Comprising hydrocolloids, protein and starch, the food thickeners market is expected to reach US$15.8 billion by 2022, reports Markets and Markets.

Crickets could become a functional protein ingredient to rival casein and whey in nutritional beverages and sports drinks, researchers suggest.

Medical cannabis has gained traction in recent years along the same timeframe that health food trends have sky rocketed. Marijuana is slowly taking its rightful place in the ranks as not only an extremely effective medication, but as a healthy food product as well.

Hong Kong’s quality assurance watchdog has teamed up with two foreign standards organizations to create a scheme to improve the traceability of products in a supply chain that sees more than 90% of its goods imported.

Japan is known for its love of weird and wacky Kit Kat flavours, but Nestle might have just taken the biscuit with its sushi version.

Food scientist Steve Witherly claims MSG is perfectly safe and stands fully behind his “Supersalt” mixture featuring nine parts salt, one part MSG, and a bit of disodium inosinate.

Having risen to become one of the world’s biggest producers of halal food, Thailand is now seeking to invest in halal production in neighbouring Cambodia.

There is insufficient evidence of a link between fruit and vegetable consumption and a reduction in the number of overall cancer cases, according to a pooled analysis of large-scale cohort studies from Japan.

Two of Japan’s biggest conglomerates are planning huge expansion of their ‘beef bowl’ fast food chains across China in order to compensate for low growth in a saturated Japanese marketplace.

Brands will place more emphasis on smaller pack sizes in 2017, according to Euromonitor International.