To be safe to eat, products made from ground beef must be cooked until they are at least 71⁰C in the centre. Beef that has been in contact with oxygen before cooking becomes brown at a lower temperature. This is risky from the food safety point of view.

If you are like most people, you think about salmonella when you hear about pathogenic bacteria from chicken. Infection from Campylobacter jejuni bacteria is far more common, however, and is the commonest cause of bacterial diarrhoea in western countries.

Scientists at Nofima are participating in a major EU-financed project in which “active” packaging based on raw materials from shrimp shell improves and conserves food products – and after use the packaging biodegrades. Environmentally stubborn plastic is getting competition from biodegradable packaging made of chitin and chitosan from shrimp shell.

After several years of research, Nofima has arrived at a packaging method that enables salmon to stay fresh for up to 20 days. Superfresh is the name of the packaging that Vartdal Plastindustrier is launching at the seafood fair in Brussels this week.

Experiments involving the simulation of Listeria bacteria lead to safer ready-made food products.

Reindeer meat is gaining increasing attention and more than ever of it is being sold. People are increasingly asking for fresh reindeer meat as they become more aware of the meat’s quality. The reindeer producers want their meat to be a natural choice for a festive meal around Christmas time.

A newly established European research project aims to develop a commercially available test system for mold, based on the technology FTIR spectroscopy.

It’s food, but not as we know it: a new processing plant is set to produce sausages packed with deadly E.coli and cheese full of Listeria – to save us from food poisoning.

Brine baths, background flora, disinfection and drying can all help to get rid of Listeria, but the bacterium is very hard to kill off.

Researchers believe that the packaging of the future will contain substances that will get rid of unwanted bacteria. Or it could be made from food waste.