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.
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As part of its enforcement activities, the Food and Drug Administration sends warning letters to entities under its jurisdiction. Some letters are not posted for public view until weeks or
A man has been given a suspended sentence in England for food safety offences.
Arfan Sultan, from Ilford, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Nov. 14 following an investigation
A grocery company in New Zealand has been fined for selling recalled hummus products that may have contained Salmonella.
Foodstuffs South Island was told to pay $39,000 (U.S.
Rwanda has lifted a ban on some South African food products that was put in place in 2017 because of a Listeria outbreak that sickened more than 1,000 people.
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.
Recent
Prairie Farms is announcing a recall of select Prairie Farms Gallon Fat Free Milk produced at its Dubuque, IA, facility and distributed to Woodman’s stores in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Aoun brand tahineh is under recall in Canada because of contamination with Salmonella.
The recall was triggered by test results from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The recalled tahineh was
Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends and feasting. Once the holiday meal ends, the spotlight turns to enjoying the leftovers in the days ahead. To keep those leftovers safe
