CHICAGO/WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) on Wednesday that its Vicks DayQuil and NyQuil products with vitamin C have false and misleading labeling, and P&G said it would work with the agency to resolve its concerns.
The FDA’s list of approved ingredients for over-the-counter cold-cough drug products does not allow for a combination of vitamin C with the other active ingredients in the two products, the agency said in a warning letter.
The FDA also said that the products are misbranded …

Food safety has been in the news recently, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, has a plan to improve food inspections, recall response and public education.
Gillibrand said she is calling for:
Improving testing of ground beef
Improving regulation of all other food, with a focus on prevention, more oversight and higher quality lab testing
Increasing FDA resources
Improving the safety of imported food
Making recalls of contaminated food mandatory
Improving public education
“In America, in 2009, it is unconscionable that food is still going straight to our kitchens, school cafeterias and restaurants …

BOSTON–(Business Wire)–
Kyodo Public Relations Co., Ltd. held a series of events in Boston, on Friday,
September 25th under the theme “Quality First: Genuine Japanese Ingredients for
American Kitchens” (http://www.kyodo-pr.co.jp/qualityfirst/). The events were
sponsored by MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan).
The series showcased an assortment of Japanese organic and natural ingredients,
including burdock, lotus root and yuzu juice.
The day began with a seminar by Charlie Shimojo, president of Shimojo NY News,
about the differences between the US and Japanese food retail industries,
followed by a seminar with Hitoshi Tanaka, president of Central Trading Co.,
Ltd. …

For centuries, people have enhanced their foods with various flavorings, preservatives, and dyes. But some ingredients on today’s food labels can be downright scary. Few foods reach today’s supermarkets free of additives – substances that do not occur naturally in a food but are added for various reasons. These include preservatives to prevent spoilage; emulsifiers to prevent water and fat from separating; thickeners; vitamins and minerals (either to replace nutrients lost in processing or to increase nutritional value); sweeteners (both natural and artificial), salt, flavorings to improve taste; and dyes …

South Korea on October 2, 2009 notification issued G/TBT/N/KOR/236, notified the name “food labeling standards proposed amendment.” The circular recommended “food labeling standards,” contents of the amendments are:
 
     – OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) products shall be marked in the outer surface of the main display, and the font size font size not less than half the product name, or marked in accordance with a certain proportion of the main display surface;
 
     – For the flow through the plant after thawing of frozen cake, or salted fermented fish, “Health Product Date”, …

I was very excited to learn about the new Nutriganics line by The Body Shop. Touted as the first certified organic (at least in the UK) line of cleanser, toner, day and night moisturizers, serum, and eye cream, the line looks quite green, and the ingredients are quite decent.
However, when I checked the Body Shop.com, the line appeared to be not available for purchase in California and there was nowhere mentioned that it’s certified organic.
A closer inspection of the ingredients lists made me wondering of a few icky “buts” that …

Intralytix, Inc. announced today that it has received a U.S. Army Phase I STTR contract supporting the development of a bacteriophage-based probiotic preparation for managing Shigella infections.
“Shigella species are major gastrointestinal (GI) tract pathogens of particular concern to the US Army, and they are a significant worldwide cause of diarrheal disease,” stated Alexander Sulakvelidze, Intralytix’s Chief Scientist and Principal Investigator for the contract. He added: “The bacterium has been estimated to cause annually about 90,000 food borne cases of shigellosis in the United States, and about 165 million cases worldwide. …

Two Seattle-area startups are looking to combine technologies to turn algae into biochemicals, with food additives on the list of potential products.
Under the partnership announced Friday, Redmond, Wash.-based Bionavitas will grow algae, and Seattle-based Blue Marble Energy will turn it into “high-margin” biochemicals.
Bionavitas has come up with acrylic rods that can carry sunlight deeper into algae ponds, theoretically increasing the depth at which the water-borne plants can grow, an important consideration for costs of open-pond algae systems (see Green Light post).
The company, founded in 2006 and funded by angel investors …

To keep wine from becoming spoiled winemakers sometimes add preservatives. In fact, if preservatives are not added to wine it will only last six months to a year. Preservatives are added to keep wine from turning to vinegar and several types of preservatives are used in the winemaking process.
Two natural preservatives result from the grapes and the fermenting process – alcohol and tannins. These preservatives are excellent for extending the life of wine and kill off most organisms as very few can live in alcohol.
The most popular added preservative is …

Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) today (October 7) released its Food Safety Report for August, which covered food surveillance results for the month. About 4,800 food samples were tested in August. Of these, about 3,200 were taken for chemical tests and about 1,600 for microbiological and other tests.
The overall satisfactory rate was 99.7%, with 13 samples being found unsatisfactory. While microbiological tests cover pathogens and viruses, chemical tests are to detect pesticides, preservatives and metallic contamination. Samples included vegetables, fruit and their products; meat, poultry …