Nearly 60% of consumers lacked confidence in the UK food industry to respond to food scares effectively, warns the latest research from research group Mintel.
Lauren McMaster's Posts (92)
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It’s a scary thought, putting your health and wellbeing in the hands of complete strangers halfway around the world. And the number of high profile, and often deadly, food scandals that have made headlines over the years definitely doesn’t ease troubled minds. There are various causes – from accidental contaminations to pure recklessness and even greed – but public outrage is universal.
A study published in the Journal of Environmental Health found that only 5% of consumers wash their hands correctly. Scientists trained 12 college students in the field of data collection. They then observed 3,749 people washing their hands in public toilets.
The observers found that 15% of the men and 7% of women didn’t wash their hands at all. Only 50% of men and 78% of women used soap. People were less likely to wash their hands if the sink looked dirty, and more likely if a sign telling people that hand washing is a good idea was hanging above the sink. And for some reason, more people wash their hands during the day than at night.
An annual report published on Europe’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) revealed that in 2012 almost 50% of notifications related to food and feed rejections at EU borders due to the risk they posed to food safety. Launched more than 30 years ago, RASFF is an IT tool that facilitates the cross-border flow of information between national food safety authorities and plays a key role in ensuring a high level of food safety for Europe's citizens.
A technique looking at DNA sequences has been developed that is said to half the time it takes to identify salmonella strains, according to US scientists.
It is more hygienic to dry your hands with a paper towel than an electric dryer, a new study has found.
Paper towels are more efficient because they work more quickly than hot air and physically remove germs from the hand, an Australian researcher found. Continue reading.
The published scientific paper can be found here -
The hygienic efficacy of different hand-drying methods.
The latest issue of FSA e-News is now out. This issue covers news on the upcoming Food Safety Week, activities surrounding the horse meat incident among other reports.
Barely a day goes by in China without news of yet another food safety scandal. This situation is seriously affecting not only the Chinese’s sentiment of trust towards their local products but it is also disrupting the economic viability of their entire food supply chain. As a result, the Chinese newly-elected leaders are consulting extensively to reform their highly-fragmented and historically reactive food safety system.
Produced by Good Food Ireland and Grant Thornton, the 2013 report highlights the effect the horsemeat scandal has had on the food industry in Ireland, how labeling deception is widespread across Europe, and how Good Food Ireland businesses expect to grow profitability in 2013.
The results of this study provide a robust measure of the acceptability, among UK consumers, of potential raw meat decontamination treatments. It measured the impact that different levels of information about the treatment would have on consumers' acceptability and labelling preferences, should treated meat go on sale.
EFSA’s scientific experts say that it is currently not possible to identify which VTEC bacteria strains have the potential to cause human diseases. In order to help risk managers to identify human health risks, EFSA has proposed a scheme to categorise VTEC strains according to their potential to cause disease. This work has been carried out in response to a request of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health.
Researchers at Washington State University have found that a compound in garlic is 100 times more effective than two popular antibiotics at fighting the Campylobacter bacterium, one of the most common causes of intestinal illness.
The discovery opens the door to new treatments for raw and processed meats and food preparation surfaces.
