The publisher of British Food Journal wishes to retract the article Pereira CM, Franco M, Franco MA (2026), “Networks between higher education institutions and companies: the case of the RedFruitsHealth”. British Food Journal, Vol. 128 No. 7 pp. 2861-2884, doi: Link to the DOI
Following publication, concerns were raised that data reported in the article had been derived from a collaborative project and may have been used and published without appropriate permission. An investigation was conducted in accordance with Emerald's publishing ethics procedures.
During the investigation, the authors were asked to provide documentation demonstrating permission to publish the project-derived data, together with relevant consent and ethics documentation. While the authors provided information relating to the project and associated communications, documentation demonstrating explicit permission to publish the project-derived data in a journal article was not provided. In addition, the concerns regarding consent for publication of participant information could not be satisfactorily resolved.
As the journal has been unable to establish that appropriate permission and consent was obtained for the publication of the data reported in the article, the Editor and Publisher have concluded that retraction is the most appropriate course of action. The authors disagree with the content of this notice. The publisher of the journal sincerely apologizes to the readers.
