Nearly every day brings news of another merger or acquisition involving the companies that control our food supply. Just how concentrated has this system become? At almost every key stage of the food system, four firms alone control 40% or more of the market, a level above which these companies have the power to drive up prices for consumers and reduce their rate of innovation. Researchers have identified additional problems resulting from these trends, including negative impacts on the environment, human health, and communities. This book reveals the dominant corporations, from the supermarket to the seed industry, and the extent of their control over markets. It also analyzes the strategies these firms are using to reshape society in order to further increase their power, particularly in terms of their bearing upon the more vulnerable sections of society, such as recent immigrants, ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. Yet this study also shows that these trends are not inevitable. Opposed by numerous efforts, from microbreweries to seed saving networks, it explores how such opposition has encouraged the most powerful firms to make small but positive changes.

In China, for the first time, the people who weigh too much now outnumber those who weigh too little. In Mexico, the obesity rate has tripled in the past three decades. In the UK over 60 per cent of adults and 30 per cent of children are overweight, while the United States remains the most obese country in the world. We are hooked on salt, sugar and fat. These three simple ingredients are used by the major food companies to achieve the greatest allure for the lowest possible cost.

Here, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss exposes the practices of some of the most recognisable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century. He takes us inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the 'bliss point' of sugary drinks. He unearths marketing campaigns designed - in a technique adapted from the tobacco industry - to redirect concerns about the health risks of their products, and reveals how the makers of processed foods have chosen, time and again, to increase consumption and profits, while gambling with our health.

Are you ready for the truth about what's in your shopping basket?

Alternative protein sources are urgently required as the available land area is not sufficient to satisfy the growing demand for meat. Insects have a high potential of becoming a new sector in the food and feed industry, mainly because of the many environmental benefits when compared to meat production. This will be outlined in the book, as well as the whole process from rearing to marketing. The rearing involves large scale and small scale production, facility design, the management of diseases, and how to assure that the insects will be of high quality (genetics). The nutrient content of insects will be discussed and how this is influenced by life stage, diet, the environment and processing. Technological processing requires decontamination, preservation, and ensuring microbial safety. The prevention of health risks (e.g. allergies) will be discussed as well as labelling, certification and legislative frameworks. Additional issues are: insect welfare, the creation of an enabling environment, how to deal with consumers, gastronomy and marketing strategies. Examples of production systems will be given both from the tropics (palm weevils, grasshoppers, crickets) and from temperate zones (black soldier flies and house flies as feed and mealworms and crickets as food).

The food sector is changing. Consumers want not only tasty and healthy food products, but products that are sustainable and authentic. At the same time, new developments in farming, food processing, and retailing open up new opportunities in the development of food products. Bridging these challenges and opportunities is a major task for food marketing. This book traces consumer trends regarding healthiness, sustainability, authenticity, and convenience. It gives an introduction to current developments in farming, in food processing technology, and in retailing. It also explains how segmentation and consumer-led product development can lead to new food products in response to these trends.

Have you ever thought about trying to earn some money from producing food? Are you the person everyone goes to for their lemon meringue pies, apple tarts and other desserts for family occasions, christenings or other events? Do you have a garden of rhubarb or other fruit? Do you make jam every year and give it away when you could be selling it? Do you fancy the idea of making cheese or yogurt or ice cream but don’t know where to start? If so, then this is the book for you – it will tell you everything you need to know or show you where to find it for yourself, with lots of case studies of successful food producers. This updated and revised second edition of Money for Jam contains everything that someone who is new to the food business in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK will need to get started and to keep going. It will help bakers, jam-makers and honey-producers, ice cream, yogurt and cheese-makers, egg producers, sausage roll, pie-makers, chocolatiers, and dessert-makers. It covers the what, where, who and how for small food producers – including the latest updates in legislation and registration requirements, labelling and packaging, suppliers and distributors and emerging trends, with lots of new case studies of successful food businesses in an easy-to-read and easy-to-follow format.

This fifth edition provides information on techniques needed to analyze foods for chemical and physical properties. The book is ideal for undergraduate courses in food analysis and is also an invaluable reference to professionals in the food industry. General information chapters on regulations, labeling, sampling, and data handling provide background information for chapters on specific methods to determine chemical composition and characteristics, physical properties, and objectionable matter and constituents. Methods of analysis covered include information on the basic principles, advantages, limitations, and applications. Sections on spectroscopy and chromatography along with chapters on techniques such as immunoassays, thermal analysis, and microscopy from the perspective of their use in food analysis have been expanded. Instructors who adopt the textbook can contact the editor for access to a website with related teaching materials.

This book explains how sensory and aroma marketing is used by food companies to improve the sales of their products at different locations. It starts with an introductory section about the current relevance of this field, and the foundation of how senses can affect consumers' behaviours. Then, it moves into different chapters highlighting the importance of each one of the senses in marketing strategies (smell, sight, sound, taste, and touch). Perhaps for readers the role of smell, sight, smell, and taste are obvious in selling strategies and in bringing positive experiences, memories, and feelings, but the book also provides examples of how touch and sound guide consumer decisions. The final chapter looks into the future. 'Sensory and aroma marketing' should be easily understood by university students interested in Food Science and Technology, make sensory marketing reachable and useful at the industry as well as at the academic and research levels. Readers will be able to answer questions which all consumers bear in mind. For example: is it possible to 'manipulate' consumers in choosing a specific food by using a specific aroma or locating the product at a proper height in a supermarket; and is it possible to control how much time a consumer spends in a hypermarket by using a specific music rhythm?

For most people, grocery shopping is a mundane activity. Few stop to think about the massive, global infrastructure that makes it possible to buy Chilean grapes in a Philadelphia supermarket in the middle of winter. Yet every piece of food represents an interlocking system of agriculture, manufacturing, shipping, logistics, retailing, and nonprofits that controls what we eat—or don’t. The Problem with Feeding Cities is a sociological and historical examination of how this remarkable network of abundance and convenience came into being over the last century. It looks at how the US food system transformed from feeding communities to feeding the entire nation, and it reveals how a process that was once about fulfilling basic needs became focused on satisfying profit margins. It is also a story of how this system fails to feed people, especially in the creation of food deserts. Andrew Deener shows that problems with food access are the result of infrastructural failings stemming from how markets and cities were developed, how distribution systems were built, and how organizations coordinate the quality and movement of food. He profiles hundreds of people connected through the food chain, from farmers, wholesalers, and supermarket executives, to global shippers, logistics experts, and cold-storage operators, to food bank employees and public health advocates. It is a book that will change the way we see our grocery store trips and will encourage us all to rethink the way we eat in this country.