Agricultural and Forestry Science

Tracing the source of a campylobacter food poisoning outbreak can be very difficult even with modern DNA fingerprinting methods. There is now evidence that campylobacters can rearrange their DNA, disguising their fingerprint, and confusing such detective work, scientists heard today (Tuesday 09 April 2002) at the spring meeting of the Society for General Microbiology at the University of Warwick.

Professor Diane Newell and her colleague Dr Anne Ridley of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency sa

Broccoli is one of western Europe`s most popular and widely consumed vegetables. However, its shelf life is restricted to about 5 days at room temperature, making distribution and storage of the product difficult. Recent research presented today at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Swansea could help us understand the genetics of this situation and may even lead to `supervarieties` of broccoli.

The popularity of broccoli is on the increase and it is used increasingly in valu

Scots scientists are playing a key role in a major new research effort which could save Britain’s farmers millions of pounds a year through reductions in fertiliser and pesticide use.

Biotechnology experts at the University of Abertay Dundee, in partnership with two organisations in England, have been awarded £471,000 by the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) for a three-year study into the relationship between white clover and a tiny insect.

White clove

Officials of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources went fishing last August to collect samples. They caught largemouth bass at four lakes and two fish hatcheries, but shared no smiles. The bass in all six locations, says a University of Illinois scientist, were infected with a virus they were seeking but didn’t expect to find. The virus — now confirmed in 17 states — is called the largemouth bass virus (LMBV) because only this species is dying from it. That no fish kills

In recent years, new food packaging concepts have been developed to respond on consumption trends towards mildly preserved, fresh convenient food products. Fresh-cut vegetables are an example of fresh-like, healthy convenience foods, developed in the ‘80s in the UK. Their market is yearly increasing with 25% in West Europe.

Packaging fresh-cut vegetables under an Equilibrium Modified Atmosphere (EMA) is one of the new applied food packaging technologies offering a prolonged shelf-life of re

Fruit’s hidden colour reveals whether it will ripen.

Some green tomatoes have a rosy future; others do not. A sensor that picks up subtle differences in the light the fruits reflect could sort future salads from greens.

Many tomatoes are picked green and bathed in ripening gas ethylene. Fruit picked too early will never ripen. Discerning consumers avoid them and growers lose out.

A scanner that analyses the wavelengths green tomatoes bounce back can predict th