Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) national food regulators have today (Friday 29 Sept) signed a ‘declaration of intent’ committing them to developing a detailed cooperation system with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). At a meeting of the EFSA Advisory Forum in Berne, Switzerland, Europe’s food health gatekeepers agreed to draft an agreement by the New Year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Parliament report has called on the European Commission to demand that organic food products be only imported into the European Union (EU), where the exporting country also allows imports of EU-made ‘organic’ marketed foodstuffs. "EU recognition of third countries…must be reciprocal," said the paper, which has been adopted at a parliamentary plenary session.…

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 inaugural meeting of a new EFSA board said it was "confirming the establishment of the platform as a consultative body and forum for exchange and discussion between the authority and its stakeholders," which also include retailers and consumer groups.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN UNLIKELY alliance is forming in response to the European Commission’s plans to increase the use of biomass in Europe’s energy mix: the European timber industry and environmentalists.

Normally at loggerheads, if you excuse the pun, the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) and the Worldwide Find for Nature (WWF) have combined forces to recommend that the energy sector’s exploitation of biomass grow in a sustainable way

After all both sides have crucial interests at stake: CEPI is worried about demand for timber and wood waste rising so fast that not only do prices increase sharply, but that the simple availability of forest products is put at risk; the WWF is concerned about the dash to biomass uprooting ecosystems in its wake, encouraging logging in a continent which seemed to have reached some kind of equilibrium between nature conservation and forest clearance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Commission audits into failures of European Union (EU) member states to recover agricultural subsidies paid after faulty applications involving financial irregularities or outright fraud have sparked charges of Euro 317.3 million from Brussels. It is penalising national governments for what it regards as "negligence" in pursuing guilty aid claimants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has made a bid for extra funds to widen its training of food officials from European Union (EU) and overseas governments, to improve the implementation of EU food safety rules. Brussels wants to spend Euro 15 million annually to train 6,000 officials a year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has been flexing its judicial muscles as Europe’s most senior court in a spate of key food and drink rulings. Importantly, the court has been directed to rule that food retailers and distributors share with producers the responsibility for ensuring products they handle are correctly labelled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) and China have agreed to improve cooperation in imposing import-export controls to prevent breaches of both sides’ food safety controls, which both sides accept pose significant health hazards to consumers. EU and Chinese officials will exchange intelligence about illegal food consignments gleaned from spot-checks and investigations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WHEN Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle became the executive director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) earlier this year, she said a key priority would be improving cooperation between her agency and national food safety organisations across Europe.

The Frenchwoman has had a strong start to her job, moving ahead with a number of projects and making sure EFSA dovetails with national agencies has been one.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has made a bid for extra funds to widen its training of food officials from European Union (EU) and overseas governments, to improve the implementation of EU food safety rules. These regulations have been strengthened in recent years following various food safety scares, but as EU health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou has pointed out: "Training for the responsible officials is crucial in ensuring that the controls are carried out fully and properly, and in a uniform manner.…