Food and Agriculture Content

The Conversation: Why Does Red Wine Cause Headaches?

Karen Michele Nikos — December 18, 2024 - 11:16am

Medical accounts of red wine headaches go back to Roman times, but the experience is likely as old as winemaking – something like 10,000 years. As chemists specializing in winemaking, we wanted to try to figure out the source of these headaches.

What’s In Our Food?

Andy Fell — April 09, 2024 - 2:48pm

We know surprisingly little about the molecules that make up our food. Now the Periodic Table of Food Initiative has published a list of 1,650 foodstuffs from around the world for rigorous biochemical analysis. About two-thirds of the foods on the list are not included in any globally recognized food composition database.

An article describing the list was published March 8 in Nature Food.

Can AI Be Too Good to Use?

Andy Fell — December 12, 2023 - 2:00pm

Much of the discussion around implementing artificial intelligence systems focuses on whether an AI application is “trustworthy”: Does it produce useful, reliable results, free of bias, while ensuring data privacy? But a new paper published Dec. 7 in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence poses a different question: What if an AI is just too good?

AI Institute for Food Systems Showcases Projects in DC

Andy Fell — October 31, 2023 - 12:36pm

Professor Ilias Tagokopoulos, director of the AI Institute for Food Systems and associate director Steve Brown recently had the opportunity to present the institute’s work to federal officials and congressional staffers at two events in Washington, D.C..

Rice Breeding Breakthrough to Feed Billions

Andy Fell — January 10, 2023 - 2:28pm

An international team has succeeded in propagating a commercial hybrid rice strain as a clone through seeds with 95% efficiency. This could lower the cost of hybrid rice seed, making high-yielding, disease resistant rice strains available to low-income farmers worldwide. The work was published Dec. 27 in Nature Communications.

Global Food Supply-Chain Issues Call for Solutions

Karen Michele Nikos — June 27, 2022 - 8:45am

Global supply issues related to the pandemic and war in Ukraine have highlighted yet another global vulnerability — food availability.

While international trade allows countries to buffer against domestic food shortfalls and gain access to larger markets, what happens when supplies run short, or the global supply chain slows or even breaks down like it did during the pandemic?

Improving Pig Diets to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance

Andy Fell — May 05, 2022 - 10:55am

Researchers from �ٺ��Ƶ and universities in Denmark and the Netherlands are joining forces in a new research project to reduce the need for antibiotics in pig production by improving intestinal resilience in developing piglets. The $21.2 million, 5-year PIG-PARADIGM project is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Survey: People Turned to Gardening for Stress Relief, Food Access During Pandemic

Amy M Quinton — March 17, 2022 - 9:00am

�ٺ��Ƶ survey finds people turned to gardening during COVID-19 to relieve stress and grow their own food as a way to avoid the virus.

Researchers Find Hybrid Metabolism in Fermented Food Microbe

Amy M Quinton — February 14, 2022 - 9:00am

Researchers at �ٺ��Ƶ and Rice University have discovered that lactic acid bacteria uses a hybrid metabolism, combining respiration with fermentation. The discovery could lead to healthier, tastier fermented foods.

UC’s 10 Best Research Stories of 2021

Dave Jones — December 30, 2021 - 11:47am

Is 2021 over already?

The year brought its fair share of big news and research breakthroughs, COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 alike. Given UC is the global leader in cited scholarship, it’s no surprise that each campus produced numerous new ways of understanding our world.