PRIORITY business intelligence

Safer food farming is the principal benefit targeted by a new ISO technical specification, latest in the ISO 22000 series of standards for food safety management systems.

Farms are the first link in many supply chains that bring food to the kitchen table and the new ISO technical specification, ISO/TS 22002-3:2011, has been developed to ensure that farmers implement best practice in maintaining a hygienic environment and play their part in controlling food safety hazards in food chains.

The BRC Global Standard for Food Safety has been extensively revised in consultation with senior representatives from major retailers and food service companies, ensuring that it continues to meet the requirements of manufacturers and retailers.

The Standard was first introduced by the BRC in 1998 and now has almost 14,000 certificated sites in over 100 countries across the world.

In Germany, thedaily numbers of reported cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome(HUS)/enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) have steadily decreased sincethey peaked on 22 May. Nevertheless, the cumulative numbers of cases from Germanycontinue to rise, primarily owing to delays in notification..

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published an overview of its first Comprehensive Food Consumption Database, a new source of information on food consumption in the European Union, containing detailed data for a number of EU countries. The new database will play a key role in the evaluation of the risks related to possible hazards in food in the EU and will allow more precise estimates of consumers' exposure to such hazards, a fundamental step in EFSA's risk assessment work.