The European Council has kicked into the long grass a number of the more contentious parts of the Food Information Regulation (FIR), which covers the labelling of food and drink, according to a legal expert speaking on the day it was adopted last week.
A new EU directive to be implemented in the UK next year could free up more than an estimated £24bn held in outstanding late invoice payments, according to the Forum of Private Business (FPB)
Fish prices are set to rise in the long-term as imports into Europe will be insufficient to ensure supplies, warned speakers at a conference held earlier this week to debate the future of UK fishing industry and the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The British Brands Group (BBG) has called on the government to stamp out "parasitic packaging", where unknown products are dressed up to look like popular brands, with a ban on misleading packaging.
After the European Commission (EC) spent three years hammering out its Food Information Regulation (FIR), the final version contains a last-minute ad hoc amendment.
Rod AddySlovenian firm Vitiva is ready to spearhead research costing hundreds of thousands of euros to raise rosemary extract (RE) intake levels, challenging amendments to EU additive laws made in April.
Much higher processing costs will result if trawlermen are forced to land what they catch as part of radical reforms to the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), according to the pan-fishing industry body Seafish.
Pioneering Oxford technology firm Spice Application Systems (SAS) has grown overall sales by 20% so far this year, but admits the UK market is lagging behind Europe in uptake terms.
Help for food manufacturers battling soaring sugar prices could arrive in mid October when the European Commission (EC) will unveil plans to reform the European Union (EU) sugar regime, according to industry sources.
Ambitious reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) will not come into force intact, while changes that are made will be difficult to implement, one expert has warned.
The UK food industry has given the European Parliament's (EP's) final agreement on food labelling a mixed reception, with one consultant reckoning label changes cost £7,000 per product.
The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) has criticised “UK government plc” for what it describes as a damaging and misleading response to the deadly European E.coli crisis that has left this country's fresh produce industry in turmoil.
The European Commission (EC) has banned imports of certain types of seeds and beans from Egypt, after the European Food Safety Authority announced yesterday that fenugreek seeds from the country are the most likely cause of deadly E.coli outbreaks in...
The future for spirulina – the blue colouring derived from algae that is used in Nestlé's Smarties – remains uncertain as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) reported that it had delayed its investigations into this and a number of other substances used...
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.
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.
UK salad producers hope the European Commission (EC) will part-fund an awareness campaign to persuade consumers that their products are safe, and expect compensation after revealing that sales here have plummeted up to 60% by value since the E.coli crisis...
The Danish government has clarified that Marmite is not in fact banned, but merely in need of a marketing authorisation as per European Union health claim rules.
European Union proposals for a €150m-compensation package for farmers wer rejected by Spain and France yesterday as pressure intensified for Germany to identify the source of the E.coli outbreak that has now killed 23 and sickened 2,429.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has denied a suggestion by two MEPs that it may have lost data relating to a previous safety evaluation of the high intensity sweetener aspartame (E951) and that it failed to examine it properly in the first place.
Europe’s agriculture ministers are to hold an emergency meeting today on the E.coli outbreak as authorities continue their efforts to pinpoint the source of the bacteria that has killed 22 and sickened almost 2,300 people.
As UK sales slide, fresh produce industry players say they are disappointed by the German and EU authorities’ variously indecisive and misleading steps when dealing with the German E.coli outbreak that has seen 16 people die and around 1,614 fall ill.
The European Commission (EC) has confirmed that it has cancelled Twinings application for a €12m (£10.6m) grant to build a new factory in Poland, where the new site will eventually cost up to 392 UK jobs.
Assuming the European Commission, Parliament and Council can agree on some outstanding issues, the EC Food Information Regulation will be adopted shortly.
A leading bioplastics trade body in Europe has welcomed the chance to contribute to a public consultation over the need to clarify European definitions over biodegradable and compostable plastics.
The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) says that a prominent DEFRA task force appointed to cut red tape for farmers and food processors has ignored oppressive regulations facing its sector.
Oysters in France and Ireland have been stuck by the Oyster Herpes Virus (OHV), which is causing upwards of 60% mortality in farms and creating a European shortfall that has no short-term solution, experts have warned.
UK food and drink manufacturers are under-represented in the European Economic Recovery Plan, says the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which is aiming to promote the sector more at EU level in the coming year.
Increasing division over food labelling proposals has reignited fears that the entire process of updating the EU Food Information Regulation (FIR) could collapse, wasting years of work and substantial investment by industry.
Cloning is unlikely to form part of Ireland's armoury of technological weaponry as the country seeks to expand its meat and livestock exports over the next decade, says Padraig Brennan, a senior analyst for Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board
Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) discussions exposed ignorance among Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) about the food manufacturing and supply chain, said Nick Stuart, Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery (BCCC) sector group chairman.
A UK MEP says the government would be "criminally stupid” not to apply for specialist EU support for Twinings workers set to lose their jobs when tea production transfers to Poland.
One expert has branded the proposed new EU food information legislation “crazy” ahead of a second vote on the issue by Parliament's Environment, Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) tomorrow.
Research and development (R&D) champion Unilever has voiced deep disappointment and frustration over the collapse of talks reviewing the 1997 EU Novel Foods Regulation, claiming it will hamper food and drink manufacturers' innovation plans.
All is not well down on the novel foods farm. If food innovation in Europe is to thrive anew, MEPs and the Council need to get past the recriminations over the failed talks and remove the troublesome question of cloned foods from the negotiating table.
With the ‘responsibility deal’ on salt reduction in food supported by major retailers and manufacturers, others should be asked to sign up to responsibility deals of a different kind.
The collapse of talks on the novel foods amendment will have a detrimental effect on innovation and competitiveness in Europe, says the CIAA and an economist, while Commissioner Dalli is still figuring out what to do next.
Last ditch efforts to salvage the novel foods regulation were derailed yesterday after the European Parliament and Council failed to reach agreement over the issue of cloned animals – with each side blaming the other for the impasse.
The European Commission (EC) says that UK MEPs must prove the body acted in an unlawful manner to block payment of a €12m (£10.4m) factory grant earmarked to develop a new Polish site.
Twinings has denied USDAW claims that its new Polish plant is experiencing teething problems, as the union maintains pressure on the firm to repay a controversial grant that helped establish the site.
Food and agricultural businesses are often unknowingly illegally employing workers from Romania and Bulgaria within the 'black economy' because of a loophole in the law regarding self-employment status, it has emerged.
Industry concerns are growing about a possible amendment to the EU Food Information Regulation (FIR) that will require all foods frozen, then defrosted before sale, to be labelled ‘defrosted’.
The European Food Safety Authority’s health claims panel will complete its exhaustive article 13.1 generic health claims task by publishing three batches this year, with the first due at the beginning of April.
The European Commission (EC) has questioned the role played by the Polish authorities in Twinings’ application for a controversial €12m grant to build a factory that will see almost 400 UK jobs axed, but has not asked that the money be repaid.
