Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GEOFFREY Podger will start work as Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority on February 1. He has been chief executive of the UK Food Standards Agency. The EU agency will now appoint its advisory forum, its scientific committee and panels, and recruit most of its staff.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
PROPOSALS by the European Commission to ban state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste and fallen stock could put many British slaughterhouses out of business, said Robert Kennard, a spokesman for small abattoir operators.

Under the Brussels plan, state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste of any kind would be made illegal from the start of 2003, though European Union (EU) Member States would be given leeway in exceptional circumstances to grant 50 per cent aid for the disposal of specified risk material and meat and bone meal with no further commercial use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PROBLEM for farmers when considering how to influence international negotiations that are as long, complicated and important as the scheduled five years of discussions over updating the World Trade Organisation’s agriculture agreement, is knowing when to spend money on lobbyists to intervene.…

BY PHILIP FINE

US food investors have acquired a taste for Mexican food as small and medium-sized Californian latino-food producers are being increasingly targeted for purchase by mainstream American food firms. According to a specialist report in the Los Angeles Times, burrito-maker Don Miguel Foods, salsa-maker Chilay Foods and taquitos and quesadillas-maker Excelline Foods were all bought or heavily financed recently by bigger firms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
*A supermarket boom in sub-Saharan Africa is raising food production and distribution standards, which many small farmers cannot meet, said the UN’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It called for the funding of cooperatives, micro-loans and training, especially in South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Department of Agriculture has made its National Nutrient Database adaptable to handheld Personal Digital Assistants; the database lists more than 6,000 food items. See http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp.…

BY MARK ROWE
FAST food outlets in Taipei have started providing information about the nutritional value of the food they serve up as part of the city’s drive to slim down and get healthy. McDonald’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Asian chains Mos Burger and Yoshinoya started providing details of the calories, protein, fat and sugar contained in their food as a result of rules introduced by Taipei city health director Chiu Shu-ti.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMMON EU technical rules for declaring information and making market approval applications for GM food products have been approved by the Council of Ministers.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
MOST businesses install computer software because it makes their operation more efficient and so helps them to keep abreast of, or outdo, the competition. However, the growth in national and international regulations affecting the drinks industry has opened up a lucrative business opportunity for companies producing industry-specific computer software.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRAQ is to receive two power plant gas turbines worth US$80 million under a United Nations oil-for-food programme contract, pending for nearly two years, but released under new rules speeding up project approvals. The turbines will produce power for the northern governorates of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, reconnecting them to the national electricity grid.…