Two powerful dairy organizations, The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), are petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to allow aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to be added to milk and other dairy products without a label.The FDA currently allows the dairy industry to use “nutritive sweeteners” including sugar and high fructose corn syrup in many of their products. Nutritive sweeteners are defined as sweeteners with calories.This petition officially seeks to amend the standard of identification for milk, cream, and 17 other dairy products like yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and others to provide for the use of any “safe and suitable sweetener” on the market.
They claim that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners would promote healthy eating and is good for school children.
IDFA and NMPF state that the proposed amendments would promote more healthful eating practices and reduce childhood obesity by providing for lower-calorie flavored milk products. They state that lower-calorie flavored milk would particularly benefit school children who, according to IDFA and NMPF, are more inclined to drink flavored milk than unflavored milk at school. Read More
(NaturalNews) Milk from dairy cows contains the protein s-lactoglobulin (BLG) which is not present in human milk. As it is a major milk allergen, an attempt at decreasing BLG by genetically modifying cows has gained much attention recently. According to researchers in a recent study, “analysis of hormonally induced milk from [these calves] demonstrated absence of BLG and a concurrent increase of all casein milk proteins.” It is believed that if bred in sufficient numbers, this type of genetically modified cow could one day provide milk for allergic infants and adults.
When will the madness stop?
In what seems like an attempt to distract us from the true dangers of milk, popular media and scientific sources like the one above are focusing our attention on the rare condition of milk allergies in an attempt to justify genetically modifying cows. Yet, only four percent of people are allergic to cow’s milk and doctors claim that most babies eventually outgrow this allergy. It remains clear; however, that the complications of milk consumption continue well into adulthood. It is reported that nearly 50 percent of the world’s population is lactose intolerant after childhood and that symptoms include bloating, pain or cramps, gas, diarrhea, and vomiting. If someone feels ill after consuming a dairy product once, they probably do not have lactose intolerance. However, if symptoms persist after continued dairy consumption, then the likelihood toward lactose intolerance is much higher. Humans do not have the enzymes to properly digest milk proteins like BLG and casein, it is no wonder why most people suffer after drinking milk.
In addition to these deleterious effects of drinking cow’s milk, it is important to note that all of American milk is genetically contaminated by bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to increase production unless it is clearly labelled “NO rBGH.” Monsanto Co., the manufacturer of rBGH, has influenced U.S. product safety laws permitting the sale of unlabeled rBGH milk. rBGH increases the rates of 16 different harmful medical conditions in cows, and there is substantial scientific evidence that it may increase antibiotic resistance and cancer rates in humans. The product is already prohibited in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and in the 27 countries of the European Union and the Codex Alimentarius, the U.N.’s main food safety body, concluded there was no consensus that it’s safe for human health.
Whether considering GMOs or undigestible proteins, the risks associated with drinking processed cow’s milk far outweigh any benefits that may be gained from consuming it. Years and billions of dollars have been spent to indoctrinate our nation into thinking that “milk does a body good” and that our main source of calcium should come from it. Yet, it is commonly recognized that the best sources of calcium are green, leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, okra, and collards. Culinarily speaking, cow’s milk can easily be substituted with coconut or almond milk; both of which provide a creamy texture and are usually quite tasty depending on the brand.
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Eric is a peer-reviewed, published researcher. His work on heart disease and autism has been accepted internationally at various scientific conferences through organizations like the American Public Health Association and Australian-based Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. Visit his blog. Track his work on facebook. Read Eric’s other naturalnews.com articles.
Associated Press/Eduardo Verdugo – From left, Chair of the International Center for Improvement of Corn and Wheat (CIMMYT) Sara Boettiger, Mexico state Gov. Eruviel Avila, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Mexican Secretary of Agriculture Enrique Martinez, Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim and CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin cut the ribbon at inauguration of the new research center for the CIMMYT in Texcoco, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Gates and Slim teamed up to to fund new seed breeding research which the CIMMYT says aims to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems to ensure global food security and reduce poverty. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
TEXCOCO, Mexico (AP) — The research center largely responsible for launching the “green revolution” of the 1960s that dramatically raised crop yields is getting support from the world’s richest men to develop genetically-modified seeds to help farmers in the developing world grow more grain in the face of a changing climatic conditions and increased demand.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim donated a total of $25 million to build a new cluster of biotechnology labs at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico.
The facilities include hothouses “with high-efficiency air particle filters and a water treatment plant to prevent pollen and genetically modified material from escaping to the outdoors,” according to a statement by the billionaires’ foundations.
Both of the philanthropists were on hand for Wednesday’s inauguration of the new labs at the research center, known as CIMMYT, located just east of Mexico City.
Bill Gates is Funding GMO Food – giving billions to the biotech industry
It was yet another coming of age moment for GM crops, because the nonprofit CIMMYT has become known over the last 50 years for providing low-cost, improved seeds through hybridization efforts, using its vast stockpiles of native corn and wheat genes from across the world to cross-breed the best attributes, like drought-resistance.
But increasingly, genetic splicing is joining the older technique of cross-pollination as “one of the tools in the toolbox,” said CIMMYT Director Thomas Lumpkin.
While Lumpkin claimed that even hybridization represents a sort of genetic modification by selective planting and breeding, he noted that CIMMYT hasn’t shipped any true GM seeds yet, and acknowledged that some countries might have concerns.
“We want to facilitate the movement of those (genetic) traits to the countries of the developing world that request them, that want them,” Lumpkin said. “Nothing is being pushed, nothing is being forced, and CIMMYT will not profit.”
Gates noted there are “legitimate issues, but solvable issues” around wider GM crop use, and that solutions could include distributing GM crops that are patented but require no royalty payments.
That alone would be a big change in the spread of GM crops, which up to now have been largely controlled by a few big biotechnology and agricultural companies that charge steep rates for GM seed and sue any farmer who uses, even accidentally, their patented GM traits, like pest resistance.
CIMMYT, with its ties to farm agencies throughout the world, could be a conduit to deliver GM benefits to the developing world, which has largely been locked out of them.
GM traits could be developed by the center and donated, or they could be bought cheaply. That’s where Gates and his foundation could come in. With his help CIMMYT, which is known for charging farmers as little as possible, could pick up some of the older traits for low prices.
“Some of these traits are getting near the end of their patent life or are available from multiple entities, so that there’s even some competition there,” Gates noted.
Lumpkin said farmers may be scared by the legal risks of GM crops, noting “you can have a law suit of a million dollars” for unauthorized use of patented crops.
“So CIMMYT is primarily focusing on getting tried and true GMO traits that are widely used around the world and bring them to the poor farmers of the developing world, so that the women of the developing world don’t have to spend the entire cropping system pulling weeds in the field … when there is such a simple modification used by all of the farmers in the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, South Africa.”
“Why can’t these poor farmers have these same traits that have been used for 15 years in the developed world?” he asked.
Still national sensitivities in Mexico, where the CIMMYT was founded in 1963, are still strong. Mexico is the birthplace of corn, and concern that GM crops might displace or contaminate genetically-valuable native strains have so far held up large-scale planting of GM corn in Mexico, even as the country has been forced to import about half of its basic grain consumption.
“Under the guise of philanthropy, what they are doing is promoting the use of transgenetic crops, with rhetoric about ending hunger in the world,” said Aleira Lara, of Greenpeace Mexico. “Those things are myths.”
“These (GM) seeds are not any kind of magic wand for increasing production, and they bring new problems to the countryside,” like developing resistance among pests and weeds, Lara said.
Lumpkin noted that CIMMYT is already doing some GM corn research in Africa, but not in Mexico.
“We are doing some research here with wheat, which is not such a sensitive issue in Mexico,” he said.
Lumpkin warned that the world could face a recurrence of the kind of crisis that CIMMYT was able to stave off 50 years ago, this time brought about by new plant diseases, climate change, water shortages and increasing consumption of grain-intensive foods, like meat.
“On one hand, there is rapidly increasing demand … on the other hand, conditions for producing this food are deteriorating rapidly,” he said.
Without new research avenues, he warned, “we have all of the ingredients for a new global food crisis.”
British Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson addresses the media outside his department, following a meeting with food retailers and the Food Standards Authority (FSA) after horse meat was found in beef ready meals
Owen Paterson rebuked by Downing Street for his handling of horse food scandal
Ministers are facing calls to impose a ban on meat imports from the European Union amid concerns that the extent of the contamination of the British food chain is still not fully understood.
The Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, has been criticised for his confused handling of the horse-meat scandal after he ruled out an import ban despite conceding that tainted foods could be “injurious to human health”.
Mr Paterson is going to have to address the Commons in a high-pressure performance today as his department’s public relations strategy appeared to be in disarray. The Minister’s own Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) sought to clarify its position last night and play down concerns that the horse meat scandal could pose a health risk. A Defra spokesman said: “There is currently no evidence of a risk to human health. Owen Paterson was quite clear that while we must be prepared to find more evidence of fraud, there is not a food safety risk at present. The FSA has said that unless there is advice to avoid a specific product, there is no reason for people to change their shopping habits.
“The Government and the FSA are working with authorities across Europe, including police, to get to the bottom of this unacceptable situation. If criminal activity is discovered we will take whatever action is necessary.”
Mr Paterson, who is understood to have received a dressing down from Downing Street over a lethargic initial reaction to the presence of horse meat in processed food, has warned of more “bad results” this week from further tests by retailers.
A senior Conservative MP called for a moratorium on EU meat imports until the investigation into the origins of the horse meat – which yesterday switched focus to Romania amid suggestions of links to organised crime – could be established. Mr Paterson said no such ban could be considered under EU law until a risk to human health had been identified – only to admit that such a risk could take several more days to uncover.
The Independent has established that only beef products which have already been found to contain horse meat and withdrawn from sale by companies including Findus and Aldi are currently being tested for phenylbutazone or “bute”, a veterinary drug which is banned from the human food chain.
Speaking to LBC Radio, Mr Paterson insisted there was currently “no evidence” of a health risk. He said: “As we speak this is an issue of fraud and a conspiracy against the public, I think probably by criminal elements to substitute a cheap material for that which was marked on the label.
“It is a labelling issue. Now we may find out as the week progresses and the tests begin to come in, we may find out there is a substance which is injurious to human health. We have no evidence of that at all at the moment.”
The Food Standards Agency has asked retailers and local authorities to provide results by this Friday from tests for horse meat contamination on dozens of processed beef products. Further analysis for bute, which can take a minimum of 48 hours, will be carried out only if horse meat has been found, meaning it could potentially be another week before any human health risk is established. Tests for bute on Findus beef lasagne and similar products from Aldi, both which have been withdrawn after they were found to consist of up to 100 per cent horse meat, are under way.
Anne McIntosh MP, the chairwoman of the House of Commons Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, said: “I believe there should be a moratorium on the movement of all meat until such time as we can trace the source of contamination.”
Why the long face: muddling minister
* It took 36 hours after news broke that “100 per cent horse meat” ready meals had been found on sale in the UK before the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson felt able to take to the airwaves to explain what the Government was doing. Even then it was five hours after Downing Street promised he would appear.
* Mr Paterson yesterday raised the potential for horse meat to have been contaminated by phenylbutazone. In significant doses, it can produce a potentially fatal blood condition. But nutritionists point out that a greater risk is likely to come from the high levels of salt and fat in processed meals.
* Despite pledging to provide a co-ordinated response to the scandal, Mr Paterson’s department failed to invite frozen foods giant Findus to an industry “horse meat summit” this weekend. He was forced to deny yesterday that caterers supplying schools and hospitals had also been excluded.
A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horse meat on the European beef market, a French politician said today.
Horse-drawn carts were a common form of transport for centuries in Romania, but hundreds of thousands of the animals are feared to have been sent to the abattoir after the change in road rules.
The law, which was passed six years ago but only enforced recently, also banned carts drawn by donkeys, leading to speculation among food-industry officials in France that some of the “horse meat” which has turned up on supermarket shelves in Britain, France and Sweden may, in fact, turn out to be donkey meat. “Horses have been banned from Romanian roads and millions of animals have been sent to the slaughterhouse,” said Jose Bove, a veteran campaigner for small farmers who is now vice-president of the European Parliament agriculture committee.
After a couple of days in which the horse meat affair was seen as a largely British problem, the scandal began to be taken seriously by French politicians and newspapers over the weekend.
The French consumer minister, Benoît Hamon, said today that he would not hesitate to take legal action if evidence emerged that the two French companies which handled the meat had been aware of the fraud.
In passing, Mr Hamon also took a swipe at the British Government. He said that London was complaining about weak European food inspection while cutting the budget for EU food-safety checks in Brussels.
His warning came as France’s biggest supermarket chains removed more of their own-label and Findus processed dishes from their shelves.
Mr Hamon said that preliminary investigation by the French agency that combats consumer fraud had uncovered the Byzantine route taken by the “fake” beef.
It came from abattoirs in Romania through a dealer in Cyprus working through another dealer in Holland to a meat plant in the south of France which sold it to a French-owned factory in Luxembourg which made it into frozen meals sold in supermarkets in 16 countries.
Burgers contaminated with horsemeat could contain a drug linked to cancer, consumers were warned today.
Five horses slaughtered in the UK last year tested positive for phenylbutazone, food safety chiefs admitted.
The anti-inflammatory is banned from the food chain over fears it causes bone marrow and liver problems in humans.
But test delays meant meat from the five contaminated horses still ended up on dinner plates.
The new scare comes after four British supermarkets, including Tesco, were found to have sold beefburgers containing horse.
The Food Standards Agency tonight stressed that no burgers had tested positive for phenylbutazone – also known as Bute.
But Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh warned that contaminated horse could have ended up in other batches.
In the Commons she demanded action to ensure “illegal and carcinogenic horsemeat stops entering the human food chain”.
And she told Agriculture Minister David Heath: “I’m astonished you have not raised this. The public has a right to know.”
Risk: Meat from horses is affected. Getty
Last week supermarkets were forced to withdraw more than 10 million burgers containing Irish horsemeat.
At the time experts said it posed no health risk.
All Irish and UK horses must have a “passport” which is supposed to stop those that have had dangerous drugs from being eaten.
But 75 different UK organisations issue them and a national database has been closed by the government.
An animal treated with a drug such as Bute is worthless. But with a fake passport it can fetch more than £300 from the meat trade.
The UK Food Standards Agency said that of 8,426 horses slaughtered here last year only 145 were tested.
Of these five were contaminated with Bute but it was too late to stop them being eaten in France.
The spokesman added: “Tests take three weeks. Because suppliers want the meat fresh it did go into the food chain. We alerted the French.”
Unison, which represents meat hygiene workers, called for inspections to be stepped up.
Warning: Labour’s Mary Creagh. Rex
Spokesman Ian Adderley said: “Just a small number of horses are checked and the results take weeks to come back.
“They are playing Russian roulette with consumers.”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs claimed that the horse database would not have helped because it did not include veterinary records.
They added: “Anyone falsifying horse passports can be prosecuted.”
Leeds University’s Prof Alastair Hay said Bute could cause anaemia and bone marrow disorders but the cancer link had not been convincingly proven.
What is Phenylbutazone?
Phenylbutazone, aka Bute, is an anti-inflammatory drug given to horses to treat lameness, pain and fever.
It is banned from entering the human food chain in Europe because it is thought to cause bone marrow disorders in extremely rare cases.
But scientists are still divided about how dangerous the drug could be to humans.
Professor Chris Elliott, director of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, explained: “Thankfully the residues of drugs such as this that are found in meat are very low, and therefore the risk to the consumer is correspondingly low.
“However, the use of veterinary medicines in all animal species that go into the food chain is a matter of food safety and must be treated seriously.”
(NaturalNews) Well, it’s that time of year again when McDonald’s rolls out its venerable McRib sandwich. Tens of millions of Americans will purchase one – or, judging by the nation’s ever-widening belt line, several – but most will do so without knowing all they should know about this popular sandwich.
Besides high caloric content, there are several other reasons why you should avoid the McRib, a boneless pork product smothered in BBQ sauce that famously resembles a rack of ribs, as much as you avoid most of the other “delicacies” served by this fast-food behemoth. In addition, The Blaze reports, there are several “fun facts” about the sandwich you may not have known:
A sandwich ‘built’ from scratch?: The McRib is a product of Rene Arend, who came up with the idea and design of the sandwich. That said, Richard Mandigo, a professor from the University of Nebraska, who developed the “restructured meat product” that the McRib is actually made of.
According to Chicago magazine, citing a 1995 article by Mandigo, “restructured meat product” is described thusly:
Restructured meat products are commonly manufactured by using lower-valued meat trimmings reduced in size by comminution (flaking, chunking, grinding, chopping or slicing). The comminuted meat mixture is mixed with salt and water to extract salt-soluble proteins. These extracted proteins are critical to produce a “glue” which binds muscle pieces together. These muscle pieces may then be reformed to produce a “meat log” of specific form or shape. The log is then cut into steaks or chops which, when cooked, are similar in appearance and texture to their intact muscle counterparts. … Such products as tripe, heart, and scalded stomachs are high in protein, completely edible, wholesome, and nutritious, and most are already used in sausage without objection.
Still hungry?
Packed with calories – and ingredients: In a time of labeling, when government entities and the public are pushing for more disclosure, the package for the McRib would have to grow just to list all of its ingredients.
According to the current box labeling, the sandwich consists of just five basic components – a pork patty and BBQ sauce with pickle slices, onions and a sesame bun.
But, as Time magazine points out, a closer examination of McDonald’s own list of ingredients reveals that the sandwich contains a total of 70 ingredients, including azodicarbonamide, a flour-bleaching component that is often used to produce foamed plastics (think gym mats and the soles of shoes). In fact, “the compound is banned in Europe and Australia as a food additive,” says Time. Other ingredients include ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80.
Besides, the sandwich itself contains an incredible amount of calories – 500 at least – along with 26 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates and 980 milligrams of sodium, nearly half the recommended daily amount of about 2,400 milligrams.
Not a good choice for your heart: The ingredients, combined with a dose of 10 mg of saturated fat (nearly half of the recommended daily allowance), make the McRib an enemy of a healthy heart, say the experts.
“Think about that for a second: When you eat a McRib, you’re eating the same chemical ingredients and compounds in those disgusting yoga mats at the gym. And that’s on top of the fact that it tastes terrible in the first place,” writes Rick Paulas, food editor for KCET, a public television network in southern California. “Which means it’s time to ask: Why are we still eating this?”
That’s a very valid question. In the meantime, that sound you hear is the further tightening of the nation’s belt line.
When the US government ignored repeated warnings by its own scientists and allowed untested genetically modified (GM) crops into our environment and food supply, it was a gamble of unprecedented proportions. The health of all living things and all future generations were put at risk by an infant technology.
After two decades, physicians and scientists have uncovered a grave trend. The same serious health problems found in lab animals, livestock, and pets that have been fed GM foods are now on the rise in the US population. And when people and animals stop eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), their health improves.
This seminal documentary provides compelling evidence to help explain the deteriorating health of Americans, especially among children, and offers a recipe for protecting ourselves and our future.
Monsanto’s Food and Drug Administration can’t close down small dairies and private food clubs fast enough, bursting on the scene with guns drawn as if the criminalized right to contract for natural foods we’ve consumed for millennia deserves SWAT attention.
Now, Obama has the Dept. of Justice going after small farmers under the post-911 “Bank Secrecy Act” which makes it a crime to deposit less than $10,000 when you earned more than that.
“The level we deposited was what it was and it was about the same every week,” Randy Sowers told Frederick News. The Sowers own and run South Mountain Creamery in Middletown, Maryland.
Admittedly, when the Sowers earned over $10,000 in February, and learned they’d have to fill out paperwork at the bank for such large deposits, they simply rolled the deposits over to keep them below the none-of-your-fucking-business amount, rather than waste time on bureaucratic red tape aimed at flagging terrorism or other illegal activities.
“Structuring,” explains Overlawyered.com, “is the federal criminal offense of splitting up bank deposits so as to keep them under a threshold such as $10,000 above which banks have to report transactions to the government.”
While being questioned, the Sowers were finally presented with a seizure order and advised that the feds had already emptied their bank account of $70,000. The Dept. of Justice has since sued to keep $63,000 of the Sowers’ money, though they committed no crime other than maintaining their privacy.
Without funds, they will be unable to make purchases for the spring planting.
When a similar action was taken against Taylor’s Produce Stand last year, the feds seized $90,000, dropped the charges, and kept $45,000 of Taylor’s money.
Knowing that most farms operate on a very thin margin, such abuse of power wipes out a family’s income, and for a bonus, the feds enhance the monopoly power of Monsanto, Big Dairy and their supply chain.
You can just smell attorney Michael Taylor behind all this, Obama’s dairy dog. Who you’ll find, instead, is US district attorney Stefan Cassella. He’s the first to head the DOJ’s Asset Forfeiture & Money Laundering Section, created in 2009, having wrote the books on it. He cut his teeth on seizing $1.2 billion from real money launderer, BCCI. Guess his focus has changed since then.
The Maryland Dept. of Agriculture had no trouble hitting up the Sowers for a recipe in its Buy-Local cookbook; but Cassella must’ve missed that public service, or it’s what drew his attention – “Ah! A small dairy! Let’s rob them of their cash, those evil Big Dairy competitors. They probably sell raw milk under the table. Even if we find no evidence of wrongdoing, we’ll keep their money anyway.” (Cue Curly’s, “yuh, yuh, yuh.”)
City Paper reports that in 2011, “Maryland brought 14 of the nation’s 99 structuring cases, making it the top state for such prosecutions. Nationally, the numbers have been rising; the 2011 figures are up 8.8 percent from the year before and up 57.1 percent from five years ago.”
Funny, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and other criminal banksters are still in operation, despite committing millions of acts of fraud during mortgage reassignations. But the DOJ prioritizes squashing family farmers since it’s easier to pick the low-hanging fruit than do battle with well-financed criminals who’ve illegally seized the homes of millions of US citizens.
Former Maryland assistant U.S. attorney Steven Levin told the paper, “The emphasis is on basically seizing money, whether it is legally or illegally earned. It can lead to financial ruin for business owners, and there’s a potential for abuse here by the government.”
Ya think?
The Bank Secrecy Act was modified* after 9/11, another in a long line of Constitutionally-abhorrent laws enacted by officials who cannot prove they were elected to office (given those elections were held on electronic voting systems that can be hacked without leaving evidence of the crime).
With the current Administration’s Agenda 21 focus on destroying the natural food and herb industry, is it not unsurprising to see unconstitutional terrorist legislation used on innocent, law abiding citizens?
WASHINGTON – (AP) — Regulators are proposing that food companies that want to use tiny engineered particles in their packaging may have to provide extra testing data to show the products are safe.
The Food and Drug Administration issued tentative guidelines Friday for food and cosmetic companies interested in using nanoparticles, which are measured in billionths of a meter. Nanoscale materials are generally less than 100 nanometers in diameter. A sheet of paper, in comparison, is 100,000 nanometers thick. A human hair is 80,000 nanometers thick.
The submicroscopic particles are increasingly showing up in FDA-regulated products like sunscreens, skin lotions and glare-reducing eyeglass coatings. Some scientists believe the technology will one day be used in medicine, but the FDA’s announcement did not address that use.
The draft guidance suggests the FDA may require food companies to provide data establishing the safety of any packaging using nanotechnology.
Under longstanding regulations, companies aren’t required to seek regulatory approval before launching products containing established ingredients and materials, such as caffeine, spices and various preservatives.
But FDA officials said Friday that foods and packaging containing nanoparticles may require more scrutiny.
“At this point, in terms of the science, we think it’s likely the exemption does not apply and we would encourage folks to come in and talk to us,” said Dennis Keefe, director of FDA’s office of food additive safety.
Keefe said companies are studying whether nanoparticles can reduce the risk of bacterial contamination in certain foods. He said the agency is aware of just one food package currently on the market that uses nanoparticles but did not identify it. He said more are expected in coming years.
The FDA has previously stated its position that nanotechnology is not inherently unsafe; however, materials at the nano scale can pose different safety issues than do things that are far larger.
“This is an emerging, evolving technology and we’re trying to get ahead of the curb to ensure the ingredients and substances are safe,” Keefe said.
In a separate guidance, the FDA laid out suggestions for the use of nanotechnology in cosmetics, a practice which has been in use since the 1990s. Nanoparticles are used in skin moisturizer, mineral make up and other cosmetics.
The FDA has less authority over cosmetics than food additives. Generally, the FDA does not review cosmetics before they launch, and companies are responsible for assuring the safety of their products.
The FDA will take comments on both proposals for 90 days. There is no deadline for finalizing the documents.
(NaturalNews) Well, it’s that time of year again when McDonald’s rolls out its venerable McRib sandwich. Tens of millions of Americans will purchase one – or, judging by the nation’s ever-widening belt line, several – but most will do so without knowing all they should know about this popular sandwich.
Aftermath News 
