Search Results for: food

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD food standards body, Codex Alimentarius, has revised its guidelines for sugars, cocoa and dairy products, sitting in its 24th session in Geneva, Switzerland.

Attended by 365 delegates, alternates and advisors from 87 Member countries, this meeting of Codex commission adopted 41 new or revised standards, guidelines and related texts, all of which are voluntary, although having influence by the fact they have been agreed internationally and that they promote trade.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that the proposed European Food Authority is to play a central role in the evaluation of pesticide safety, in a speed up the current slow pace by which the EU is checking the toxicity of active ingredients in plant protection products.…

Keith Nuthall
ADVICE on how to create integrated pollution control policies within breweries has been included in a comprehensive EU report on limiting the impact of the beverage and food industries on the environment. The report drew upon research covering eastern European countries hoping to join the European Union, as well as existing Member States.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE AND KEITH NUTHALL
THE TRADITIONAL Japanese passion for cherry blossom has yielded the invention of a brewing yeast, which is supposed to impart a heavenly aroma to beers, whilst enabling brewers to maintain their operational efficiency.

Experts from the Akita Research Institute of Food and Brewing visited sightseeing spots famed for the colourful blossom in late April and early May last year, collecting blossom and sap, from which natural yeasts were extracted in the laboratory.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Union government ministers have agreed that from July 2002 a ban on the feeding of restaurant food waste to pigs will apply throughout the 15 EU countries, as part of a directive on the control of classical swine fever.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WILL there come a day when a genuine European market in health care takes its place among the other landmark achievements of the European Union?

In terms of economic efficiency and the functioning of the internal market, does it make much sense for a million patients in Britain, say, to have to wait sometimes for a year or more for important operations while people in France or Luxembourg can book them for the next day and some German hospitals have barely half their beds filled?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLAND has announced that it intends to impose retaliatory restrictions on Slovakian food exports, in response to the safeguard duties imposed on imports of sugar by its east European neighbour, which Warsaw claims were erected in a way that breaks world trade laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IRELAND is being threatened with legal action by the European Commission over its alleged failure to extend the EU product liability directive to primary agricultural foodstuffs, such as meat and game. Ireland had until last December to changes its law, to allow Irish food manufacturers, processors and caterers to pass on liability for defective products to farmers, where the blame is clear.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU consumer affairs and health Commissioner David Byrne has revealed details of a planned new European directive on food and drink labelling, which could lead to a dramatic expansion of the ingredient information that must be printed. If it is approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, the directive would order the listing of all ingredients of foodstuffs and potential allergens.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that strict dioxin contamination limits are introduced from January 2002, covering foodstuffs including fish and fish feed.

Products with dioxin contaminants exceeding these levels would be considered “unsuitable for consumption.”

The following maximum levels for fish dioxins have been tabled:

*Fish oil: 6 nanogram/kg;

*Fish meal: 1.25 nanogram/kg;

*Fish feed: 2.25 nanogram/kg;

*Fish meat (farmed and wild): 4 nanogram/kg.…