A recent assessment conducted by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided a better understanding of NEHA-FDA Retail Flexible Funding Model Grant Program (RFFM) distribution based on social needs. RFFM provides funding to state, local, tribal, and territorial retail food regulatory agencies as they achieve and advance conformance with FDA’s Retail Program Standards.
Scientists have developed a small, easy-to-produce, and cost effective sensor that can detect water adulteration of honey, a commodity that is often the subject of fraudulent food production practices.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has published its annual plan for fiscal year (FY) 2024, which acts as a guide for the agency’s efforts to prevent foodborne illnesses associated with FSIS-regulated products, transform inspections, and achieve operational excellence.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has released a notice informing agency inspection program personnel about the continuation of and changes to the Raw Pork Products Sampling Program.
The vast majority of food on the market in Canada meets standards for chemical residues, according to a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) report summarizing sampling activities conducted in 2020–2021.
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is advising consumers to limit their consumption of Cannabidiol (CBD) from foods to 10 milligrams (mg) per day for healthy adults, which is significantly reduced from FSA’s previous opinion that 70 mg of CBD per day is safe.
Europol has drawn attention to an increasing trend of food fraudsters relabeling expired goods after operation OPSON Europe—a Europol-INTERPOL joint operation targeting fake and substandard food and beverages—found relabeled expired products at an “unprecedented scale.” Overall, €30 million euros worth of illicit foods weighing 8,000 tons were seized between December 2022 and April 2023.
A recent systematic review has raised concerns with the presence of unregulated harmful mycotoxins in foods, finding a total of 15 unregulated mycotoxins in 38 different combinations across 19 food categories worldwide.
A recent study has provided an overview of the levels and types of microbial contaminants present in 88 different plant-based ingredients used to make dairy alternatives, finding the microbial loads in different ingredients to be highly variable depending on difficult-to-control factors, as well as a high proportion of spore-forming microbes among the total microbial counts in many samples.
Whether or not a country’s food businesses have largely achieved certification against food safety standards is the second most important predictor of instances of foodborne illness, according to a recent study.