The owner of a Virginia seafood company has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the federal government by mixing foreign crab meat with Atlantic blue crab, then labeling the blended seafood and selling it to customers as a U.S. product. [node:read-more:link]
Iowa taxpayers will pay a $50,000 settlement to end a lawsuit filed by anti-GMO activists who claim state officials violated their First Amendment rights. [node:read-more:link]
he rising popularity of trendy raw meat diets for pets is putting owners at risk of serious diseases such as E.coli, experts have warned. A new investigation revealed 86 per cent of sampled products carried the potentially deadly pathogen, while Salmonella was detected on 20 per cent, as well as various parasites. Scientists say dogs and cats fed on raw meat-based diets (RMBD) can pass on the bugs by licking their human companions or simply by brushing up against them. [node:read-more:link]
The point is that each of these “milk” food names is legally established/recognized and refers to a lacteal secretion derived from mammals—not from plants. In contrast, “almond milk” (and “cashew milk” and “rice milk”) has no such legal/regulatory basis. So, contrary to being consistent with federal law, a “[plant-derived] milk” food name violates it. [node:read-more:link]
It’s hard to escape the amount of GMO products out on today’s market, but being informed about what they are may help your buying habits. Almost one in five people in the U.S. haven’t read or heard anything about GMOs, according to Pew. Also, at a leading agricultural school, Purdue University, over one-third of participants in an informal campus survey said they had no opinion on GMOs. [node:read-more:link]
The National Milk Producers Federation urged state and federal regulators today to take enforcement action against a plant-based food company whose imitation “yogurt” violates the federal definition for dairy foods and fails to provide the same nutrition as real yogurt. NMPF called out Hayward, California-based Kite Hill for illegally labeling its line of products and implying the nut-based foods are suitable substitutes for the real dairy foods it attempts to mimic. [node:read-more:link]
Organic milk sales have cooled as the very shoppers who drove demand for the specialty product not long ago move on to newer alternatives, leaving dairy sellers and producers grappling with oversupply. A yearslong surge in demand prompted food companies and dairy farmers to invest in organic production, which requires eschewing pesticides and antibiotics and allowing cows to graze freely. Now, organic-milk supplies have ballooned just as demand has stalled. [node:read-more:link]
The term “food desert” conjures the image of a forlorn citizen, wandering through a barren landscape for miles and miles (or, by definition, for more than a mile) to reach the nearest fresh-food market. Populating food deserts with grocery stores is a favored cause among nutrition advocates, but the concept became controversial after some recent studies found the distance to the nearest grocery store doesn’t correlate with a region’s obesity rate.(Because it’s nutrition, other studies have shown the opposite. [node:read-more:link]
Food-delivery startups from DoorDash to Uber Eats to Postmates are all now experimenting with different ways to maximize a restaurant’s kitchen — and in turn, generate more customers and more orders for partner restaurants. The delivery companies’ tactics range from deploying mini kitchen trailers to renting out extra space at fairgrounds to launching online-only companies. In a competitive market estimated to be worth $30 billion, each company is trying to play to its strengths to make sure it is the first app that a customer opens when they’re hungry. [node:read-more:link]
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding today announced that the department will sponsor a series of training programs across the state to help farmers grow produce safely, prevent foodborne illness, and comply with new federal standards. The series of one-day training sessions will be held between January and March at seven different locations throughout the state. [node:read-more:link]
