IFFA 2013

MicVac seals Japanese deal

08-May-2013 - Scandinavian food technology company MicVac announced a new venture in Asia at the international trade fair at IFFA in Frankfurt last weekend.

UK pig industry tackles EU non-compliance

02-May-2013 - The British pig industry will start monitoring the UK food chain to ensure that illegal pork is not brought in from farms that are non-compliant with the sow stall ban introduced at the beginning of this year.

Finnish meat processor reports strong sales growth

29-Apr-2013 - Meat processing company Atria Group has recorded strong growth of €19.8m in its net sales for the first quarter of 2013.

Ukraine eases EU cattle ban

29-Apr-2013 - Ukraine has partly lifted restrictions on imports of cattle and small ruminants from Europe, while Russia and Belarus have tightened restrictions over Schmallenberg virus fears.

EU beef demand stays strong, despite horsemeat scandal

22-Apr-2013 - The European horsemeat scandal has not had any significant impact on demand for beef, according to the Rabobank Beef Quarterly Q1 report.

Feature

EU sheep meat sector’s volatility opens up new export opportunities

19-Apr-2013 - A  combination of low prices and production costs, reduction in import volumes from non EU countries, increased production in some sheep meat producing  countries combined with an increasing demand in emerging markets have paved the way for  some EU lamb producers to boost exports and compete on a global scale.

Horsemeat: EU test results published

17-Apr-2013 - Nearly 5% of products tested for horsemeat across the EU were positive, while 0.5% of those tested positive for bute, the European Commission stated yesterday.

News in brief

Easterbrook returns to McDonald’s as head of brands

17-Apr-2013 - The former president of McDonald’s Europe has been appointed as the burger giant’s global chief brand officer and executive vice-president.

Horsemeat: Bute poses little consumer risk, say EU agencies

16-Apr-2013 - The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have said that European consumers were probably not harmed through eating illegally contaminated horsemeat during the recent mislabelling scandal.

News in brief

Horsemeat discovery in Swedish ‘beef’ steak

10-Apr-2013 - A “beef” steak on sale in a Swedish supermarket has tested positive for 100% horsemeat, the country’s food safety authorites have revealed.

EFSA gives opinion on MSM health risks

02-Apr-2013 - Mechanically separated meat (MSM) from poultry and swine carries similar risks to non-mechanically separated meat unless produced using high-pressure production techniques, according to a scientific opinion published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Russia considers EU chilled meat ban

28-Mar-2013 - Russia has announced it will ban imports of chilled meat from Spain and the Netherlands due, in its opinion, to a lack of proper veterinary control in these countries.

News in brief

Swedish body tests for pig DNA contaminants

28-Mar-2013 - The Swedish National Food Agency (NFA) has announced that it has started testing meat products for undeclared pig DNA as part of its efforts to combat fraud in the food industry.

Guest article

Horsemeat: what are the long term impacts?

20-Mar-2013 - As the horsemeat scandal continues to spread across Europe and beyond, Simone Baroke, an analyst for Euromonitor, looks at the possible long term impacts.

Warnings over CAP cuts

15-Mar-2013 - The European Parliament (EP) has backed budget cuts to the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) agreed last month by European Union (EU) heads of government and the move is expected to have a negative impact on EU livestock farmers.

News in brief

Bute risk assessed in Europe

12-Mar-2013 - The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are to carry out a joint assessment on the potential human health risks of residues of the pain-killing drug phenylbutazone, known commonly as bute.

European supermarket survey

08-Mar-2013 - A biennial UK supermarket welfare survey is due to be extended across Europe for the first time, due to interest from companies on the Continent.

US industry gives conditional welcome to EU FTA talks

07-Mar-2013 - A group of US food and agricultural oganisations has praised the Obama administration for launching free trade negotiations with the EU, but has called for any deal to address barriers to US meat exports.

News in brief

IKEA returns wieners to shelves

07-Mar-2013 - IKEA has resumed sales of its wieners after DNA tests proved negative for horse DNA.

What caused the European horsemeat crisis?

04-Mar-2013 - As the horsemeat scandal continues to rage through Europe, policy makers and industry are starting to reflect on what caused the crisis, and how it can be avoided in the future.

Horsemeat scandal 'unforgivable', says Nestlé boss

27-Feb-2013 - The entire food industry has been affected by the horsemeat scandal, according to the boss of Nestlé Paul Bulcke.

News in brief

Nestlé drops Spanish supplier over horsemeat affair

26-Feb-2013 - In the latest twist in the European horsemeat scandal, Nestlé Spain has dropped contracts with one of its Spanish suppliers after horse DNA was found in a batch of meat labelled as beef.

Warnings over EU agriculture cuts

22-Feb-2013 - Members of the European Parliament agriculture committee have raised concerns over cuts made to the European Union (EU)’s rural development fund in the recent EU 2014-20 spending deal – warning it may especially hit farmers rearing livestock of sheep and goats in poor regions.

News in brief

Brussels loses patience over sow stall failures

22-Feb-2013 - The failure of nine European Union (EU) member states to properly protect the welfare pregnant sows - breaking an EU law agreed 12 years ago - has caused the European Commission to threaten legal action over the issue.

MEPs call for improved traceability of horsemeat

19-Feb-2013 - Members of the European Parliament’s public health and food safety committee asked last night for horsemeat supplies within the European Union (EU) to be subjected to better traceability requirements, because of the ongoing labelling scandal.