Food and Agriculture

The High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry has published its report online at the DG Enterprise website. EPHA participated in the process which began in 2008, and has made a concerted effort to make the resulting document as public health-friendly as possible.
As a follow-up to the study "Competitiveness of the European Food Industry : an economic and legal assesment," the first meeting of the High Level Group took place on 12 June 2008, with the task of (...)

24 Member States have opted to participate in the first year of the the new EU School Fruit Scheme, which will make €90 million of EU funds available to provide fruit and vegetables to school children ; this money will be matched by national and private funds.
The scheme, being led by DG Agriculture, aims to lay the foundations for good eating habits in youth. The provision of fruit and vegetables will be supported by education and awareness-raising initiatives that Member States are (...)

Following the recent slump in prices for milk and dairy products, Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has taken actions to support the market. As of next week, the Commission will reintroduce export refunds for butter, cheese, and whole and skimmed milk powder.
The dairy sector enjoyed an unprecedented price rise in 2007 and the beginning of 2008, however that situation has now been completely reversed. "The severity of the fall in milk prices over recent months has surprised (...)

Robert Madelin and Paola Testori Coggi, Director General and Deputy Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers, together with others from the Commission’s Food Safety Directorate, took part in a serious bread tasting experiment on Monday 19 January.
Two loaves of brown bread were prepared by a baker following a traditional German recipe. One loaf contained 1g of salt per 100 g bread, the amount in the draft nutrient profile for bread suggested (...)

The Parliament is currently in discussions before a vote on the regulation submitted by the Commission. It is hoped that this regulation might facilitate a quick response to soaring prices in developing countries.
Background Soaring food prices have had alarming consequences for the world’s population and is now threatening food security, ironically, they are helping local farmers to maintain the sustainability of their crops.
The Commission’s initiative According to some Commission (...)

Amid growing criticism of its GMO bias and growing overall workload, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has decided to develop a database of external scientific experts to help the agency carry out risk assessments and enhance the transparency of the expert recruitment process.
The Agency could also hire non-EU experts if they are leaders in their field. The scientist database will be available to all the 27 EU countries, who may use it to select experts for their own scientific (...)

The European Commission has launched a public Internet consultation on the EU scheme to distribute free food to people in need in the Community.
The public is invited to give a feed-back on a number of key questions in relation with the EU programme to distribute free food to the most deprived persons in the Community through a call for contributions to a large internet-consultation. The consultation runs until 14 May.
Since 1986, the European Commission made available some € 2.5 (...)

After a few years of intense discussions, the European Council of Ministers have eventually reached an agreement to reform the EU sugar regime.
2004 - Demands from countries in development for a reform of the EU sugar regime
On 3rd March 2004, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) called on the EU to put fairness at the heart of the new EU sugar regime.
With this reform, the EU will have to balance the interests of ACP sugar exporters and those of the small-scale sugar farmers in Europe. (...)

The second global forum of Food Safety Regulators met 12-14 October in Bangkok, Thailand. Organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 300 food safety regulators from over 100 countries attended the forum entitled "Building Effective Food Safety Systems" .
"The burden of death and disease from food borne disease is huge, and yet, a better organisation and communication between authorities along the entire (...)

DG SANCO has established a new Advisory Group on the food chain. The new group will bring together key stakeholders including farmers, the food industry, retailers, consumer organisations and others to advise the European Commission on food safety policy. It will meet at least twice a year and consist of up to 45 members from EU-level associations. Reflecting the Commission’s "farm to fork" approach to food safety, the group will be consulted on matters ranging from policy on pesticides (...)