Latest food supply Stories

By Anonymous The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Food Protection Plan Progress Report, released on July 2, 2008, in conjunction with the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety Action Plan Update, shows significant areas of activity to further improve the safety of America's food supply since unveiling its Food Protection Plan in November 2007. The improvements highlight the agency's efforts to address domestic and global changes in the U.S. food supply to help keep it one of the...

By Anonymous We go to the grocery store and we assume the shelves will be fully stocked, the freezers overflowing with choices of food. Increases in the cost of some of our favorite foods recently have revealed just how vulnerable we are to changes in the food supply. A sensible farm policy is essential to ensure that food is available and affordable for all Americans. Congress moved closer last week to passing a farm bill, but issues still need to be hammered out and President Bush has...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that food products from cloned animals may have already become a part of the U.S. food supply.With an estimated 600 cloned animals currently grazing across the U.S., FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey acknowledged "it is theoretically possible" that food products from cloned animals have already become a part of the nation's food supply."I don't know whether they are or not. I could imagine there are not very many of them," DeLancey...

By Laura Hancock Deseret News A new survey for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food has found that food supply safety is one of the most important among six major issues. When asked to describe the issues on a scale from "not at all important" to "very important," 80 percent of polled Wasatch Front residents ranked education as very important. But 70 percent ranked a safe food supply in the "very important" category, outpacing 67 percent for crime, 65 percent for the economy, 61...

FDA probe highlights problems with food safety in U.S. The federal government's maddening inability to get to the bottom of the current salmonella outbreak that has sickened 1,017 people - including nine in California - would be easy to mock. For three months, investigators have been chasing tomatoes as the salmonella source. But in recent days, after tomato growers around the country suffered steep losses, authorities are turning their attention to jalape o peppers. What gives?...

From wire reports The Food and Drug Administration's inability to identify the source of a salmonella contamination that has sickened more than 1,000 people in 41 states shows that the 2002 Bioterrorism Act's provisions to protect the nation's food supply are inadequate when it comes to quickly tracing contamination to fresh produce, some food safety experts say. Officials still don't know for sure whether tomatoes, peppers or both were responsible for the outbreak, and they don't know the...

Denise Goodman is one of Long Island's top experts on the travels of tomatoes: their sometimes long and very often circuitous trek from farm to plate. The Manhasset resident is the proprietor of M&R Tomatoes in the New York City Terminal Market -- the bustling Hunts Point cooperative in the Bronx -- the largest food distribution center in the world. It is in large part the lengthy route taken to the table -- sometimes from the U.S. to Mexico and back -- combined with what the government...

Byron Brehm-Stecher, assistant professor in food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University, has some big ideas for his work with tiny particles. His latest research project will allow him to study the potential of using silver nanoparticles to improve the safety of the world's food supply.Although the particles can't be added directly to foods, the ultimate goal of this project is to develop food-related applications such as microbe-resistant fabrics or non-biofouling surfaces. The...

Global use of biotech crops increased again in 2007, with global biotech crop acreage reaching a historic 282 million acres in 23 countries, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). Global biotech crop acreage increased nearly 12 percent from 2006, when 252 million acres of biotech crops were grown in 22 countries. "The reason for such impressive worldwide adoption rates is simple -- agricultural biotechnology delivers significant...

By Gonzalez, Carmen G INTRODUCTION On September 29, 2006, a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel issued its final decision (the EC- Biotech decision) in the complaint brought by the United States, Canada, and Argentina against the European Communities (EC) over the EC's alleged moratorium on the approval and marketing of agricultural and food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).1 The panel concluded that the EC had applied a de facto moratorium on the...