Having just published its annual report for 2002, the Food Safety
Authority of Ireland has outlined acrylamide and food chain safety
as the key issues it hopes to concentrate on in the 2003/2004
period.
Millions of animals could be needlessly slaughtered and billions of
dollars lost unless the world backs an international science team
to develop new tools to fight foot-and-mouth disease.
Ten maize meal products have been voluntarily withdrawn from sale
in the UK after tests showed that they contained high levels of
toxins called fumonisins.
Scanvaegt has launched a new system aimed at reducing give-away in
poultry processing. The DreamBatcher is said to substantially
reduce wastage by enhancing the efficiency of the packaging
processing.
Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL) is to launch a new pesticide
detection service for the food industry. The new service is being
offered in partnership with an approved third party laboratory.
A new spectrophotometer called 'Chameleon' has been launched by
Spectroscopic and Analytical Developments, designed to analyse the
contents of finished food and beverage products.
Next month two subsidiaries of the Denmark based Foss Group - Foss
Electric and Foss Tecator, will be merged in an effort to maintain
future growth for the food analysis company.
Parties interested in forging ahead with GM foodstuffs in the UK
have a battle on their hands as the widest public debate ever held
in Britain finds an overwhelming percentage of people uneasy.
The European Commission has resolved to ensure that the same
standards of food safety apply to all products, regardless of
origin. Commissioner for health and consumer protection David Byrne
said that food imports into the EU should...
A report from Dow Corning claims that billions of euros are lost
each year because of unnecessary repair work which has to be
carried out on processing equipment that has not been sufficiently
lubricated.
The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) says contrary to media reports
yesterday it has not issued an official health warning about the
Atkins diet, or linked it to increased risk of obesity and cancer.
A new product from Emerson Process Management is enabling steam in
place (SIP) cycle time reductions of typically 20 per cent on fully
monitored plant installations.
Materials testing specialists, Lloyd Instruments, has passed its
Transition Audit from ISO 9000:1994 to ISO 9001:2000, which gives
the company TickIT accreditation for software excellence.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is planning to commission new
research comparing the nutrient value and pesticide residue content
of key organic and non-organically produced fruit and vegetables.
Chadwicks of Bury, the UK's largest heat seal, pre-cut lid
manufacturer, has received approval from the US Food and Drug
Administration for its state of the art facility.
Good news for food manufacturers and ingredients companies in the
dairy market with findings revealing that many consumers are
willing to pay more for dairy products marketed as organic or
natural.
How can Europe's infant food safety body function without staff?
For the newly elected board of the European food Safety Authority
this question was the central debate when they met yesterday in
Brussels.
Six months after a permanent ban on the use of the food additive
E425 in jelly confectionery, food safety agency finds these illegal
products for sale in the UK.
With tough new rules on food traceability entering into force in
Europe by 2005, FoodTrace, a European concerted action, will
develop a traceability framework for the whole food chain from farm
to fork.
Frozen food giant McCain Foods has selected CPIM software from
FullTilt. The company believes that this will help it to
synchronise its product information across more than 55 production
facilities on six continents.
Food safety giant SureBeam has announced that it will close its
Vernon, California processing service centre in an effort to
consolidate its processing services business.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted
approval for a proprietary formulation of lactoferrin. The ruling
paves the way for the commercial application of this new food
safety technology.
New knowledge on mad cow disease emerges as researchers across the
Atlantic claim to have developed a faster test for identifying the
disease, possibly even in living cows.
Discovering genetic fingerprints of heat-beating micro-organisms
could bring us closer to understanding why some foods spoil and how
bacteria manage to survive heat treatments.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocate of safer
food, will be hosting a one-day conference to examine some of the
best models for reducing or eliminating food-safety hazards at the
farm level.
The Irish food safety agency has warned the food industry to be
vigilant and efficient or 'face the consequences' as investigations
continue into the biggest outbreak of E. coli O157 in
Ireland to date.
The UK food agency has warned consumers that some batches of a
pasta sauce sold in the UK contain chilli powder contaminated with
the illegal chemical dye Sudan I, a known carcinogen.
A rash of salmonella outbreaks have been reported across the UK.
And according to one leading bacteriologist, the source of these
outbreaks is probably food-based.
Sygen International is to receive funding from the BIRD (Binational
Industrial Research and Development) foundation to carry out
research into disease resistance and mortality in poultry.
A UK survey has been carried out on the occurrence of patulin in
cider. Patulin, which is a kind of mycotoxin, is produced by moulds
that sometimes grow on apples.
The food safety agency of Australia and New Zealand has opened
channels for public comment on a number of possible changes to its
recently implemented Food Standards Code.
Finland's National Food Agency has just reported that last year 38
outbreaks involving a total of 1,120 people were accounted for on
its food poisoning register.
US firm Swift has implemented a new double pasteurisation system at
six of its American beef processing plants. The company believes
that this will significantly improve the group's food safety
protocols.
The US Food and Drug Administration has said that it is safe to
spray lactoferrin, a milk protein, on to beef carcasses to fight
disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli 0157:H7.
Pragmatism with a hint of cynicism permeates the British Nutrition
Foundation's analysis of the European Commission's proposal for a
regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods.
But as European and US politicians fail to see eye to eye on the
issue of genetically modified foods, one country in the southern
hemisphere is getting to grips with tighter GM legislation.
The American Food and Drug Administration has given Schott HiCotec
approval for its innovative PICVD process for barrier coating in
food and beverage packaging made of PET.
Packaging Automation, the heat-sealing equipment specialist, has
installed a second of its Vision 4000 machines at a
state-of-the-art salad factory in the UK.
Texas A&M University's Institute of Food Science & Engineering has said it has received a USDA grant to establish a centre for research into electron beam research.
