The Guardian view on ultra-processed food: blame business, not consumers | Editorial
Evidence is mounting on the health costs of these products. The real culprit is financialised growth, not inadequate individual willpowerIf we are what we eat, then we are increasingly composed from substances including synthetic emulsifiers, flavour compounds, bulking agents and stabilising gums (one of the most common being a slime produced by bacteria). Well over half of the average diet in the UK and US now consists ofultra ‑processed food (UPF) – or, as one scientist prefers to put it,industrially produced edible substances.Though defining it technically iscomplex, the simple explanation is that it contains items ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 13, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Editorial Tags: Food & drink industry Food science Business Source Type: news
Police staff in England and Wales offered 7% pay increase, says UNISON
Police staff in most forces in England and Wales – including those in witness support, data teams and cleaning roles – have been offered a 7% pay rise, says UNISON today (Thursday).
If accepted, the increase proposed by the police staff employers* would take effect from 1 September 2023.
It means the hourly rate for the lowest paid police staff would rise from £10.62 to £11.46 an hour. That’s an increase of £1,446 a year and would see the lowest annual salaries rise from £20,655 to £22,101.
In addition, the police staff employers are offering a 7% rise on payments to employees who are ask...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - August 10, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Demetrios Matheou Tags: News Press release police staff police staff pay Source Type: news
First guidance published to support NHS workers after a colleague suicide
Researchers from the universities of Surrey, Keele and Birmingham have today (Tuesday) published the first guidance to support NHS workers after a colleague dies by suicide.
The recommendations are based on a two-year study identifying the impact on NHS staff who have been in this distressing situation, and the support they may need.
The guidance has been developed specifically for the NHS and for health service staff who are affected by a colleague’s suicide, and for those who will be supporting them.
The guidance is underpinned by research and data analysis that includes a comprehensive review of current evidence...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 25, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release NHS staff Source Type: news
Clarion Housing Group must raise pay and stop pension cuts to avoid strike action, says UNISON
Caretakers, sheltered housing wardens and other staff at Clarion Housing Group – the largest housing association in the country – have rejected a 5% pay offer, says UNISON today (Thursday).
The union says this is essentially a wage cut that falls well short of inflation and that employees deserve more.
Clarion also plans to cut the pensions of nearly 300 staff. The housing association has said it intends to close all its final salary schemes, which means employees will be significantly worse off, adds UNISON.
The union says Clarion is threatening to sack staff and re-employ them...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 20, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Fatima Ayad Tags: News Press release Source Type: news
UNISON urges pensions regulator to press for stronger data safety
UNISON has written to the pensions regulator to press for stronger protections to ensure that members’ pensions are safe, after outsourcing firm Capita experienced hacking attacks in March and May this year.
Among the data that has been compromised is information entrusted to Capita by some 450 pension schemes.
UNISON members are in some of the schemes and funds affected, including the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF), Natural Resources Wales, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and some local government pension funds. Capita has stated that its own pension scheme data has also been compromised, affecting...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 19, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News capita data protection pensions Source Type: news
Blog: The two-child limit is still cruel now and should be abolished
Last week, I spoke on the BBC’s Politics Live about the need for a proper debate on funding for public services in this country. Public services aren’t just the A&E services we use when something goes horribly wrong, they’re a part of our lives, every day, and that’s exactly how it should be.
A strong society relies on strong public services and a government that believes in building a supportive state. That state needs to give services the funds they need, pay the workforce fairly, and put an extra safety net in place for people when things go wrong in their lives.
It’s been 14 years since George Osborne...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 17, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Martin Cullen Tags: General Secretary's blog child benefit Christina McAnea Universal credit Source Type: news
UNISON condemns government plans to hike visa fees for migrants
UNISON has condemned the government’s plans to hike the fees charged to migrant people for visa applications.
The cost of the Immigration Health Surcharge – a double tax migrant workers have to pay to access healthcare – is set to increase from £624 to £1,035 a year for each person.
This is a 417% increase over the past five years. Work visas are set to increase by 15% and the cost of other visas could rise by 20%.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claims that this will fund public sector pay rises.
UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “The government announcement to hugely increase the charges for migrant vi...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 17, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article News hostile environment immigration migrant workers Source Type: news
Scientists find vital missing ingredient for healthy vegan diet – algae
Natural aquatic supplement could be used to make up for lack of key vitamin B12 in plant-based dietsVitamins for vegans made from algae could soon prove to be the most effective solution to replacing an important nutrient missing from plant-based diets, thanks to recent research by scientists at Cambridge University.The popularity of meat- and dairy-free foods in western diets is leaving many people potentiallyexposed to vitamin deficiency. In particular, they can suffer from a lack of the vitamin B12, a key nutrient involved in blood and nerve cell manufacture.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 15, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Science editor Tags: Veganism Vegan food and drink Nutrition Life and style Vegetarianism Vegetarian food and drink Science Food science Health & wellbeing Society Nutrition and development Oceans Marine life Plants Medical research Source Type: news
Government must raise ‘ out-of-date ’ mileage rates for struggling public service staff, says UNISON
More than a million public service workers including care staff, district nurses, housing officers, police staff and probation officers are being left thousands of pounds out of pocket because ministers have failed to update national mileage rates, says a UNISON report published today (Friday).
NHS, social care, police and local government employees who need to drive for work are up to £6,000 a year worse off because the current 45p rate, set by HM Revenue and Customs, has not changed in over a decade, according to research by the union and the RAC Foundation.
The report Driven Out of Work says the allowa...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 13, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Fatima Ayad Tags: Article Christina McAnea mileage rates Source Type: news
UNISON launches next stage of One Team Us2 pay campaign
UNISON has launched a new stage in its One Team Us2 campaign to ensure that members working for private contractors in the NHS get the same pay as their colleagues who are directly employed.
The union’s health team and private contractors unit have identified key employers across England and have written to them, seeking full implementation of the NHS pay award and the unconsolidated one-off payment.
UNISON has asked for meetings with the “appropriate senior managers” at 18 employers to discuss the issue.
In the letter, Donna Rowe-Merriman, national secretary for business, community and environment, says: “UNISON...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 11, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News agenda for change NHS private contractors Put NHS pay right Put pay right Us2 Source Type: news
UK scientists could make poison pea a crucial crop
Gene editing or selective breeding hold promise of a non-toxic variety of the protein-rich and drought-resistant plantIt is grown in some of the world ’s most inhospitable, arid regions and is noted for being rich in protein. But the grass pea – although hardy and nutritious – comes with a catch. It contains a poison that can occasionally trigger irreversible paralysis, particularly among individuals who are already undernourished.As a result, it is often grown only as an insurance crop, to provide short-term food supply when harvests of other crops have failed. Nevertheless, poisoning fromLathyrus sativus still occu...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 8, 2023 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Tags: Science Food science Climate crisis Agriculture Genetics Environment UK news Biology Plants Farming Source Type: news
UNISON welcomes British standard on menopause support at work
UNISON has played a key role in the development of a new British standard on menstruation and menopause in the workplace, published today.
This new standard draws on UNISON’s guidance on menopause, designed to assist branches in ensuring that workplaces consider how menopausal symptoms can impact on women, trans and non-binary people.
UNISON national women’s officer Bukky Akinwale said: “The majority of our members are women who will experience the menopause. For many, it will be a natural occurrence, but for many others it can affect them profoundly, leading to emotional and health changes that can impact on t...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 5, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Janey Starling Tags: News equalities Menopause Source Type: news
Blog: From birth until death, the NHS is there for us all
For 75 years, everyone in the UK has depended on the care, skills, experience and dedication of millions of workers, spread across thousands of communities.
I’ve always said: ‘If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a whole team to care for a patient’.
NHS staff work as one team, every day, to provide the best care they can for everyone who needs it.
People from all around the world help to make up that team. And that started when RMS Windrush docked in Tilbury, Essex just a few weeks before the NHS was born.
On this 75th anniversary of our treasured health service, I’m reminded of just how mu...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 5, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Christina McAnea Tags: General Secretary General Secretary's blog Christina McAnea NHS 75 Source Type: news
Movement – keeping momentum going in HE strike ballot
UNISON is balloting members for strike action in targeted universities in England over the 2023/24 pay offer. The offer is worth between 5-8% depending on spinal column point.
This year UNISON has been using a new system, Movement, to increase engagement and turnout in ballots. It allows regions, branches and activists to use phone banking, peer to peer texting and to log feedback from members by email and from in-person conversations.
From these interactions, Movement records whether a member has voted, but not which way they have voted. For example, in the HE autumn term strike ballot Movement has logged that over 1,730 ...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 4, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Simon Jackson Tags: Article HE strike higher education Source Type: news
UNISON at 30 – celebrate good times, come on!
Thirty years ago this month, UNISON was born from the merger of three unions: Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE), National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and National and Local Government Officers’ Association (NALGO).
Today UNISON is the biggest trade union in the UK with more than 1.253 million members, 75% of whom are women.
Numbers matter because numbers bring power – as we illustrated some years ago in our first TV advert. UNISON was the first trade union to advertise on TV – with the ants and the bears, which saw a bear ignoring one ant, and then two ants, before a whole crowd of ants make ...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - July 3, 2023 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News Croyde Bay legal services UNISON 30 Source Type: news
