Food Standards Scotland is set to start on April 1. The Food (Scotland) Bill to set up the stand-alone body passed the Scottish Parliament in early December and received Royal Assent — meaning that the queen formally agrees to make the bill into law — on Jan. 13. Food Standards Scotland (FSS) will take over the work of the UK-wide Food Standards Agency’s division in Scotland and will tackle nutritional health, in addition to regulating food safety. “Attaining Royal Assent was the final hurdle in the primary legislation process towards a new food body for Scotland and marks the end of a mammoth task,” wrote Fiona Comrie on the Creating a New Food Body project blog. Plans for the new agency arose after the UK government transferred nutrition and food labeling in England from the Food Standards Agency to the Department of Health and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Scottish Public Health Minister Michael Matheson said the changes in England “removed significant capacity” in the agency’s nutrition and labeling functions for Scotland and needed to be addressed. It is estimated that foodborne illness affects about 132,000 Scots each year, resulting in 2,330 hospitalizations, 50 deaths, and £140 million in costs. The profile of foodborne disease varies across the UK, with higher rates of particular illnesses reported in the Scottish population compared to other countries. For example, E. coli O157 is consistently reported more frequently in Scotland than in the rest of the UK.
The News Desk team at Food Safety News covers breaking developments, regulatory updates, recalls, and key topics shaping food safety today. These articles are produced collaboratively by our editorial staff.
The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with pesticide manufacturer Bayer in Monsanto Company v. Durnell, ruling that federal law preempts lawsuits brought by cancer patients who allege its Roundup
The Food and Drug Administration uses import alerts to enforce U.S. food safety regulations for food from foreign countries. The agency updates and modifies the alerts as needed.
A report in an Australian state has made several recommendations to improve food safety.
The Audit Office of South Australia reviewed selected state and local government activities from July 2023
As part of its enforcement activities, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sends warning letters to entities under its jurisdiction. Some letters are not posted for public view until
The Food and Drug Administration uses import alerts to enforce U.S. food safety regulations for food from foreign countries. The agency updates and modifies the alerts as needed.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert for ready-to-eat chicken Caesar wraps because tests of the product showed contamination with
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert for raw boneless chicken breast products because of misbranding and undeclared allergens.
The product contains
Reser’s Fine Foods Inc. of Halifax, NC, is recalling 5,300 pounds of a ready-to-eat (RTE) product labeled as a pasta salad because of misbranding and undeclared
