Morocco has extended the phytosanitary registration for Pirecris, a bioinsecticide produced by Spanish firm Seipasa, to include its application in the control of thrips and aphids on berries, mint, aromatic plants, rapeseed and spinach. Morocco, which imports up to 95% of its pesticide requirements, had previously approved the use of Pirecris only for the aphids and whitefly in selected horticultural crops.
An innovative steam cooking technique can help reduce energy consumption in food manufacturing, claim UK researchers.
A committee of EU members has backed the European Commission’s proposal to ban the use of the common food additive titanium dioxide, paving the way for a potential ban in 2022. The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) deemed it to be unsafe in May 2021.
US biotech Moderna is to develop a vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa with a capacity of at least 500m doses annually. The facility, located in a country and site yet to be disclosed, will expand Moderna’s capacity to manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine and other products in its mRNA vaccine portfolio.
A hydrogel tablet that rapidly purifies contaminated water could save lives. One tablet can disinfect a litre of water and make it suitable for drinking in under an hour, say its developers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, US.
A new type of super-stable organic glass has been created by researchers in Sweden. The group at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg generated a material with the lowest recorded fragility for organic glasses, by mixing eight derivatives of perylene, a polycyclic aromatic molecule (Sci. Adv., 2021, 7, eabi4659).
Vancomycin is an antibiotic of last resort for tackling resistant bacteria like MRSA. Now, researchers have improved its effectiveness by boosting the associated immune response, they report.
A study from the University of Georgia, US, suggests a non-edible oilseed crop could generate jet fuels and reduce carbon emissions by 68% per litre (GCB Bioenergy, doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12888).
A chemical mini-plant entirely powered by solar power offers the potential to produce fine chemicals in remote locations on Earth, possibly even Mars, according to researchers in the Netherlands.
Hydrogen is expected to play a key role in future energy systems. But there are concerns leaks from its production, use and transport could contribute to climate change in the same way as fugitive emissions of methane.