Selvarani Elahi's Posts

Presentations from the recent Government Chemist conference are now available

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on July 27, 2016 at 12:48pm

Copies of the presentations from the Government Chemist conference (21 - 22 June 2016) are now available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/science-supporting-trust-in-food-conference-presentations.

A guide designed to protect manufacturers from buying adulterated or substituted herbs and spices could herald a new era of collaboration between food industry organisations

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on July 14, 2016 at 3:45pm

Authenticate is a cloud based technology platform, developed by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and the Seasoning and Spices Association (SSA) in liaison with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS), which provides companies with a tool to help combat food fraud in herbs and spices.

Basic Membership to the Authenticate system is free.

National Food Crime Unit launches ‘Food Crime Confidential’

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on June 23, 2016 at 10:28am

The National Food Crime Unit has today launched Food Crime Confidential. This is a reporting facility where anyone with suspicions about food crime can report them safely and in confidence, over the phone or through email. The facility is particularly targeted at those working in or around the UK food industry.

The FSA’s National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) works with partners to protect people from serious criminal activity that impacts the safety or authenticity of food and drink they consume.

Food crime involves dishonesty at any stage in the production or supply of food. It is often complex and likely to be seriously detrimental to consumers, businesses or the general public interest.

NFCU would like to receive any information relating to suspected dishonesty involving food, drink or animal feed. In addition to identifying and being able to tackle specific instances of food crime, such information will help us learn more about the circumstances that make offending possible.

For further information on this service.

The Food Authenticity Network launches a new member products and services announcement page

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on June 21, 2016 at 2:24am

The Food Authenticity Network has launched a new member products and services announcement page.

This page is for members to post brief articles or announcements concerning new products or services that may help other members monitor, detect or manage food authenticity issues. We encourage links to press releases or more detailed articles on members' own websites so further information is available to members who require it.

This is a great opportunity for members to inform the network of new developments related to food authenticity testing.

Please sign up to the Network to get all the posts and follow the page to get email alerts of new posts.

We look forward to hearing about your exciting new developments..........

FSA publishes list of incidents for January to March 2016

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on June 7, 2016 at 12:36pm

The FSA has published a summary of those food incidents, handled between January and March 2016, that led to an alert being issued by the FSA to recall or withdraw products from sale. This quarterly list also includes information on investigations we supported relating to potential widespread risks from food poisoning and harmful contamination.

Read the annual report for 2015 from the government chieft scientific advisor

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on May 6, 2016 at 11:01am

Is Sir Mark Walport's report music to the ears of analytical scientists?

European Commission's Food Fraud Network Activity Report 2015

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on March 1, 2016 at 10:25am

The European Commission publishes its Food Fraud Network (FFN) Activity Report for 2015

JRC provides support in the fight against food fraud

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on February 29, 2016 at 3:42pm

The JRC supported DG SANTE in the organisation of coordinated EU monitoring plans to assess the authenticity of fish and honey purchased in the European Union. The outcome of the study confirms the need for further testing and control.

37th session of CCMAS to be held on 22 - 26 February 2016

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on February 15, 2016 at 4:39pm

37th Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling will be held from February 22nd–26th 2016 in Budapest, Hungary

Mamma Mia! More Mislabeled Oil and Dangerous Colored Olives Seized in Italian Raids

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on February 9, 2016 at 9:37am

Italian authorities blocked the sale of more than 2,000 tons of olive oil falsely labelled as Italian during an operation codenamed “Mamma Mia.”

Comprehensive sentencing guidelines covering H&S and food safety offences is published

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on February 3, 2016 at 3:49pm

New guidelines came into effect on Monday 1 February for England and Wales which mean that professionals within the food industry whose actions result in harm or risk of harm to consumers could lead to custodial sentences

‘Big data’ will be central to innovation in 2016

Posted by Selvarani Elahi on January 20, 2016 at 12:05pm

A more collaborative approach to data sharing would bring huge benefits to food safety and help combat food fraud