Category: UK Food Standards Authority
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UK’s FSA Announces Moratorium on “Desinewed Meat”
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced a moratorium on the production of “desinewed meat” (DSM) from cattle, sheep and goats after the European Commission decided “that DSM does not comply with European Union [EU] single market legislation.” Produced using “a low pressure technique” to remove meat from bone but retain the structural integrity…
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FSA Seeks Input on Edible Insect Consumption
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued an August 16, 2011, notice soliciting information about “the sale and consumption of whole insects and other animals, such as worms,” which may eventually require novel food assessment under the European Union’s (EU’s) food safety laws. Directed at insect suppliers, the Natural History Museum, and various consumer, manufacturer…
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UK’s FSA Investigates Safety of Ice Cream Made with Breast Milk
The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has reportedly launched an investigation to determine if a brand of ice cream made with donated breast milk has violated food safety regulations. Launched recently by a London-area restaurant, Baby Gaga ice cream was evidently pulled by the Westminster City Council after several complaints were lodged about whether…
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UK’s FSA Welcomes Applications for Meat Research Program
The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced that it is commissioning research aimed at modernizing official controls on meat. Noting that “the driving force” behind the Future Meat Controls Research Programme is to “improve public health by adopting a more risk- and evidence-based approach to meat production,” FSA said four areas of research…
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FSA Issues Draft Regulations for Food Additives
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued draft regulations to implement two European directives setting specific purity criteria for four food additives and one sweetener. According to FSA, the new additives are E392 extracts of rosemary, E427 cassia gum, E961 neotame, E1203 polyvinyl alcohol, and E1521 polyethylene glycol. The draft regulations also amend “existing…
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UK Nanotechnologies and Food Discussion Group Holds Initial Meeting
The U.K. Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Nanotechnologies and Food Discussion Group has held its first meeting to consider advancing recommendations from a House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology 2010 report. Fifteen stakeholders from consumer organizations, academia, industry, and government departments met on January 13, 2011, to “exchange information between different sectors within the…
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FSA Says Offspring of Clones Do Not Require Authorization as “Novel Foods”
The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) board has reportedly changed its position to agree with the European Commission (EC) that food from the offspring of cloned cattle and pigs does not require authorization as “novel foods.” Meeting December 7, 2010, to discuss animal cloning for food production, the FSA board also agreed that “for…
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UK Divvies Up Food Safety Responsibilities
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced that as of September 1, 2010, the agency handed over several responsibilities to the departments of Health (DH) and Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Under the restructuring—which does not currently apply to operations to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—FSA in England will continue to handle the…