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A quick catch up on some food items I found interesting in the news of the pass couple of months:

British food prices rising twice as fast as in Europe: According to a study by Defra over a three year period until June 2010 of European food prices British prices have risen the most. The rise in price was linked to global harvest failures. However, this does not explain why Britain should be worst affected than Europe? I found this article interesting as I regularly shop at Lidl, a European supermarket, where most brands are European and my shopping bill is significantly lower than when I shop elsewhere. Where do you shop and do you think it is cheaper to buy food on the continent?

Read this article at the Telegraph.

Fruit and vegetables are the most wasted food items: A study by myvouchercodes.co.uk reported that of all food items fruit and vegetables are the most likely to be binned rather than eaten. Shoppers explained that they bought too many of these items as they hoped to achieve their 5 a day target, but often failed and did not feel guilty about throwing away unused products. Myvouchercodes.co.uk said “Shoppers should try to limit excess wastage by taking a list to the supermarket and sticking to it, or planning weekly meals in advance.” This is great for ilovemealplans.com – this blog is designed to help people buy less, eat more and get organised in the kitchen! If this article interested you why not try one of my free meal plans to stop wasted food (and money) in your kitchen.

Read all about this survey here.

Government voluntary ban on food colourings: At the start of October the Government announced 9 more companies that have signed up to the voluntary ban on food colourings found to cause hyperactivity. These are: Brakes, Devon Rose Ltd, ehl Limited, Morrisons, Organix, Pizza Hut, Pudding Pie Cookery School, Tate & Lyle and Tropical Wholefoods.

The voluntary ban followed researched by  Southampton University funded, in November 2008, by the Government. This research into food colouring identified 6 colourings that are linked to hyperactivity in young children.

• sunset yellow FCF (E110)
• quinoline yellow (E104)
• carmoisine (E122)
• allura red (E129)
• tartrazine (E102)
• ponceau 4R (E124)

You can view the complete list of companies who adhere to the voluntary ban on the Government’s Food Standards Agency Website here.

Please comments I’d like to hear what you think about these articles!

I’ve been avidly watching Jamie Oliver’s new show on channel 4. It is addictive and very eye opening. If you haven’t been watching it you can catch up on youtube here.

Just like the channel 4 show Jamie’s School Dinners, Jamie visits school canteens, but this time in America. He wants to see exactly what food kids are being served. The results from both shows are quite shocking. Pizza for breakfast – yes pizza for breakfast – you have to watch this show to believe it.

Jamie makes us realise that we all need to consider what we are eating; consider the hidden fats, sugars and salts in our shop bought convenience foods. He also emphasises how important it is to get kids involved in home cooking – luckily since I love to cook and have a teaching degree I find it easy to get my little boy involved – but Jamie’s project is great because it shows others, who may feel less confident in the kitchen, where to get started. Teaching children about basic food ingredients is one place to start and in one of the youtube clips below you can see just why it is so important.

As a Mum one of the most interesting sections of the show so far was to see how Jamie Oliver tried to show children how bad foods like chicken nuggets can be for them, and regardless they still wanted to eat them – watch the clips from the show below they will really get you thinking! Watch Jamie today channel 4 10pm.

It’s been so long since I wrote about the food news! Lets see what is interesting….

Amazon has started its own online grocery deliveries. Do we need another online grocery site? What will they offer that is different? These are the questions running through my mind. Ocado the independent grocery site has been making a loss and this indicates Amazon may be on to a loser. However, Amazon claim that they will specialise in bulk buying to enable customers to save money. Saving money is great, but how many of us have enough space to buy boxes of crisps and sacks of rice? On the upside it seems Amazon want to achieve with food what they’ve done with books, anything you want you can find it with them, even if you’ve search everywhere else. Read about it here.

Ofcom put a ban on junk food advertising on children’s TV. As a parent I love this piece of news. All TV advertising of junk food before 9pm will be banned. Furthermore, celebrities and cartoon characters are not allowed to advertise any foods high in fat, salt and sugar. Characters such as Tony the Tiger for Frosties can remain as they are characters created specificially for the food brand. As you can imagine this has not been popular with advertisers, and broadcasters claim this move puts the funding of children’s TV under threat. More on this in the Guardian.

It caught my eye in the news that a make of English wine beat the French to win in an international wine competition. The wine is made in Cornwall and is favoured by British chef Rick Stein. Find out more about the award winning wine in the Telegraph.

I realised today that I had not put up any food news recently. Here are some interesting articles:

I was amazed to read that Waitrose have introduced a pre-packed salad that will stay fresh for up to a week! To achieve this they have blanched the lettuce leaves first using boiling water followed by a cold ice bath. I wonder if this will really work to keep the lettuce fresh for longer and will it alter the vitamin content at all? This is an interest subject for me as I eat a lot of salad and do find  some going to waste, Waitrose’s new range has been specially designed to reduce food waste. Read about it here and if anybody tries the salad please contribute with a comment.

An interesting article about coffee caught my eye. I don’t drink coffee but know dedicated coffee drinkers who spend time and money investing in the best coffee and best equipment to prepare it. It seems a study has shown that coffee does not work as a pick me up for regular coffee drinkers. Instead, they begins to crave the caffeine and when they have a cup of coffee the feel good factor comes from reducing their caffeine withdrawal symptoms. Read the article to see how the study also found coffee does not help to keep you alert. Personal I prefer a good cup of English tea!

I have mentioned before on my blog that I think it is really important to read the label of any prepared food. There are so many hidden ingredients in prepared foods. The Times newspaper wrote about this at the weekend in an article that highlighted how difficult it is to understand all the ingredients on food labels. I certainly find some labelled ingredients tricky to decipher and prefer to buy products with a short list of natural ingredients. See the article for yourself here.

What’s been in the press this week?

On my ‘meal plans for men’ page I recommend using sauces from a jar because it is quick and easy; I also recommend always reading the label to check out the ingredients. Now it turns out some high profile brands such as Jamie Oliver’s food line have been found to have high fat, sugar and salt content – so I was right, always check the label!  -  Celebrity Food Criticised

How about this? Reports claim the Food Standard Agency is considering putting a tax on junk food to get us eating more healthily. There are some ideas to chew over here – Tax on Fast Food

I was pleased to read the trend for buying locally produced food has extended to the NHS, who have been considering the benefits of investing in local suppliers. Check out this article to learn more: NHS Could Save Millions

Look out for my Food News every week.

Some interesting food news in the papers this week:

• I wondered while shopping a few weeks ago would the volcano and flights disruption cause any obvious spaces on supermarket shelves. Turns out fruit salad is one product affected: Fruit Salad & The Volcano

• Fast food takes new criticism as researchers claim it makes us impatient: Fast Food Makes us Hurry.

• Heston Blumenthal gets involved in researching more nutritious foods for hospital menus: Blumenthal Helps with Hospital Research

• Last month Sophie Dahl showed us her style of cooking. Sophie was not focused like me on money and time constraints but designed her meals entirely around her mood for the day; hence a whole show devoted to foods to accompany melancholy! Most unusual. I’m not entirely convinced but see what this article has to say: Dahl v Food Bloggers