Inside food & drink manufacturing
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is advising consumers not to eat raw sprouted seeds such as beansprouts, alfalfa and fenugreek, after an E.coli outbreak led to the hospitalisation of eight people in Bordeaux, France.
A European taskforce has been assembled to pinpoint the source of any contaminated beansprouts after the same potentially deadly strain of German E.coli that killed scores has surfaced in an outbreak in France.
A food logistics expert has “real concerns” that a delay in training UK truck drivers to standards demanded by an EU directive could result in a driver shortfall by 2014, and add costs to the supply chain.
Kerry Ingredients is proposing to close its Okehampton site by 2012 with the loss of up to 106 jobs, as it considers switching production to a larger and more modern unit in Tenbury Wells.
Global commodity price rises are presenting “huge difficulties” for UK food manufacturers as they seek to recover costs increases from major customers, according to a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer.