The EU is confident that the sugar reforms announced last week give
producers a long-term competitive future, though firms such as Tate
& Lyle remain cautious.
Price reductions for imported herring and tuna will bring needed
relief from recent hikes for many European processors, while others
will be paying more for their seafood supplies, according to Food
and Agriculture (FAO) forecasts.
The EU's food industry yesterday endorsed a set of common
techniques for reducing the sector's water consumption, effluent
discharges, energy use and waste generation.
The average import unit prices for shrimp are roughly stable or are
decreasing in the EU's member countries this year compared to 2004,
according to a report by Globefish, an analyst.
The European Commission has tabled its annual proposal on guide
prices for fresh and frozen fisheries products, indicating that the
cost for tuna used in food processing will be maintained nextyear.
A total of 66 alerts and information notices on contaminated and
unsafe food or feed within the EU's borders were sent out to the
various member regulators last week, marking a particularly bad
period for manufacturers of the...
Questions relating to food processors' ethics are among those the
European Commission has posed in a consumer survey on animal
welfare and protection in the bloc.
The UK's regulator has produced a guidance on how businesses can
meet the provisions of new EU-wide controls on high risk food and
feed imports provisions for products of non-animal origin.
Another shuffle is about to occur in the EU's food processing
marketplace as a Netherlands-based equity firm announces plans to
buy local operations belonging to Heinz and Premier Foods,
thencombine them into one firm selling...
Sugar reform may yet hijack December's WTO talks as Australia,
Brazil and Thailand again accuse the EU of shirking its obligations
by planning to increase sugar exports by two million tonnes.
A new centre-right government in Poland is unlikely to curb the
country's strong opposition to EU sugar reforms as Commission
representatives look for common ground to break the 'no' camp.
CSM's sugar beet processing plant in Hoogkerk, the Netherlands is
now fully online following the closure of the firm's Breda factory
earlier this year.
EU farm ministers met with African and Caribbean counterparts on
Monday to discuss the sweeping EU sugar reform that will bring
cheaper sugar ingredients into the bloc.
European food scientists warn that a host of illegal dyes
pinpointed in foods on the supermarket shelves may pose a genotoxic
and carcinogenic risk, a conclusion reached despite insufficient
data to perform a full risk assessment.
Oversupply of sugar in the EU and higher energy costs combine to
knock profits for the year at British Sugar, its owner Associated
British Foods warned today.
The UK's food processors will come under greater pressure to ship
their products in environmentally-friendly materials after
government announced a plan to increase minimum recycling targets
for glass and plastics packaging.
PAI Partners' purchase of Crown Holdings' international plastic
closures business, most of which is based in Europe, could help
food processors here if the investment firm is able to make the
unitmore competitive.
Although the EU's member states were due to impose tougher laws on
recycling packaging waste, only five countries have completed the
task, the European Commission said yesterday.
Dairy producer Arla Foods, which supplies butter to a number of
bakeries, has sent out one of the first signals that the dairy
sector is hurting from a reduction in EU agricultural export
subsidies.
Unilever's second quarter results continue to indicate that future
growth in its home market, at least in the medium term, lies in the
east, as sales in western Europe continue to sit in the doldrums,
reportsAhmed ElAmin.
Number one food enzyme supplier Novozymes likely to move production
to the US and China as a result of the new EU sugar reform, the
daily Berlingske Tidende reports.
The first wrangling over EU sugar reform proposals by agriculture
ministers saw protests and a passionate debate in Brussels
yesterday, but the opposition looks increasingly isolated,
reports Chris Mercer.
While cereal production in the EU will be 10 per cent below last
year's record harvests, food processors will not have to look to
imports to make up their requirements.
The area sown to wheat and barley over the last season in the UK
has decreased, said the HGCA last week, yet there is no apparent
cause for concern as good yields may still produce a strong crop,
reports Lorraine Heller.
As part of the forthcoming implementation of new EU regulations,
the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published a plan to
increase its oversight of imported food and feed arriving at
Heathrow Airport.
Food makers and ingredients firms will benefit from a new European
platform that will prioritise research and development initiatives
to keep the €800 billion food and drink industry
competitive,reports Lindsey Partos.
The EU's food and drinks sector is in danger of losing its market
share unless more is done to boost its competitiveness, says a body
representing the industry - which also supports a reduction in
domestic subsidies for its members.
Consultation started in the UK yesterday on a new set of guidelines
for all companies, including food processors, on the requirements
they need to follow on reporting the impact their plants have on
the environment.
Sweeping changes to Europe's subsidised sugar regime announced
yesterday will see sugar prices cut by 39 per cent paid to
companies that include sugar and sweetener suppliers Danisco and
Tate and Lyle, but will bring price relief...
Food and drink makers could soon expect cheaper sugar ingredients
with Brussels expected to publish its proposals on EU sugar reform
today, writes Lindsey Partos.
Europe's food alert system last week detects several batches of the
banned red colour sudan in the food chain, months after the UK
faced its biggest food recall ever, writes Lindsey Partos.
A European regulation on food enzymes, which would demand dossiers
of safety and technical information on each enzyme prior to their
approval on the market, could be published by the Commission by the
end of the year, reports Dominique...
A price-fixing investigation, an attempt to diversify its business,
a 33 per cent cut in orders from Wal-Mart and changes in the
European banana regime has led to Chiquita issuing an earnings
warning, reports Ahmed ElAmin.
While exports of aluminium foil from Europe rose 11 per cent at the
start of this year, internal demand decreased by 1.9 per cent,
according to statistics released yesterday by an industry
association.
A new EU survey on consumer attitudes supports proposed legislation
on improving the treatment of farm animals and the need for better
labelling, according to the European Commission.
The European Parliament voted yesterday to radically modify the
proposed regulation on nutrition and health claims so that food
companies do not need to gain prior authorization for claims, nor
subject their healtlh products to nutrient...
Proposals to create a list of about 100 vitamins and mineral
substances that may be added to foods are being debated in the
European Parliament today, part of the long process of harmonising
food legislation in the bloc, reports Ahmed...
Functional food makers need to take a critical look at the level of
substantiation behind the health claims they are using to guarantee
their survival under a new European regulation, reports
Dominique Patton.
Alcan has acquired the assets of Parkside's flexible food packaging
plant in Zlotow, Poland in order to increase its presence in a
growing and competitive economy.
The trickle of food products contaminated with the illegal colour
Para Red continues in the UK, with the country's food agency
identifying nineteen more food products for recall yesterday,
writes Lindsey Partos.
Moves to reform the European sugar regime will accelerate after the
EU loses its appeal against a World Trade Organisation decision
that its handouts to sugar farmers are illegal, reports Lindsey
Partos.
Forcing the traceability card, the European Union has voted to
block imports of certain US grain unless they prove to be free of
the genetically modified maize Bt10.
GM ingredients highlighted again on the Brussels agenda with the
Commission calling for a risk assessment of the impact genetically
modified foodstuffs might have on human health.
A bumper harvest across Eastern Europe has forced the European
Commission to intervene, buying up and moving large amounts of
surplus stocks to prevent Europe-wide market disturbance,
reports Chris Mercer.