Food technology

Japanese researchers have developed a new type of cholera vaccine by genetically modifying rice to carry a non-toxic cholera antigen. The vaccine needs no refrigeration with the rice simply ground into a powder, mixed with water and consumed.

From Singapore to the International Space Station, we're starting to see how lab-grown meat might soon make its way out of the lab and into everyday diets, and a newly opened factory in Israel should more than help things along.

Despite the fact that it's made of fermented raw pork, the Vietnamese meat snack Nem Chua does not cause food poisoning in people who eat it. In fact, new research suggests that a compound found in it could be used as a natural food preservative.

Researchers digging into the science behind popcorn expansion have shed new light on the process, finding thickness of the coating around the kernel to be a key factor, which could inform the breeding of higher quality corn down the track.

University of Oxford researchers have come up with a way to control the speed at which tomatoes ripen by modifying a specific gene. This could not only help reduce wastage and boost tomato crop yields, but possibly other crop varieties, too.

It would certainly be upsetting to discover that the beef you had just eaten also contained rat meat. Such things are possible, though, which is why scientists have developed a DNA-based meat-testing kit.

In most grocery stores, all of the fresh produce is either pre-wrapped in plastic film or it gets placed in plastic bags – both of which are often discarded by consumers. A new bioactive paper bag, however, could serve the same purpose while being easily recyclable.

It may seem like a basic color, but blue is actually rather rare in the natural world. That complicates the search for natural blue food colorings, but now a team of scientists has found a promising candidate hiding in red cabbage.

Scientists at Boston College have developed a new process for producing lab-grown meat that is greener than most, using the veiny skeleton of spinal leaves to support the growth of bovine animal protein for the first time.

Fresh produce suppliers may say there's no pesticide residue on their fruits and veggies, but … are they telling the truth? Store workers could soon be able to check, using an inexpensive stick-on film.

The 2019 North American outbreak of E. coli contamination in romaine lettuce doubtless got many people thinking about how to most effectively wash their leafy veggies. Well, a new study suggests that using ultrasonic water may be the best way to go.

Judging how ripe fruit is can be frustrating for everyone from farmers to shoppers. Now researchers in Japan have developed a new way to check, without touching or damaging soft fruit like mangoes. All it takes is a laser and some plasma shockwaves.