Chemical Control

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According to new tests by Consumer Reports, although the amounts of lead, arsenic, and cadmium in baby foods appear to be getting lower, the overall risk hasn’t changed much in the last five years.

Health Canada has restarted a science-based evaluation to determine acceptable increases to maximum residue limits for pesticides in foods.

An extensive literature review has pointed out knowledge gaps about the migration of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) oligomers from food contact materials (FCMs) into foods, as well as inadequate risk assessment for the chemicals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being sued by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA), and Alianza Nacional De Campesinas Inc. for the unlawful reapproval of toxic herbicides used in food agriculture. The chemicals in question, Enlist One and Enlist Duo, are sprayed on corn, soybeans, and cotton genetically engineered (GE) to resist the herbicides.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has alerted businesses that they should not sell plastic food contact materials containing bamboo and other plant-based materials, and have put out a call for evidence related to their safety and stability. 

A bill proposed in the New York Senate seeks to ban the use of five “five of the most pervasive and harmful food additives” in the state: brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propyl parabens, red dye 3, and titanium dioxide.

The World Health Organization has designated antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top ten global challenges facing humanity. In this article, the emergence of AMR in major foodborne bacterial pathogens will be highlighted and its ramifications in relation to food safety will be discussed. 

A bill has been reintroduced to U.S. Congress that would create an Office of Food Safety Reassessment within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regularly review the safety of chemicals used in food.

Food contaminated with polybrominated diphenyl ethers pose a health risk to all age groups, according to the draft conclusion of a recent scientific opinion by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). A public consultation on the opinion is available.

Wageningen University Food Safety Research recently launched a four-year project with the goal of developing an early warning system to detect the presence of mycotoxins in European cereal grains.