Search Results for: food

BY PHILIP FINE

PRODIGENE, the American company that, last month (November, 2002), accidentally mixed up its pharmaceutical corn with soybean destined for the food supply, has been fined US$250,000 (GBPounds158,000). In addition, the company will reimburse the US Department of Agriculture for all costs to acquire approximately 500,000 bushels of soybeans, destroy the beans and clean the contaminated Nebraska facility where the mixing took place.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THAI researchers have discovered a fungus parasite on fragrant rice that produces its pandanus leaf aromatic quality. The finding could enhance the flavour of the rice and lead to developments in the food industry.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THANKS to the rapid development of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) British businesses are adjusting well to the requirements imposed on them by the Kyoto Protocol, the UK Government is claiming. DEFRA (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) officials say the market has exceeded expectations in volume and smoothness of operation since it began in April this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the authorisation of a food additive, hydrogenated poly-1-decene as a glazing agent in confectionery and dried fruit. It has also proposed banning the additive calcium hydrogen carbonate. And it has proposed new authorised uses for citric acid esters of mono-and-diglycerides of fatty acids (as an emulsifier in cocoa and chocolate), malic acid (in peeled potatoes to prevent browning), pectin and calcium chloride (to thicken fruit compotes other than apple), and powdered cellulose (for use in grated mozzarella as an anti-caking agent), among others.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVE programme to improve the response of European Union (EU) institutions and member governments to chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear terrorist attacks has been agreed by the EU Council of Ministers.

Following almost a year of debates, the approved plan requires governments and institutions to develop a comprehensive set of contingency actions, including political, economic, diplomatic, military and legal means, covering the prevention of attacks and the limitation of their consequences.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CITY of Santa Clarita, California, has launched America’s first nappy recycling programme which will pick up nappies from 500 families in special plastic bags. The recovered material will help make non-food packaging and products including wallpaper, oil filters, and shoe insoles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is predicting the extinction of the virulent cattle disease rinderpest by a UN deadline of 2010. It is trying to eradicate the last traces of the virus in northeast Kenya and southern Somalia.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
PROPOSALS by the European Commission to ban state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste and fallen stock could put many British slaughterhouses out of business, said Robert Kennard, a spokesman for small abattoir operators.

Under the Brussels plan, state aid for the disposal of slaughterhouse waste of any kind would be made illegal from the start of 2003, though European Union (EU) Member States would be given leeway in exceptional circumstances to grant 50 per cent aid for the disposal of specified risk material and meat and bone meal with no further commercial use.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GEOFFREY Podger will start work as Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority on February 1. He has been chief executive of the UK Food Standards Agency. The EU agency will now appoint its advisory forum, its scientific committee and panels, and recruit most of its staff.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed the authorisation of a new food additive, hydrogenated poly-1-decene, which Brussels wants cleared for use as a glazing agent in confectionery and dried fruit. The idea is to provide manufacturers with an alternative to the banned white mineral oil other than vegetable oil-based products, which suffer from rancidity and stickiness.…