Search Results for: food

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Dubai
THE UNITED Arab Emirates’ (UAE) highly competitive food sector is expecting double-digit growth this year, driven by 7% annual population growth, booming foodservice and tourism sectors, and rapid economic growth.

Food producers and retailers in this economic powerhouse of the oil-rich Gulf say there is strong growth across the board, from fresh fruit to ready-made meals in the modern retail environment of the UAE, particularly in Dubai, which is undergoing a construction boom and the top destination for most expatriate workers and tourists.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) Joint Research Centre (JRC) opened three new reference laboratories last month (March 17) to monitor reliable testing of contaminated food items, a key part of its work. The new laboratories, at Geel, in Belgium, will test for heavy metals, mycotoxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), all key food health concerns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MANDATORY consultations will be staged between Russia and the European Union (EU) in future, should either side be planning to impose health-based import restrictions on the other’s food exports. This is the essence of an agreement expected to be initialled by EU ministers and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting in Luxembourg in mid-April.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) residue limits limiting the contamination of foodstuffs by 144 pesticide substances are likely to be introduced, following the identification of potential consumer harm by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It has considered 236 chemicals in a European Commission-sponsored review and concluded that just 92 “were unlikely to present a risk.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
UNITED States food producers have been given another health report helping market foods fortified with Vitamin D. A University of Pittsburgh study, published in the US journal Nutrition, says that despite taking prenatal multivitamin supplements, pregnant women are still deficient of vitamin D.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is pushing for further research into testing the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods and crops, to improve the operation and acceptance of European Union (EU) controls under directive 2001/18/EC on the release into the environment of genetically modified organisms.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CHINESE scientists may have found a way for people who suffer from seafood allergies to eat prawns without the fear of an adverse allergic reaction. The Ocean University of China, Qingdao, has found that treating prawns with a combination of heat and irradiation significantly reduced the level of reactive allergen proteins found in the food.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN today’s highly competitive power sector, electricity companies and their suppliers are always looking for an edge over rivals, especially in technology. So it can only be good news that the European Union (EU) will from this year until 2013 be spending Euro 2.3 billion on energy studies through its ‘seventh framework programme’, its largest ever research spending scheme, commanding budgets worth Euro 53.2 billion in total.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has launched a European Union (EU)-funded Euro 725,000 research aimed at improving health standards within the food industries of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. The studies aim to suggest ways of promoting a “new decision-making culture on food quality and safety among managers and policy makers”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has declared safe using plastics ingredient bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging, following widespread concern about its effect on reproduction and hormones. EFSA scientists have re-evaluated BPA after studies showed significant differences between humans and rodents in exposure effects, undermining previous mice tests.…