A biocide is defined in the European legislation as a chemical substance or microorganism intended to destroy, deter, render harmless, or exert a controlling effect on any harmful organism. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a slightly different definition for biocides as "a diverse group of poisonous substances including preservatives, insecticides, disinfectants, and pesticides used for the control of organisms that are harmful to human or animal health or that cause damage to natural or manufactured products". When compared, the two definitions roughly imply the same, although the US EPA definition includes plant protection products and some veterinary medicines.
Ethoxyquin (EMQ) is a quinoline-based antioxidant used as a food preservative in certain countries and originally to control scald on pears after harvest. It is used as a preservative in some pet foods to slow the development of rancidity of fats. Ethoxyquin is also used in some spices to prevent color loss due to oxidation of the natural carotenoid pigments.
A food safety agency or food administration or Food Safety Authority is a government agency responsible for ensuring the safety, quality, and proper labeling of food products within a country or region. These agencies play a crucial role in protecting public health by establishing and enforcing regulations and standards to ensure that food produced, imported, processed, distributed, and sold is safe for consumption.
The beef hormone controversy or beef hormone dispute is one of the most intractable agricultural trade controversies since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
SAFE FOODS is a European project established in 2004 that deals with food safety. It aims to contribute to the restoration of consumer confidence in the safety of the European food chain, to protect the consumer from foodborne illness, and to refine risk analysis practices for food safety via an interdisciplinary approach. The full title of the project is "SAFE FOODS - Promoting a new, Integrated Risk Analysis Approach for Foods". The project is funded by the European Union (EU) Directorate-General for Research via the Sixth Framework Programme, under the ‘Quality and Safety of Food’ Priority Area. SAFE FOODS is also a founding member of COMMNET, a communication managers' network of several Sixth Framework projects dealing with food quality and safety issues. More than 95 natural and social scientists are involved in the project, coming from 37 institutions in 21 countries.
Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a brominated flame retardant. The compound is a white solid, although commercial samples appear yellow. It is one of the most common flame retardants.
Medical foods are foods that are specially formulated and intended for the dietary management of a disease that has distinctive nutritional needs that cannot be met by normal diet alone. In the United States they were defined in the Food and Drug Administration's 1988 Orphan Drug Act Amendments and are subject to the general food and safety labeling requirements of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. In Europe the European Food Safety Authority established definitions for "foods for special medical purposes" (FSMPs) in 2015.
The Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) is one of the independent scientific committees managed by the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission, which provide scientific advice to the Commission on issues related to consumer products.
The Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) is one of the independent scientific committees managed by the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission, which provide scientific advice to the Commission on issues related to consumer products.
The Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, until 2014 known as the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers, is a directorate-general of the European Commission. The DG is responsible for the monitoring and implementation of European Union policies and laws on health and food safety. It is headed by European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides and Director-General Sandra Gallina.
The Hungarian Food Safety Office (HFSO) operated as the Hungarian partner institution of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) from 2003 to 2012 in conformity with the EU requirements. One of its priority was to assess the health risks derived from food and indirectly from feed, to liaise with international and Hungarian authorities, and to communicate with the public on food safety issues. From 2012, these tasks are performed by the National Food Chain Safety Office, which was established by the integration of the Central Agricultural Office and HFSO.
Insects as food or edible insects are insect species used for human consumption. Over 2 billion people are estimated to eat insects on a daily basis. Globally, more than 2,000 insect species are considered edible, though far fewer are discussed for industrialized mass production and regionally authorized for use in food. Many insects are highly nutritious, though nutritional content depends on species and other factors such as diet and age. Insects offer a wide variety of flavors and are commonly consumed whole or pulverized for use in dishes and processed food products such as burger patties, pasta, or snacks. Like other foods, there can be risks associated with consuming insects, such as allergic reactions. As commercial interest in insects as food grows, countries are introducing new regulatory frameworks to oversee their production, processing, marketing, and consumption.
The regulation of genetic engineering varies widely by country. Countries such as the United States, Canada, Lebanon and Egypt use substantial equivalence as the starting point when assessing safety, while many countries such as those in the European Union, Brazil and China authorize GMO cultivation on a case-by-case basis. Many countries allow the import of GM food with authorization, but either do not allow its cultivation or have provisions for cultivation, but no GM products are yet produced. Most countries that do not allow for GMO cultivation do permit research. Most (85%) of the world's GMO crops are grown in the Americas. One of the key issues concerning regulators is whether GM products should be labeled. Labeling of GMO products in the marketplace is required in 64 countries. Labeling can be mandatory up to a threshold GM content level or voluntary. A study investigating voluntary labeling in South Africa found that 31% of products labeled as GMO-free had a GM content above 1.0%. In Canada and the USA labeling of GM food is voluntary, while in Europe all food or feed which contains greater than 0.9% of approved GMOs must be labelled.
Genetic engineering in the European Union has varying degrees of regulation.
The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM),, conducts open, independent, scientific risk assessments regarding safe food, food production and the environment upon request of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the Norwegian Environment Agency. VKM also carries out risk assessments on animal health, plant health, animal welfare and cosmetics for the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, and on microbiological products and alien organisms and trade in endangered species (CITES) upon request from the Norwegian Environment Agency. In addition, the Committee makes environmental risk assessments of genetically modified organisms for the Norwegian Environment Agency. The assessments are used as a basis for knowledge of the various ministries in Norway. The assessments also provide a basis for knowledge which the Norwegian Food Safety Authority uses to provide advice and determine regulations. The committee may raise matters on its own initiative. Risk assessments are made on an independent basis in accordance with internationally established methods. The scientific committee itself is to carry out risk assessments on their own initiative. The risk assessments are used by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the Norwegian Environment Agency when giving advice to Norwegian ministries, and when the Norwegian Food Safety Authority is developing new laws and regulations.
The Food Packaging Forum is a nonprofit foundation established in 2012 and based in Zurich, Switzerland. It is a science communication organization that provides information on chemicals in all food packaging materials and their impacts on health. In doing so, the Food Packaging Forum aims to address a wide range of stakeholders, including business decision-makers, regulators, media and communication experts, scientists, and consumers. Topics within the organization's scope of work include issues such as chemical migration, endocrine disruptors, low dose effects, and mixture toxicity. It produces educational documents about these topics in plain language.
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, abbreviated BfR, is a body under public law of the German federal government with full legal capacity. The institute comes under the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and has the task of providing scientific advice to the federal government on issues relating to food safety, product safety, chemical safety, contaminants in the food chain, animal protection and consumer health protection. Further technical supervision is performed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and the Federal Ministry of Transport.
National Food Chain Safety Office (Nébih/NFCSO) is the integrated food safety authority of Hungary, established on 15 March 2012.
A pesticide, also called Plant Protection Product (PPP), which is a term used in regulatory documents, consists of several different components. The active ingredient in a pesticide is called “active substance” and these active substances either consist of chemicals or micro-organisms. The aims of these active substances are to specifically take action against organisms that are harmful to plants. In other words, active substances are the active components against pests and plant diseases.
Bisphenol A controversy centers on concerns and debates about the biomedical significance of bisphenol A (BPA), which is a precursor to polymers that are used in some consumer products, including some food containers. The concerns began with the hypothesis that BPA is an endocrine disruptor, i.e. it mimics endocrine hormones and thus has the unintended and possibly far-reaching effects on people in physical contact with the chemical.
