Category Archives: Food

Italians condemn ‘insult’ of Austrian-Chinese ‘European mozzarella’

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Brothers of Italy councillor in Veneto reports package featuring gondola and Tower of Pisa for ‘counterfeiting’

Sliced mozzarella cheese produced in Austria by a Chinese company and wrapped in packaging featuring images of a gondola and the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been branded the umpteenth “insult to Italian food excellence”.

Tommaso Razzolini, a councillor in the Veneto region for Brothers of Italy, the party leading Italy’s rightwing ruling coalition government, said he reported the existence of the offending mozzarella to the ministry of agriculture and food sovereignty after coming across a photo of it online.

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Jock Zonfrillo remembered in televised tribute as MasterChef Australia returns

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Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Nigella and Marco Pierre White among those giving emotional tributes to late chef ahead of 15th series

Celebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and former boss Marco Pierre White have remembered Jock Zonfrillo in a televised tribute dedicated to the late MasterChef Australia judge a week after his sudden death.

Network 10 aired the first episode of the new season of MasterChef Australia on Sunday night, having delayed the premiere until Zonfrillo’s family gave their blessing for it to air. Filming of the series was completed last month.

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US food pesticides contaminated with toxic ‘forever chemicals’ testing finds

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PFAS are present at ‘potentially dangerous’ levels in widely used chemicals sprayed on food crops destined for Americans’ plates

Some of the United States’ most widely used food pesticides are contaminated with “potentially dangerous” levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, new testing of the products finds.

The Environmental Protection Agency has previously been silent on PFAS in food pesticides, even as it found the chemicals in non-food crop products. The potential for millions of acres of contaminated food cropland demands swifter and stronger regulatory action, the paper’s authors say.

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More fruit and veg shortages to come as weather in UK and Spain hits crops

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Record heat in southern Europe and chilly start to British growing season spell more misery for shoppers

Shoppers have been warned they face more fruit and vegetable shortages, as temperatures in southern Spain soar to unprecedented levels while the UK growing season gets off to a late start because of cold, overcast weather.

Temperatures were expected to reach a new April record of 39C (102F) in parts of Andalucía on Friday amid a long-lasting drought that has affected the production of vegetables in Spain. Córdoba reached a record 38.8C on Thursday.

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Revealed: most of EU delegation to crucial fishing talks made up of fishery lobbyists

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Europe accused of ‘neocolonialism’ for using vassal small island states to sway policy and continue ‘disgraceful plundering’ of distant waters

More than half of the EU’s delegation to a crucial body of tuna stock regulators is made up of fishing industry lobbyists, the Guardian’s Seascape project can reveal, as Europe is accused of “neocolonial” overfishing in the Indian Ocean.

The numbers could shed some light on why the EU recently objected to an agreement by African and Asian coastal nations to restrict harmful fish aggregating devices (FADs) that disproportionately harvest juvenile tuna. Stocks of yellowfin tuna are overfished in the Indian Ocean.

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English wine centre in Kent hopes for planning approval within days

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Kentish Wine Vault aims to transform industry and produce English rival to prosecco

A landmark centre for English wine designed by Norman Foster, which supporters say will produce an affordable rival to prosecco, could be given planning approval within days.

Gary Smith, the chief executive of MDCV UK, the winemaker behind the £30m Kentish Wine Vault project, said he was hopeful about his plans to transform the country’s wine sector by producing 5m bottles of English wine a year at the new location, after months of doubt.

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The wine intervention: Dutch nuns appeal for help with booze glut

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Convent in Oosterhout has been left with surplus of more than 60,000 bottles after hot and dry year

A Dutch convent is appealing to wine drinkers to support its endeavours as, thanks to an extremely hot and dry year, Sint-Catharinadal in Oosterhout has an excess of 64,000 bottles made from its vineyard.

“We had a lovely summer last year, warm temperatures, and it promises to be an excellent harvest of more than 60,000 bottles,” said Sister Maria Magdalena, prioress, in a video appeal.

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Canada shuts baby eel fishery after string of attacks on harvesters

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Officials announce 45-day ban on harvesting elvers in provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

Canada has temporarily shut down its baby eel fishery following a string of attacks on harvesters, as well as mounting concerns over widespread poaching of the threatened fish.

Officials from the department of fisheries and oceans on Saturday announced a 45-day ban on harvesting the young eels, called elvers, in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, shuttering the lucrative C$50m (£30m) market.

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King Charles and Camilla choose coronation quiche as signature dish

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Recipe follows coronation chicken and platinum pudding as suggested centrepiece for parties and events

From coronation chicken to platinum pudding, royal occasions demand a signature dish and King Charles III’s coronation is no exception.

The “coronation quiche” has been personally chosen by the king and Camilla, the Queen Consort, in the hope it will be a centrepiece to many a coronation “Big Lunch” at street parties and community events on 6 May.

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Cracking method or recipe for disaster? The science behind Senator Helen Polley’s TikTok microwave egg-in-foil hack

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The Labor senator says she’s been boiling eggs wrapped in foil in the microwave for 25 years or more, ‘and I’ve never had a mishap’

Labor senator Helen Polley has raised eyebrows with an unusual technique for cooking hardboiled eggs.

In an “egg hack” video posted to TikTok, the Tasmanian senator completely wrapped a raw egg in aluminium foil, submerged it in a plastic container of water, and said she microwaved it for six to seven minutes for a hard boil.

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Shoppers in Great Britain switch to frozen food amid cost of living crisis

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Such products doing ‘notably better’ than fresh items, data from Kantar reported by BBC shows

British shoppers are switching from fresh to frozen food as they try to keep down spending amid the cost of living crisis, retail data suggests.

The soaring cost of the weekly shop has been a significant factor in the squeeze on UK households, with food price inflation running at 18.2% amid high energy prices and shortages of salad vegetable because of bad weather in Europe.

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Sainsbury’s shoppers criticise ‘vile’ mince vac-packs aimed at reducing plastic

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New pouches for beef are said to be ‘too compressed’ and ‘like I’ve bought someone’s kidney’

Sainsbury’s has said it is determined to make more “bold moves” to cut plastic and defended itself against criticism of new packaging for mince which shoppers have criticised as “very medical”, “too compressed” and “vile”.

The supermarket said last month it was the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its beef mince, part of the retailer’s efforts to halve its use of plastic packaging on its own-label products by 2025.

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Diners in Japan arrested for dipping own chopsticks in communal bowl of ginger

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Arrests over prank at beef bowl restaurant in Osaka come in wake of ‘sushi terrorism’ revelations that have gripped Japan’s food industry

Japan’s crackdown on errant diners in the wake of “sushi terrorism” has intensified after two men were arrested for using their chopsticks to remove a condiment from a communal container at a restaurant in Osaka.

The arrests of Toshihide Oka and Ryu Shimazu came as the country’s budget food service sector attempts to contain a wave of bad behaviour among clientele that began early this year at popular chain restaurants.

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Mackerel loses sustainable status as overfishing puts species at risk

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Marine Conservation Society calls for better regulation of how north-east Atlantic mackerel is caught as stocks decline

Mackerel populations are declining because of overfishing and the fish no longer a sustainable food choice, the Marine Conservation Society has said in its new UK guide to sustainable seafood.

North-east Atlantic mackerel has been considered an environmentally-friendly choice for consumers since before 2011, but the species has become increasingly scarce and now experts are calling for more regulation over how its caught.

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British cows could be given ‘methane blockers’ to cut climate emissions

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UK’s 9.4m cattle produce 14% of human-related emissions, mostly from belching, but green groups remain sceptical

Cows in the UK could be given “methane blockers” to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas as part of plans to achieve the country’s climate goals.

Farmers welcomed the proposal, which follows a consultation that began in August on how new types of animal feed product can reduce digestive emissions from the animals.

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Abusive working conditions endemic in Spain’s strawberry farms, report claims

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UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacks

Abusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.

During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva.

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Brazilian meat firm’s A- sustainability rating has campaigners up in arms

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Environmentalists question high grade given to JBS and accuse it of deforestation in the Amazon and under-reporting emissions

The award of an A-minus sustainability grade to the world’s biggest meat company has raised eyebrows and kicked off a debate about the rating system for environmental and social governance.

Brazilian meat company JBS has previously been linked to deforestation in the Amazon, where its slaughterhouses process beef from ranches carved out of the Amazon, Cerrado and other biomes. But in the latest Climate Change Report by the influential rating organisation CDP, the multinational got a grade of A- for its efforts to tackle climate change – up from B in the previous assessment – and was given a “leadership” status award.

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Italian plan to ban lab-grown food criticised as misguided

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Minister says aim is to ‘safeguard our nation’s heritage’ but campaigners say artificial meat holds promise

The Italian government has approved a draft law that would ban food grown in laboratories, including artificial meat, as it seeks to “safeguard our nation’s heritage”.

Under the ban, which needs to be passed in both houses of parliament, those who produce, export or import food grown from animal cells would face fines of up to €60,000 and risk having their manufacturing plants closed.

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Italian academic cooks up controversy with claim carbonara is US dish

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Alberto Grandi also raises hackles with suggestion Wisconsin has most authentic take on parmesan cheese

An Italian academic has caused more than a stir after saying the recipe for carbonara is American and the only place in the world to find bona fide parmesan cheese nowadays is Wisconsin.

Alberto Grandi, a professor of food history at the University of Parma, made the remarks in an interview with the Financial Times. He also claimed tiramisu and panettone were relatively recent inventions and that most Italians had not even heard of pizza before the 1950s.

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Australia’s aquaculture industry looks beyond fishmeal to improve sustainability

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Bottom trawling associated with the feed product depletes oceans more than wild-catch fishing, expert says

Australia’s growing aquaculture industry is trying to end its reliance on fishmeal in order to become more sustainable.

Fish farms have traditionally been reliant on fishmeal, a feed made from small fish such as anchovies which is often fished unsustainably in developing countries. The practice has jeopardised the industry’s environmental credentials, says Ian Urbania, a pulitzer prize-winning journalist and founder of the non-profit journalism organisation The Outlaw Ocean Project.

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