• Canada's food safety system fails international comparisons

    Canada’s multi-government system with national, provincial, and local governments that share responsibility for health, as well as monitor the safety and quality of food, are key reasons that Canada has a fragmented system with poor focus

  • Raising awareness about the risk of agroterrorism

    A day-long event in California’s Central valley sees farmers, terrorism specialists, and law enforcement officials discuss threat, impacts, and response needs involved in a potential terrorist attack on the area’s thriving agricultural sector

  • Recalled beef in California could be two years old

    An examination of tainted beef sold to restaurants and stores by a California company between 5 and 15 January this year revealed that it was processed nearly two years old; this means that beef already in the freezers of restaurants, hotels, stores, and consumers may be tainted with E. coli

  • Food facilities failing to comply with Bioterrorism Act of 2002

    There are approximately 420,000 domestic and foreign food facilities – not including farms, retail facilities, and restaurants — doing food-related business in the United States; the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires these food facilities to register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and provide information which could be used in the event of a bioemergency (farms, retail facilities, and restaurants are exempt from registration), many have done so yet

  • U.K. government issues a 20-year food-and-farming vision report

    U.K. government recognizes the fragility of U.K. food production, and calls, for the first time since the Second World War, for an integrated food and farming policy; the government says that the U.K. food system, which depends heavily on imports, last-minute ordering, and long distribution chains, which are vulnerable to sudden shocks from global price spikes, disruption to fuel supplies, and the impact of climate change on critical infrastructure, leaves the United Kingdom too vulnerable

  • Food facilities failing to register with FDA

    The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires food facilities — exempting farms, retail facilities, and restaurants — to register with the FDA; the FDA had expected about 420,000 domestic and foreign food facilities to register because of the 2002 law; according to an FDA spokesman, as of 14 December, 392,217 facilities had registered — 157,395 in the United States and 234,822 foreign facilities that export to the United States

  • Sathguru’s center launches first global food safety management program

    Indian research center to hold a program of lectures and seminars for executives dealing with different aspects of food safety; directors of the program say that emerging trends in food production, processing, and distribution require augmented food safety protocols and strategies to ensure safe food supply, especially in emerging economies and world.

  • FDA bars Virginia seafood dealer from importing food for 20 years

    In the FDA’s first debarment of food importer, the agency imposed a 20-year penalty on a Virginia businessman who participated in a conspiracy to sell frozen catfish fillets falsely labeled as sole, grouper, flounder, snakehead, channa, and other species of fish to avoid paying federal import tariff

  • Nicholls to get money for seafood research institute

    Nicholls State University in Louisiana will receive funds to launch the Institute for Seafood Studies, which would aid studies of seafood species, coastal restoration and protection, as well as development of local fisheries and industries connected to them; one of the problems the research institute will address is food safety, which one expert said is a top fear among consumers; “This will enable the seafood community, working with the seafood institute, to help allay those concerns,” the expert said

  • New center monitors safety of U.S. food imports

    A new center will target shipments of imported cargo, including food, for possible safety violations; The center is one of six commercial targeting centers in the United States under Customs and Border Protection.

  • Making food safer offers business opportunities

    Recalls, import alerts, and new regulations are all combining to put an increased emphasis on analytical food testing; instrument makers are seeing double-digit growth in the food safety market, even in a poor economy. In the lab, food scientists are working to develop faster, more sensitive methods that can broadly screen for both known and unknown contaminants.

  • Senate panel approves food safety bill

    The Senate last week passed a new food safety bill which would impose user fees, allow mandatory recalls, set performance standards, and impose civil penalties; some business associations are uncomfortable

  • Demands grow for improved global food supply chain

    New study: “Food can become contaminated at many different steps in the supply chain. Experience in conducting food-borne disease outbreak investigations suggests that improved product tracing abilities could help identify products associated with disease more quickly, get risky products off the market faster, and reduce the number of illnesses associated with food-borne illness outbreaks”

  • Preparing for agroterror attacks in Wisconsin

    FDA awards funds to states’ program aimed at making the food supply chain better protected against agroterror attacks; the Wisconsin program will use the money to fund a computer program using licensing and inspection information to develop computer maps that track where contaminated food may have been distributed

  • Possible costs of tougher U.S. food safety bill worry small farmers

    Small farmers worry about a rewrite of the U.S. food safety regulations expected to be debated by a Senate committee this week; in particular, small farmers say rules designed to prevent transmission of food-borne illnesses by large growers and packers will overwhelm small growers