Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Crisp rye bread. Photo: Mats Gerentz

Food and health:

Good raw material gives good products

The quality of agricultural raw materials is closely linked to the cultivation or rearing methods used, and has a big impact on the quality of the final food products. Hygiene aspects of food, and illnesses contracted through food, are areas of research directly connected to our everyday lives.

Examples of research into food include the development of new methods of analysing food with regard to fibre, starch, vitamins, antioxidants, oxidation, antibiotic residues, tenderness, etc. The research is primarily conducted into the chemistry, hygiene, and toxicology of food, meat science, dairy products, and plant products.

Discoveries resulting from research into plants and animals, in areas such as gene technology and veterinary medicine, can often enhance our understanding of humans and human health. For example, the genes of the pig are very similar to human genes.

SLU units ...


Knowledge bank: Food and health

2013-04-22 -  Soothing forests cure burn-out patients
Open pine woods and heaths or woodland fringes have a soothing effect, and can help people to recover from stress-related conditions.
2013-04-12 -  Tasty pork without odour or pain
Throughout the world most boars are castrated at an early age, often without anaesthetic or painkillers. Castration eliminates the unpleasant smell, known as 'boar taint' otherwise given off by pork from...
2012-10-24 -  Breeding arctic char for aquaculture
A breeding programme for arctic char has resulted in a fish that grows three times faster than the 'original'. This is of great importance for the profitability of the burgeoning arctic char farming industry....
2012-04-25 -  Fungi and mussels acceptable in fish feed
Farmed predatory fish (salmon, cod, etc.) need large quantities of food, which at present consists of wild-caught marine fish species that are endangered to varying degrees.

News: Food and health

2013-04-23 -  "New Insights" about SLU in the world
A new issue of New Insights with forestry as a theme is now available. Urban developmenty and animal production are also presented.
2012-08-14 -  SLU gets one million SEK for global project
STINT, a foundation for the internationalisation of research and education, has granted SLU one million Swedish kronor for the project The Global Challenges University Alliance. The project, initiated...
2012-06-26 -  SLU and Medivir collaborate to develop drugs against bacterial infections
SLU and Medivir AB, a research-based pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases, announced today that they have initiated a collaboration with aimed at identifying and developing new drugs against...
2012-05-15 -  EU´s hesitation makes scientists leave Europe
Research priorities in regard to the environmental impacts of agriculture are not directed in a productive way. This is concluded by four SLU researchers, Jens Sundström, Torbjörn Fagerström, Ulf Magnusson...
2012-05-08 -  Opportunities to produce organic wheat with high nutritional and baking quality
Old wheat varieties have cultivation properties that are suitable for organic farming. Now Abrar Hussain from SLU has compared the nutritional values and baking properties of a large gene bank collection...

Useful links within SLU

Other useful links in Sweden

  • National Food Administration, Uppsala, the central supervisory authority for matters relating to food, including drinking-water.
  • National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala
  • SIK - the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology is an industrial research institute with the objective of strengthening the competitiveness of the food and biotechnological industry.

Page updated: 2012-10-04. Page editor: nora.adelskold@slu.se
 

SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, has its main locations in Alnarp, Skara, Umeå and Uppsala.
Tel: +46 18-67 10 00 • Fax: +46 18-67 20 00  • VAT nr: SE202100281701 • webbredaktionen@slu.se