Food

With the stroke of a pen, hemp could be treated like any other food ingredient under Colorado law. A bill is on its way to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk to apply existing food manufacturing guidelines to products such as hemp oil-infused coffee and CBD-rich extracts made from the non-psychoactive cannabis plant variety. At its simplest form, House Bill 1295 — which unanimously passed the Colorado Senate on Wednesday — merely codifies a state policy and program in place since July. [node:read-more:link]

AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:AQB) (“AquaBounty” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company focused on enhancing productivity in the aquaculture market and a majority-owned subsidiary of Intrexon Corporation (NYSE:XON), today announces that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to raise AquAdvantage® Salmon at its land-based contained facility near Albany, Indiana. [node:read-more:link]

French legislators are warning food companies that describe their vegetarian or vegan foods using terms usually associated with meat to find new ways to label such products to prevent consumer confusion. [node:read-more:link]

A group of companies at the forefront of the plant-based protein movement is pushing back against calls by the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) and others to change how they label their products. The Good Food Institute (GFI) is among those asking USDA to reject a petition from USCA urging the agency to limit the terms “beef” and “meat” to products made from slaughtered cattle, versus those originating from plants. [node:read-more:link]

Brussels wants to make it illegal for food and drink multinationals to sell inferior versions of well-known brands to customers in eastern Europe, after studies suggested hundreds of products were involved in the practice. An EU directive banning so-called “dual food” was announced on Wednesday following longstanding complaints from member states in central and eastern Europe. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, HiPP baby food, Birds Eye, Lidl and Spar have denied accusations of selling lower quality goods in the east bearing identical branding to products sold in western Europe. [node:read-more:link]

The GAO said USDA has developed standards limiting the amount of salmonella and campylobacter permitted in certain meat and poultry, such as ground beef, pork carcasses and chicken breasts. But it has not developed standards for other products that are widely available, such as turkey breasts and pork chops. Further, USDA's process for deciding which products to consider for new standards is unclear because it is not fully documented, which is not consistent with federal standards for internal control, GAO said. [node:read-more:link]

Lower prices for producers on nearly every type of meat are forecast by USDA for this year which means lower prices for consumers. The reason is bigger supplies of almost every type of meat. “We’ve got beef, pork, broilers increasing production year over year,” says Seth Meyer, USDA Outlook Board Chairman. Meyers says turkey production is the only exception, down just a little. Meyers says overall meat production this year should be higher by more than 3%. And that translates to lower prices for most livestock producers. [node:read-more:link]

Hundreds of residents in Great Falls, Mont., gathered on Saturday night to voice concerns about a proposal to build a large multi-species slaughter facility in the area. Canadian company Friesen Foods, having purchased 3,000 acres of undeveloped farmland in the area, has proposed to build the “Madison Food Park.” The facility, as the company has described, would be a state-of-the-art, robotically controlled, environmentally friendly, multi-species food processing plant for cattle, pigs and chickens and related further processing facilities for beef, pork and poultry. [node:read-more:link]

While local school boards, Parent Teacher Associations, and most recently the Trump administration weigh in on food served in schools, the dialogue around flavored milk is more multifaceted than in years past. There is opportunity for both plain and flavored milk in schools. [node:read-more:link]

As the sale of cell-cultured foods become closer to a reality, lawmakers in Missouri want to protect its livestock and poultry producers. If you don’t know what cell-cultured foods are, another name to which I have heard them referred is laboratory-grown meat. However, the latter name is exactly what the legislators don’t want to hear or seen used in the Show Me State.Bills in both the state’s Senate and House of Representatives have been proposed that if passed, would prohibit companies from advertising and promoting those products as meat.Rep. [node:read-more:link]