Search Results for: food

A SCATHING report on an 18.6 million-pound beef American recall from a former ConAgra plant castigates both the company and federal regulators for failing to respond to evidence of problems. Independent federal investigators claim the company found contaminated meat at least 63 times in the weeks before the recall and US Department of Agriculture officials failed to effectively withdraw the meat.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICANS will spend a whopping US$2.38 billion worth on confectionary for tonight’s (Oct. 31) Halloween celebrations, according to the US National Retail Federation. Their Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey found the average Halloween celebrant expected to spend US$41.77.…

BY PHILIP FINE

SCIENTISTS at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a flexible paper-thin food wrapping made entirely of vegetables and fruits. Tara McHugh, a scientist in the processed foods research unit at the USDA’s Western Regional Research Center, said that the ecology-friendly wraps would not only reduce synthetic waste but effectively cover and preserve products such as sandwiches.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINAL agreement has been secured on updating EU food labelling legislation so all compound ingredients are named, scrapping a rule allowing their omission when, together, they are less than a quarter of the final product. The legislation also forces labelling to declare when potential allergens are present; a list of risky ingredients will be maintained by the European Commission.…

BY PHILIP FINE

IN what critics will say is a response to the fast-food industry’s role in rising obesity rates, McDonald’s Corp. has named a director of worldwide nutrition. Cathy Kapica was previously director of nutrition education at Quaker Oats. Her role at

McDonald’s comes amidst other changes at the restaurants, including a company health programme, a nutritional advisory council and low-fat menu items such as smaller, all-white-meat Chicken McNuggets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved – in principle – three new regulations and a directive that are a key part of the EU’s farm-to-fork food hygiene programme. Of these, two focus on meat: a regulation laying down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin and a regulation on rules for official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL in Paris, ALAN OSBORN in London, MARK ROWE in Singapore, ED PETERS and DON GASPER in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane and ALEX SMAILES in Port of Spain.…

BY PHILIP FINE

A US company has developed a farm-to-fork computer system that could assist the tracing of food poisoning outbreak sources in beef cattle. Developed by Kansas-based VeriPrime Inc, the system labels each animal with a coded metal tag, bearing information on birth and slaughter, which is logged onto a database.…

BY MARK ROWE
A GLASS of beer a day keeps old age at bay, apparently. A Japanese scientist has developed a beer that he claims makes you look younger by improving the texture and smoothness of your skin. While there was a passing craze in the 1970s for women to wash their hair in beer to give it more “body”, this brew, translated as “facial treatment beer”, is drunk, rather than applied.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINAL agreement has been secured at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers over an updating of EU food labelling legislation ensuring all potentially allergenic ingredients are named. It has accepted final amendments passed by the European Parliament, so the new directive will now become law.…