Food news

• Why meat alternatives are landing with young people

  04-12-2025 10:37 via foodnavigator.com
  
  Younger consumers are often more attracted to meat alternatives than the population as a whole, according to a new report from Lumina Intelligence, commissioned exclusively for FoodNavigator. Why?
  
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• Top 10 food and beverage trends for 2026

  09-12-2025 14:07 via foodnavigator.com
  
  Discover the top 10 food and beverage trends for 2026. From powerhouse protein and gut health to authentic plant-based, mindful eating, and sustainable choices.
  
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• Cultivated meat guidance released in UK: 4 key takeaways

  09-12-2025 09:45 via foodnavigator.com
  
  The UK has released guidance on the development of cultivated meat. How will this affect businesses?
  
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• Mars-Kellanova merger “approved unconditionally”

  09-12-2025 08:52 via foodnavigator.com
  
  Mars gains EU approval for €31bn Kellanova merger, expanding its snacking empire and promising growth, innovation, and more billion-dollar brands.
  
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• Festive treats: Adriann Ramirez’s recipes for pumpkin loaf and gingerbread cookies

  09-12-2025 07:00
  Two easy bakes to share or gift: soft and peppery gingerbread cookies and a ginger and pumpkin loaf with spiced lemon icingAs a self-proclaimed America’s sweetheart (Julia Roberts isn’t using that title any more, is she?) who moved to the UK nearly 10 years ago, there are a few British traditions and customs that I have adopted, especially around Christmas time. However, there are also a few American ones that I hold on to staunchly: one is the pronunciation of “aluminum”
  
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• CRISPR crops: The next frontier for food security?

  08-12-2025 17:27 via foodnavigator.com
  
  CRISPR, the gene-editing technology which won its creators the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, is most well-known for its potential for human genes. But it can also be used to enhance food security: by heightening crop resilience to disease and drought, improving nutritional density, and making production more efficient.
  
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• Inside the rise of the world’s biggest ice cream company

  08-12-2025 11:55 via foodnavigator.com
  
  Unilever exits ice cream as TMICC launches as world’s largest ice cream company with €7.9bn revenue, 21% market share, and major UK investment to boost growth.
  
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• Brain boom: 3 ingredients boosting cognitive health

  08-12-2025 10:21 via foodnavigator.com
  
  At Food Ingredients Europe in Paris, we found that the trend in functional ingredients for brain health is booming. Cognitive health ingredients like magnesium, DHA and L-theanine are being used to boost cognitive health among consumers.
  
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• Nutcracker stocking fillers: Brian Levy’s recipe for sugar plum and coffee cookies | The sweet spot

  08-12-2025 07:00
  A rich, buttery crumb, a hint of bittersweet coffee, a spot of icing and a cherry on top … better gift them before you scoff themThese festive cookies are inspired by The Nutcracker’s Land of Sweets sequence, in which coffee and sugar plums are two of the flavours used to conjure a fanciful world of decadent diversion. Anything from a hard candy to a candied fruit can qualify as a “sugar plum” and, in the case of these cookies, the sugar plum is represented by the amaren
  
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• Train plan derailed by messy humans | Brief letters

  07-12-2025 17:43
  No more ‘ghost’ trains | Country diary | Patriotic pudding | Fifa peace prize | Inaptly named buildingsHow disappointing that the rail regulator has caved in to the moaning minnies and reinstated the 7am Manchester to London as a passenger service (‘People had forgotten about it’: onboard the 7am Manchester-London train service saved from axe, 4 December). Here was a brilliant idea being piloted before adoption across the rail network. Gone now is the dream of an efficien
  
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• How to make the perfect Dubai chocolate bar - recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …

  07-12-2025 14:00
  The pistachio-crammed craze makes a superb gift. Our in-house perfectionist tries all the fiddly bits for you …If you’re asking what on earth chocolate has to do with a city with an average annual temperature of 28C, then you must have been stuck in the desert for the past three years. Because, since its creation in the UAE in 2022, apparently to satisfy chocolatier Sarah Hamouda’s pregnancy cravings for pistachio and pastry, this bar has taken over the world. Though food (amo
  
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• Christmas dinner in a restaurant or kitchen carnage at home?

  07-12-2025 07:00
  After several attempts at eating ‘out’, I’m still on the fenceChristmas dinner? At home or in a restaurant? It’s at this juncture of the year, with Christmas dinner hurtling towards us, that you may well find yourself muttering: “Well, we could always go out!” Who could blame any home cook for wanting to shove this great burden on to someone else’s back, especially since every culinary TV show, magazine article and advertising break since mid-November ha
  
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• ‘A malevolent festive Jammie Dodger’: the best (and worst) supermarket mince pies, tasted and rated

  06-12-2025 14:00
  Who better to sort the mush from the lush than our in-house perfectionist Felicity Cloake and our resident baker Benjamina Ebuehi?• The best Christmas drinks, from gingerbread rum to mulled roseAccording to an informal survey of my nearest and occasionally dearest, many younger Britons believe that they don’t like mince pies. It’s a claim that I always counter annoyingly with: “No, you just haven’t had a good one”, before forcing a homemade version, all crumbly
  
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• Meera Sodha’s recipe for Friede’s grandma’s zimtsterne | Meera Sodha recipes

  06-12-2025 07:00
  When you try these festive, chewy German almond biscuits, you’ll see why people have kept making and gifting them at Christmas for more than 500 yearsThe thing I love most about these chewy, crisp, star-shaped, cinnamon-and-almond Christmas biscuits from Germany is that they date back to the 1500s. Which, much like spotting Mars in the night sky or visiting the pyramids of Egypt, makes me feel hugely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but simultaneously awe-inspired by the power
  
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• Soaring protein demand powers FrieslandCampina’s strategic expansion

  05-12-2025 18:06 via dairyreporter.com
  
  FrieslandCampina Ingredients acquires Wisconsin Whey Protein in a landmark deal, expanding US presence and global whey protein capacity to capitalize on booming demand for high-protein products, RTDs, and performance nutrition.
  
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• ‘Best eaten with a hangover’: the best (and worst) supermarket Christmas crisps, tasted and rated

  05-12-2025 18:00
  ’Tis the season for novelty crisps – from the delicious to the downright deranged. Crisp-addict Ravinder Bhogal crunched through the lot to find the festive flavours worth snacking on• The best Christmas sandwiches in 2025Christmas is a time to concentrate on what really matters – snacks – and in my house, it’s crisps that get top billing. They are a party in a bag, ideal paired with a glass of something sparkling or a cocktail, and wonderful swiped through a d
  
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• Christmas mixers: Thomasina Miers’ recipes for fire cider and spiced cocktail syrup

  05-12-2025 17:00
  A spiced syrup to add festive aromas to a mezcal-laced take on the negroni and a spicy, tangy aromatic cider to match a whole host of mixersDespite being known for shaking a cocktail on Instagram now and again, very little will induce me to last-minute cocktailery if I am entertaining a serious number of guests. However, a good drinks recipe that you can prep in advance is a lovely thing to dazzle your friends with and to gift over Christmas. With or without alcohol, this pair look good and tast
  
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• Cocktail of the week: Humble Chicken’s yuzu vesper – recipe | The good mixer

  05-12-2025 14:00
  Gin and Japanese vodka combine with jasmine tea in a martini-style pre-mix that you could even gift at ChristmasStore this batch cocktail in a glass bottle in the fridge, so it’s ice-cold and ready to go whenever the need arises over the festive period; alternatively, bottle and gift it to a loved one or friend. It’s a citrussy, martini-style union of sake from Peckham, Japanese vodka and London dry gin.Aidan Monk, restaurant and beverage manager, Humble Chicken, London W1 Continue r
  
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• Helen Goh’s recipe for edible Christmas baubles | The sweet spot

  05-12-2025 07:00
  Chewy, marshmallow-coated Rice Krispie baubles that are as fun to make as they are to giftThese edible baubles make a joyful addition to the Christmas table or tree. Soft, chewy, marshmallow-coated Rice Krispies are studded with pistachios and cranberries, chocolate and ginger, or peppermint candy cane; they’re as fun to make as they are to eat, and they make a perfect little gift. To add a ribbon for hanging, cut small lengths of ribbon, then loop and knot the ends. Push the knotted end g
  
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• Pork imports banned as swine fever rips through Spain

  04-12-2025 17:34 via foodnavigator.com
  
  African swine fever is ripping through Spain, with the army deployed to contain the outbreak. Bans from the UK and China have caused supplies of certain pork products to dwindle on supermarket shelves.
  
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• What to drink on Christmas Day, from morning to night

  04-12-2025 14:00
  From morning drinks to nolo suggestions for the non-drinkers, and from stocking fillers to showstoppers and after-dinner portI make the same mistake every single year. And that mistake it this: I underprepare. “How is that possible, Hannah?” you may well be asking. “You’re a wine writer with presumably dozens of half-drunk bottles in your flat at any given time?” It’s because I spend Christmas with my parents, who live about two hours away by train, and there&
  
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• A gentle trade in edible gifts binds communities together

  04-12-2025 14:00
  From homemade puddings to neighbourly tipples, the quiet exchange of festive treats reveals a world of kindnessSign up here for our weekly food newsletter, FeastA guest at our restaurant recently told me about her mother’s seasonal side hustle, though no one would have dared call it that out loud: in the weeks before Christmas, she became a quiet merchant of puddings. The proper kind of pudding, too: all dense but not leaden, heavy with prunes and warm with careful spicing.As December crep
  
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• Chocolate tart and zabaglione: Angela Hartnett’s easy make-ahead Christmas desserts – recipes

  04-12-2025 12:00
  Two make-ahead Italian after-dinner treats: a rich chocolate and hazelnut tart, and a traditional boozy dessert that will send nonna to sleepWhen you’re the cook of the house, you spend quite enough time in the kitchen on Christmas Day as it is. And, after those time-consuming nibbles, the smoked salmon starter and the turkey-with-all-the-trimmings main event, the last thing you want is a pudding that demands even more hands-on time at the culinary coalface. For me, the main requirement of
  
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• CBD in food and drink: Inside the regulation holding it back

  04-12-2025 11:46 via foodnavigator.com
  
  CBD has a lot of market potential, especially in drinks. Yet novel food regulation from the EU is preventing it from reaching its full potential. Regulatory strictures on the ingredient show no sign of letting up.
  
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• What’s coming after stevia? 4 new sweeteners on the horizon

  04-12-2025 11:38 via foodnavigator.com
  
  Discover four innovative start-ups transforming sugar reduction—from natural sweeteners like yacon and coconut-based blends to cutting-edge enzyme technology and solutions without the aftertaste.
  
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• ‘A mandate for innovation’: R&D is back at the top of the agenda with UK sugar tax shake up

  04-12-2025 09:39 via beveragedaily.com
  
  The UK government has announced changes to its soda tax. Business are going back to the lab: reformulation and R&D is complex, but support is available.
  
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• ‘Delicious, glossy … beautiful hot and cold’: the best Christmas ham joints, tasted and rated

  03-12-2025 16:00
  Free-range and organic gammon is hard to find in supermarkets, so we’ve gone online for the best choices for your festive table• The best chocolate Advent calendars, tasted and ratedA generous ham on the table makes my Christmas every year. Whether you prefer green or smoked, free-range or organic, the humble ham is a cornerstone of the festive feast. If you can, go as large as possible, because bigger joints roll and tie more easily, and have a more even layer of fat that results in
  
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• How to turn excess nuts and seeds into a barnstoming festive pudding – recipe | Waste not

  03-12-2025 14:00
  Love ice-cream, don’t love Christmas pudding? This make-ahead semifreddo, jewelled with dried fruits, might just fit the bill …Last Christmas we visited my in-laws in Cape Town, where, at over 30C, a traditional Christmas pudding just didn’t feel quite right. But my mother-in-law and her friend created the most delicious feast: a South African braai (barbecue) followed by an incredible ice-cream Christmas pudding made by mashing vanilla ice-cream with a mix of tutti frutti, ca
  
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• The great Christmas taste test: I tried seven fast food offerings. Which will make me feel festive?

  03-12-2025 11:00
  From a cranberry katsu curry to a dozen thickly glazed doughnuts, the biggest chains are getting Christmassy. I found out which seasonal meals will leave you carolling and carousing – and which will leave you coldBy now, most major fast food outlets will have launched their festive special. There is no established framework for what “festive” means, and no recognised metrics of Christmassyness. It could be indicated by a lurid green/angry red colour in a place you’re not
  
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• Party starters: Jacob Kenedy’s Italian Christmas canapes – recipes

  03-12-2025 07:00
  Three Italian light bites to get you started on the big day: pinzimonio crudites, chilled prawns with boozy mayo, and a delicate frittata that you can stud with artichoke, radicchio or celeryI am evolving as a host, and coming to realise that those rich dishes that crown our festive tables shine brightest when surrounded by contrasting and lighter bites – before, around and after, rather than just on the day itself. I do enjoy angels and devils on horseback, devilled eggs, little sausages
  
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