Food News from FAL
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Dec 2008 Dioxin Scare, see BBC News Feed , Food Standards Agency Feed. Food Analytical Laboratories has teamed up with three laboratories to provide dioxin in foodstuff analysis due to Dioxin contamination fears in pork products originating from Ireland. Read the information from the FSA Eatwell web site for more information about dioxins. Other Dioxin links are
Defra, UK - Environmental Protection - Chemicals Dioxin Homepage BBC NEWS | Health | Medical notes | Dioxins Food Standards Agency - PCBs and dioxins BBC NEWS | Health | Clues to dioxin danger
FOOD ALERT!
Food Standards Agency - Emerging incident involving presence of dioxins in Irish pork meat - FOOD ALERT!
Falabs is dealing with several laboratories to ensure its customers can be dealt with. Contact us for more details.
Sep 2008 FAL introduces a Melamine testing service from £80 in light of the recent concerns.
The European Commission is imposing a ban on EU imports of Chinese baby food that contains any traces of milk, while other Chinese food will undergo tests. See BBC News Article. The measures come amid a health scare over milk products contaminated in China with the chemical melamine. It has caused several deaths there. The commission says all imported products from China containing more than 15% milk powder will be tested. Random testing will be done on all such products already on sale in the EU.
From wikipedia.org : Melamine use as non-protein nitrogen (NPN) for cattle was described in a 1958 patent.In 1978, however, a study concluded that melamine "may not be an acceptable non-protein N source for ruminants" because its hydrolysis in cattle is slower and less complete than other nitrogen sources such as cottonseed meal and urea. Melamine is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. Standard tests such as the Kjelahl and Dumas tests estimate protein levels by measuring the nitrogen content, so they can be misled by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine. Chronic toxicity: Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.