"uk" news and stories

It seems to me that this is the ultimate invention for people who have very little time (or very little patience) yet still want a hot beverage in the morning. Tefal has designed a kettle that heats your water (approximately one cup) in just three seconds, as opposed to a standard kettle which takes just under three minutes.

Aside from just the speed and the obvious energy / water saving aspects, the Quick Cup has a few more things going for it too - you can adjust the amount of water you need by the touch of a button, plus the kettle uses a filter so your water will have fewer impurities. In addition, a separate button allows you to simply extract room-temperature filtered water for those times when you don't need it piping hot.

A little warning though - the water doesn't actually come to a complete boil, so you may not extract as much flavor from a tea bag and it won't be hot enough to sterilize anything. Otherwise though, it seems like a pretty efficient way to get some hot water fast. Currently the kettle is only available in the UK, but if it is a success I'm sure it'll make it's way over here soon.

Source

Well this just gives new meaning to the idea of "dairy" in chocolate.

Britain's most popular lines of candy and chocolate have admitted that their choclate bars like Mars, Snickers, Maltesers, and Milky Way now contain whey that is derived from a cow's stomach. The enzyme rennet, which is extracted from the stomach-lining of slaughtered newborn calves and is used in traditional cheese production, is being used by the candy makers.

It now appears that vegetarians in the UK face the ethical dilemma of eating chocolate because it comes from animals.

Source

Last year, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) was involved with the promotion of several measures to restrict the content of food advertisements that were targeted at, or easily viewable by, children. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom instituted a ban on junk food ads that were targeted at 16-and-under TV viewers during non-primetime hours, which was a major victory for those supporting restrictions.

The FSA also supported a ban on online junk food advertising that was targeted at this demographic, a step which many believed was a step too far at the time. Clearly, times and opinions have changed, however, because further regulations have just been drawn up by the Department of Health's Committee on Advertising Practice that will ban "junk food companies" from advertising in magazines, on the internet, on billboards and at movie screenings that are targeted at under-16s.

Fortunately for the companies in question and the media outlets that rely on their advertising dollars, there is no official oversight of all these forms of advertising, which means that following the regulations is voluntary - for the moment, anyway.

Source

Dieting may be worse for your waistline than you think, especially for women. A new study has shown that there is a greater association between guilt and chocolate in women who are dieting or have dieted in the past. This connection increases the likelihood of developing chocolate cravings, since negative emotions and comfort eating also have a strong connection in these women. The stronger the craving, the more likely the dieters were to give in to it.

The study was conducted at a university in England, where researchers showed women pictures of chocolate or nonfood items and asked them to report on the feelings that these images triggered. Their conclusion was that dieting "appears to have the opposite [of its intended] effect in that it can increase the desire for the actual foods [dieters] are trying to avoid." Hopefully, the next step in the study will look at how diets affect men's cravings, as well.

Having a positive body image and making healthy dining choices when possible, rather than opting for fad diets where long-term maintenance is unreasonable, is the best way to keep weight, cravings and guilt under control.

Source

Since excluding imported organic products from using the word "organic" is probably not something that is going to happen in the UK any time soon, farmers are still looking for ways to strengthen their appeal with consumers and the position of their products on supermarket shelves. They are now proposing that the country of origin be clearly labeled on all products. Currently, all foods processed in the UK can claim to be "made in the UK," but this labeling scheme would have the country that the ingredients were sourced from identified.

The real motivation behind it is that foods sourced from elsewhere have less traceability than UK-based products, as manufacturing and processing standards may be lower elsewhere. A move like this would potentially increase the trust that consumers have in UK-made products, where the processing standards are known, and as a result, support UK-based farmers.

Source