Search Results for: food

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg
AS Zimbabwe descends further into economic and political meltdown the country’s ruling elite are continuing to enrich themselves through fraud, theft and bribery. Bill Corcoran reports from Johannesburg.

UNLIKE politically stable countries where large scale commercial crime is just as likely to occur in the private sector as it is in the public, troubled Zimbabwe’s major fraudsters and thieves are today predominantly found in state run companies or government departments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE are indications that the European Parliament may give into pressure from the European Commission and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers and accept close-to-maximum liberalisation of EU prepackaging size restrictions. The parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee has indicated that MEPs will accept the abolition of various EU-approved prepackaging sizes for food and drink products previously backed by the parliament: drinking milk, butter, ground or unground roasted coffee, dried pasta, rice and brown sugar.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE are clear signs that the European Parliament may give into pressure from the European Commission and the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers and accept close-to-maximum liberalisation of EU prepackaging size restrictions. The parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee has indicated that MEPs will accept the abolition of various EU-approved prepackaging sizes for food and drink products previously backed by the parliament: drinking milk, butter, ground or unground roasted coffee, dried pasta, rice and brown sugar.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Dubai
CURBING the counterfeiting and smuggling of established companies’ goods has become a pressing concern for international businesses wanting to protect their brands in the growing economies of the Middle East.

Although certain sectors are suffering more than others, the issue has been deemed serious enough for leading multinationals to team together last year to create a Brand Owners’ Protection Group (BPG) in the Middle East to tackle the region’s part in generating the US$500 billion global counterfeit trade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project says it has used cutting edge technology to develop bio-polymer based food packaging that can replace materials based on petrochemicals such as polymers, reducing pollution and demand for mineral oils. Professor Chris Breen of Sheffield Hallam University, a member of the EU SUSTAINPACK project, said his team was incorporating tiny nano-clay particles in biopolymer films to make them as water resistant as standard polymer packaging.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in Sint Maarten
A NEW Caribbean airport terminal has been opened to secure Sint Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport’s (PJIA) role as a regional hub. Formally launched by the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix November 10, the airport serves the world’s smallest territory split between two sovereign states (Dutch Sint Maarten and French Saint Martin).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved in principle a directive criminalising across the European Union (EU) the counterfeiting and pirating of goods, imposing especially tough common maximum penalties for offences threatening human health. The proposed directive says serious counterfeiting crimes posing health risks – such as selling fake food or medicine brands – should incur maximum penalties of Euro 300,000 and/or four years’ imprisonment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project says it is using cutting edge technology to develop natural-fibre based food packaging that can replace materials based on petrochemicals such as polymers. Professor Chris Breen of Sheffield Hallam University, a member of the EU SUSTAINPACK project, said his team was incorporating tiny nano-clay particles in biopolymer films to make them as water resistant as standard polymer packaging.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMEA) and the USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have released joint principles on how they will process and use pharmacogenetic data acquired outside standard medicine approval procedures – http://www.emea.eu.int/pdfs/human/pharmacogenetics/Guideline_on_Joint_VGDS_briefingmeetings.pdf.

EMEA has also issued new standard product guidelines for human plasma fibrinogen products –

http://www.emea.eu.int/pdfs/human/bpwg/12200705en.pdf.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE
WITH the European Union (EU) securing around 25% of its gas from Russia and natural gas being an ever more important fuel for thermal power plants, the failure thus far of the European Union and Russia to agree a new long-term energy agreement has to be of concern to the electricity industry.…