Public health would not be harmed if the maximum level of aflatoxins permitted in all tree nuts was increased by 150 per cent, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has said.
The European food safety watchdog’s Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) made the announcement as it recommended raising maximum levels of the toxic mould from 4µ/kg to 10µg/kg for all tree nuts.Aflatoxins can occur in food and feed as a result of fungal contamination by moulds, primarily by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus under warm and humid …

Yesterday, Kunming’s Food Safety Commission made its mid-year report on food safety and inspection. According to the briefing, 62,192 establishments were inspected under special regulations regarding misuse of food additives and non-food additives.
Recent food safety scares, most notably the melamine cases of 2008, have raised the profile of food safety issues.
According to the report, this year the Kunming Agriculture Bureau carried out special monitoring of veterinary drugs and illegal animal feed additives. Samples from Kunming’s 14 counties and city districts all gave negative results for Clenbuterol, a pig feed additive …

The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) concluded a week-long meeting and adopted more than 30 new international standards, codes of practice and guidelines to improve worldwide food safety and protect the health of consumers.
New standards adopted by the Commission include:
Reduction of acrylamide in food
The Commission approved measures for reducing the formation of acrylamide in food. The code of practice will provide national and local authorities, manufacturers and others with guidance to prevent and reduce formation of acrylamide in potato products during all phases of the production process. The guidance includes strategies …

Even if you’re not a fan of nonfat dry milk you should pay attention to a number of recalls being made by the Food and Drug Administration because the tainted milk—or related milk products—can appear as an ingredient in foods you do like such as popcorn, hot cereal and cocoa.
Giant, Kroger, Meijer, Stop & Shop and other well-known retailers have recalled a variety of foods made over the past two years with ingredients provided by Plainview Milk Products Cooperative in Plainview, Minn., because they might be contaminated with salmonella. Malt-O-Meal …

We were selling at a Farmers Market and an elderly farmer’s wife stopped by to look at our offerings.  She looked at our “Organic” sign and said “Honey, we’ve been growing organic since before you were born,” and if you know anything about the green revolution after World War 2 you can understand her statement.  Before the invention of ammonium nitrate for bombs, farmers relied basically on organic means to grow their vegetables.  We went from every community having a fresh food market to almost none.  Before the establishment of …

And another piece of legislation involving, surprise surprise, Waxman. Read the full text of H.R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009.
The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund has an extensive discussion here.
Here’s some highlights:
1. The FSEA would require facilities to register annually [section 101(b)(1)–p. 3], rather than a one-time registration. Registrants would also be required to pay an annual fee of $500, to be adjusted for inflation [section 101, Part6, sec 743(b)(1)(A)–p. 10].
2. The term “facility” does not include “farms” for purposes of registration in either the current law or under …

It should perhaps come as no surprise that our perceptions of food differ from that of our ancestors. What is surprising, and not a little troubling, is how far these perceptions have moved in just a few generations. Today we interact with food in ways that would have left our great grandparents scratching their heads in disbelief. Nowhere is this shift more apparent than when it comes to the issue of food security.
For most of the history of the human race food security was one of the top concerns of …

Harvests produced and progressed under specific conditions are known as organic. For a crop to be recognized under stipulations of organic food, it is necessary for the crop to abide by a number of set laws and regulations provisioned under diversified agricultural acts.
Organic crops are grown in alteration free, natural soil which differs from traditional method of crop production. Use of Artificial insect killers, genetically modified seeds, chemical based and manure based fertilizers are restricted in this type of production.
Organic food is much beneficial in comparison with the traditionally grown …

The June 30 vote by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee to lower the maximum dose of over-the-counter drugs containing acetaminophen and to eliminate prescription acetaminophen-combination painkillers raised questions about what changes consumers should expect in the availability of the popular drug. The commonly used pain- and fever-reliever known as Tylenol is found in several nonprescription cough and cold remedies including NyQuil and Theraflu. Patients are also asking what potential dangers their daily use of acetaminophen may pose. TIME.com talked to members of the FDA committee as well …

Another pet food myth that continues to abound is that the presence of certain preservatives causes cancer in our pets.   This tall tale has been around since I first started working in the pet industry way back in the late 1980s!  The controversy centers on three compounds, BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin.
I recall hearing how the preservative, ethoxyquin, had been implicated by dog owners as causing allergic reactions, skin problems and, of course, cancer.   There was little to no scientific evidence to support these claims, yet any pet food manufacturer who …