Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
CHICKEN BACTERIA
BY MONICA DOBIE
SCIENTISTS have discovered that proteins from a harmless microorganism can reduce the presence of campylobacter and other pathogenic bacteria in poultry intestines by 99.9 per cent. In small trials, the proteins, called bacteriocins, almost wiped out campylobacter, reducing their presence to a millionth when fed to chickens.…
FOOD TRUST SURVEY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
DESPITE the woeful record of the British food industry regarding health, Britain’s food consumers are the most trusting in Europe, a new survey has suggested. Comparing UK attitudes to those in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Italy and Portugal, when asked if they felt 12 food products were “very safe” to eat, British consumers were the most optimistic in every case.…
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) directive setting technical limits on the exposure of workers to electromagnetism has been approved by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The legislation implements recommendations from the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection, giving employers the responsibility to assess exposure limits and ensure maximum levels are not exceeded.…
BNFL THREAT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has threatened British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) with fines, if it does not create a system for checking the amount of irradiated fuel stored in a Sellafield reprocessing plant pond. Using its powers under the Euratom treaty, the Commission has told the British government that a plan to adequately account for the fuel must be drawn up by June 1 and that the UK must report every six months on its implementation.…
CANCER EXPOSURE WORKPLACE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WIDE public consultation has been launched by the European Commission on whether European Union (EU) legislation on protecting workers against harmful cancer-causing substances should be widened to include contaminants that can harm human reproduction. Brussels is also asking for feedback on whether it should fix maximum exposure levels to substances beyond the three currently covered by EU laws: benzene, vinyl chloride monomer and hardwood dust.…
NUTRITION CLAIMS DELAY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
AGREEMENT on a proposed European Union (EU) regulation on food health and nutrition claims will now be delayed until the autumn, following the failure of the European Parliament’s environment committee to agree amendments to the legislation. Discussions will now be halted for the European Parliament’s next elections in June, after which formal business will not restart until September.…
EUROMYTHS - EASTERN EUROPE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has moved to scotch a fresh round of so-called ‘Euro-myths’ falsely alleging that European Union (EU) legislation will ban treasured food traditions when 10 new member countries join the EU in May. Brussels officials are particularly sensitive to such stories, because of past bad publicity about – ultimately inaccurate – tales, such as EU laws insisting on straight cucumbers.…
USA CJD DEATHS
BY MONICA DOBIE
A FORMAL Congressional request has been made for an official investigation into a strange cluster of deaths certified as caused by naturally occurring Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease in New Jersey, USA, amidst concerns that they may actually have died from BSE-linked v-CJD.…
HYGEINE DETECTOR
BY KEITH NUTHALL
LIGHT scanning equipment used in slaughterhouses to detect chlorophyll on meat has been adapted to help hospital employees and restaurant workers from spreading germs. A device developed by eMerge Interactive Inc. is a blue light scanner the size of an automatic hand dryer that detects faecal matter and pinpoints even minuscule amounts of contamination that could carry dangerous bacteria like E coli.…
ENLARGEMENT - BYRNE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 10 EASTERN and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) last weekend are “on course” to meeting its food health standards, Brussels’ health and consumer protection Commissioner David Byrne has claimed. His confident declaration masks some problems however, leading to temporary exemptions, giving the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia between an additional three months and three years to ensure milk producers, slaughterhouses and food processing plants meet standards that should have been in place on May 1.…