Without necessarily knowing the term “traceability,” consumers have been calling for it in their food system for a long time. The evidence of that comes from the food industry itself, with its increased emphasis on where food came from. Many companies now highlight certain locations or farmers in brand names, commercials, or through packaging and… Continue Reading
Europe and America appear to be taking decidedly different approaches to honeybee colony collapse. The European Union just adopted continent-wide restrictions against the neonicotinoid class of insecticides called out by the European Food Safety Authority as especially damaging to bees. In the U.S., however, a newly released comprehensive scientific report on honey bee health says… Continue Reading
A hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen berries has sickened as many as 56 people in 4 of Europe’s Nordic countries, according to health officials. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that 16 hepatitis A infections arising from the same strain of the virus have been reported in Denmark, Finland, Norway… Continue Reading
Between July and September of 2009, health officials in Hungary noted an unusually high number of Salmonella Goldcoast infections in the country. In October, they sent an inquiry to Europe’s disease tracking system to see whether this rare strain of Salmonella had surfaced in any other countries. The results showed that Italy too had seen… Continue Reading
After a meeting with health ministers from European Union nations, EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg gained support for DNA testing of meat products throughout the continent. “The tests will be on DNA in meat products in all member states,” Borg said after the ministerial meeting in Brussels over Europe’s expanding horsemeat scandal. The EU health… Continue Reading
Last month, the European Union’s food safety body published its long-awaited safety assessment of the controversial artificial sweetener aspartame, deeming the substance not dangerous to human health. Comments on the document will be accepted through Friday. The safety of aspartame, used as a sugar substitute in a variety of foods and beverages including drinks, desserts,… Continue Reading
European Union health officials are investigating an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Stanley that has sickened over 400 people in seven member countries. While S. Stanley infections are rare outside of Southeast Asia and usually appear only among those who have traveled there, this outbreak is thought to have originated in poultry – probably turkey –… Continue Reading
Next month’s promised release of a new “full re-evaluation” of the sweetener aspartame is not going to happen until at least May 2013. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asked for the extra time, and the European Commission (EC) — the governing body for the 27-country European Union (EU) — granted its request. EFSA originally… Continue Reading
Opinion
There were several FDA representatives on the agenda at the recent meeting of the International Association of Food Protection conference in Providence, RI. You have to have sympathy for them — who could have envisioned that the rules scheduled to be out over six months ago would still be held up? FDA did a commendable… Continue Reading
PROVIDENCE– In implementing its new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the United States wants to boldly go where no government has gone before in protecting food imports, but the European Union (EU) doesn’t like it. Carlos Alvarez Antolinez, an EU food safety official stationed in Washington D.C., told the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP)… Continue Reading
Bureaucrats in Brussels have tallied up the damage last year’s E. coli O104:H4 outbreak did to the European fruit and vegetable business and threatened to use European Union law to make sure it does not happen again. Yet, the newly released “Commission Staff Working Document” into “lessons learned” about the 2011 outbreak probably won’t shake… Continue Reading