Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed the entry into force of the first set of the European Union’s new so-called farm-to-fork food legislation that will underpin the work of the new European Food Safety Authority. The new laws include the start of the reinforced rapid alert system for feed and food risks, involving obligatory notification of any direct or indirect risk to human health, animal health or the environment to an network linking national authorities, the EFSA and the European Commission;

*New emergency powers for the European Commission to suspend or control sales when a feed or food constitute a serious health risk and where a national government cannot control the situation acting alone or where non-EU food is involved.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE Indian cabinet is discussing a new national policy for food processing, which would pave the way for a Processed Food Development Authority. New Delhi is considering the rationalisation of Indian food legislation, currently divided into a plethora of laws, including those relating to the environment, marketing, grading and control.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA has attacked a ban by the EU on certain Chinese food imports on health grounds as ‘unacceptable’ and warned it could seriously affect bilateral trade. The European Commission voted to ban honey, poultry and rabbit meat, plus shrimps and prawns, following the discovery of “serious deficiencies” in China’s medical residue control system and “problems related to the use of banned substances in the veterinary field.”…

KEITH NUTHALL
A STRING of cases have been launched by the European Commission against Member States of the European Union to try and force them to comply with EU water legislation; under existing rules, failure to abide by the court’s rulings can see national governments being hit with huge daily recurring fines of up to Euro 100,000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE STRUCTURE of the World Trade Organisation negotiations launched last year in Doha, Qatar, to liberalise much of global commerce, has now been set, with committees and working parties being given the task of agreeing detailed timetables for their work.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
SCIENTISTS in Queensland, Australia, have been experimenting with crustacean blood lines to breed prawne that grow faster and produce the biggest specimens; they can now produce one measuring 30cm in length and weighing more than 450g.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GLOBAL Forum on Food Safety Regulators has been staged in Morocco by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation, reflecting concern about recent food safety disasters, such as BSE.…

BY MARK ROWE
A HUGE cleanup operation has been launched in Djibouti after a spillage at the port’s dockside of 10 containers full of toxic pesticides en route from the United Kingdom to Ethiopia. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is overseeing a Pounds 70,000 emergency fund to tackle the contamination which occurred almost four weeks ago but details of which have only just emerged.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FUTURE phytosanitary agreements between the EU and third countries should focus on “a limited number of products of undoubted importance to the parties,” said the European Commission following the emergence of a number of “practical problems” in existing deals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FOR an institution known for its tortoise-like deliberations, the World Trade Organisation has set itself such tight deadlines to make serious progress in its ongoing agricultural round that it will have to work, in its terms, at break-neck speed.…