By analyzing ancient pottery, Dr Patrick McGovern of Pennsylvania University is resurrecting the libations that fueled civilization - and uncovering how drinking in modern societies offers insight into dead ones. McGovern is the world’s foremost expert on ancient fermented beverages, and he cracks long-forgotten recipes with chemistry, scouring ancient kegs and bottles for residue samples to scrutinize in the lab.

The busiest and biggest McDonald's in the world will be within the Olympic park in London, when it opens for business next UK summer, seating 1 500 customers.

For tasty recipes, fine produce, nutrition and health information and the latest culinary/food trends, The Independent newspaper in the UK asked some experts for their top bookmarks. Many of these are not relevant to the remit of this website which is FMCG food manufacture, and the myriad of issues that go with it, but this is a useful resource. For a sample of five bookmarks...

With snail porridge and salmon poached in liquorice on the menu, dinner at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck might not be for everyone. But despite the economic gloom the phones at the triple Michelin-starred restaurant are ringing red hot.

Scientists at the University of Exeter have developed three-dimensional printer that can build products from chocolate - and it has great commercial potential. Although still a prototype, several retailers have already expressed interest in taking on the device.

The psychology behind why we turn to fatty staples like French fries and fried chicken when life gets rough - a complex interplay of memory, history and brain chemistry...

Placentas have been eaten, buried, burned, marched in parades, sung to, dressed in clothing, entombed in pyramids, floated down rivers, and probably a host of other things too strange or mundane to record. In an intriguing article in the edgy journal, meatpaper, journalist, Cynthia Mitchell writes...