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MoniQA collaborates with experts to harmonise worldwide food quality and safety monitoring strategies

Funded by the European Union, MoniQA (Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the total food supply chain) involves experts from around the globe collaborating to harmonise worldwide food quality and safety monitoring and control strategies. The project has developed a database of food quality and safety issues and corresponding analytical tools for food production and the supply chain.

17 Jun 2010

Global agriculture output to meet world food demand as food prices escalate over decade, report says

Food prices are projected to rise over the next decade, with the cost of some grains increasing between 15 and 40 percent, according to an annual report, released Tuesday from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, VOA News reports (6/15).

17 Jun 2010

FDA should implement risk-based approach to tackle food safety problems: Report

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's abilities to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.

9 Jun 2010

Fluidigm develops world's first reusable bio-chip architecture

Fluidigm Corporation today announced it has developed the world's first reusable bio-chip architecture for the commercial market. These reusable integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) will dramatically lower SNP genotyping costs and are designed to support accelerated sample throughput, while maintaining data quality of 99.75 percent or greater accuracy and 99 percent or greater call rates.

9 Jun 2010

IFST Advisory Statement cautions against food-borne Campylobacter infection

Campylobacter is one of the major causes of food poisoning, and the theme of this year's Food Safety Week is how to prevent illness caused by it. Campylobacter is a germ that occurs widely in the intestines of many warm-blooded animals and birds, particularly chickens and turkeys, and can be carried in animals that are used for food production and in domestic pets. In addition, it can occur in untreated water and raw milk.

5 Jun 2010

Life Technologies makes equity investment in SGI

Life Technologies Corporation, a provider of innovative life science solutions, announced today that it has made an equity investment in Synthetic Genomics, Inc., a privately held company founded to commercialize synthetic genomic advances. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

3 Jun 2010

Developing countries must have food production capacity to avoid food price crisis, U.S. official says

Factors that resulted in higher food prices in several countries in 2008, such as food scarcity and the use of land for biofuels, are still present and could cause prices to rise again without food production improvements in developing countries, Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome, said in an interview with Reuters.

29 May 2010

Delegates at the World Health Assembly adopt resolutions on variety of global health issues

The 63rd World Health Assembly, which brought together Health Ministers and senior health officials from the World Health Organization's Member States, concluded business and closed Friday evening.

24 May 2010

Feed the Future Guide for Obama administration's food security plan released

The "full details of how the money will be spent" has not yet been released, but the guide said the initiative would aim to increase "access to products such as fertilisers and new technology, including agriculture biotechnology," the Financial Times reports.

24 May 2010

Exosure to organophosphate pesticides associated with increased risk of ADHD in children

Following closely on the heels of the President's Cancer Panel Report exhorting consumers to choose food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, and growth hormones to help decrease their exposure to environmental chemicals that can increase their risk of contracting cancer, a study published in today's issue of the journal Pediatrics concludes that exposure to organophosphate pesticides at levels common among U.S. children may contribute to the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in these children.

18 May 2010

Media Line/All Headline News examines agriculture investment gap in Middle East

"Arab countries need to invest some $144 billion in agriculture over the next 20 years to meet the food demands of the growing population, an Arab agricultural organization has said," the Media Line/All Headline News reports in a piece that examines the contributing factors to gaps in food security in the region.

14 May 2010

Wheat aleurone contains high levels of potentially healthpromoting compounds

Wheat aleurone is a novel wheat grain fraction with high levels of potentially healthpromoting compounds. New clinical trials with ready-to-eat cereals and bread containing wheat aleurone have been performed, and showed increased blood concentrations of tentatively beneficial compounds such as betaine, and decreased homocysteine and LDL-cholesterol which are both associated with heart disease risk.

12 May 2010

Iowa State University researcher works on faster method to detect salmonella from contaminated foods

Using technology available through a local company, an Iowa State University researcher is working on a faster method to detect and genetically identify salmonella from contaminated foods.

5 May 2010

European Commission rolls out new food security policies; Agricultural Research Conference concludes

The European Commission (EC) recently announced that it has adopted two new policy frameworks "to help developing countries address food security in emergency and long-term situations" and has called upon member nations to implement similar policies, IRIN reports.

3 Apr 2010

Organic food production increases greenhouse gas emissions

If everyone became vegan and so ate only fruit and vegetables, then the reduction in greenhouse emissions for the whole of food consumption would be a mere 7%. The widespread adoption of vegetarianism would have even less impact, while organic food production actually leads to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

3 Apr 2010

BRIC ministers reach agreement on promoting global food security

Brazil, Russia, India and China, collectively known as BRIC, have reached an agreement to promote global food security, the Moscow Times reports (Anishyuk, 3/29).

30 Mar 2010

Former Presidents Bush, Clinton visit Haiti to highlight need for aid

Former U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are visiting Haiti on Monday "to spotlight the dramatic need ahead of a critical March 31 U.N. donors conference in New York, where Haitian officials will ask for $11.5 billion in reconstruction help," the Associated Press/New York Times reports. "It is the first joint visit to the impoverished Caribbean nation for the two former leaders, who were tasked by President Barack Obama with leading the U.S. fundraising effort" after the January 12 earthquake according to the news service.

23 Mar 2010

Intergovernmental Committee meeting focuses on E. Africa food security

Experts meeting at the 14th Intergovernmental Committee meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, which kicked off on Sunday, are focusing on food security in East Africa, where FAO says 20 million people are vulnerable, the New Times/allAfrica.com reports. The U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) sub-regional office, East Africa, also says the region is the most affected by food insecurity on the continent, according to the publication.

17 Mar 2010

New heart-healthy omega-3 crops on horizon

A new heart-healthy, essential omega-3 fatty acid is about to improve an American pantry staple: soybean oil. The new scientific advance will move biotechnology onto the average consumer's daily radar.