Augustus Bambridge-Sutton

Forty major food companies including Mondelēz International, Unilever, FrieslandCampina and Carlsberg have pledged to accelerate regenerative agriculture in their supply chains. As industry increasingly embraces these methods, consumers are not yet sure about regenerative agriculture.

Can food boost satiety and help consumers reduce food intake in the same way as GLP-1s? Could it ever do this? It is unlikely, say key researchers Daniel Drucker and John Wilding. However, satiety-boosting foods play a practical role in a diet, slotting into consumer habits more easily than drugs. Companies such as Lembas provide foods that boost satiety.

The recent EUDR simplification eased the compliance burden for the regulation in certain key ways. Firstly, it stated that the first downstream operator need not need seek out due diligence numbers from its upstream partner - if it does not receive the numbers, it can assume it's not, in fact, the first downstream operator. Furthermore, a segment of a larger company can now operate as a small or micro operator, so long as it complies to the specifications of one, and thus take advantage of reduced obligations.

Recent reports have suggested that private equity firms such as Blackstone and CD&R have recently expressed interest in The Magnum Ice Cream Company. The company's share price has been low for some time, indicating that it's struggling since it was demerged from its former parent, Unilever. However, several structural factors may have contributed to the new company's performance.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, resulting from the war in Iran, has pushed up crude oil prices exponentially. For any industry that needs energy, including food, this is a problem. Renewable energy sourced locally is not as exposed to global conflict. In Iceland, the country uses geothermal energy for 30% of electricity and 90% of heating. For energy-intensive food sectors such as vertical farming, abundant geothermal energy can be sourced from this electricity production. Meanwhile, geothermal energy can heat greenhouses where, due to Iceland's harsh climate, a significant chunk of its food is grown.

Mondelēz International was recently found guilty of not doing enough to alert consumers to the fact that it had reduced the size of its Milka bar from 100g to 90g. Changing the weight information, the court argued, was not enough. What is the legal minimum a company must do to indicate size reductions to consumers? And how are laws changing around this in Europe?

As traditional coffee production is threatened by climate change, could cultivated coffee be the answer? While it has been in development for a number of years, cultivated coffee is not yet on the market and hasn't seen the same interest from food giants that cultivated cocoa has. Yet some predict significant potential for it, citing sustainability concerns as a key driver. Barriers, such as regulation, cost, and consumer awareness, remain.

It's three months since the beginning of the Iran War. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and food prices continue to be pushed up. The FAO has suggested that a severe food price crisis may be on the horizon within six to 12 months if this isn't remedied. How can the food sector prepare for such a crisis, and mitigate its worst effects?

The bioavailability of nutrients is often determined by their placement within the food matrix, meaning the physical structure of a food and how its different constituent parts interact. Marion Nestle explains the relationship between the food matrix and bioavailability. This is an important part of how the body interacts with ultra-processed foods; because of their disrupted food matrix, the ingredients within are more bioavailable.

Europe was recently hit by a heatwave, with temperatures rocketing up across the continent. Heatwaves make cold chain storage work harder and use more energy. However, they are unlikely to lead to spoilage as even most ambient products can normally cope with increased temperatures. Heatwaves do, of course, lead to increased demand for some categories, such as ice cream, but companies are usually prepared for this.