News: Food manufacturers operating in Europe face tough new rules on food allergens that put an end to the 20-year-old "25 per cent" rule, aiming to provide the consumer, increasingly stricken by food allergies, to easily identify potential allergens.
But in the US this week, scientists say they have designed a raft of sensitive new tests to detect potentially fatal nut traces in food. Scientists at Florida State University have discovered sensitive "marker proteins" that can be used to detect trace amounts of nuts in processed foods.
Bold prediction: An eminent US food scientist, who is clearly undeterred by the world's reluctance to embrace GM foods, predicted that genomics would revolutionise the global food market.
Prof Daniel O'Sullivan of the University of Minnesota boldly predicted at a Teagasc conference in Dublin that exciting new gene technology was about to transform the functional foods market. Genomics could provide the evidence needed to support probiotic health claims and reveal their true value. Lack of knowledge on how probiotics work is a source of controversy between scientists, the medical profession and the food industry.
Probiotics are live bacteria which, when ingested in large amounts, confer a range of health benefits such as a reduction in infections and allergy-based diseases.
"The technology now exists to scrutinise the tiny worlds of these gut-friendly bugs and dismantle their genetic material," he says.
Quote: The plans in general are too often short on detail and specific actions. - In a letter responding to earlier submissions from the food industry in Britain for strategies to cut salt levels, the UK health minister, Melanie Johnson, warns more than 20 major food industry players - including Kerry Foods, Heinz, Sainsbury and McDonalds - they have until September to come up with a better plan to beat the "unacceptably high levels of salt" in their products.