On November 6, 2023, a stakeholder roundtable meeting organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) was held in Shanghai, China to discuss the latest developments in cell-based food production and precision fermentation.
Singaporean officials recently provided an update on the proposed national Food Safety and Security Bill, which was first introduced in 2021 and aims to provide greater clarity on the regulation of novel food innovations, such as cultured meat, while preventing foodborne illness. The country also opened a new National Center for Food Science.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will hold a webinar in October to help stakeholders better understand the procedure for novel food applications.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Nutrition and Food Innovation Unit is launching a project to develop a structured database containing key information from EFSA’s novel food opinions to support risk assessment activities.
Traditional dairy processors have begun to develop various milk alternatives alongside their standard product lines to adapt to shifting consumer demand. To effectively analyze and test traditional product lines while overcoming the difficulties of testing novel plant-based milk, they must have access to adaptable instruments and accommodate specific food safety concerns.
Wageningen University and Research (WUR) has announced the launch of its Safe Precision Fermentation (SAFERMENT) project, which is aimed at enhancing the safety of animal-free dairy protein production. The project consortium is still open to additional partners and encourages interested parties to contact WUR.
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) recently published the findings of a report that was conducted to inform possible future changes to the Novel Foods Regulatory Framework. The report was conducted in light of the rapid development novel foods and technologies in the present day.
In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we talk with Keya Mukherjee, Ph.D., Food Safety Specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Vittorio Fattori, Ph.D., Food Safety Officer at FAO, about the most pressing food safety issues the world is facing at present and will face in the near future. We also discuss how industry can mitigate some of these growing risks while the international community works to address the root causes of climate change and other challenges.
Edible insects are still considered a "new" food product in the commercial food industry, and it is important to understand the unique food safety challenges they may pose, which could be biological, chemical, or allergenic in nature.
A joint Nordic project has just ended with a report that focuses on the chemical and microbiological hazards associated with seaweed as a food. The project aims to develop a common Nordic approach to seaweed food safety risk management.
