Food 'n' Drink – Food and Drink news |

The government seems to be clearing a route for the official acceptance of cloned meat, milk, and cheese available for sale and marketing, whether intentional or not.  A recent finding by the Food Standards Agency has stated that any banning of such products from the lineage of cloned animals is disproportionate with findings that these food products are no less safe than others of the same type.

The government does not seem to care that the European Union has placed a five-year ban on the production of such products, saying that it would prohibit the cloning of animals for the express purpose of manufacture.  However, they have not gone so far as to say they consider the products to be any sort of risk.

Meanwhile, the FSA finding shows that the British government is not concerned with the cloning of animals for such purposes.  Many people wonder if this is going to lead the way for the selling of such products from cloned animals in UK shops.  If indeed, it does, others wonder if there will be any labelling done by which to inform the purchaser that the products come from a lineage of cloned animals.

It is predictable that, since the FSA finding says that there is no discernable difference and no extra risk from the consumption of such products, no one will see a need to require labelling.

Many farmers interviewed in recent studies say that they consider cloning just another sort of reproductive method on a scale with artificial insemination.  However, vast segments of the public express concerns with consuming such products and polling shows that many would not purchase products revealed to be from cloned animals or their lineage.

The debate rages on with the man in the street, but the recent documents coming out of the Food Standards Agency attest to the position of the British government.

It has become pretty clear that consumers in general are confused about the labelling on food products.

Different manufacturers and retailers using different codes and standards make it hard for a buyer to figure out whether the product they are buying is healthy or not, and what percentage of daily nutritional needs it supplies.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the U.K. has determined that the best-understood method of labelling uses the ‘traffic light system’, in which the colours red, yellow and green are related to high, medium and low levels of ‘unhealthy’ ingredients.  They are calling for a single industry standard that would also include the GDA (guideline daily amounts) percentage contained in each serving of the product.

The FAS says that initially two of the three elements should be included in the label, hopefully making the transition to universal labelling easier for both manufacturers and consumers.  They are trying to respond to customers’ wishes while allowing enough time for the businesses involved to make the adjustment.  Their proposal will be submitted at an open board meeting on March 10^th.

According to Clair Baynton at the FSA, even though the U.K. is a world leader in food package labelling, there is still a lot of confusion on the part of consumers.  However, the change to a single standard may have to wait for the rest of Europe to reach a similar decision.  The British Retail Consortium said that until such time it would be too costly and confusing for the U.K. to enforce its own official standard.

The Food Standards Agency is calling all supermarkets to reduce the amount of contaminates found in their food items after it was released that almost 66% of all the chicken sold at supermarkets contain the bug that is the root of most of Britain’s food poisoning cases.

The contaminate in the chicken is called campylobacter and is responsible for 80 deaths per year and 440,000 illnesses.

The best way to avoid getting food poisoning is to cook chicken thoroughly and to disinfect the areas where chicken is kept.

However, despite this easy advice over the last four years the amount of those who fall ill each year has risen by about 40,000.

Chief executive of FSA, Tim Smith, told the board of agency that he wrote to each of the chief executives of major supermarket chains such as Tesco, Asda, and Sainsbury’s to highlight the concern and ask for their aid in reducing the problem.

Smith stated that now is the time for retailers to change their policies when it comes to purchasing goods that are subject to contamination and that by setting standard policies, purchasing strategies, and specifications in place the amount of campylobacter incidents can be reduced.

For the moment the FSA is asking supermarket officials to attend a March summit that will educate them about how chicken should be properly cleaned.  Before the summit, officials are looking into whether deep freezing or steam cleaning chicken for a brief period before placing it on the shelves will reduce the rates of contamination.