Two US companies have joined numerous others worldwide in recalling
their jelly products from the market, following FDA advice that the
jellies pose a serious threat to children.
German authorities are searching for a consignment of imported veal
contaminated with an antibiotic which can halt production of human
blood cells, the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer
Protection said.
Britain said on Wednesday it would extend a programme aimed at
eradicating scrapie from sheep amid fears that the illness could
mask mad cow disease in the national flock. Scientists are
investigating whether mad cow disease, or BSE,...
The European Union has agreed to resume beef imports from Argentina
on February 1, almost a year after they were banned because of an
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, Associated Press reports
The opening of the new Consumers' Association(CA) Scottish office
in Edinburgh was the occasion for Sheila McKechnie, CA Director, to
launch a Consumers' Association campaign calling for the Food
Standards Agency Scotland...
New food additives legislation covering the use of colours and
other 'miscellaneous' additives in food came into force on 15
January in England, the UK Food Standards Agency reports this week.
Britain said on Monday it had eradicated a prolonged foot-and-mouth
outbreak and would declare its last 'at risk' region free of the
livestock disease at midnight, ending a devastating chapter for UK
farmers.
Up to three-quarters of a million eggs eaten every day contain
residues of a toxic drug that is widely used by intensive poultry
farmers, according to a new report published this week by the Soil
Association.
The European Commission has approved the creation of a joint
venture called European Salt Company (ESCO) between German company
Kali & Salz AG and Solvay S.A. of Belgium.
An Australian foot-and-mouth expert from the Australian
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) warned this week that the highly adaptable pan-Asian strain
of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), responsible...
An Associated Press story reports that US federal health officials
last week renewed warnings about raw alfalfa sprouts, stating that
they could be contaminated with salmonella or E. coli bacteria.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the use of
activated lactoferrin on fresh beef, providing beef processors with
a revolutionary food safety technology that protects consumers from
harmful bacteria.
Concerns about the growing incidence of food poisoning in the UK
have led to calls for much tighter controls of firms which handle
food, according to a report from the BBC.
To protect the food supply, farms, restaurants and supermarkets
should consider criminal background checks on employees, take care
to safeguard water supplies and keep a closer eye on the salad bar,
the U.S. government says.
Top U.S. Agriculture Department officials and industry experts on
Monday reviewed details of China's long-awaited rules for biotech
soybeans and other genetically modified crops, which will take
effect on March 20.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects China's imports of
wheat, soybeans, vegetable oils, and cotton to rise in the years
after accession to the WTO as new pressures from external
competition and internal shifts in consumer...
French agriculture minister Jean Glavany indicated that France is
not sure whether it will lift its ban on British beef, despite the
ruling of the European Court of Justice.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) are to convene a Global Forum of Food Safety
Regulators in Marrakech, Morocco on 28-30 January 2002, the two
agencies announced on Thursday.
European Union agriculture ministers adopted regulations for a new
banana-import system Wednesday, formally marking an end to a
long-running dispute with the United States and Ecuador.
A battle between the Italian city of Parma and Finland's capital
Helsinki over who should host a prestigious European food safety
agency is rapidly turning into an undignified food fight.
The incapacity of European leaders at the Laeken summit this
weekend to make a decision on the location of the new European Food
Safety Authority (EFSA) means that the new food safety edifice
will, for the moment, be based in Brussels.
EU leaders, after hours of wrangling, were cited as failing to take
a decision on Saturday at their year-end summit on where to locate
a host of new EU agencies, including the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA).
Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged his French counterpart, Lionel
Jospin, to allow British farmers to resume exports of beef to
France, officials at a two-day European Union summit said on
Saturday.
A plan for the Agriculture Ministry to be the focal point of a new
Food Authority of Thailand has been approved in principle by Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai newspaper the Bangkok Post
reports this week.
Slovakia's fifth case of mad cow disease surfaced on Friday, three
months after the country became the second central European state
to discover the brain-wasting affliction, a state veterinarian
said.
The UK Food Standards Agency advised recently that children should
not eat certain mini cup fruit jelly products that contain Konjac
because of the risk of choking on the sweets.
Austria has announced its first case of BSE.Discovered within the
country's routine testing programme, the case was found in a
middle-sized farm in Gmuend in Lower Austria. The 70-month-old cow
involved was immediately destroyed,...
Effective control of the global threat of Foot-and-Mouth Disease
(FMD) requires a concerted international strategy to combat and
control it at the source, including in particular more assistance
to the developing countries where the...
France will make sure that it protects consumers as it decides how
to respond to a ruling by the EU's top court that it is breaking EU
law by banning British beef, farm minister Jean Glavany said on
Friday.
All commonly used processes in the bovine bone gelatin
manufacturing process that have the potential to remove and/or
inactivate BSE pathogens, are totally effective, according to the
results of a recent TSE validation study.
A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday it was "urgent" for the
European Union to find a way to end a three-year-old ban on
approvals of new genetically modified crops.
The Europeans new edifice to food safety and stronger principles
for EU food law moved closer to existence this week when, at a
second reading, the European Parliament (EP) established a clearer
position.
(ANZFA) on Wednesday invited public comment on a number of proposed
changes to the Food Standards Code, including the use of
industrial hemp as a novel food.
The U.S. Agriculture Department has announced it will not close
meat processing plants that violate its salmonella safety standard,
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Estonia said on Friday it imposed a five-year ban on imports of
live cattle and beef from neighbouring Finland after tests on a
slaughtered Finnish cow suspected of having mad cow disease proved
positive.
Italy and Spain have infringed an EC Treaty by prohibiting
chocolate products from being marketed under the name 'chocolate'
where, in addition to cocoa butter, they also contain other
vegetable fats.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it had fined five
companies a total of 135 million euros ($120.5 million) for
participating in a price-fixing and market-sharing cartel in citric
acid.
US President Bush this week signed into law the H.R.2333- otherwise
known as the "Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug
Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002.
Japanese investigators searching on Sunday for the cause of an
outbreak of mad cow disease zeroed in on a milk substitute which
may have been fed to all the animals involved.
Government scientists at the centre of a botched study in which cow
brains were used in a test for BSE in sheep were most likely
confused by badly labelled sample bottles, an independent auditor
said on Friday.
The UK meat industry has witnessed a general reduction in
non-compliances in meat hygiene teams this year, a Food Standards
Agency report reveals this week.
The Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) this week released
a new consumer pamphlet explaining the new labelling rules for
genetically modified (GM) foods which will come into effect on the
7 December 2001.
The head of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday asked the
Bush administration how it will prevent price-fixing in the dairy
industry, now that a law allowing New England states to set minimum
milk prices has expired.
Food manufacturers are being warned that they need to spend money
on tracing where ingredients come from before the commercial
release of genetically modified foods is allowed.