Search Results for: food

BY ALAN OSBORN
A LABELLING directive to be proposed shortly by the European

Commission could compel the wine and spirits industry to list all allergens on bottles, following an opinion from EU food scientists that they could cause possibly fatal allergic reactions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is pressing for the ongoing World Trade Organisation round in agricultural goods to lead to a reduction in export credits for food products, that are currently unregulated by world trade rules.

EU chief negotiator David Roberts has offered to maybe trim Europe’s export subsidies under a new WTO Agreement on Agriculture, if other countries – notably the USA – consider reducing loans such as export credits.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has formally proposed its anticipated list of maximum dioxin contamination limits for food products. The levels for fish are as predicted last week in Environmental Health News. For dairy products, beef and sheep-meat it is three nanograms per kilogram of fat, for example.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations’ increasingly misnamed oil-for-food scheme has been extended until November 30, with the Iraqi government and the UN Security Council agreeing to break the deadlock that led to the agreement being suspended since June.

Diplomats agreed that any changes to the programme should be put off in the meantime, although the American and British governments have released statements saying that they intended to continue discussions focused on reforming the system.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
NEW labelling requirements that will spell out in some detail the presence and history of genetically modified organisms, (GMO’s), in food sold in the 15 EU countries have been proposed by the European Commission. The regulation, which requires approval by the European Parliament and the EU national governments, extends present legislation, removes loopholes and brings in a new comprehensive traceability requirement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU consumer affairs Commissioner David Byrne has revealed details of a planned new European directive on food labelling to a round table on food quality, safety and production, that could lead to a dramatic expansion of the ingredient information that must be printed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ADMINISTRATIVE reforms made by the Belgian government in the wake of the dioxin contamination crisis have been judged so effective by the European Commission, that it has decided to drop a European Court of Justice case against alleging that Belgium had broken EU food safety laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PROTECTION of the public from accidental contamination created by nuclear radiation does not just involve nuclear energy or defence installations, a European Commission report on radiation protection has pointed out. Other industries also use what are known as “elevated contents of naturally occurring radionuclides, (NORMs),” and these sites often require special radioactive clean-ups.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A LACK of coordination amongst EU Member States’ research teams regarding the study of BSE has been revealed by a new European inventory of previous work and that in progress, collated by the European Commission.

It has highlighted areas where better links between national research programmes is required.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL guidelines to prevent the future spread of BSE around the world have been agreed by a joint meeting of the World Health Organisation, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Office International des Epizooties, the world’s animal health organisation.…