Food regulation, foodborne risks, processing, additives, and related safety issues.
After Xibei’s chain-restaurant incident, takeaway, supermarket and freezer ready meals have put the breath of the wok, prices and the feeling of being deceived back on the table. Small eateries’ fresh stir-frying, international students’ dinners and homemade meals offer another path between convenience and freshness.
The “not enough waste to burn” video sparked debate, but China’s incinerators face overcapacity, not a waste shortage. Statutory dioxin monitoring occurs only annually, and food-contact plastic additive risks have long been underestimated. Zero-waste and waste-reduction practitioners urge cutting at source, not simply burning the problem away.
Former agriculture reporter Xie Xiaodan spent two and a half years at a financial media outlet, drawing most stories from listed companies’ earnings reports. A chance lead on abscessed pig meat proved impossible to trace; a ten-square-metre vegetable plot was destroyed by torrential rain; she lost her job.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has led 3,500 FDA layoffs, slashed $400 million and suspended food spot checks – adding insult to injury for an already fragile system whose food regulation budget is barely half that of pharmaceuticals and authority scattered across multiple agencies.
Sold-out sourdough bread, olive oil, sea salt and vinegar are going viral as UK consumers use ‘anti-ultra-processed food’ and social-media aesthetics to turn affordable basic staples into pricier lifestyle purchases.
For World Book Day, Foodthink’s editors, authors and peers recommend books that connect food, land and the natural environment, including Bruno Latour’s ecological politics, French rural transformation, China’s environmental movement, vanishing foods and industrial additives.
I. The Plastic Crisis: Regularly Updated “Microplastics have entered the human brain, and the weight of these particles can even exceed that of a plastic spoon.” Several friends sent me this message a few days ago. Since I started working for an environmental organisation a few years ago, I’ve become…
The National Health Commission has launched a three-year “Weight Management Year” campaign, but obesity is a systemic problem shaped by food systems — ultra-processed foods, salty takeaway and pseudo-healthy foods are the real culprits. True weight loss relies on eating fresh, minimally processed foods.
From Shenyang to Hubei, several small merchants describe how the platform uses traffic as leverage to push prices down to the point of running at a loss. Behind the 10-yuan Pin Hao Fan, merchants cut back on ingredients while delivery riders see their per-order income shrink.
A 2023 investigation by The Examination and The Washington Post found at least ten registered dietitians with over 10,000 followers accepted payment from the American Beverage Association and the Canadian Sugar Industry Association to promote aspartame and natural sugars without disclosure. AND’s principal sponsors are these very companies.
