Hector is a Research Officer in the Food Safety Department of the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Ashtown, Dublin 15. He has a doctorate in veterinary medicine and a PhD in gastrointestinal diseases in pigs from the University of León in Spain.
The T
In today’s world, you can’t let your skills stand still. And for more than 20 years, the Food Industry Training Unit (FITU) at University College Cork has been helping people in the food sector hone their skills all along the food chain, from farm to
A lengthening global food chain means graduates in the industry today need a rounded set of skills as well as confident voices to tackle food safety and health challenges. That’s according to Professor Dolores O’Riordan, Director of the Food and Heal
The food sector uses various standards to help ensure product and process safety and quality. At the same time, different sectors within the food industry engage with the development of international and European standards that may affect their busin
A hot topic at the recent VTEC Network Annual Conference was whole genome sequencing, which has huge potential for reference and research laboratories, as it gives much more information on strains than previous techniques.
Dr Claire Jenkins, from Pub
Rebecca Jenkinson, a graduate of the Food Quality, Safety and Nutrition course at Queen’s University Belfast, was the 2015 winner of the Student Prize. The prize was awarded to the best essay on the theme of Food: Is it safe to eat?
Below is an excerp
Consumers see instant hand sanitisers as a quick, easy alternative to conventional hand washing, but prefer to use water and soap if possible, as they see this method as more effective.
This is according to a survey conducted for a new safefood report
Consumers need clear information about food to avoid confusion when new food safety and nutrition research comes out. That’s according to Dr Moira Dean, a senior lecturer in Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), whose research looks at food
Biosecurity measures to control Campylobacter should take local factors into account. That was a key message from the Campylobacter Control Training Workshop held by the Campylobacter Knowledge Network in Monaghan in September.
More than 100 delegate
Robert Huey is a strong believer that human health and animal health are not two different concerns. “There is only health, as everything is so integrated,” he says.
Robert, the chief veterinary officer for Northern Ireland, says his passion is food
The horse meat scandal in 2013 led to an increased focus on preventing food adulteration, according to Dr James McIntosh of safefood. James, a toxicologist, spoke at two seminars held in June and November this year, entitled ‘Food Authenticity: Prote
In 2011, safefood established the Knowledge Networks to create and build links between food safety professionals across the whole food chain on the island of Ireland. We have been delighted so many of you have played an active role in developing the
In 2008, the meat sector on the island of Ireland was rocked by a dioxin contamination scandal. In its wake, however, a strong platform for animal feed assurance has grown. The Northern Ireland Grain Trade Association (NIGTA) believes this could pave
Job ref no: HQ/M/000530
In this role you will take responsibility for managing the ‘technical’ relationship with our Business to Business (B2B) and International customers covering food safety, quality and integrity of supply. This is a pivotal role
Following years of food scandals, from milk contaminated with an industrial chemical to the use of industrial dyes in eggs, and soya sauce made from hair clippings swept off salon floors, China has finally brought out a range of food safety regulatio
EFSA has opened up to the public statistics of data on chemical contaminants and food consumption, which are used in its risk assessments. These statistics are accessible from EFSA’s new data warehouse.
“This is the latest important step towards impr
This report provides an overview of the use of antibiotics in animals and agriculture, and the role that manufacturing and use of antimicrobials play in bringing these into the wider environment. It calls for three interventions: First, a global targ
A study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has found that fresh produce items cause more foodborne illnesses than any other food category.
The nonprofit group looked at 10 years of foodborne outbreak data to identify trends in whi
Companies guilty of the biggest violations on the rules regarding food safety, will soon have to pay massive fines. From June 1st next year, the worst food fraud offenders will have to pay 10 percent of their annual turnover, instead of the current m
Today, the European Commission published the results of EU-wide control plans to assess the prevalence of fraudulent practices in the marketing of fish and honey. The 28 Member States, plus Norway and Switzerland, carried out controls from June to No
