Innovative Food Systems Solutions portal launch: Healthy diets for all on a healthy planet

Explore and contribute to the IFSS portal and connect to the global community working to ensure sustainable and resilient food systems that provide affordable, safe and nutritious diets for the growing global population on a healthy planet.

New research will unveil the future for natural preservation of food products

With a grant of DKK 10 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, researchers from Aarhus University are aiming to find out how best to use naturally occurring compounds to preserve food.

Global food, hunger challenges projected to increase mortality, disability by 2050

New study shows climate change will increase the challenge of meeting nutrition and food needs of a growing population, especially in Africa south of the Sahara, but policy actions initiated now could help avert this additional burden

Long search finds grain of hope in the glume

Researchers have found the elusive genetic element controlling the elongated grains and glumes of a wheat variety identified by the renowned botanist Carl Linnaeus more than 250 years ago. The findings relating to Polish wheat, Triticum polonicum, could translate into…

Soybean cyst nematode is the most damaging soybean pathogen–and it’s rapidly spreading

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the most damaging pathogen of soybean in the United States and Canada and it is spreading rapidly, according to information compiled by Gregory Tylka and Christopher Marett, nematologists at Iowa State University. SCN was…

Canola growth environments and genetics shape their seed microbiomes

Just as humans receive the first members of their microbiomes from their mothers, seeds may harbor some of the first microorganisms plants encounter. While these initial microbes could become influential players in the plants’ microbiomes, the microbial communities that colonize…

Study reports novel role of enzyme in plant immunity and defense gene expression

A recently published article in the Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions journal provides new evidence that pathogens are hijacking the plant immune system to cause disease while providing insights into a newly discovered mechanism. A large variety of pathogens infect plants and…

Host, management, or microbial traits: Which is dominant in plant microbiome assemblage?

We’ve all heard the news stories of how what you eat can affect your microbiome. Changing your diet can shift your unique microbial fingerprint. This shift can cause a dramatic effect on your health. But what about the microbiome of…

Antibiotics protect apples from fire blight, but do they destroy the native microbiome?

Like humans, certain plants are treated with antibiotics to ward off pathogens and protect the host. Saving millions, antibiotics are one of the 20th century’s greatest scientific discoveries, but repeated use and misuse of these life-saving microbial products can disrupt…

International study shows alternative seafood networks provided resiliency during pandemic

Local alternative seafood networks (ASNs) in the United States and Canada, often considered niche segments, experienced unprecedented growth in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic while the broader seafood system faltered, highlighting the need for greater functional diversity in…

Two plant immune branches more intimately connected than previously believed

Plant inducible defense starts with the recognition of microbes, which leads to the activation of a complex set of cellular responses. There are many ways to recognize a microbe, and recognition of microbial features by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) outside…

Apples to apples: neural network uses orchard data to predict fruit quality after storage

A researcher from Skoltech and his German colleagues have developed a neural network-based classification algorithm that can use data from an apple orchard to predict how well apples will fare in long-term storage. The paper was published in Computers and…

UMass Amherst food scientist honored with top awards

Eric Decker, professor of food science, has recently received the two top awards in his field – the American Oil Chemists’ Society’s (AOCS) Supelco/Nicholas Pelick Research Award and the Institute of Food Technologist’s (IFT) Lifetime Achievement Award in Honor of…

Carbon labeling reduces our CO2 footprint — even for those who try to remain uninformed

Climate labels informing us of a meat product’s carbon footprint cause many people to opt for climate-friendlier alternatives. This applies to people who are curious about a product’s carbon footprint, as well as to those who actively avoid wanting to…

Data Sharing Toolkit could contribute to unlocking greater food security

CABI and the Open Data Institute (ODI) has launched a Data Sharing Toolkit which could contribute to greater food security in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through better access to data on soil health, agronomy and fertilizer