UK and European food and drink representatives have slammed a vote by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) today which rejected the revised nutrition claims list intended to make food reformulation easier.
British egg producers are to mount a legal challenge to the government’s failure to ban imports of illegally-produced battery cage eggs and egg products.
UK food manufacturers have rejected claims made by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) that the industry is “preying on children and targeting them with [online] fun and games.”
Ingredients suppliers are seizing the opportunity offered by EU regulations banning the use of battery farmed hens’ eggs to back food manufacturers struggling to source legitimate supplies.
Further evidence has emerged that the Department of Health (DoH) will not implement tougher salt reduction targets after 2012, despite denials that it planned to “ditch” them entirely.
The UK’s biggest food firm Premier Foods has pledged to source only eggs and egg products which comply with new EU welfare rules, which come into force next month, as the government was accused of ‘chickening out’ on its promise to protect UK producers.
The government looks set to abandon targets for reducing salt next year under a revised Public Health Responsibility Deal (PHRD) focusing on calorie reduction of foods sold and increasing people’s physical activity.
Premier Foods and Loyd Grossman are “not at fault” for the botulism scare that has hospitalised three children in Scotland, a spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk.
Several UK research organisations have answered a call made only three days ago for scientific support to help food manufacturers meet their commitments on salt reduction under the Public Health Responsibility Deal.
Nutrition is being politicised, with food authorities bowing to pressure from minority interests and lobbyists in areas such as salt reduction at significant risk to consumer health, according to one expert.
Work is underway to foster closer collaboration over salt, fat and sugar reduction as deadlines loom, according to Clair Baynton, head of the Department of Health’s (DoH’s) Nutrition Science and Delivery branch.
A producer of honey with added bee venom has described the Food Standards Agency (FSA’s) rejection of UK - and by extension EU - licensing for his product under the novel foods regulation as “hard to rationalise”.
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.
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.
