Not only a crafty deception to provide tasty food for astronauts. Over the next years 3D printers may become a household kitchen appliance, helping people save time when preparing meals or adding specific nutritious ingredients to their diet.

Sensors and drones can be among the farmers' best friends, helping them to use less fertilizers and water, and to control the general condition of their crops.

What do you usually do while waiting for your favourite tea bag infusion? Have you ever thought about reading a book in those five minutes? An Italian start up invented the so called Narratè , which could be translated into “EnterTEAnment” or “Story TEAlling”, a new product combining food with publishing and entertainment.

African swine fever , or ASF, is a viral disease that kills almost every pig it infects and is likened to Ebola . It gained a foothold in Georgia in 2007, when contaminated pig meat landed from a ship from South-East Africa and was fed to local pigs.

In Europe, the population is ageing . In 2010, about 17% of the population were 65 or older. This number is projected to increase to 30% of the population by 2060. New services are already available to meet their needs.

There are two main types of bread , wholemeal, or brown, and white. But most people in Europe prefer white bread. That is a problem because white bread contains very little fibres.

Imagine living in an inner city and buying your vegetables and fruit just moments after they’ve been harvested. Imagine waking up to the rustic sound of a cock crowing.

Scientists in Northern Italy are experimenting with unusual and totally eco-friendly sound and odor devices to fight off insects from their cultivated fields .

Ecosystem services are free, but often hidden. They include pollination and killing of crop pests by beneficial insects. Now, QuESSA , an EU-funded research project, due to be completed in 2017, will try and increase the visibility of such services.

Human civilization is responsible for large traces of non-organic materials in the oceans, namely crude oil and plastics. Two European research projects are now investigating how microbes can help to eliminate these substances in the sea .

Plastic products made of PVC, Polystyrene and other prominent plastics are flooding the market. They are a growing threat to the environment, as they are found in the sea or dumped in land fills .

You may think that climate change is being caused by burning oil, coal and gas. But not so fast! The emission of methane from cattle is a surprisingly important factor .

Fat, sugar and salt - these ingredients are often used by the food industry to enrich their products and provide us with the perfect sensual experience. Now, scientists in France are trying to reverse this trend.

Most of the animal proteins found in the meat industry waste have, until now, been underutilised. The challenge is to transform such waste into food of higher functionality and added value .

The amount of nitrogen that is excreted by livestock is directly proportional to the amount it is fed . This is according to Chris Reynolds a researcher in nutritional physiology of ruminants  at  the University of Reading , UK.

Food processing of cereal and fruits creates a rather voluminous amount of by-products . The London, UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers recently estimated that anywhere between 35% and 50%--or 1.

Riots, political instability and a spike in malnourishment cases blighted the years 2007 and 2008, particularly in developing countries.

Peanut, egg and soy are more common food known to trigger an allergic reaction, a problem affecting around 8% of children in the EU. Intuitively, you might not list apples as causing allergic reactions.

We are what we eat. However, little is known on how a specific dietary regime can impact the life of the elderly . Now, researchers from an EU funded project called NU-AGE are investigating the effects of the Mediterranean diet on older people.

British porridge, Dutch pea soup snert, Italian risotto or Spanish paella are only a small sample of the diversity of diets across Europe .