2020
Director of AHOLD Delhaize said that the price of food is no longer the only factor in the choice and purchase of food by consumers. The quality of food and its nutritional composition, including salt or sugar content, is playing an increasingly important role. Therefore, the Belgian Delhaize has introduced a NutriScore nutrition system for its private food labels. According to the director of AHOLD, this system helps to inform consumers about the improvement of food production standards, helps to support reformulation and food, as well as consumers' awareness of the successes achieved in reformulation.
2020
On 27/10/2020, the German Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) confirmed African swine fever (ASF) in three other feral pigs in Brandenburg. The number of cases thus increased to 94. As of 28/10/2020, however, the number of ASF cases increased again, to 103. A total of 83 ASF cases were confirmed in the Oder-Spree district. The construction of fences on the border with Poland to prevent the further spread of the disease had to be suspended due to the flooding of areas during the autumn floods on the river Oder.
More information is available here and here.
2020
Representatives of some EU member states have warned of the spread of bird flu in the EU. Avian influenza has been confirmed in western Russia and Kazakhstan, where bird migration routes to Europe lead. Israel also confirmed the infection, of the European countries, the Netherlands is the most affected so far. Due to confirmed cases, almost 36,000 poultry will be killed in NL in a poultry farm in the western Netherlands, in the municipality of Altforst. Within a radius of three kilometres from the affected farm, another nine poultry farms are being investigated; within a radius of ten kilometres from the affected farm, the transport of poultry, eggs, manure, and litter was prohibited.
More information is available here.
2020
Pascal Canfin (Renew, FR), Chair of the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, sent a letter to German Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner to further developments on the Guidelines for Risk Assessment of Plant Protection Products for Bees. The Committee calls for an adequate revision of the Guidelines for the risk assessment of plant protection products for bees, accompanied by an implementing act to ensure that ambitions in the field of bee protection are met at least at the level of the 2013 European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Guidelines. According to Canfin, the Commission's revision of the document is insufficient, influenced by the Commission's efforts to secure the Member States' support for the document. However, Canfin warned that this could lead to a weakening of the ambitions of the original EFSA opinion.
More information is available here here.
2020
The license to use the pesticide mancozeb used against molds has not been extended for another period. Member States in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCOPAFF) have not renewed their license due to possible adverse effects of the pesticide on human health and reproduction. The license expires on 31/01/2021.