The Science of Food

July 24, 2025

Saffron: The duplicitous golden spice

Humans have always displayed enormous ingenuity when it comes to short-changing their fellow man. Modern tech companies, with their opaque terms of service and relentless data farming, are a great recent example of this but to capture the eternal nature of man’s duplicity we need look no further than our daily repast. Since antiquity we Continue reading

antioxidants, botany, food fraud, saffron, spice

antioxidants, art, carotenoids, crocin, Food, food fraud, food science, nutrition, picrocrocin, recipes, saffron, safranal, spice, terpenes
July 8, 2025

Oxygen, electrons and Scottish chefs: How understanding redox reactions could save you from a bollocking

Many years ago I was working in a restaurant in Scotland and in an effort to save myself some time I prepped a stack of apples we were using as a garnish hours before we needed them. Thinking I’d done something clever I was radiating smugness until a coworker pointed out that the apples would Continue reading

antioxidants, chemistry, redox reactions

antioxidants, biology, chemistry, food chemistry, food science, free radicals, health, iron, oxidation, oxidative stress, oxidising agent, redox reaction, reducing agent, reduction-oxidation reactions, Science