Review of the year
July
Staying with Malaysia, it was revealed that the country is now the fattest in Asia, with obesity taking a toll not least through growing cases of diabetes.
Also there, researchers are well on the way to inventing a halal test kit that can identify porcine DNA in just minutes.
In the Philippines, the humble tilapia fish (pictured) was named as one of the most important sources of protein to feed billions around the world in the face of food insecurity.
And in China, McDonald’s, KFC apologised in the country’s latest food safety scandal, in which a US-owned company relabelled expired meat before shipping it to the multinational fast-food chains.