Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has been directed to rule that food retailers and distributors share with producers the responsibility for ensuring products they handle are correctly labelled. In an Italian case involving supermarket Lidl, ECJ advocate general Christine Stix-Hackl has formally advised that EU directive 2000/13/EC on the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs should not be read "as meaning that the obligations…are imposed only on the producer of a pre-packaged food product".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice’s Court of First Instance has dismissed appeals by Akzo Nobel, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Roquette Frères and AVEBE against European Commission fines for participating in a worldwide sodium gluconate food additive cartel. Judges maintained the multi-million Euro fines, albeit reducing Roquette’s penalty.…

by Alan Osborn

A string of trade deficits by European food and drink producers was reversed in 2005 thanks to a rise of 5.2% in exports – the best performance since 2000, says the EU Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA).…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has ordered the 25 EU member states to step up controls at borders following a disclosure that illegal genetically modified rice from China has found its way into the French, German and UK markets. Brussels said that traders who brought in the rice were "not doing enough" to check the food and were violating EU laws aimed at keeping out illegal GMOs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has made permanent its trial link with the food production industry, mandating for another three years its ‘Stakeholder Consultative Platform’. The board also elected Patrick Wall as chair; Diána Bánáti and Deirdre Hutton as vice-chairs.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CORNELL University researchers in the US have developed a new non-woven absorbent biodegradable wipe made of nanofibres, themselves embedded with nanoparticles containing antibodies able to quickly detect biohazards on any surface.

The cloth requires little training to use and is made of polyactide, a plastic polymer derived from corn that is inexpensive to manufacture.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority is coordinating inquiries into the alleged contamination of rice exports into the European Union (EU) from the USA with an unauthorised genetically modified strain LL601. Brussels said two EU member states have now detected the GM rice, although tests still required final confirmation.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The EU has demanded that all long grain rice from America must be tested and found to be free of GM before being allowed entry, the European Commission announced Wednesday. The notice was served following disclosure that small amounts of an unauthorised type of genetically engineered long grain rice had found its way into the feed and food chain in the US.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FOOD industry in the European Union (EU), from farms to final processing has been shedding jobs at a faster rate than any other economic sector, a report from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHOOPER swans are being fitted with portable solar-powered GPS tracking devices transmitting information about migration habits to scientists worried about wild birds spreading avian flu. The disease has rampaged through many Asian countries’ poultry sectors, throwing expensive demands on local health and veterinary services, and although livestock movements are primarily responsible for spreading the virus, wild birds are also carriers, especially swans.…