A three-year project to tackle mycotoxin-related food safety issues in Africa is scheduled to start next month. MycoSafe-South is a European-African partnership for use of mycotoxin-mitigation strategies in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on children and a budget of almost €800,000 ($915,000).
It aims to identify safe options for aflatoxin and fumonisin-contaminated food and feed,…
Ireland has launched a food safety and authenticity strategy to proactively identify and mitigate risk in the supply chain.
Implementation will focus on seven areas: communications; training; risk assessment; contingency planning; data capture, analysis and utilization; policy design; and harmonization of activities. A project team has been created for each area.
The Minister for Agriculture,…
Swedish authorities are investigating a national outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 with at least 50 cases.
Folkhälsomyndigheten (Public Health Agency) and Livsmedelsverket (National Food Agency) said it appears to be one of the biggest outbreaks of infections from the potentially deadly pathogen that the country has ever had. Sweden usually records about 30 to 50…
Spanish authorities have seized 45 tons of illegally treated tuna fish from four provinces. Four people face possible criminal penalties of up to four years in prison for endangering public health, as well as administrative sanctions.
Frozen tuna for canning had been treated with substances that enhance the color and then diverted to the market …
The application of genomics is reducing the number of people who become ill from foodborne infections, according to Public Health England.
PHE made the comments in a paper on the transition to use of whole genome sequencing (WGS).
“The introduction of routine WGS has improved national and local surveillance, increased the number of outbreaks being…
Transmission of so-called rabbit fever through the food chain is unlikely, according to a risk assessment by a German institute.
Francisella tularensis is a highly virulent bacterial pathogen that causes tularemia, also known as rabbit fever. The Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR) said 41 cases were reported in the country in 2016 and 34 in 2015. …
Nuts, nut products and seeds was the top food product category recalled in Europe, according to a second quarter index by Stericycle Expert Solutions.
The category, with 156 recalls, came ahead of fruits and vegetables with 118 recalls and fish and fish products with 81 recalls. Nuts, nut products and seeds was also the top…
Salmonella in eggs has led to separate recalls in three European countries in a timely reminder for vigilance after a recent rise in infections from the pathogen ended a decade of decline.
Alerts were made in Germany, Italy, and Malta but no illnesses have been reported. The annual report on zoonotic diseases published at the…
Public Health England is investigating an increase in Cyclospora infections for the fourth successive year. Up to early August, 57 cases had been reported in England, Scotland and Wales, of which 46 had travelled to Mexico.
Where information is known, people who were infected stayed at several different hotels in the Cancun and Riviera Maya…
A foodborne parasite detected in two patients in a Chinese hospital has been traced to consumption of raw wild centipedes, according to a case report by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Researchers from the Southern Medical University and Zhujiang Hospital in Guangzhou said it’s the first time the Angiostrongylus cantonensis parasite —…
