Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Auditors, the EU financial watchdog, has advised that EU payments for promoting organic food production are not being properly administered or monitored. It says the cost of ensuring subsidised production is so difficult and expensive, that from 2007, EU ministers should even consider dropping the subsidies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WELL-FINANCED international programme to remove stocks of obsolete pesticides from Africa has been launched, protecting communities from persistent organic pollutants. The first phase of the Africa Stockpiles Programme (ASP-P1) has now been approved by the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has raised concerns about bird flu spreading to Africa, where poverty is so rife and governments so weak, eradication would be practically impossible. With the disease spreading to Croatia from Turkey and Romania (and a quarantine outbreak in Britain), the FAO’s chief veterinary officer Joseph Domenech warned of the disease taking hold in sub-Saharan Africa.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched five European Union (EU)-funded food-related research projects.

*Europrevall: reducing the potential within foods to spark allergic reactions and investigating how processing methods can increase allergenicity – http://www.europrevall.org/;

*Repro-food: reducing the environmental impact of food waste through cutting landfilling, while promoting eco-friendly processing methods and natural ingredients – http://www.repro-food.net/;…

BY MONICA DOBIE
EATING a hearty meal consisting of cheeseburgers and fries and other high fat foods, notorious for blocking arteries and raising cholesterol levels, can actually help fend off dangerous bacteria and stomach complaints, according to Dutch scientists.

A study published in the USA’s Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that eating high fat foods may help ward off infection and soothe gut inflammations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FERROUS and non-ferrous metal companies paid together millions of dollars in kickbacks to the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Iraq Oil for Food programme scandal has claimed. More than 150 suppliers of ferrous metal products ranging from carbon steel plates, steel coil, steel joists, galvanised steel cores, steel bars, steel pipes, fabricated steel and others are named in the report, as are around 50 suppliers of aluminium, copper and lead.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has added a range of meat products to the scope of a directive that would limit the use of certain additives in food. In amendments at first reading, that will require support from European Union (EU) ministers to become law, MEPs said a number of traditionally cured meat products from Spain, Germany and eastern European countries should be subject to sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate residue limits.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked EU ministers to open three new large food import quotas from New Zealand: an additional 1,154 tonnes of sheep meat; 735 tonnes of 80-82% fat content butter; and an extra 1,000 tonnes “high quality beef”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will coordinate establishing a rapid information system, allowing EU customs officers to immediately warn colleagues of seized counterfeit food products. This secure, real-time information transmission would also allow customs officers to access company and intellectual property databases, and businesses to send intelligence.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TEA companies paid hundreds of thousand of dollars in kickbacks to the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Iraq Oil for Food programme scandal has claimed. More than 200 tea suppliers from countries including India, Indonesia, Russia and Sri Lanka bribed the Iraq government to secure contracts to supply humanitarian supplies under the scheme, out of 2,200 companies named in a committee report.…