A new feature on the food label-scanning app FoodSwitch will help coeliacs and people intolerant to gluten make more informed decisions in the supermarket. [ + ]

Consumer pressure has prompted Cadbury owner Mondelez International, the world’s biggest chocolate maker, to address the inequality faced by female cocoa farmers and workers. [ + ]

Blackmores Institute has commissioned new research into the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of the Davidson’s Plum. Southern Cross University will undertake the research into the native fruit, which grows around northern NSW. [ + ]

Speaking at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, Terry E Acree, PhD, described how people sometimes ‘see’ flavours in foods and beverages before actually tasting them. [ + ]

JL Lennard Graphics has partnered with Royal Dutch Printing Ink Factories Van Son to distribute the company’s premium inks throughout Australasia. [ + ]

Mark Smith has been appointed Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Patties Foods, taking over the role from Chris Riordan. [ + ]

The presence of phenylbutazone residues in horsemeat poses little threat to consumers, the European Food Safety Authority and the European Medicines Agency have said. [ + ]

Swiss software company Object Solutions Software has announced the launch of a standardised Global Data Synchronization Network, which is based on the SA2 Worldsync standard. [ + ]

A technique developed by a University of Missouri research group may make food contamination testing more rapid and accurate. The detection test also could accelerate warnings after bioterrorism attacks. [ + ]

AUSPACK PLUS organisers have announced that with four weeks still to go the show is sold out and all of the floorspace is fully occupied. The 2013 exhibition will feature the largest number of exhibitors in the event’s history. [ + ]

Researchers have been able to reconstruct the genome sequence of an outbreak strain of Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) that caused over 50 deaths in Germany. They used an approach known as metagenomics, which bypasses the need for growing bacteria in the lab. Metagenomics has been used previously in a clinical diagnostic setting to identify the cause of outbreaks of viral infection, but this is its first reported use in an outbreak of bacterial infection. [ + ]

Field trials and genetic studies have shown that a new variety of broccoli reliably yields higher levels of a health-promoting compound. [ + ]

Virginia Tech scientists have provided new evidence that biofilms - bacteria that adhere to surfaces and build protective coatings - are at work in the survival of the human pathogen Salmonella. [ + ]

Banning the use of trans fats is one of the most effective ways to prevent some of the world’s biggest killer diseases, according to a University of Sydney study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. [ + ]

Could there be such a thing as healthy chocolate? University of Warwick researchers say there could be. [ + ]