the consumer, consumer trends, determining which product is the right product for each group and where to produce it, personalization and adaptation to each market and how to relate all these aspects are the great challenges of industry in the 21st century. 

 The digitization of industrial processes is already a "must" and new technologies are defining new ways of solving the challenges associated with this structural change of society. How does this new trend affect the food sector in general and the dairy sector in particular? 

 Digitization influences the creation of new products, the management of distribution and production; helps to have a cross-sectional view of costs locally, regionally, by country, by geographical area and by continent; and the relationship between them. If we add the online purchase and consumer participation in the definition of the food that wants to consume, the complexity of the sector increases significantly and companies that do not assume, will lose competitiveness. 

Manufacturing networks linked to relational communities for the generation and control of new products define the platform model, and how to address it will be the basis. more