When nutritional labeling comes into force in Canada later this
year, manufacturers may also take advantage of the need to change
their labels to stipulate whether their products' ingredients are
genetically engineered.
A landmark settlement on trans fats in the US last week will incite
global food makers, fearful of litigation, to delve further into
new food formulations that use alternative ingredients to eliminate
harmful fatty acids, reports...
As the world dissects George Bush's budget, the FDA yesterday
(Tuesday) announced its monetary proposal for fiscal 2006 with
security at the top of the food agenda.
Pressure on price and market share for Nutrinova, a leading
supplier of non-nutritive sweetener acesulfame-K, is set to rise as
key patent for the sweetener will soon reach its deadline,
reports Lindsey Partos.
The Florida Citrus Commission has approved a proposal to allow
citrus growers to opt out of paying taxes that support its
marketing program, according to the Florida Ledger.
Representatives of the food industry yesterday filed a letter with
the FDA demanding that the government harmonizes the date for trans
fat labeling with the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer
Protection Act.
A campaign launched this month by the Center for Global Food Issues
(CGFI) warning consumers against claims made on milk cartons has
received short shrift from the organic industry, reports
Philippa Nuttall.
Food technology company Senomyx has recently taken a step closer to
commercializing several of its savory enhancers after submitting
them to be registered as GRAS, reports Philippa Nuttall.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has this week issued the
final part of the Bioterrorism Act that notes the importance of
recordkeeping for the food industry.
In May, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
launched a campaign to free America of trans fats. This week, the
Grocery Manufacturers of America rejected this call in a statement
to the FDA, saying that the CSPI had...
Merisant, the US maker of tabletop sweetener Equal and NutraSweet,
takes the marketer of sugar subsitute Splenda McNeil Nutritionals
to court, alleging advertising for the product is misleading.
Clearing up any confusion over food labels, US food authorities
have given the green light for food ingredients firms to use
ethanol in precipitating food grade xanthan gum and to still allow
the ingredient to keep the 'xanthan'...
Consumers were this week reminded of the dangers associated with
drinking unpasteurized fruit and vegetable juices after a foodborne
disease outbreak in New York was potentially linked to the
consumption of unpasturized apple cider.
Olive oil has become the latest food to win the FDA's approval,
receiving a cautious nod that will allow the product to display a
qualified health claim for its potential to reduce coronary heart
disease (CHD).
The glycemic index, a method established to rank foods based on the
rate of carbohydrate absorption they trigger, is seeing increasing
interest from researchers and the food industry, but there is still
much confusion as to what it...
The FDA published this week the final 2004 Produce Safety Action
Plan aimed at minimizing the number of foodborne illnesses that are
contracted each year through the consumption of fresh produce.
An international task force meeting in Brazil last week under the
aegis of Codex Alimentarius, the global food standards body,
cleared a decision after difficult discussions on defining the
identity of reconstituted orange juice.
Unsafe food makes almost a third of the globe ill each year,
putting constant pressure on governments and the food industry to
come up with tools to increase food safety and reduce the risk of
food poisoning.
Tackling the ongoing issue of risk assessment in the food chain the
US food safety agency plans to release two draft risk assessments
related to the harmful food pathogen salmonella.
Food makers sourcing soy ingredients from Brazil will be interested
to see that the country will not issue another decree to
temporarily lift the ban on the planting and sale of genetically
modified soybeans for the upcoming season.
The FDA has confirmed the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives'
(JEFCA) ruling in June that free lutein and zeaxanthin are safe for
human consumption - a move welcomed by Kemin Foods which produces
the ingredient FloraGlo...
Every five years the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are updated
by the Department of Agriculture, and last week's offering stirred
up an interesting mixture of praise and concern from the US food
industry.
Scientists at Europe's food watchdog have upped their assessment of
the risk of finding mad cow disease in the United States, Canada
and Norway following an extensive study of data collected between
1980-2003.
The complex issue of carbohydrate labelling fired up by the
low-carb trend will move up a gear next month when the FDA is
expected to release proposed rules on how information about
carbohydrates should appear on the nutrition facts...
Consumer trust in ingredient labels moved up a gear in the US
yesterday as President George W. Bush signed off new rules on food
allergens that will mean tighter labelling requirements for all
food makers operating in the US market,...
Food makers operating in Europe shortly face new labelling rules
for food allergens on food labels, and as the US cleared its own
new rules yesterday, manufacturers present in the US market will
see parallel changes.
In the wake of a mad cow disease-infected cow discovered at the end
of 2003 in the US, the government has come up with three new
actions to protect the food chain.
US Agro-food giant Cargill has confirmed that a $24 million
class-action lawsuit accusing the US food giant of price-fixing
will be settled following federal court approval. The end is now in
sight for a law suit that dates back nine...
The US agriculture department will 'update and strengthen'
its biotechnology regulations for imports, interstate movement and
environmental release of certain genetically modified organisms
(GMOs), the government body said...
The US food watchdog this week issued a 'tentative final rule' that
amends the current GRAS status for a fish oil used in food
ingredients, to control consumer intake of omega-3 fatty acids.
A technology that allows the health ingredient lutein to be
delivered to clear beverages has been given GRAS (Generally
Recognized As Safe) status from the US Food and Drug
Administration.
The current BSE crisis in the US has touched numerous industries
and ignited countless issues. One of these topics that the crisis
has brought back to life has been the simmering feud over
country-of-origin labelling of beef and other...
Sales of the high intensity sweetener acesulfame K look set to rise
for ingredients firm Nutrinova with the company confirming this
week that the FDA has approved its non-carbohydrate sweetener
Sunett as a general purpose sweetener...
Public health and safety company NSF International (NSF) has
announced a new alliance with the STAR-K Kosher Certification
organisation. The purpose is to meet the growing kosher food
certification demands of consumers and businesses...
Tough new rules on food imports into the US came into force today,
but with thousands of foreign and domestic companies yet to
register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the
policy-makers have given some breathing space.
As new US rules on bioterrorism fall shortly on the increasingly
broad shoulders of the food industry, the US agriculture secretary
confirmed this week that food safety will remain a key factor on
the agenda for the Bush administration.
Chaos is soon likely to set in with only one month to go until
tough laws on bioterrorism enter into force in the US. At least 90
per cent of foreign and domestic facilities have yet to register
with the FDA.
The food industry is not ready for new rules on bioterrorism in the
US rapidly created and cleared after the events of September 11,
2001, highlights a new survey.
At the end of last week the USDA published a proposed rule aimed at
ending the ban on imports of Canadian cattle under 30 months old,
deemed to be at low risk for mad cow disease.
US court dismisses claims by Muscle Marketing USA that all forms of
creatine powder, including the product made by Degussa Food
Ingredients, are ineffective.
Global tugs of war continue in the trade zone with the the WTO
agreeing to demands from the US and Australia to examine Europe's
rules on the protection of place and product names.
A few months after the US Department of Agriculture gave the all
clear for processors to use activated lactoferrin, a milk protein,
to fight disease-causing bacteria arrives the endorsement from the
US Food and Drug Administration.
The United States, Argentina and Canada have asked the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) to set up a dispute settlement panel to decide
whether or not the EU's policies on genetically modified organisms
(GMOs) constitute a barrier...
With just three weeks remaining until the Cancun meetings, the EU
and the US yesterday presented a joint framework to relaunch
agricultural negotiations. Focusing on three areas, domestic
support, market access and export competition,...
The US Food and Drug Administration has given the Procter &
Gamble fat replacer olestra the all-clear, after new scientific
evidence found there was no need to warn consumers of side effects.
The Canadian government took a further step towards reducing the
risk of Canadians becoming exposed to the agent that may transmit
BSE with new rules that prevent specified risk material (SRM) from
entering the human food supply.
