Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

Private label does not perform well everywhere. Penetration is high in Europe, for example, especially in Spain and the Netherlands. The US is lagging behind but catching up, while emerging markets usually see quite low private label penetration. Why?

Terry's Chocolate Orange had historically been a single-flavour brand, in the sense that once, its only flavour was orange, albeit with different variants. Yet it recently added milk, caramel and mint. Nestlé has also announced caramel, orange and raspberry variants of its After Eights brand. Why are traditionally single-flavour brands being given new flavours?

The plant-based meat sector is in search of new enzymes, which can improve functionality, solve challenges around texture and stability, and meet clean label demands. Researchers have developed an AI that can predict which plant proteins would work as enzymes, cutting down the costly trial-and-error process of finding them manually.

Consumer confidence about affordability remains low, and many worry about food prices - indeed, food is prominent in concerns about the cost-of-living more generally. Yet are consumers right to be worried about food prices?

An EU definition of ultra-processed foods remains, at this moment, a hypothetical. The EU is exploring the topic, but it has not even committed to developing a definition. Yet there is some indication of what a definition could look like, should one be drawn up.

New proposals to expand the ban on meat-related terms for meat substitutes have suggested that in order to use these terms, products, barring ingredients essential for production, must be made 'exclusively' from meat. How could this affect the burgeoning hybrid meat sector?

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has approved the sweetener salt of aspartame-acesulfame for use.

How do Italian consumers view alternative proteins such as cultivated meat, plant-based meat and insects? A study looks into how emotions like curiosity and disgust influence their choices.

The plant-based meat sector is often associated with ultra-processed foods, largely because of its use of additives. Yet many of these additives are clean label, and in some cases, the additives themselves are clean label.