Dairy UK has notified the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that the salt content of mature cheddar should be increased, following an incident in which a child suffered an allergic reaction to Co-operative cheddar with high levels of histamine, FoodManufacture.co.uk...
With food manufacturers busy reformulating or developing products to cut ‘nasties’ such as salt and sugar, Leatherhead Food Research has warned that associated food safety issues should not be an afterthought.
Mouldy fresh fruit could become a thing of the past thanks to cold plasma beams that extend its shelf life by up to five days, according to an academic heading a new study into the technology.
Increasingly frequent food fraud incidents and urgent demand for allergen and genetically modified ingredient testing have spurred on a government initiative to boost the robustness of DNA sequence testing for food
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is investigating whether a controversial ice cream made with donated breast milk, and sold in a London restaurant, breaches food safety regulations.
A food processor has been ordered to pay ₤22,000 (€26,000) and condemned by safety authorities for failings that led to one worker losing his hand and another parts of several fingers in separate accidents.
The recession has increased the risk of potentially unsafe counterfeit and so-called ‘diverted’ food products, according to a firm specialising in packaging technology that helps prevent the problem.
An anti-listeria ingredient that is added to meat products during the packaging process could mark a step-change in the fight against the foodborne pathogen, said Griffith Laboratories.
The use of commercial enzymes to reduce levels of acrylamide is effective when applied to chilled, but not par-fried, French fries, suggests a new study from Belgium.
Trendy chefs who offer pâtés prepared with undercooked ‘flash-fried’ chicken livers are putting their customers at risk of food poisoning, a microbiological expert has warned.
Plans by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to review the delivery of food safety controls on businesses have raised concerns that any move to centralise work to ensure consistency across the UK might risk losing local expertise.
Dibs Distribution, a supplier of halal poultry products to the fast food industry, has obtained a EU food safety accreditation for its hygiene standards and can now trade in Europe.
Ready-to-eat dried meat products such as pepperoni and jerky can be stored safely at room temperature because the preparation process destroys pathogens and reduces the water activity (aw) to a level at which microorganisms cannot grow. But getting the...
Food testing laboratory Eurofins UK has developed a new rapid approach for the testing of melamine contamination in chocolate, with same day results available by special request.
We’re not talking about the latest episode of Jeremy Kyle – sophisticated testing regimes are being used to validate everything from authenticity to food quality, reports Lou Reade
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been urged by experts in the field and members of its own Board to exercise caution in its use of 'intelligent software' to predict emerging food safety risks.
The European Commission is exploring ways to boost dioxin monitoring procedures after it was confirmed that products containing the toxic substance had reached the food chain and been sold to UK consumers.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is consulting on its revised Strategic Plan for 2010–2015, following the transfer by the coalition government of its responsibilities for nutrition and health in England to the Department of Health (DoH).
Premium pudding firm Gü has “sincerely apologised” to consumers for a production error that means some chocolate truffles on UK sale could contain mould.
The firm involved in a recent rodent-related product recall says the problem has been traced back to a single supplier in the Netherlands and did not originate in its own UK facilities.
The European Union is to introduce a ban on bisphenol A (BPA) in polycarbonate baby bottles next year over fears the chemical could be hazardous to the health of young children.
Significant progress on defining action levels/thresholds for the unintentional presence of allergens such as peanuts, milk and eggs is expected in 2012.
Moves to persuade consumers to reduce food waste could make them more susceptible to incidents of foodborne diseases if they eat foods that are beyond their use-by dates, according to Sainsbury’s chief microbiologist.
News that the British Standards Institution (BSI) is developing a new allergen control standard is an “unnecessary development, which we do not support”, according to the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC’s) Trading arm.
The Food and Drink Federation’s (FDF’s) allergens steering group has published a paper setting out a best practice approach to allergen management that aims to tackle excessive ‘may contains’ labelling.
Leatherhead Food Research (LFR) is inviting partners to work with it on a collaborative project to determine the most effective control measures for Norovirus, the organism believed to be responsible for the food poisoning outbreak at Heston Blumenthal’s...
The British Standards Institution (BSI) is aiming to produce the first draft of a new standard for the control of allergens in food production by 2012, FoodManufacture.co.uk understands.
Industry representatives have dismissed media reports that fish oil imports from China threaten the health of US consumers while acknowledging the need for some Chinese producers to improve quality.
Too much duplication in food safety auditing is “regrettable”, but the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard was never designed to replace customer standards or audits completely, but free up supermarkets to focus on “development and brand specific...
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) will have to trim its budget by at least 25% over the next four years, which means it will have to “hand a great deal of responsibility [for food safety enforcement] back to the industry”, according to chief executive Tim...
As the BRC starts work on version six of its Global Food Safety Standard, leading UK own-label manufacturers have continued to question its relevance as the supermarkets have carried on – and in many cases stepped up – their own auditing activities with...
Less than 70 sites out of 12,000+ food production facilities audited to version five of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Food Safety Standard have opted for unannounced audits, FoodManufacture.co.uk has learned.
Management of food safety incidents should be far more effectively handled once the Food Standards Agency (FSA) installs new computer systems helping it to analyse extensive information contained within its own and external data banks.
Manufacturers are no nearer to finding out when if ever a maximum in-plant threshold for the adventitious presence of allergens such as milk, peanuts and egg will be published by regulators.
A new method for characterising nanoparticles in food has been developed by the UK national measurement institute LGC (formerly the Laboratory of the Government Chemist), which claims it is much quicker and less labour-intensive than other approaches.
A lower-cost, risk-based meat plant inspection regime could become a reality much sooner than previously thought, following the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA’s) strong lobbying behind the scenes in mainland Europe.
Good traceability systems helped prepared foods giant Bakkavör avoid a potentially costly recall earlier this year, when it experienced a problem with contaminated meat marinades supplied to other processors, according to the company’s group food safety...
A Swedish pilot project on seafood traceability called eTrace, conducted as part of the SafeFoodEra EU food safety programme, has led to higher profits for those involved, says project manager Niklas Hild.
Social deprivation has again been identified as a major risk factor in listeria food poisoning in research from the Health Protection Agency (HPA), which faces closure in the next few years under government cuts.
A rapid egg cooling system that uses carbon dioxide to create a thin layer of ice on the inside of the shell would cut salmonella illnesses and significantly extend product shelf life, said the US scientist spearheading the development.
Cut-backs in food safety and hygiene training may be setting up a ‘food poisoning time bomb’, suggest results of a survey from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).
Are you prepared for the next sudan-1 or melamine scandal? What are the food safety risks threatening the food supply chains of tomorrow, and do you have the technical and financial resources to deal them them?
