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costs for cocoa have fallen from a peak of $3000 per tonne in july, to $2551.33 on monday, but reports of the damaging black pod disease in ivory coast could drive prices upwards, compounded by political uncertainty that may see chocolate buyers eager to build stocks. ivory coast is the biggest global supplier of cocoa, contributing 38 per cent of this much sought-after soft commodity to the marketplace.

pectin could be the ideal partner for gelatin in the production of low-cost, low-fat spreads, according to a new study from malaysia. researchers from universiti sains malaysia claim that the pectin could reduce the cost of the low-fat spreads, heavily reliant on gelatin as the protein source. “to the best of our knowledge, this has not been studied elsewhere and we believe that the information of the characteristics of such a blend system is important to justify its potential use in low-fat spread and other food applications,” wrote the researchers in the journal food hydrocolloids .

leatherhead food international has completed a three-year research project that aimed to improve the performance of hydrocolloids using physical processing – methodology likely to be better-perceived by consumers in the natural-centric era. the project, led by dr pretima titoria, section manager for ingredients at leatherhead, set out to see whether the properties of gelling agents could be improved by manipulating polysaccharide molecular weight by acidic hydrolysis.

a new report from which? has struck out again against the use of cartoon characters to market foods for children, accusing the industry of exploiting a loophole that allows for company-owned characters to be used on unhealthy products. which? first squared up to the practice of using visual characters, that may be attractive to children, in food marketing in august 2007.

studies reporting stevia’s photo-stability in beverages, splenda’s effect on gut bacteria, and seaweed’s potential as a salt replacer, dominated september’s headlines. coca-cola shows stevia’s photo-stability a study by scientists at coca-cola, published online in the journal of agricultural and food chemistry , reported that stevia rebaudiana (bertoni)-derived sweetener rebaudioside a does not degrade in beverages on exposure to light.

fonterra has launched a new range of concentrated dairy proteins for the nutritional bar market which it claims solve the discolouration, texture and shelf-life issues associated with traditional proteins. there are three ingredients in its new powerprotein range, including a whey protein concentrate (wpc) and a milk protein concentrate (mpc), which will be marketed alongside powercrisps, its existing, ‘rice-bubble’-type concentrated whey protein.

a new melamine detection and testing service is targeted at companies in the european food and drink sector including food and ingredient manufacturers and food importers, says leatherhead food international. the food research agency said that its service is a response to the emergence in china of milk containing melamine, which has led to a worldwide hunt for products from that country that may contain dangerous traces of the industrial chemical.