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Yikes! 5,085 kilojoules and 80.5 grams of fat in one burger

After the naming of a Hungry Jack's burger as the unhealthiest in the nation, all state governments are planning to introduce legislation requiring fast food outlets to list the energy content on their menus.

9 Jun 2011

DASH diet comes out on top

DASH diet, often recommended to help adults lower their blood pressure has ranked over more popular options in a ranking of 20 diets by U.S. News & World Report. The DASH diet, the magazine concluded, was the best overall. Government approved DASH standing for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension was chosen by the magazine’s panel of nutrition experts among other things, being nutritious, easy to follow and protecting against heart disease and perhaps diabetes.

8 Jun 2011

Food poisoning with E coli low but Salmonella high

According to public health officials this Tuesday, progress has been made in combating the microbes behind 50 million yearly U.S. food poisoning cases. These affect one in six Americans. This comes from the newest federal FoodNet report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows that total food-borne illnesses dropped by nearly a quarter in the last decade and a half, but salmonella infections have steadily refused to drop, climbing slightly in recent years.

8 Jun 2011

Cooperation is key to finding global food security

"We need a global approach to achieving food security," Tom Daschle, former Senate majority leader and chair of the DuPont Advisory Committee on Agricultural Innovation and Productivity for the 21st Century, writes in a Politico opinion piece.

8 Jun 2011

UH environmental engineer to test parts of Galveston Bay for dioxins and PCBs

A University of Houston environmental engineer will test parts of Galveston Bay for toxic chemicals in an effort to help state officials determine the best way to handle those pollutants.

8 Jun 2011

U.S. should delay and reform Pakistan aid, report says

U.S. aid efforts in Pakistan have become "muddled" and should be delayed until reforms are implemented, a report (.pdf) compiled by a Center for Global Development (CGD) task force, said on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports (Tandon, 6/1).

3 Jun 2011

Editorial: Food security should be a priority

"Any system that produces enough food for the entire world and yet fails to feed one in seven people, which is subject to rampant speculation and land-grabbing, and where crops and land that could be used to feed people are instead turned into fuel for Hummers, is patently not working," a Guardian editorial says.

3 Jun 2011

Celebrities urge decriminalization of drug possession

Dame Judi Dench, Sir Richard Branson, actress Julie Christies and Sting have added their support to an ex-drugs minister and three former chief constables in calling for the decriminalization of the possession of all drugs. These celebrities together with leading lawyers, academics, artists and politicians have signed an open letter to David Cameron to mark this week's 40th anniversary of the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act. The letter, published in a full-page advertisement in Thursday's Guardian, calls for a “swift and transparent” review of the effectiveness of current drugs policies.

2 Jun 2011

Oxfam report warns about steep increases in food costs, demand

With food costs rising for the second time in three years, Oxfam released a report on Tuesday predicting "the price of some staples such as corn will double in the next 20 years amid a permanent crisis caused by rising demand, flat crop yields and climate change," Associated Press/Forbes reports.

1 Jun 2011

USAID report questions Haitian quake death toll

The death toll from the January 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti was significantly lower than the toll claimed by Haitian leaders, according to the draft of a report prepared for USAID not yet publicly released, the Associated Press/Herald Sun reports.

1 Jun 2011

IUFoST Conference to focus on latest innovations in food technology

The International Union of Food Science and Technology will bring some of the best minds in academia and industry to China, to present the latest innovations in food technology and discuss pressing issues faced by the industry.

1 Jun 2011

Ceelox receives US patent titled ‘System and Method for Secure and Interactive Dissemination of Information’

Ceelox, Inc. proudly announced today that it was issued a patent from the U.S. Patent Office. The patent, U.S. Patent Number 7,945,520 entitled "System and Method for Secure and/or Interactive Dissemination of Information," provides the ability for associating message content with a media element, such as an advertisement, sending the message to a designated recipient, and presenting the media content only after the "unwrapping" of the message through the use of biometric authentication.

1 Jun 2011

BioScience article describes early scale-up stage of new biotechnology with environmental benefits

An article published in the June issue of BioScience describes the early scale-up stage of a new biotechnology with environmental benefits and possible commercial potential. Algal turf scrubbers are field-sized, water-treatment systems that can extract excess nutrients from streams, canals, and lakes polluted by agricultural, domestic, and some industrial runoff.

1 Jun 2011

Advocates express aid concerns after G8 summit ends

After the conclusion of the G8 summit in Deauville, France, last week, development experts expressed concern that the G8's aid package, aimed at encouraging democracy mostly in North Africa, would result in less aid for the rest of the continent, Inter Press Service reports.

1 Jun 2011

JRC report shows how molecular technologies can help combat illegal fishing, support traceability

Low-cost catfish fillets sold as expensive sole fillets or cod caught in the North Sea but declared as originating from the Baltic Sea are both examples of types of fraud in the fisheries sector. A European Commission report published today shows how molecular technologies - based on genetics, genomics, chemistry and forensics - can provide clear answers to questions such as "what species does this fish product come from….where was this fish caught….is it wild or farmed?".

30 May 2011

FDA scraps food pyramid for food plate

The Obama government is all set to ignore the food pyramid, that symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades. In its place officials are dishing up a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for the basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables.

29 May 2011

OPINION: Aid for women farmers is a worthy investment

In a piece on The Hill's "Congress Blog," Eva Clayton, a former Democratic member of Congress from North Carolina and assistant director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization between 2003 and 2006, calls on the World Bank to invest more in women farmers in the developing world, after the agency "largely ignored the role women and small entrepreneurs can play in the developing world to improve food security" at an April 2011 meeting.

27 May 2011

Severe drought in China putting pressure on drinking water, agriculture

"Chinese authorities will step up the release of water from the Three Gorges Dam in a bid to tackle a drought in southern China which has put pressure on drinking water, crops, shipping lanes and electricity production in what is traditionally China's most water-abundant region," the Financial Times reports.

27 May 2011

DNA-based traceability system tracks beef

Starting today, 11,000 U.S. restaurants that serve Braveheart Black Angus Beef will be able to assure diners a guarantee of quality about their premium Angus beef through DNA TraceBack®, the nation's first-of-its-kind assurance of quality and commitment.

27 May 2011

Global health, development issues not likely to be focus of Deauville G8 meeting, IPS reports

"When leaders of the Group of 8 (G8) industrialised nations meet in Deauville, France, later this week, there is a strong possibility that politics will take precedence over traditional socioeconomic issues like food security and development aid, which are being overshadowed by the Arab revolution and Palestinian statehood," Inter Press Service writes of the G8 meeting, which begins on Thursday.

27 May 2011