Food safety and labelling

Consumers have been warned to avoid products containing mustard if they have a peanut allergy. Image: Getty, Pixel_Pig

News

Contaminated mustard sparks allergy warning

By Gwen Ridler

Consumers with a peanut allergy have been warned to avoid eating any food or drink containing mustard ingredients because they may be contaminated with peanuts.

Brewdog and Eurofins announced senior appointments this past week

News

Brewdog and Eurofins announce senior appointments

By Gwen Ridler

Indie drinks firm Brewdog has announced the appointment of a new chief operating officer, as food testing firm Eurofins hires a new head of food safety and food risk.

Stirling Crew is the new IFST president

News

Sterling crew named IFST President

By Gwen Ridler

Food safety expert Sterling Crew has been elected as the new president of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) effective immediately.

Johnson: 'Testing spend is coming under pressure and at the same time risk is increasing'

Food safety opinion

How can I cut food testing costs?

By Alison Johnson

Price pressures and increasing risk tempted us to choose between cost saving and managing risk.

Salmonella has dogged the food industry over the past few months. iStock credit Manjurul

Digital feature: long read

Food safety trends

By Michelle Perrett

The past two years have brought rapid and relentless change to the food chain and this shows no signs of slackening.

Ensuring compliance across a complex supply chain is tough at the best of times

Experts from Tesco and McCormick tackle compliance

By Rod Addy

Experts from Tesco and global herbs and spices supplier McCormick & Company will form part of a panel tackling traceability and compliance in a volatile market in our free webinar on 25 May.

Acrylamide can be found in products such as crisps, chips and cakes. iStock credit piotr_malczyk

Be aware of EU acrylamide changes

By Mark Hughes

The EU recently added many more products to its acrylamide monitoring system, broadening the list of baked goods and including pita and specialty breads, pancakes, tortillas, churros, doughnuts and croissants.

Counterfeit Wonka chocolate bars have been spotted on store shelves in the UK

FSA issues fake Wonka chocolate warning

By Gwen Ridler

UK and Ireland food safety authorities have warned members of the public to be on the lookout for counterfeit Wonka chocolate bars being sold in shops and online across the country.

Johnson: 'Ukraine accounts for 17% of the globally exported corn'

Food Safety opinion

Food fraud and the Ukraine war

By Alison Johnson

The impact of the conflict in Ukraine has been well covered in the media, but what is the likely impact of this global supply disruption on food fraud and food authenticity?

The conference will tackle fat, salt and sugar reduction as well as a host of other issues

Virtual Reformulation conference: one month to go

By Rod Addy

Some of the UK's foremost experts on food and drink reformulation will offer essential insight and guidance on vital topics at Food Manufacture's virtual conference Reformulation: What Next? from 29-30 March.

Consumers are wary of the Union Jack symbol on packaging

Consumers ignorant and suspicious of provenance

By Rod Addy

Consumers are ignorant of some quality standards marks and how much food really comes from the UK, according to research conducted by England Marketing on behalf of Love British Food.

According to the ISC, demand for stevia continues to grow. iStock credit: HandmadePictures

Framework for steviol glycoside production approved

By Rod Addy

International food safety body Codex Alimentarius has approved a framework outlining four safe ways of producing steviol glycosides, enabling greater access to stevia products across the globe.

QR codes will feature on packaging, providing carbon data for specific meals

Ready meals company claims carbon neutral status

By Rod Addy

Ready meals supplier Wild Hare Group has officially claimed carbon neutrality based on a full life cycle analysis (LCA) as it continues its quest to be a net zero food manufacturer.

Miles outlined five active food fraud investigations

Food Crime Unit closes in on fraudsters

By Rod Addy

The Food Standards Agency's (FSA's) National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) is making progress on food fraud investigations, with sentencing following its first successful conviction due to take place this month.

The Food Standards Agency said the regulatory system needed to adapt to a digital world

FSA: recovery dominated by COVID-19

By Michelle Perrett

The immediate future is dominated by recovery from COVID-19, but food inspections cannot be delayed 'indefinitely', Food Standards Agency (FSA) chief executive Emily Miles has said.

The consultation opens on 6 December and runs until 14 March 2022

FSA launches consultation on 'may contain' packaging

By Michelle Perrett

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched a consultation to gather views from businesses and consumers on the use of precautionary allergen information and labels, often written as 'may contain' on food packaging.

Martin: 'There is currently no legal definition of what a vegan product is in the UK or EU'

Legal opinion

Plant-based food labelling: what the law says

By Pete Martin

The meteoric growth in sales and the variety of plant-based foods has been so fast that the thinking on how such products are labelled has barely kept up. Here, Pete Martin, regulatory director at product information specialist Ashbury explores the latest...

All herbs and spices are not of the same quality, McCormick's Chris Jinks has warned. iStock credit: AlexRaths

McCormick warns of herbs and spices adulteration

By Michelle Perrett

McCormick & Company, the US-based ingredients supplier, has called on manufacturers in the herb and spice industry to check their businesses for fraudulent practices following the publication of an EU report.

The webinar will cover areas including managing audits efficiently and HACCP planning

Food Manufacture webinar

Food Safety Briefing: Weak Links in The Chain 6 October

By Rod Addy

Food Manufacture is running its usual free annual Food Safety Briefing on 6 October online from 3pm to 4.30pm, featuring experts tackling topics ranging from allergens to ensuring robust HACCP plans and audits.

The project aims to track how pathogens and AMR spread by analysing food, environment and health factors

£19.2m food safety project to track foodborne pathogens

By Rod Addy

Food safety across the food chain just got a boost as the Government announced £19.2m funding for a three-year surveillance project tracking UK foodborne pathogens and antimicrobial resistant (AMR) microbes.

A total of 36% of consumers surveyed said they checked food labelling for allergens or ingredients exacerbating intolerances

Allergen information needs more work, says GS1 UK

By Rod Addy

Food allergy-stricken Brits need more transparent information about allergens in foods, with one in six unable to identify any in common food groups and 62% too embarrassed to ask about ingredients when eating out.

Kendall: 'Since 2006, a limit of 500 parts per billion has been applied to illegal dyes in food ingredients'

Food safety opinion

Illegal dyes in the food industry: colouring our judgment

By Kendall Baker

Use of illegal dyes in foodstuffs persists despite the danger to health they pose, driven by their cheaper cost. Kendall Baker, scientific lead at food testing company Food Forensics takes a close look.

The systems' Human Machine Interfaces are able to withstand the harshest washdown treatment

Mettler Toledo launches detection and weighing combos

By Rod Addy

Mettler-Toledo Product Inspection has launched a series of smart-design, washdown-resistant product inspection systems, integrating sophisticated checkweighing and metal detection technologies for manufacturers of packaged food, including dairy and meat...

Sanderson: 'Remote risk management has opened our eyes to new possibilities'

Has remote compliance become business as usual?

By Rick Sanderson

Operating a laboratory relying on the steady flow of samples from across the world for various methods of integrity testing, life looked as uncertain for us as it did for the rest of the industry a year ago.

Precautionary allergen labelling can act more as a disclaimer to cover manufacturers, rather than a help for consumers

Precautionary allergen label regulation 'desperately needed'

By Rod Addy

Regulation of precautionary allergen labelling (PAL), such as 'may contain ...' is 'desperately needed', according to Apetito's group technical manager Iain Mortimer, making the Food Standards Agency's (FSA's) review...

Sanderson: 'The rate of increase in recorded incidences, with the last quarter of 2020 increasing by a staggering 38%, is proof if it were needed that we have an ideal climate for fraud'

Opinion

Challenges of 2020 create an 'ideal climate' for food fraud

By Rick Sanderson

Rick Sanderson (pictured), business development director at Food Forensics, discusses the increased threat of food fraud created by the challenges of 2020 and what food firms can do to mitigate the damage to their businesses.