Breaking News on Prepared Food and Meat Processing

News headlines > Safety & Legislation

Cinnamon and oregano show antimicrobial prowess in active packaging

30-Aug-2010 - Incorporating cinnamon and oregano essential oils (EO) into certain plastics provides antimicrobial properties, new research into active packaging has found.

FDA calls meeting to consider genetically engineered salmon

27-Aug-2010 - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said its Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee will meet on September 19 and 20 to discuss the possible commercialization of genetically engineered salmon.

Imaging technique cuts Campylobacter detection time

26-Aug-2010 - US scientists said they have developed a new high-tech imaging technique that significantly reduces the time to detect the presence of Campylobacter.

Packaged meat COPs no threat to human health: German study

13-Aug-2010 - Cholesterol oxidation products (COPs) associated with packaged fresh meat pose no risk to human health, according to an interim report by the Berlin-based, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).

Skinning and freezing could help reduce Campylobacter spp. levels in processed poultry, study

10-Aug-2010 - Two Belgian poultry processing firms with recognised food safety management systems (FSMS) should consider further measures such as skinning carcasses and freezing to reduce high Campylobacter spp. levels in poultry products, according to a new study published in the Journal of Food Production.

Weekly comment

Is cloned food legal? Europe must decide, and fast

09-Aug-2010 - Big oops. Meat and milk from the offspring of cloned animals has entered the UK food chain. Cue scary headlines and scared consumers. But the leviathan of EU-lawmaking means no-one actually knows if it’s legal or not. And that’s an even bigger oops.

Large aperture metal detector ups sensitivity, cuts downtime

04-Aug-2010 - Heightened sensitivity of detection, ease of use and reduced downtime thanks to an early warning diagnostic system are benefits claimed by Mettler Toledo Safeline for its new large aperture metal detector for bulk products.

Meat from cloned animal was eaten in UK, confirms FSA

04-Aug-2010 - The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has confirmed that meat from a cloned animal has entered the nation’s food chain and has been consumed.

DuPont and USDA team up to tackle emerging food safety threat

04-Aug-2010 - A new joint project between DuPont Qualicon and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) aims to develop testing to detect hard-to-identify strains of E.coli that are not regulated and have been causing increasing instances of food contamination.

Study supports concerns over meat additive-cancer link

03-Aug-2010 - A new epidemiological study has reported modest support for suggestions that some components in processed meat may increase risk of bladder cancer.

Weekly comment

Energy drink makers must do more to protect children

02-Aug-2010 - Energy drinks makers risk a regulatory clamp down if they fail to take action on marketing campaigns that irresponsibly target young consumers.

FSA investigates claims of ‘cloned’ milk in UK

02-Aug-2010 - The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said it is investigating claims that milk from a cloned cow has entered the nation’s dairy supply.

Chlorophyll markers to highlight contaminated meat - research

02-Aug-2010 - A food safety research project in the UK is to investigate ways of identifying E. coli and salmonella-contaminated meat, poultry and eggs by using fluorescent imaging to spot chlorophyll markers administered through animal feed.

Graphene-based antibacterial paper has food packaging potential

26-Jul-2010 - New antibacterial paper made from graphene-based nanomaterials could be used in food packaging to extend shelf-life, said Chinese scientists.

No magic bullet to fight Camplyobacter, says UK

26-Jul-2010 - There is no “magic bullet” to tackle campylobacter, according to the UK’s the three major public funders of food safety research as they unveiled a joint initiative to battle the bug.

Denmark, UK take steps to fight foodborne bugs

09-Jul-2010 - Denmark and the UK have both unveiled programmes to tackle foodborne pathogens such as campylobacter and salmonella in a bid to boost food safety.

SPECIAL EDITION: SHELF LIFE

New guide eases challenges of challenge testing

09-Jul-2010 - Demand for shelf-life evaluation procedures such as challenge testing is on the up as food processors come under increasing regulatory and financial pressure to ensure safety and minimise waste, said Campden BRI.

Keep clones out of novel foods, MEP vote

08-Jul-2010 - Members of the European Parliament have voted against including meat or milk from cloned animals under the new novel foods regulation, an outcome that makes conciliation procedure likely unless the Council accepts the position.

Ecolab and DuPont poised to launch new anti-microbial film

02-Jul-2010 - Ecolab and DuPont have said their new non-food contact anti-microbial coating for processors will reduce the risk of contamination from mould and a range of pathogenic bacteria on a wide range of surfaces for up to 30 days.

Campylobacter hotspots highlighted in French study

28-Jun-2010 - Chicken batches slaughtered later in the schedule, pre-thinning flocks prior to slaughtering and temperatures in the evisceration room topping 15C are all factors likely to increase the risk of campylobacter in poultry processing, said new research.

EFSA publishes data guidance for flavour approvals

25-Jun-2010 - The European Food Safety Authority has published its final guidance for data required to assess new food flavourings, and is looking to build on experience gained during evaluations to establish a positive list.

CDC finds 90% of Americans consume too much sodium

25-Jun-2010 - Ninety percent of Americans consume more that the recommended daily amount of sodium, according to new figures published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Food processor labels COOL a ‘bureaucratic nightmare’

24-Jun-2010 - Proposals to extend country of origin labelling (COOL) to some main ingredients of processed food would be a needless bureaucratic headache that would hurt businesses, curb flexibility and ultimately reduce consumers choice, said one UK food manufacturer.

Weekly comment

Europe must keep cool over country of origin labelling

22-Jun-2010 - Always read the small print. Good advice and nowhere more so than in food labelling with today’s increasingly savvy consumers demanding to know what’s in their food, where it came from and what it’s going to do to them.

EFSA rules out H1N1 risk to humans from meat

15-Jun-2010 - The meat processing industry has welcomed a report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ruling out the risk of humans contracting the H1N1 virus from pork, pork products, turkey or processing equipment.

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