Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WORLD food standards organisation Codex Alimentarius has asked governments to comment on draft health guidelines on additives and contaminants by September 30, including draft maximum levels for lead in fish, tin in canned food, plus cadmium levels in rice, soy beans, mollusks and peanuts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DEVELOPED countries have agreed to enter into formal talks with developing countries, if poorer food exporting states encounter problems complying with any new food health restrictions imposed by richer importing trading partners. The commitment was framed in a Canadian proposal to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) sanitary and phytosanitary measures committee under the ongoing Doha development round talks.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union is facing growing opposition at the World Trade Organisation to its stance on geographical indications, where it refuses to grant protection to traditional regional names of drinks and food products from non-EU countries, unless their governments roughly copy Europe’s own rules.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE AMERICAN Meat Institute (AMI) has called on the US government to clarify draft guidelines on how to operate a new labelling law, which will require the declaration of the name of the country where a food item originated.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SURVEY has been released by the European Commission which shows how a decline in confidence regarding genetically modified food could be deterring investment in medical biotechnology, potentially leaving the European Union at a competitive disadvantage. This Eurobarometer poll says that overall support for GM food is only found in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Finland; with most Europeans considering them “of little value and dangerous for society.”…

BY PHILIP FINE

KRAFT Foods wants the US government to make sure GM crops being grown to make pharmaceuticals steer clear from the food supply. The food industry giant said if the American federal government refuses to outlaw pharmaceutical crops, it wants there to be "every regulation possible" to avoid commingling of species.…

BY PHILIP FINE

SEVERAL major bacterial food-borne illnesses seem to be on the decline in the United States, according to a recent survey of clinical laboratories that test for infection. In their annual release of data, the US Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveyed labs that serve 13 per cent of the American population and found that sustained progress is being made in meeting the national health objectives for illnesses caused by listeria and campylobacter, when comparing 2002 data with 1996-2001 numbers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A FIRST European conference is being staged – in June – to discuss the latest form of food production that seeks to wed traditional techniques with new technology and analysis. Precision livestock production involves the computer processing of information about single or small groups of animals, so that inputs and welfare are matched to achieve perfect meat production return.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Scientific Committee on Food is to review the recommended upper levels of daily intakes of individual vitamins and minerals that are usually safe. The review will cover vitamin A (retinol and b -carotene), vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, and other ingredients.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Scientific Steering Committee – offering the European Commission expert food safety advice – has held its final meeting, to be superseded by the European Food Safety Authority. The committee advised there should be no great concern about BSE cases in Britain after the imposition of the reinforced feed ban in 1996.…