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Food News

US approves 2 types of genetically engineered potatoes

Magic Valley | Posted on November 2, 2016

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved commercial planting of two types of potatoes that are genetically engineered to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine. The approval announced Friday covers Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co.’s Ranger Russet and Atlantic varieties of the company’s second generation of Innate potatoes. The company says the potatoes will also have reduced bruising and black spots, enhanced storage capacity, and a reduced amount of a chemical created when potatoes are cooked at high temperatures that’s a potential carcinogen.


Weighing Consumers Growing Appetite for Clean Meat Labeling

Nielsen | Posted on November 2, 2016

The call for food transparency continues to build, and with it, the use of terms like “natural,” “hyper-local” and “antibiotic-free” in conversations around our food. When it comes to meat, discussions include the added dimensions of livestock care and processing, complicating the labeling of meat products well beyond what’s needed for an organic banana or a package of fiber cereal. So what exactly do these meat labels mean, and what are the nuances? But perhaps more importantly, do consumers really want “cleaner” meat?  From a total U.S. consumption perspective, the short answer is yes. Sales growth for some of the meat label claims with the highest shares (natural, antibiotic-free and hormone free) is rapidly outpacing that of conventional meat. From 2011 to 2015, conventional meat posted compound annual sales growth of 4.6%. Comparatively, products with a natural label posted growth of 14.6%, products labeled antibiotic-free posted growth of 28.7%, products labeled hormone-free posted growth of 28.6% and products labeled organic posted growth of 44%. Meanwhile, sales growth of products labeled “minimally processed,” another top claim, declined 1.6% from 2011 to 2015.


arched from peanuts, the South's hot new oil

The New York Times | Posted on November 2, 2016

There may be more improbable culinary trails than the one that leads from a red clay road here in the country’s most prolific peanut-growing state to Beyoncé’s plate at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. But as zero-to-hero food tales go, this is a good one.  The star of the story is cold-pressed green peanut oil, which some of the best cooks in the South have come to think of as their local answer to extra-virgin olive oil. Buttery, slightly vegetal and hard to find, Southern green peanut oil is a new entry into the growing regional oil game. This is not the peanut oil that slicks countless woks and fills Chick-fil-A fryers, though it is made from the same runner peanuts. The nuts are pressed at low temperatures in a machine smaller than a golf bag in the back of a building that isn’t much more than a shack, on Clay Oliver’s farm. He lives about 150 miles south of Atlanta, and makes some 400 gallons a year. Chefs turn poetic when they describe it.


Nanobionic spinach plants can detect explosives

Science Daily | Posted on November 2, 2016

Spinach is no longer just a superfood: By embedding leaves with carbon nanotubes, engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone.


Alaska gives meat plant survival effort another go

Meatingplace (registration required) | Posted on November 1, 2016

Alaska’s Board of Agriculture and Conservation has issued another request for proposals to lease or purchase the long struggling Mt. McKinley Meat and Sausage plant in Palmer after several failed efforts and a looming closure in summer 2017. The meat plant is the only USDA-approved slaughter and processing facility in Southcentral Alaska, which the state has operated since 1986 as an asset of its Agricultural Revolving Loan Fund. State officials said preference will be given to bidders who plan to continue slaughter and processing operations at the property. The new deadline to submit proposals is 4 p.m. on Nov. 28.


Legalization fuels increase in stoned pets

The Washington Post | Posted on November 1, 2016

As more jurisdictions legalize marijuana, veterinarians across the country say they are seeing a sharp increase in cases of pets accidentally getting high. Tasty “edibles” such as muffins and cookies that people consume for a buzz are also appealing to animals, who can’t read warning labels, and, in the case of dogs, rarely stop at just one pot brownie.


5 food safety challenges for broiler producers

Watt Ag Net | Posted on November 1, 2016

As part of its Healthy People 2020 initiative, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is setting up goals to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter infections. By 2020, it is targeting 11.4 cases per 100,000 people for Salmonella and 8.5 cases per 100,000 people forCampylobacter. According to the most recently available statistics, Campylobacter infections dropped to 14.3 cases per 100,000 people in 2011 from 24.6 cases per 100,000 people in 1997.Salmonella infections increased by 17 percent over the same time period.  The FSIS is shifting its focus, Peterson said, from whole birds to prepackaged parts because of shifting consumer preference. Regulatory agencies like the Centers for Disease Control, FSIS and FDA are all adopting full genome sequencing to track where exactly the bacteria is coming from and possibly pinpoint problem plants and processing locations.


EU grab of common cheese names worries U.S. dairy industry

Capital Press | Posted on November 1, 2016

The European Union’s attempt to “confiscate” common cheese names would cost the U.S. dairy industry billions of dollars if trade negotiators don’t hold the line, according to a new study.  Many cheese names such as Feta, which originated in Greece, are identified with a specific location but have been commonly used to identify that type of cheese, no matter where it is made.  The EU now wants to “confiscate” those generic names for the benefit of its farmers and processors, said Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president of trade policy for the U.S. Dairy Export Council and the National Milk Producers Federation. “The problem is not with the well-defined (geographic identity),” she said. “The problem is with attempting to extend GI protection to many food names that have on one hand little to no geographic identity or on the other hand have become generic names, in some cases for centuries.”


Canadian court rejects environmental group’s appeal in AquaBounty lawsuit

Undercurrent News | Posted on November 1, 2016

Canada's Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal brought by the group Ecojustice on behalf of the Ecology Action Centre and Living Oceans Society against Canada's Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. AquaBounty was also named in that suit, the firm said in a release. The suit had challenged the government's grant of permission to AquaBounty to allow production of its AquaAdvantage salmon for commercial use at a Prince Edward Island plant.


It might be time to reconsider your decision to buy only organic.

Cosmopolitan | Posted on November 1, 2016

Being the conscientious and considerate person that you are, you’re trying to be an environmentally friendly consumer. You read on the internet that farming is part of the problem, so you shop only for local organic produce at Whole Foods, and as for GMOs? Ain’t nobody got time for that. You donate to PETA and Greenpeace whenever they’re holding up signs outside your local supermarket and you’ve been buying the coffee labeled “environmentally friendly” and “toxin-free” and “not harvested with blood diamonds or dragon labor.” To reduce carbon emissions, you’ve signed a petition to keep a nuclear plant out of the state and to keep clean coal running strong.   You’re doing everything you can to help protect our planet, right?I’ve got some news for you.  It’s a jungle of misinformation out there on the internet. And you’ve probably been following some bad advice while trying to be a good environmentalist. Don’t get me wrong, you’re probably doing a lot of things you’ve read are right, and your heart is in the right place. Let’s navigate some of the ways that you’re not quite the environmentalist you think you are, and some easy ways to fix that.  1. You buy only organic. Those friendly green labels do draw you in, don’t they? You’ve read rumors that they’re healthier or that they’re better for the environment, but held up to the light of science, all the rumors fade away. Organic is definitely not better for you, and it uses older, dirtier farming techniques that are, across the board, not as environmentally friendly. Contrary to rumors, organic farming uses pesticides, in some cases equally toxic pesticides that need to be applied more frequently. Organic also uses more land to produce the same amount of food. 2. You avoid GMOs like the plague that you’re sure they are. If you’ve heard any of the rumors, they’re putting fish genes into the tomatoes. They’re killing the ecosystem. They’re killing the butterflies, the bees, and they might be responsible for your cat and dog not getting along. But despite what you may have heard, GMOs have actually been a gift to the environment.


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