Brussels invests in the fat issue backing a five-year programme to
investigate the most effective way dietary fat change could impact
the current worldwide obesity epidemic.
The world's watchdog for food rules has given the green light to
over 20 new and amended food standards covering animal feeding,
milk products and a newly adopted definition for traceability.
Food safety concerns rise in the UK as the Food Standards Agency
launches an investigation into the apparent failure by the meat
hygiene arm of the food watchdog to test some casualty cattle aged
between 24 and 30 months for BSE before...
As the anti-GM feel gains pace in Europe Britain's third largest
retailer Sainsbury has seized the moment launching onto the
supermarket shelves a milk produced from cows 'guaranteed to have
been fed a GM free diet'....
Accreditation of Genetic ID's testing for detection of genetically
modified materials in raw foods, processed foods, and animal feed
has been renewed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service
(UKAS).
Dutch feed manufacturing firm De Heus-Brokking-Koudijs recently
installed two new high-tech roller mills at its Ravenstein plant
with the aim of producing poultry feed more efficiently. To carry
out the project, engineering firm Buhler...
With stringent rules on the labelling of genetically modified
ingredients entering into force earlier this week, the European
Commission has laid out the framework for the tough new
regulations.
The safety of chicken eggs has been challenged by a UK
environmental pressure group, just weeks after figures showing the
lowest levels of Salmonella in years were published. The Soil
Association claims that as many as one in eight...
Russian agribusiness group Aston says it has acquired a controlling
stake in the Millerovo oil extraction plant in the Rostov region,
which, after modernisation, will be used to increase the company's
foothold in the edible oils...
Favourable news for the pro-GM camp as a team of British scientists
claims that genetically modified (GM) maize is less damaging to
wildlife than conventional varieties. At the same time, leading UK
organisations call on Tony Blair...
Monsanto will have to wait a little longer to find out if it will
be granted permission by the European Union authorities to import
its genetically modified (GM) maize NK603 into the trading bloc.
The European Commission today backed a proposal to allow imports of
Bt-11, a genetically modified (GM) maize type. This represents the
first step towards lifting the EU's five-year unofficial ban on new
GM crops and products....
Legislation in the Netherlands has been passed that substantially
reduces the number of ingredients that can be used in the
manufacture of livestock feed. Food processors in Europe will be
looking closely to see whether such legislation...
As the United States deals with the fallout from the first case of
mad cow disease to hit the country, an international organisation
warns countries to stay on the alert and buck up controls.
A row over the safety of farmed salmon has flared up in the UK amid
concerns over the levels of cancer-causing toxins present in the
farmed variety compared to its wild sister following findings from
a new US study.
DNA evidence suggests - to a high degree of certainty - that the
BSE-positive cow found in Washington State originated from a dairy
farm in Alberta, Canada, according to the USDA. The department also
believes that the safeguards put...
Organic meat sales are set to surge in the United States as BSE
sparks consumers' fears for food safety, reports UK research
company Organic Monitor. Late last month the US government
confirmed the country's first mad cow...
MEPs last week voted to adopt a contentious report calling for
rules to be established at the community level on the coexistence
of genetically modified (GM) crops with ordinary crops. A move that
squares up against the Commission...
A suspected mad cow has shocked the Czech State Veterinary
Authority (SVS) by being only 3 years old. Previous cases of the
disease in the state have always dated back to cows born between
the years 1995 and 1997.
The European Union has given its first indication that it may lift
its five year block on GMOs, stating that the ban could be lifted
before the end of the year.
The Agricultural Council has made the final adoption of an EU
Regulation controlling the use of additives in animal feed which
specifically targets antibiotics being used as growth promoters.
The Council of Ministers yesterday formally adopted two European
Commission proposals on genetically modified organisms,
establishing a clear EU system to trace and label GMOs in food and
feed products.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)
said in a statement this week that the discovery of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a cow in Canada should not
result in widespread hysteria in Europe and...
The European Court of Justice has this week annulled the
Commission's decision to end the ban on bovine products from
Portugal, following a French-led legal challenge. The ruling is
expected to have a European-wide impact on...
The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health at the
European Commission has adopted a series of transitional and
permanent implementing measures in preparation for the application
of the Animal By-Products Regulation...
As the GM debate takes to the road in the UK this week with
promises of consumer feedback via conferences and meetings, here
below we have selected an article by Lyndsey Greig of market
analysts Frost & Sullivan that takes a closer...
The whole infrastructure of European egg production will be
decimated ifcurrent legislation to improve animal welfare is
allowed to passunhindered into European law, without protection
against importsproduced to lower standards.
European ministers have reached a political agreement on
genetically modified foods and feed, paving the way towards some of
the toughest legislation on GMOs in the world. Although a supporter
of GM labelling, the European food industry...
German chemicals group BASF said this week that while on schedule
with its expansion of vitamin E production, first announced in
2001, it was anticipating supply bottlenecks at its Ludwigshafen
plant between now and April next year.
The US has complained to the World Trade Organisation about the
recent decision in the EU to tighten the labelling restrictions for
GM products, increasing the likelihood of a new trade war between
the two blocs, warns Friends of...
An advisory committee to the European Parliament has ruled that
draft rules on the labelling of genetically modified foods should
be toughened, to the delight of anti-GM campaigners throughout the
Union.
A new report presented to the US Congress has claimed that the EU
and other countries which have imposed bans on GM products because
of public health concerns are acting irrationally.
Consumers need clear information about genetically modified (GM)
food, but tough European Commission proposals planning compulsory
labels for all food products made from gene crops are unworkable, a
UK parliamentary report said.
Genetically modified foods pose no greater health risk than
conventional foods, but the US government should scrutinise more
closely the safety of new biotech products, the investigative arm
of Congress has said.
First quarter sales at pharmaceutical giant Roche were up 5 per
cent in Swiss franc terms to SFr7.4 billion (€5m), with good
performances from the group's other divisions more than offsetting
a decline at the vitamins arm.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) on Monday announced
details of a comprehensive report from its BSE Sub-committee
looking at strategies to reduce the incidence of BSE in Ireland and
whether these would add value in terms...
Consumers are most concerned about issues such as food poisoning,
BSE and pesticides, reveals a recent consumer survey conducted by
the UK Food Standards Agency. Although they are more aware about
the meaning behind food labels there...
New research virtually eliminates the likelihood of mad cow disease
being transmitted from one generation of cattle to the next, a
senior British government adviser on the disease has reported.
The European Commission has unveiled a sweeping reform of food
safety legislation, giving itself more powers to take emergency
steps in crises such as the dioxin poisoning scare.
A senior official at Belgium's Agriculture Ministry has been
arrested following the discovery of new cases of pig feed that had
not been tested for cancer-causing chemicals.
A day after Italy's first human case of suspected mad cow disease,
the European Parliament has demanded new EU powers to help prevent
the consumption of contaminated meat, reported Reuters.
The United Nations world food body urged countries to remove the
antibiotic chloramphenicol from the food chain after events last
week led to a European food scare.
A consignment of fishmeal feed produced in Germany using some
ingredients contaminated with an antibiotic presents no danger to
public health, the Lower Saxony state agriculture ministry in
Germany said yesterday.
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.
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.
