As of Jan. 15, 2020, fresh produce companies supplying the Canadian market are subject to new requirements under the Safe Food for Canadians regulations.

Tammy Switucha, senior director of the food program integration division with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, says the new regulations impact licensed fresh fruit or vegetable businesses as well as growers and harvesters of fresh fruit or vegetables for export or interprovincial trade. “Canada was looking to modernize its food safety legislation and regulations so there was more emphasis on the prevention of food safety risks by producers,” she tells Food Quality & Safety. “We wanted to provide Canadians with an advanced level of protection and feel more consumer confidence in the food supply.”

As per the new regulations, producers need to ensure that they have preventive control in their production facilities where their business is located, in addition to a plan that outlines the risks and control measures they’ve taken. “They must also meet the traceability requirement, which has a record-keeping component to it, and documents that trace their food one step forward and one step back,” Switucha says.

Producers whose gross annual food sales are higher than $100,000 and growers or harvesters whose gross annual sales from interprovincial transactions are more than $100,000 will also be required to have a written preventive control plan.

Switucha says that the new requirements establish the expected food safety outcomes to prevent food safety hazards and help prevent contaminated and non-compliant food from entering the Canadian market. “Businesses are encouraged to familiarize themselves and implement preventive control requirements now to comply with the new requirements.” she says. “We understand these rules are new and we will balance the need for protection with the opportunity to bring everyone into compliance.”

The post New Requirements for Produce Companies that Supply the Canadian Market appeared first on Food Quality & Safety.

In late 2019, the California and Arizona Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreements (LGMA) changed practices involving treatment of irrigation water in response to E. coli outbreaks involving romaine lettuce.

April Ward, marketing communications director for the LGMA, notes that the rules regarding agricultural water have been changed in the LGMA Food Safety Practices and are standard for 2020. “Growers are required to categorize their agricultural water as either Type A water—generally free of indicators of fecal contamination, as in deep wells and municipal sources—or Type B water—surface waters, or all other types of agricultural water,” she tells Food Quality & Safety. “Testing of all water sources is maintained but strengthened with more samples required and a new, stricter standard replacing previous standards that allowed some level of generic E. coli.”

Additionally, the use of untreated surface water for overhead irrigation during the 21 days prior to harvest has been banned. Specific corrective actions are prescribed should water not meet the mandated microbial standards. “These changes were adopted following investigations into two outbreaks tied to romaine lettuce in 2018,” Ward says. “In those investigations, the outbreak strains were found by the CDC in canal water in Arizona and an above-ground reservoir in California.”

To comply, members must use water that meets acceptance criteria for generic E.coli when that water will touch the edible portion of the crop within 21 days of harvest. California government auditors will perform audits of growers to assure this is being done. “The LGMA programs include a compliance element,” Ward says. “Handlers whose growers do not comply with the accepted food safety practices and who fail to conduct corrective actions, can be decertified. Decertification is a public action, and any action taken is made public.”

The post LGMA Changes Irrigation Water Practices in Response to Romaine <i>E. coli</i> Outbreaks appeared first on Food Quality & Safety.

The devastating bushfires raging across Australia have been responsible for the deaths of at least two dozen people and hundreds of millions of animals, and caused the destruction of thousands of homes and businesses.

Experts also note that the fires can pose serious food safety risks. Lydia Buchtmann, council communication director for the Food Safety Information Council in Australia, says that toxic fumes from burning materials is a concern as they may enter the food supply, as are the chemicals used to fight the fire. Additionally, the fire’s heat can aid bacteria in multiplying in food.

The council has put out a list of recommendations for consumers to guide them to food safety, which include throwing away any food that has been near the fires, including food in jars, cans, and bottles. Refrigerated food near flames should also be discarded because fumes can still penetrate a sealed refrigerator.

All utensils and dinnerware that may have been exposed to fire-fighting chemicals should be soaked in soapy hot water and sanitized with a tablespoon of chlorine bleach and two liters of water.

Buchtmann notes that food should be wrapped in newspaper before being placed in a garbage can.

Additionally, Australia officials have cautioned that damaged transport links will likely lead to shortages of some fresh produce and any old fruits and vegetables should be scanned to ensure they were not in the fire’s path prior to consuming.

The post Australian Fires Cause Concern for Food Safety appeared first on Food Quality & Safety.

Crayfish Linked to Sweden Salmonella Outbreak

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported in November that there have been 33 known cases of Salmonella Mikawasima in Sweden and seven other European countries.

“There is an ongoing investigation of Salmonella Mikawasima cases, which have been identified through exceedance analysis and whole-genome sequence analysis,” Susana Barragan, a spokesperson for the ECDC, told Food Quality & Safety “ECDC is collecting further epidemiological and WGS [whole-genome sequencing] information from the countries in order to assess the extent of this event.”

Although the majority of cases were reported in Sweden, others have been reported in the U.K., France, Denmark, and Ireland.

Moa Rehn, an epidemiologist for the Public Health Agency of Sweden, says it’s investigating an outbreak of Salmonella Mikawasima in the country as people have been sick with the same Salmonella strain that has popped up throughout those European countries.

“We suspect that there is a common food source that has been distributed to several countries in Europe,” Rehn told FQ&S. “A national outbreak team with participants from the Public Health Agency (Folkhälsomyndigheten), regional infectious disease departments, and the Swedish Food Agency is investigating the Swedish outbreak. Cases are being interviewed by the regional infectious disease departments to find out what those cases ate before falling ill.”

The two dozen or so sick in Sweden live across 12 counties. The most recent known date of illness onset is Oct. 24, with those infected in an age range of 4 to 89 years old.

The Public Health Agency of Sweden is performing a case-by-case study, comparing the food history of outbreak cases to non-outbreak cases from the same time period. They believe the probable source of infection is large crayfish sold at retailer ICA, according to Rehn.

After being made aware of the alleged problem by Folkhälsomyndigheten, the retailer has withdrawn all packages from their stores, though it released a statement that it randomly checked the Chinese crayfish it has in stock and did not detect Salmonella.

– Keith Loria

CEA Food Safety Coalition Welcomes First-Ever Executive Director

The New York City-based CEA Food Safety Coalition has named Marni Karlin as the group’s first executive director. Karlin is charged with strengthening food safety standards and ensuring they are appropriate for the controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) leafy greens sector.

The CEA Food Safety Coalition comprises CEA leafy greens producers, including those that use hydroponic, aquaponic, and aeroponic methods.

“I am always seeking opportunities to use my skills and expertise to create a healthier, more sustainable food system,” Karlin says. “I’ve done that through work with the organic sector, and in nutrition education, and now I’m excited to bring my skills, expertise, and experience in policy, advocacy, and coalition management to bear for the controlled environment agriculture leafy greens sector.”

Previously, Karlin served as VP of government affairs and general counsel for the Organic Trade Association, representing the interests of the organic food, fiber, and agriculture sector in Washington, D.C. She also was counsel to Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., on the Senate Judiciary Committee, advising the legislator through her engagement with coalitions of government, nonprofit, and for-profit stakeholders.

In her new role, Karlin will seek to grow the coalition’s membership, educate consumers and regulators about this growing sector, and work with members, government agencies, and industry experts to strengthen food safety standards.

“As a growing sector, it’s critical that we build a coalition of engaged stakeholders to advocate, educate, and work with external stakeholders now,” she says. “It’s important to have a seat at the table when standards and regulations are being discussed, and I’m excited to ensure that our sector has just that. We have a great opportunity to help people understand what we do—whether they’re parents choosing to put our products on their children’s plates, or regulators making important decisions to protect food safety and people’s health.”

– Keith Loria

Report Reveals Food Authenticity Market Headed for Exponential Growth

A new report projects that the global food authenticity market is on a big upswing and will reach record numbers in the years ahead.

In 2017, the global food authenticity market was valued at $5.312 billion, according to research by KD Market Insights, Albany, N.Y. Researchers reported it should reach $9.84 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.1%.

Food authenticity, defined in the report, is driven by numerous factors, including volatility in food prices, availability of raw materials and ingredients, economic conditions, regulatory developments, and large environmental impacts.

According to the UK’s Food Standards Agency, food fraud is rampant and causes significant negative effects on both consumers and businesses. This includes everything from damage to brand reputations and revenue for retail businesses and processing establishments to health complications for the consumer due to its impact on food safety. That has given rise to innovative technology that’s utilized to monitor food authenticity and tackle food fraud head on so more labs can confirm the food source and stop potential problems.

The food authenticity market is led by Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific, with the latter recording the highest growth rate last year thanks to an increase in processed foods production and the governments’ implementation of new safety regulations.

KD Market Insights credits the U.S. for its regulations on labeling requirements and authenticity confirmation as being a key contributor to the projected increase in the years ahead.

The meat speciation segment is projected to grow at the highest compound annual growth rate during the forecast period, due to the increase in number of frauds in meat products and adulterations.

– Keith Loria

Beyond Vegan Burgers: Next-Generation Protein Could Come from Air, Methane, Volcanic Springs

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – It may sound like science fiction, but in a few short years the family dinner table may be laden with steak from a printer and other proteins produced from air, methane or volcanic microbes.

With the explosive success of vegan beef and burger substitutes developed by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, the alternative protein sector just keeps growing.

According to investment bank Barclays, alternative meat sales could reach $140 billion – or 10% of the global meat industry – within a decade, or a 10-fold increase from current levels.

A new generation of products in the works melds cutting-edge technology with age-old fermentation processes to turn otherwise harmful or everyday elements into essential food ingredients, with the aim of reducing agriculture’s massive carbon footprint.

According to the United Nations, agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for 23% of total net manmade greenhouse gas emissions from 2007 to 2016, soaring to 37% when pre- and post-production activity were factored in.

Livestock meanwhile are responsible for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Enter Solar Foods, a Finnish company working on an edible protein powder called Solein which uses water, air and renewable electricity as a way to separate food production from agriculture.

“You avoid land use impacts like clearing forests for agriculture, use of pesticides and use of fertilisers that release greenhouse gases and so on,” co-founder and CEO Pasi Vainikka told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Solein is made by putting microbes into a liquid and feeding them small bubbles of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, a process similar to making beer or wine, apart from the lack of grapes or grains, Vainikka explained.

As the liquid thickens, it is dried into a very fine powder which is about 65% protein and tastes much like wheat flour.

In September, Solar Foods struck an agreement with Nordic food company Fazer to develop products using Solein, which can be used in existing plant-based products or future offerings such as lab-grown meat.

Solein will cost about €5 per kilo ($2.50 a pound) to produce and will hit the market by 2021, Vainikka said.
“There’s a lot of climate anxiety,” he said. “And people are looking for hope and solutions and they’re happy to see companies like ours, so that’s encouraging.”

Fermentation, Fermentation, Fermentation

Another company tackling agriculture’s emissions through fermentation, Bangalore-based String Bio, is working to convert methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide as it traps 28 times more heat, from waste and natural sources into protein powder – initially for animals.

“We said this is probably the best impact we humans can have in this world, where we take something that we don’t need for the environment and convert it into something we do need,” said Vinod Kumar, who with his wife Ezhil Subbian set up the company.

Such environmental considerations, along with concerns over animal welfare and human health, have driven both demand and supply of alternative proteins, said Dan Altschuler Malek, Managing Partner at investment firm Unovis Partners.

Just 10 years ago he said retailers saw alternative proteins as a risky bet, but “today they realise there is a huge demand for all these products.”

Unovis manages New Crop Capital, a fund that invests exclusively in start-ups developing meat, seafood and dairy replacements, including Beyond Meat.

New Crop has also invested in Nova Meats, a Spanish company that uses a special 3D printer to produce steak that can mimic the taste and texture of meat.

The printers produce three-dimensional vegan steaks using cartridge-style syringes which extrude plant-based proteins.

Volcanoes and Tiny Organisms

Some have criticized plant-based alternatives flooding store shelves as highly processed and high in sodium, and Harvard scientists recently questioned their role in a healthy diet.

Others such as the Center for Consumer Freedom, which is backed by the food and beverage industry, have launched campaigns decrying so-called “fake meat” as loaded with chemicals.

Proponents counter that burgers have always been laden with fat and sodium and were never exactly considered health food.

The new generation of proteins are also less processed, said Thomas Jonas, CEO of Sustainable Bioproducts whose protein is based on microbes found in volcanic hot springs at Yellowstone National Park.

In that barren, other-worldly and dangerous landscape, researchers “discovered a bunch of life forms that across millennia evolved to survive in this environment,” he said.

Having raised $33 million in February, the company plans to produce “a hamburger equivalent” next year through a “novel fermentation” of the microbes.

At full capacity its 35,000-square-feet (3,250 square metres) plant in Chicago could produce burgers equivalent to those made from cows grazing on 15,000 acres (6,100 hectares) of land, Jonas said.

For investors like Altschuler Malek, alternative proteins are all about options for consumers, with three essential caveats:

“It needs to taste great, it needs to meet certain price points and it needs to be able to be manufactured in large volume,” he said.

“There are amazing chefs all over the world that are doing plant-based products. But If you cannot convert that into mass manufacturing it’s really hard to see how that can actually make a change in the world.”

It is also an opportunity for a radical shift in agriculture which, despite incremental improvements, has remained much the same for centuries, Jonas said.

“Fundamentally we are surviving on this planet based on an agricultural system that has barely changed in the past 11,000 years . . . when we domesticated a handful of plants and animals.”

“New technologies are really giving us tools for a second domestication – things that we didn’t even know were there.”

–Thin Lei Win, Thomson Reuters Foundation

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ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – It may sound like science fiction, but in a few short years the family dinner table may be laden with steak from a printer and other proteins produced from air, methane or volcanic microbes.

With the explosive success of vegan beef and burger substitutes developed by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, the alternative protein sector just keeps growing.

According to investment bank Barclays, alternative meat sales could reach $140 billion – or 10% of the global meat industry – within a decade, or a 10-fold increase from current levels.

A new generation of products in the works melds cutting-edge technology with age-old fermentation processes to turn otherwise harmful or everyday elements into essential food ingredients, with the aim of reducing agriculture’s massive carbon footprint.

According to the United Nations, agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for 23% of total net manmade greenhouse gas emissions from 2007 to 2016, soaring to 37% when pre- and post-production activity were factored in.

Livestock meanwhile are responsible for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Enter Solar Foods, a Finnish company working on an edible protein powder called Solein which uses water, air and renewable electricity as a way to separate food production from agriculture.

“You avoid land use impacts like clearing forests for agriculture, use of pesticides and use of fertilisers that release greenhouse gases and so on,” co-founder and CEO Pasi Vainikka told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Solein is made by putting microbes into a liquid and feeding them small bubbles of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, a process similar to making beer or wine, apart from the lack of grapes or grains, Vainikka explained.

As the liquid thickens, it is dried into a very fine powder which is about 65% protein and tastes much like wheat flour.

Finnish company Solar Foods’ protein powder Solein. Photo Credit: Solar Foods/Thomson Reuters Foundation

In September, Solar Foods struck an agreement with Nordic food company Fazer to develop products using Solein, which can be used in existing plant-based products or future offerings such as lab-grown meat.

Solein will cost about €5 per kilo ($2.50 a pound) to produce and will hit the market by 2021, Vainikka said.

“There’s a lot of climate anxiety,” he said. “And people are looking for hope and solutions and they’re happy to see companies like ours, so that’s encouraging.”

Fermentation, Fermentation, Fermentation

Another company tackling agriculture’s emissions through fermentation, Bangalore-based String Bio, is working to convert methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide as it traps 28 times more heat, from waste and natural sources into protein powder – initially for animals.

“We said this is probably the best impact we humans can have in this world, where we take something that we don’t need for the environment and convert it into something we do need,” said Vinod Kumar, who with his wife Ezhil Subbian set up the company.

Such environmental considerations, along with concerns over animal welfare and human health, have driven both demand and supply of alternative proteins, said Dan Altschuler Malek, Managing Partner at investment firm Unovis Partners.

Just 10 years ago he said retailers saw alternative proteins as a risky bet, but “today they realise there is a huge demand for all these products.”

Unovis manages New Crop Capital, a fund that invests exclusively in start-ups developing meat, seafood and dairy replacements, including Beyond Meat.

New Crop has also invested in Nova Meats, a Spanish company that uses a special 3D printer to produce steak that can mimic the taste and texture of meat.

The printers produce three-dimensional vegan steaks using cartridge-style syringes which extrude plant-based proteins.

Volcanoes and Tiny Organisms

Some have criticized plant-based alternatives flooding store shelves as highly processed and high in sodium, and Harvard scientists recently questioned their role in a healthy diet.

Others such as the Center for Consumer Freedom, which is backed by the food and beverage industry, have launched campaigns decrying so-called “fake meat” as loaded with chemicals.

Proponents counter that burgers have always been laden with fat and sodium and were never exactly considered health food.

The new generation of proteins are also less processed, said Thomas Jonas, CEO of Sustainable Bioproducts whose protein is based on microbes found in volcanic hot springs at Yellowstone National Park.

In that barren, other-worldly and dangerous landscape, researchers “discovered a bunch of life forms that across millennia evolved to survive in this environment,” he said.

Having raised $33 million in February, the company plans to produce “a hamburger equivalent” next year through a “novel fermentation” of the microbes.

At full capacity its 35,000-square-feet (3,250 square metres) plant in Chicago could produce burgers equivalent to those made from cows grazing on 15,000 acres (6,100 hectares) of land, Jonas said.

For investors like Altschuler Malek, alternative proteins are all about options for consumers, with three essential caveats:

“It needs to taste great, it needs to meet certain price points and it needs to be able to be manufactured in large volume,” he said.

“There are amazing chefs all over the world that are doing plant-based products. But If you cannot convert that into mass manufacturing it’s really hard to see how that can actually make a change in the world.”

It is also an opportunity for a radical shift in agriculture which, despite incremental improvements, has remained much the same for centuries, Jonas said.

“Fundamentally we are surviving on this planet based on an agricultural system that has barely changed in the past 11,000 years . . . when we domesticated a handful of plants and animals.”

“New technologies are really giving us tools for a second domestication – things that we didn’t even know were there.”

The post Beyond Vegan Burgers: Next-Generation Protein Could Come from Air, Methane, Volcanic Springs appeared first on Food Quality & Safety.

Nov 1 (Reuters) – A multistate outbreak of Salmonella linked to ground beef has caused one death in California and eight hospitalizations, U.S. health officials said on Friday.

A total of 10 people in six U.S. states were infected with a strain of the bacteria called Salmonella Dublin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

credit: iStockphoto

The illnesses from this strain, a type usually found in cattle, are more severe than expected for Salmonella, which usually has a 20% hospitalization rate, the agency said.

The patients were between 48 and 74 years and 80% of them were male, the agency said.

Retailers can continue to sell ground beef and consumers can consume thoroughly cooked beef, the CDC said.

No common supplier of ground beef has yet been identified. (Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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CHICAGO, Oct 2 (Reuters) – China’s hog herd fell by half in the first eight months of 2019 due to a devastating outbreak of African swine fever and will likely shrink by 55% by the end of the year, analysts at Rabobank said on Wednesday.

The pace of herd losses will likely slow in the coming months due to reduced farm numbers and Chinese government measures to control the pig disease in the world’s largest pork consumer, according to a report by Rabobank. However, the bank said relatively unstable market conditions will likely persist for the next three to five years.

Though not harmful to humans, African swine fever is deadly to hogs, with no vaccine available. It surfaced for the first time in Asia more than a year ago, in China, and has now spread to over 50 countries, according to the World Organisation of Animal Health – including those that account for 75% of global pork production.

Rabobank said in the report it expects China’s pork production to fall by 10% to 15% in 2020, on top of a 25% drop in 2019.

China’s total consumption of animal feed such as soy will drop by 17% in 2019 due to the decline in hogs, according to Rabobank. But feed consumption will rebound by 8% in 2020 as hog herds are rebuilt and farmers produce other proteins like chicken, the bank said.

In Vietnam, the world’s sixth-largest pork producer, 25% of the country’s total pig herd could be lost to African swine fever by year’s end, according to Rabobank. Since February, 18% of pigs have died, the bank said. (Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago Editing by P.J. Huffstutter and Matthew Lewis)

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Impossible Foods Receives FDA Approval for ‘Bleeding’ Plant Burger

FDA approves a key ingredient in plant-based burger patties made by Impossible Foods, a rival to Beyond Meat, clearing the way for direct-to-consumer sales at U.S. grocery stores, according to Reuters. The FDA in a statement said it concluded soy leghemoglobin, a protein-based color additive Impossible Food uses to make its burgers look and “bleed” like real meat, was safe. Soy leghemoglobin, which Impossible Food markets as “heme” as the “magic ingredient” of its burgers, is found in the root nodules of plants. It closely resembles hemoglobin, the iron-containing protein found in red blood cells in humans and mammals. Impossible Foods in a statement said it plans to launch its Impossible Burger in select retail stores in September.

Decoding the Food Code

FDA makes Decoding the Food Code: Information to Assist the User, an online-based training module developed to engage and educate stakeholders on the foundational policy principles of the Food Code, available through its website. The FDA publishes the Food Code, a model that assists food control jurisdictions at all levels of government by providing them with a scientifically sound technical and legal basis for regulating the retail and food service segment of the industry. Local, state, tribal, and federal regulators use the FDA Food Code as a model to develop or update their own food safety rules and to be consistent with national food regulatory policy. The training module was designed to help stakeholders, including all levels of government and industry, understand the structure, nomenclature, and conventions of the Food Code in order to prevent foodborne illness.

Produce Safety Assurance Standard

GLOBALG.A.P. launches its the Produce Safety Assurance Standard, a food safety solution that is a subset of the GLOBALG.A.P. Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) Standard. The GLOBALG.A.P. Produce Safety Assurance Standard V5 covers the certification of food safety and traceability elements throughout a product’s entire agricultural production process, from before the plant is in the ground (origin and propagation material control points) to the packaging. Like IFA, the Produce Safety Assurance Standard is an accredited and recognized third-party certification of primary production processes based on ISO/IEC 17065. The Produce Safety Assurance Standard will also undergo the GFSI recognition process.

New Inventions from USDA Scientists and Researchers

USDA releases its annual Technology Transfer Report, which highlights innovations from scientists and researchers that are solving problems for farmers, ranchers, foresters, and producers. The report reveals 320 new inventions from USDA laboratories in fiscal year 2018, along with 471 licenses, 120 patent applications, and 67 actual patents. Discoveries include a system for removing nitrate from contaminated water and recycling it for re-use as fertilizer; a test strip for major foodborne pathogens that reduces testing time from 24-72 hours to about 30 minutes; a vaccine against Streptococcus suis that may markedly improve the health and welfare of pigs while reducing the use of antibiotics; and a treatment for peanut allergies.

The post Food Industry News: August/September 2019 appeared first on Food Quality & Safety.

France to Ban Titanium Dioxide Whitener

As reported by Reuters, France will ban the use of titanium dioxide as a food additive from 2020 after the country’s health and safety agency said there was not enough evidence to guarantee the safety of the substance for human consumption. Titanium dioxide is widely used in industry as a whitener, notably for paint, and in the food sector, where it is labeled E171 and goes into products from chocolate to chewing gum. France had ordered a review of the substance in 2017 after a study found health effects in animals that consumed it. France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research and partners in a study of oral exposure to titanium dioxide had shown that E171 crosses the intestine wall in animals to reach other parts of the body.

New Organic Certification Mark

Quality Assurance International (QAI) is launching a new certification mark to help consumers understand that USDA organic certified products are required to be free of GMOs. In other words, “If it’s organic, it’s non GMO.” In a QAI study, 80% of participants said they were unaware that products with the organic seal were also non-GMO. Of survey participants who reported recently shopping at a well-known natural foods store, just one-quarter recognized organic products as non-GMO. The study suggests many consumers don’t understand organic products are non-GMO and may seek both labels to satisfy their needs. Makers of QAI certified products can choose to use the original QAI mark or the new “If it’s organic, it’s non GMO” mark.

USDA Discontinues Toxoplasmosis Research with Cats

The USDA Agricultural Research Service is redirecting its toxoplasmosis research, stating that the use of cats as part of any research protocol in any ARS laboratory is being discontinued and will not be reinstated. Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite causes toxoplasmosis, a disease considered to be a leading cause of death from foodborne illness in the U.S., especially for individuals with weak immune systems such as children and HIV patients. ARS research in this area has produced undeniable results—including helping to cut the prevalence of T. gondii by as much as 50% in the U.S. Over the course of this research, ARS worked to minimize reliance on cats—the only hosts in which T. gondii can complete its life cycle and produce oocysts (eggs)—as agency researchers worked to understand and combat toxoplasmosis.

Edible Insects Market Gaining Ground

The edible insects market is set to grow from its current market value of more than US $55 million to over US $710 million by 2024, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights. The global human population is anticipated to increase by more than 2 billion by end of 2050, giving rise to food problems. An increase in food production will lead to more pressure on the environment, so consumption of edible insects is one of the food alternatives through which one can get high-quality protein, amino acids, and vitamins at affordable costs. Edible insects possess high food conversion rate and emit less greenhouse gases than traditional livestock. Furthermore, insect farming is cost effective as compared to cattle farming.

Global Project to Fight Food Fraud

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s five-year research project with experts from 16 countries is working to apply nuclear-derived techniques to test for accuracy in food labels. The outcome of the project, carried out in cooperation with the FAO, will assist countries in combating fraud in high value food products, such as premium honey, coffee, and specialty rice varieties. It will help countries apply stable isotope techniques to protect and promote foods with added-value, such as organic food or products with specific geographical origins like Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The method works by looking at the ratio of stable isotopes in elements—such as hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon—and the concentration of elements in a sample of the product. These can provide a unique fingerprint that links a crop to the place where it is cultivated.

Sampling Frozen Berries for Hepatitis A Virus and Norovirus

FDA is collecting samples of frozen berries from processors, distribution centers, warehouses, and retail locations throughout the year to test for hepatitis A virus and norovirus. Some consumers use frozen berries as ingredients in foods without first cooking them, increasing their risk of exposure to harmful viruses. The sampling assignment began in November and is estimated to last approximately 18 months. FDA is collecting domestic samples of frozen berries and is also collecting import samples from ports of entry, importer warehouses, or other storage facilities where foreign goods are cleared for entry into the country. The agency plans to collect and test 2,000 samples in all.

U.S. Beef Gains Full Access to Japan

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced on May 17 that the U.S. and Japan have agreed on new terms and conditions that eliminate Japan’s longstanding restrictions on U.S. beef exports. Secretary Perdue met with Japanese government officials and affirmed the importance of science-based trade rules. The new terms, which take effect immediately, allow U.S. products from all cattle, regardless of age, to enter Japan for the first time since 2003. “We are hopeful that Japan’s decision will help lead other markets around the world toward science-based policies,” says Secretary Perdue. USDA estimates that this expanded access could increase U.S. beef and beef product exports to Japan by up to $200 million annually. The agreement is also an important step in normalizing trade with Japan, as Japan further aligns its import requirements with international standards for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Preparing Food Contact Notifications for Infant Formula

FDA recently issued guidance to provide additional information on how to prepare Food Contact Notifications for food contact substances that come into contact with infant formula and/or human (breast) milk. FDA evaluates the safety of all packaging materials before they enter the marketplace, including material that may be used in infant formula packaging, such as baby bottles, bottle inserts, nipples, and any other products used to collect and store human milk. The recommendations in this guidance are meant to help industry understand FDA’s process for evaluating the safety of food contact substances, which incorporates the latest scientific thinking about the effects chemical substances may have on infant health.

FDA-ACS Training on Emerging Chemical Science for Food Safety

FDA is partnering with the American Chemical Society (ACS) to provide a series of biannual training sessions focusing on chemical science related to food safety. These half-day training sessions are a continuing education opportunity for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition employees. The colloquia are open to the public and offer participants a venue to interact with leading technical experts in chemistry. The colloquia are not intended as a forum to discuss regulatory issues or to make recommendations to the agency. The series will be focused on high-quality, cutting-edge chemistry related to food, food additives, food packaging, and food safety topics. They will include the areas of flavor modifiers, manufacturing processes, specifications, and analytical methods. There is no cost to attend in person or through webcast, but space is limited. Visit the ACS website at www.acs.org for more information.

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