USA - The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has banned the use of six synthetic flavorings in candy, cookies, ice cream, and all other foods and beverages because the chemicals have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. According to USDA, the affected chemicals—benzophenone, ethyl acrylate, eugenyl methyl ether, myrcene, pulegone, and pyridine—are typically…
USA - The federal government will spend up to US$1.2 billion to buy products from farmers hurt by the retaliatory tariffs from China and other countries, and will provide almost US$5 billion in payments to farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced. Accprding to ABC, the the purchases and payments are part of an emergency…
USA - The Trump administration has said it would provide up to US$12 billion in aid for U.S. farmers from early September to shield them from the repercussions of trade disputes between the United States and China, the European Union and others. According to CNBC, the United States has never before offered aid of this…
USA - GR2E Golden Rice, a provitamin-A biofortified rice variety, has completed its third positive food safety evaluation by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). In an official statement by Crop Biotech, the US FDA announced that it concurred with the International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) assessment regarding the safety and nutrition of…
USA - The world’s top food companies and farmers of crops such as beet sugar are pitted against each other as they lobby the U.S. government over plans to label genetically engineered ingredients. According to Reuters, this issue of transparency over ingredients used by packaged foods makers which are facing flagging consumer trust and stagnating…
USA - Trump’s administration on June 21, 2018 proposed consolidation of federal food safety into a single agency, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This seeks to bring together the functions of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) into a single…
ISRAEL - Aleph Farms, Israeli food technology start-up company, has called on the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to promote clean meat for its compelling safety advantages, such as being antibiotic free and pathogen free. Alepha Farms made the request in response to the US Cattlemen's Association's (USCA) petition to the USDA to restrict the…
USA - The US government in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched the USDA Harmonized Good Agricultural Practices Audit Program (USDA H-GAP) as part of their strategy to strengthen food safety. The announcement made by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb,…
ASIA - The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has partnered with the UK based multinational inspection, product testing and certification company, Intertek to enhance sustainable rice production and global food security. The collaboration will see Intertek use rice DNA markers developed by IRRI in a joint initiative geared at equitable sharing of knowledge and provision…
UKRAINE - Ukraine’s soybean production is set to fall 14% to 3.3 million tonnes despite higher expected yields than the five-year average, according to USDA’s Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) May 16 report. Soybean planted area for the coming crop year is forecast at around 1.5 million hectares, a 23% decline from 2017-18. While Sunflower…
