Focus: Food Science Featured Story TOP

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A multiyear research endeavor led a Penn State food scientist to form a natural food coloring company based on avocado pits.

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A new study suggests that the use of tomato — a key food of the Mediterranean diet — should be explored to develop supportive strategies against gastric cancer

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Perfectly ripened strawberries are loved by children and adults alike, and they’re good for you too! Jackie Shank, nutrition instructor and undergraduate program director in the Nutrition and Dietetics Flagship Program at the University of North Florida, explores the myths and truths surrounding strawberries.

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Drinking a beetroot juice supplement before working out makes the brain of older adults perform more efficiently, mirroring the operations of a younger brain, according to a new study by scientists at Wake Forest University.

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Consumers want produce that tickles their taste buds and is easy on the eye, but they think quality fruits and vegetables are a matter of luck, according to University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers.

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Seaweed, the edible algae with a long history in some Asian cuisines, and which has also become part of the Western foodie culture, could turn out to be an essential ingredient in another trend: the development of more sustainable ways to power our devices. Researchers have made a seaweed-derived material to help boost the performance of superconductors, lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells.

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We tend to assume that domestication is a one-way street and that, once domesticated, crop plants stay domesticated. A new study of rice shows, however, that different methods of farming change the evolutionary pressures on crop plants, and the plants easily "de-domesticate," evolving to take advantage of these opportunities.

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A new study in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology shows shows that about 50 percent of those who thought they were allergic to all tree nuts were able to pass an oral food challenge without a reaction.

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For something that engages all the senses, this should be abundantly clear: food and all things associated with it is, in a word, sexy. Yes, sexy as in exciting and appealing. Seriously

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A study by Indiana University researchers has identified 24 compounds -- including caffeine -- with the potential to boost an enzyme in the brain shown to protect against dementia. The research appeared March 7 in the journal Scientific Reports.

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“We really look at this study and South Korea as information to see if we can increase younger consumers in other countries,” said Lisa House, a UF/IFAS professor of food and resource economics and a study co-author. In addition to eating grapefruit, South Koreans also use grapefruit in beer, tea and ice cream, so marketing opportunities abound.

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If you know healthy eating is important for your kids but you also feel like it’s easier said than done, you’re not alone.

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A compound found in green tea could have lifesaving potential for patients with multiple myeloma and amyloidosis, who face often-fatal medical complications associated with bone-marrow disorders, according to a team of engineers at Washington University in St. Louis and their German collaborators.Jan Bieschke, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering & Applied Science, studies how proteins fold and shape themselves, and how these processes can contribute to a variety of diseases.

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In a study published today in the journal Science, Harry Klee, a UF/IFAS professor of horticultural sciences, led an international research team that included scientists from China, Israel and Spain. Researchers identified chemicals that contribute to tomato flavor.

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Roger Adams, associate professor and rare books librarian for K-State Libraries, has studied the history of traditional holiday foods.

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Professor Rebecca Earle, food historian at the University of Warwick has been researching the traditional Christmas turkey, in order to find out how this north American bird has become a mainstay of festive food.

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The research team identified problems with the nutritional guidelines and in particular problems with the research that supported the guidelines’ recommendations.

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Celebrity chefs are cooking up poor food safety habits, according to a Kansas State University study. Kansas State University food safety experts Edgar Chambers IV and Curtis Maughan, along with Tennessee State University's Sandria Godwin, recently published "Food safety behaviors observed in celebrity chefs across a variety of programs" in the Journal of Public Health.

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The wild faba – today, fava – bean is believed to be extinct. Dr. Elisabeth Boaretto has identified the oldest known faba beans – about 14,000 years old. Understanding how the wild fabas survived can help scientists grow hardier fava crops today. Favas are a major source of nutrition in many parts of the world

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UW-Madison Professor James Steele’s new company, Lactic Solutions, is using genetic engineering to, instead of killing lactic acid bacteria with antibiotics, splicing in genes for ethanol production so these organisms produce ethanol, not lactic acid.

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Florida State University Associate Professor of Anthropology Tanya Peres and graduate student Kelly Ledford write in a paper published today that Native Americans were raising and managing turkeys far before the first Thanksgiving.

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Garlic – consumers either love or hate the taste, but one thing is for certain, no one likes it when the scent of it sticks around on their breath. Now, garlic lovers may have a new solution to their halitosis problem. A study published in the September issue of the Journal of Food Science found that eating raw apple or lettuce may help reduce garlic breath.