Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s proposed regulation reforming European Union (EU) food and feed controls is close to final approval, with the acceptance of the reform package by the European Parliament. Crucially, MEPs agreed amendments informally agreed with the EU Council of Ministers, so a swift final rubber-stamping is now anticipated, with the law coming into force January 1, 2006.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE US Environmental Protection Agency is studying any possible health risks associated with chemicals released into the air when a bag of microwave popcorn is popped or opened. Exposure to flavourer diacetyl has been linked to a rare lung disease contracted by some factory workers in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has started its scientific work on ingredient safety advice in earnest, issuing a series of notices. Its scientific panel on biological hazards has called for additional research into the risk to consumers posed by BSE-linked prion proteins in beef tongues, for instance, which are currently considered safe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WANT to safely destroy BSE-infection in specified risk material (SRM) from abattoirs? Well exposing it to 10,000C plasma and high levels of ultra violet light should do the trick. That’s the principle behind mobile waste treatment technology being developed by the European Union-backed PLASMER project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BIRD flu outbreak that has paralysed global poultry markets could spark a related deadly human influenza pandemic, for which preparations must be laid, a World Health Organisation summit has concluded. “We have seen how many countries were preparing for terrorism and bioterrorism and we wish to point out that Mother Nature is the biggest bioterrorism of all,” said participant Dr Angus Nicoll, director of England & Wales’ Public Health Laboratory Service’s communicable disease surveillance centre.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WESTERN European animal health specialists will help man the new external border posts of the European Union (EU) while 10 eastern and southern European countries join the continental bloc in May. These veterinary experts will advise their new member country counterparts on administering EU animal and animal product health laws in the weeks before and after accession.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations has created an international advisory board on water supplies and sanitation, which will try to boost these services in developing countries. It will try and mobilise funds for such projects, also offering technical, political and business advice.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
OFFICIALS from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have traced feed given to cows that caused two cases of BSE in Canada and the USA and suspect that some imported British feed could be to blame. It was fed to the animals as calves, prior to the introduction of comprehensive tissue bans for feed.…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTRODUCTION of a European Union (EU) health insurance card that would guarantee medical treatment for EU citizens on temporary stays in another EU country – maybe dampening demand for commercial travel insurance – has been approved by the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ASSOCIATION of British Insurers (ABI) is pressing the UK Government to maintain its raised level of spending on flood defences, as it works towards its next public spending round announcement in the summer. Following the spate of disastrous floods in 2000, Whitehall in 2002 increased its annual spending on the problem by Pounds 150 million.…