What the food industry should know before jumping on the next functional ingredient trend Just a few years ago, collagen dominated the functional ingredient space. Included in everything from snack bars and confectionery to beverages, it quickly evolved from a niche supplement into a mainstream ‘...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have quickly become popular sources of information, offering instant responses across a wide range of topics. While these platforms can be useful for general knowledge, they should not be relied on as the sole source of dependable information. As experts in the ...
Food allergies are not a personal preference, but a global public health concern. For some, exposure to even small amounts of protein from an allergen can lead to severe – sometimes life-threatening – reactions. That is why regulators and authorities around the world have developed legislation, ...
The bad news is, we don’t know! But the good news is that based on drafts that were published recently, we may have a clue… Over the past two years, South Africa’s regulatory landscape has been anything but quiet, bringing new regulations on meat analogues and sorghum products, and compulso...
When it comes to food allergens, we often hear about the ‘big eight’ – the group of allergens most commonly associated with allergic reactions. The list of common allergens in a country is generally shaped by three key factors: Prevalence – how common the allergy is across populations; ...
How much is too much? An allergen test result is not a conclusion, it is a conversation. And as with any important conversation, you need to know how to listen, interpret and respond. That exchange begins with key questions: What is the purpose of the analysis? What is being measured, and i...
With case numbers rising year on year, food fraud remains one of the biggest challenges facing global food systems. Fraudsters are taking advantage of increasingly complex supply chains, as well as global events such as climate change, regional conflicts and new tariff policies. This threatens consu...
If an ingredient contains (or is) a highly processed common allergen derivative, it may pose a reduced risk to sensitive consumers. Several countries have established a list of ingredients exempted from allergen labelling, but South Africa does not currently have such a list. However, the Regulat...
When you look at the nutrition information on a product label, the energy value, typically expressed in kilojoules (kJ) per 100 g, may seem like a straightforward measurement – but in fact, energy is not measured directly, it is calculated using energy conversion factors for the various macronutri...