The 2008 HACCP Award winners were announced last week to recognise outstanding contributions made by companies and individuals toward improving food safety. The Awards were separated into three categories for individuals and one category for business. The Category 1 Award for ‘Outstanding Individual Nominated by an Agri-food Industry Company’ went to Marion Bray from Coles supermarkets. The award was for dedication to the implementation of food safety initiatives for their own business... ...Read more »

Fonterra’s Chief Executive Andrew Ferrier has told media today that he has been “frustrated” with the handling of the contaminated milk issue by Chinese authorities. A baby milk formula produced by Sanlu, a company which NZ dairy giant Fonterra has a 43 per cent share in, has reportedly been responsible for two deaths and over 400 cases of illness amongst infants. The Sanlu Board and Fonterra were made aware of the contamination of the formula on August 2, when a trade recall was... ...Read more »

The Iemma Government and local councils will conduct targeted inspections across Sydney restaurants, as part of a major crackdown on food outlets, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald announced today.The announcement comes eight weeks after the introduction of food safety laws empowering councils as food safety enforcers and new “name and shame” legislation  allowing the NSW Food Authority to publish food law violations on its website. Mr Macdonald said a joint taskforce between... ...Read more »

In only eight weeks the NSW ‘name and shame’ website for food law breaches has reached the 100 mark, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald reported on Sunday. There are now 101 food outlets in 31 NSW council areas listed on the Food Authority website with a total of 163 offences. “Twenty-eight new offences have just gone up on the name and shame website, including a café in the Blue Mountains that was fined $330 for permitting an animal in the food handling area,” Mr Macdonald... ...Read more »

New food safety standards that will give added protection to people in hospitals and aged care facilities came into effect on 18 August, 2008.The Vulnerable Persons Food Safety Scheme will mean NSW’s 1,300 public and private hospitals and aged care facilities will be required to have mandatory food safety programs. The new laws, which will protect vulnerable people in the community including seniors and those that are unwell, mean that hospitals and aged-care facilities will be subject to regular... ...Read more »

IBM has signed an agreement with Matiq, the information technology subsidiary of Nortura, Norway’s largest food supplier, to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track and trace poultry and meat products from the farm, through the supply chain, to supermarket shelves. IBM and Matiq are developing the first food tracking solution of its kind in the Nordics, which will help ensure that meat and poultry products are kept in optimal condition throughout the supply chain. The... ...Read more »

The UK’s new transparent food safety grading system is making a splash, but there have been concerns that it may be too wide-reaching in its application. The Food Standards Agency is consulting on the SOTDs (Scores On The Doors) system to attempt to standardise the many different hygiene scoring systems that currently operate throughout the UK. The schemes originated following the Freedom of Information Act and aim to give customers more information about the hygiene of the premises that they... ...Read more »

The ability to distinguish between food and medicine has become increasingly difficult as a wave of functional foods and “superfoods” hit supermarket shelves. Such inability to distinguish the line between what constitutes food and medicine has enabled some marketers of superfoods to get away with making prohibited health claims because of poor policing and loopholes in the law, a consumer advisor to the therapeutic goods regulator told the Sydney Morning Herald. Following extensive... ...Read more »

A NSW Food Authority safety survey of bakery products has revealed that 1 in 4 Vietnamese-style rolls tested scored either “unsatisfactory” or had “marginal” satisfactory levels for human consumption, but overall the industry was typically meeting strict food safety guidelines. The survey of 125 small non-supermarket bakeries was conducted over eight months by the NSW Food Authority and 40 local councils. “The good news is that out of almost 700 samples, the vast majority... ...Read more »

EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) has today published its final scientific opinion on the implications of animal cloning on food safety, animal health and welfare and the environment. EFSA’s opinion follows a request from the European Commission (EC) to EFSA for advice on this issue in February 2007 and public consultation on a draft opinion earlier this year. Prof. Vittorio Silano, chair of EFSA’s Scientific Committee, indicated that food safety issues did not apear prevalent. “It... ...Read more »