A new report presented to the US Congress has claimed that the EU
and other countries which have imposed bans on GM products because
of public health concerns are acting irrationally.
Consumers need clear information about genetically modified (GM)
food, but tough European Commission proposals planning compulsory
labels for all food products made from gene crops are unworkable, a
UK parliamentary report said.
Genetically modified foods pose no greater health risk than
conventional foods, but the US government should scrutinise more
closely the safety of new biotech products, the investigative arm
of Congress has said.
San Miguel Pure Foods Co . Inc., the processed meat and poultry
unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., said Thursday that it plans
to spend 3 billion pesos (€6.5million) to expand its facilities
this year, optimistic of its growth...
First quarter sales at pharmaceutical giant Roche were up 5 per
cent in Swiss franc terms to SFr7.4 billion (€5m), with good
performances from the group's other divisions more than offsetting
a decline at the vitamins arm.
US food company Cargill, the new owner of French starch
manufacturer Cerestar, reported $161 million (€182m) in earnings
for the third quarter ended February 28, up 63 per cent from $99
million earned in the same period a year ago.
In a rare interview , Cargill, the US food group, spoke to Laurent
Flallo from Les Echos, and set out the rationale behind its
recent acquisition, the biggest in the company's 137-year history,
of French starch company Cerestar.
Japanese firm guarantees products are free of ethoxyquin, a
chemical preservative not permitted in human foodstuffs, following
last week's voluntary recall.
The American Association of Cereal Chemists, a group that evolved
out of the need to create standardised methodology for the cereal
grains industry, is to expand to include the growing field of
pulses/legumes.
Omega Protein Corporation, the leading producer of Omega-3 fish oil
and specialty fish meal products in the US, has reported net
profits of $3.9 million (€4.5m) for 2001, a welcome return to the
black after losses of $16.7 million...
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) on Monday announced
details of a comprehensive report from its BSE Sub-committee
looking at strategies to reduce the incidence of BSE in Ireland and
whether these would add value in terms...
Consumers are most concerned about issues such as food poisoning,
BSE and pesticides, reveals a recent consumer survey conducted by
the UK Food Standards Agency. Although they are more aware about
the meaning behind food labels there...
The vitamin price fixing affair which has already seen a cartel of
some of the world's major producers fined by the European and US
authorities is continuing in other parts of the world. This week
saw the Australian Federal Court...
New research virtually eliminates the likelihood of mad cow disease
being transmitted from one generation of cattle to the next, a
senior British government adviser on the disease has reported.
The European Commission has unveiled a sweeping reform of food
safety legislation, giving itself more powers to take emergency
steps in crises such as the dioxin poisoning scare.
A senior official at Belgium's Agriculture Ministry has been
arrested following the discovery of new cases of pig feed that had
not been tested for cancer-causing chemicals.
Natunola Health and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are to market
their flaxseed de-hulling and processing technology worldwide
following a new licensing agreement. The technology, which was
developed jointly by the two organisations,...
A day after Italy's first human case of suspected mad cow disease,
the European Parliament has demanded new EU powers to help prevent
the consumption of contaminated meat, reported Reuters.
The United Nations world food body urged countries to remove the
antibiotic chloramphenicol from the food chain after events last
week led to a European food scare.
A consignment of fishmeal feed produced in Germany using some
ingredients contaminated with an antibiotic presents no danger to
public health, the Lower Saxony state agriculture ministry in
Germany said yesterday.
German authorities are searching for a consignment of imported veal
contaminated with an antibiotic which can halt production of human
blood cells, the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer
Protection said.
Britain's trade ministry asked the European Commission last week to
allow it to study the impact of Cargill Inc's proposed acquisition
of French starch maker Cerestar , because of UK competition
worries.
Dutch ingredients company DSM this week announced the completion of
important research to determine the complete DNA sequence of a key
production organism, the fungus Aspergillus niger.
Slovakia's fifth case of mad cow disease surfaced on Friday, three
months after the country became the second central European state
to discover the brain-wasting affliction, a state veterinarian
said.
Austria has announced its first case of BSE.Discovered within the
country's routine testing programme, the case was found in a
middle-sized farm in Gmuend in Lower Austria. The 70-month-old cow
involved was immediately destroyed,...
European-based starch producer Cerestar announced recently that,
together with Chinese company, the Jiliang Group, it is to open a
maize processing plant in Northern China.
Japanese investigators searching on Sunday for the cause of an
outbreak of mad cow disease zeroed in on a milk substitute which
may have been fed to all the animals involved.
A European Union ban on meat-based livestock feed, imposed over
fears of mad cow disease, could in future be relaxed for certain
types of animals, E.U. officials said on Monday.
Cuban President Fidel Castro's government was expected to buy more
U.S. food products this week, as executives of major poultry
producers headed to Havana, a group that tracks U.S.-Cuba trade
relations said on Monday.
An industrial chemical found in antifreeze, de-icing fluids, and
liquid detergents could soon stand alongside animal feeds,
sweeteners and cooking oil.
European Union countries on Thursday agreed on new rules on
labelling animal feed, in a move to tighten existing laws after a
series of food scares in recent years, the European Parliament said
on Thursday.
Japan's Health Ministry said on Tuesday that it planned to inspect
all cattle due to be processed into food, tightening up its checks
for mad cow disease which currently only cover cows aged 30 months
or more.
Tests from a German laboratory confirmed Slovakia's first case of
mad cow disease on Thursday, proving fears that the brain wasting
affliction has spread further into Eastern Europe.
The Japanese government is to temporarily place a total ban on the
distribution of imported and domestically produced meat and bone
meal (MBM), an animal feed suspected of causing mad cow disease,
government sources said yesterday.
The Japanese government made a huge blunder in ignoring a European
Union report warning of a mad cow disease outbreak in Japan, the
Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries minister admitted.
Lately, numerous studies have been published regarding the health
benefits of flaxseed otherwise known as linseed, one of the oldest
cultivated plants used by man.
On September 12, Japan's farm ministry began checking feed plants
and asked local authorities for a nationwide inspection in an
attempt to ease public concern over Asia's first suspected case of
"mad cow" disease.
Retail prices of livestock and poultry are expected to increase in
the Philippines as local producers predict a possible rise in the
prices of animal feeds due to the import ban on meat and bone meal
imposed by the Agriculture department.
17 US states said they have entered into a second agreement with
the French-German biotechnology group Aventis CropScience to
compensate farmers whose corn was tainted by the company's
gene-altered StarLink variety.
After a round of tests on the safety of unapproved StarLink corn as
animal feed, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries has found no evidence of health risks from pigs fed on
the biotech product.
U.K. research published on Thursday said that an entrenched sheep
disease, scrapie, could have triggered mad cow disease, whose human
form has killed more than 100 people, primarily in Britain.
According to the Korean Food & Drug Administration (KFDA), five
South Korean companies used banned Starlink corn to make edible
corn starch and they...
