|
Busquin wants to double EU research budget
FSA seeks research proposals
CIAA stresses innovation for next presidency
New manual gives hygiene standards
Velosel joins with CGEY for GCI product data
Robots pack away pizzas at Wagner's
GM crops spread
New non-invasive system tests for toxins
Seven Eleven opens in China
Massive palm oil plant for Rotterdam
Clear panes
Research
Busquin wants to double EU research budget
European Union research Commissioner Philippe Busquin says he wants Member States to double the Community budget for research in an enlarged Union.
Busquin earlier said he wants the member to commit 3% of GDP to research. The present figure is closer to 1%. The euro value of the budget remains unknown until members agree the global EU budget.
But budget commissioner Michaele Schreyer is believed to be in favour of a big increase to EU research funding, and that a recent report by German MEP Ralph Linkohr showed Parliamentary backing for the rise.
FSA seeks research proposals
The British Food Standards Agency has published its requirements for new research. The results will inform and support policy development. Areas of interest are:
-
microbiological risk assessment (M. bovis in cheese)
-
microbiological surveys (salmonella in eggs)
-
mycotoxins and process contaminants research and surveys
-
co-ordination of a programme review of mycotoxins and process contaminants
-
research and survey work
-
diet and cardiovascular health (salt, whole grain foods)
-
food acceptibility and choice (portion size, snacking)
-
optimal health (folates, selenium)
-
diet and colonic health
-
dietary surveys and nutrients in food (market share data)
-
effects of radioactivity in the environment (tritium in crops)
-
toxicology and exposure
-
research and surveys call for independent experts for the provision of scientific reviews, reports and statistical analysis for FSA Scotland
-
programme adviser - acrylamide
Further details are at http://www.food.gov.uk/science/research/comresearch/rrd/.
EU
CIAA stresses innovation for next presidency
The European food industry trade association, the CIAA, has presented the industry's wish list for the next six months to the Irish authorities for consideration during Ireland's term as European Union president.
 "Ireland is being given the challenging task of successfully managing both the historical enlargement of the EU and a period of major political transition", said CIAA president Jean Martin.
"It is also vital that the EU Presidency intensifies efforts to create the necessary conditions for the EU food and drink industry to reinforce its competitiveness, develop its innovation capabilities and take full advantage of the expected growth."
Martin said efforts to implement EU food legislation on the ground must continue after May 1, when enlargement become official. "The CIAA will pursue its action in the candidate countries to contribute to the integration of food law into local companies," he promised.
Martin renewed calls for a harmonised, transparent and predictable framework for nutrition and health claims and for fortified foods.
This will ensure a high level of consumer protection and at the same time provide food and drink companies with the necessary flexibility to continue to invest in research and to innovate, he said.
The industry wants to be able to claim that its products benefit health, if they can back the claim with scientific evidence.
"Measures aimed at excluding certain sectors from the possibility to claim a nutritional or health benefit will hamper innovation efforts and discourage certain sectors to continue improving the nutritional content of their products," Martin said.
With regard waste management and sustainability, Martin said the CIAA "is in favour of the development of European strategies on resources and waste that build up a flexible framework for food and drink companies to continue improving their product and process performance to achieve a better use of resources and minimise waste."
Hygiene
New manual gives hygiene standards
British food lab CCFRA has published a new manual of standard hygiene methods for the food and drink industry.
It will help companies to adopt standardised methods of taking environmental samples for hygiene testing of surfaces, people, packaging, air and process water. This will improve confidence in hygiene test results and help improve the analysis and control of potential environmental sources of contamination.
Further details are at http://www.campden.co.uk/publ/pubfiles/g45.htm
Data management
Velosel joins with CGEY for GCI product data
US software house has joined forces with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Nederland to deliver tailored product information systems for consumer goods retailers and manufacturers based on the new Global Commerce Initiative (GCI).
CGE&Y's research shows that companies can save one to three per cent of their supply chain costs by adopting by standardising their product data.
The partnership is key to CGE&Y's global consumer goods practice strategy. They aim to develop joint product and services that save customers' money.
The Dutch office of CGE&Y will lead the initiative, and support sales in the US, UK, France and Germany.
Manufacturers and retailers use Velosel's software to build centralised repositories of product information, to synchronise product information with their trading partners, and to establish the foundation for emerging technologies, such as RFID.
Manufacturing
Robots pack away pizzas at Wagner's
The growing German appetite for pizza has prompted Wagner, maker of the popular Piccolinis frozen pizza to hire robot help to keep up with demand.
 Wagner introduced Piccolinis to the market in 1996. At peak times, 900 Piccolinis are produced every minute in each 24-hour operation.
This requires a packaging rate of 100 boxes a minute to get the 1,296,000 Piccolinis out of the factory every day.
Cramped for space, Reinhard Ristau, technical director at Wagner, turned to robots. "This is the first time we have used robots," explained Ristau. "After seeing them being used for packaging, I can now imagine there are many interesting possibilities for the use of robots in the manufacturing process too."
Already a happy user of SIG pillow pack machines, Wagner chose SIG Pack Systems' Delta robots because they offered a compact solution with a lower level of complexity at a competitive price.
The Piccolinis are packed in threes on a SIG HBM pillow pack machine. The products are spread across three lanes and are then transferred to the cartoning process.
This comprises three SIG Delta robots. Each robot can pack more than 100 triple Piccolini packs a minute into the ready-made pizza boxes supplied from the carton former.
The packages are detected using a vision system with image processing. This enables each robot to accurately locate each package and place it precisely into the carton. Each robot arm matches the speed of the conveyer belt to ensure a centred pick-up of the products.
The system was designed to give even distribution between packages and ensure an equal workload of all three robots. At the end of the system, the boxes are closed, sealed and cased. Since the robots started packing Wagner's sales have risen by 8.4%.
The uses of robots have a huge potential in the pizza market. Germans alone ate frozen pizzas worth 657.3 million euro in 2002, 5.7% up on 2001. More than 25 million households bought at least one frozen pizza in 2002.
GM
GM crops spread
More than 67 million hectares are planted to genetically modified plants, a rise of 15%, says the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a group sponsored by government agencies and industries.
The ISAAA says in a new report that seven million farmers in 18 countries now plant biotech crops. More than 80% are in developing countries. The leading growers of biotech crops are the US, Argentina, Canada, China, Brazil, and South Africa. These account for almost all of the GM crop area. China and South Africa both planted one- third more hectares to GM crops than in 2002.
The ISAAA predicts that 10 million farmers in at least 25 countries will plant 100 million hectares of GM crops within five years. The value of the crops will grow from about $4.5 billion this year to $5 billion or more by 2005.
Safety
New non-invasive system tests for toxins
A Galician inventor has developed a new way to detect organic and inorganic particles inside sealed packages. This
multi-system electronic mechanism will analyse the inside of letters and closed postal packages. The researcher is looking for licensees.
This new patented system detects spontaneously the presence of suspicious substances that could support toxic substances inside sealed envelopes and packages, without risking lives.
The processing and verification of the envelopes are quickly made electronically via sensors.
The user only needs to turn on a switch and place the letters on the dispensary. The procedure does not harm the contents.
For details contact Rosa Freire Corzo at galactea@cisgalicia.org.
Markets
Seven-Eleven opens in China
US convenience retailer 7-11 has opened in China.
Its Japanese division, working with Beijing ShouLian (Capital Allied) Commercial Group and China National Sugar & Alcohol Group Corporation, has established a joint venture company that will develop a convenience store network in China.
The new joint venture company, Seven-Eleven (Beijing), received government approval on 2 January. The first stores should open in Spring.
Ingredients
Massive palm oil plant for Rotterdam
Loders Croklaan, part of the Malaysian IOI Group, is to build a 3000 tons/day palm oil refinery and fractionation plant, Europe's largest, in Rotterdam.
Construction is scheduled to begin mid 2004 and start up a year later. The plant will employ 70 people on the 18 hectare site.
The IOI Group bought Loders Croklaan from Unilever a year ago. Palm oil is an ingredient for biscuits, industrial breads and pastries, fried fast foods, soups and sauces. It is also an alternative to hydrogenated products containing trans-fats.
Computing
Clear panes
Is there anyone who doesn't suffer from dirty Windows and clogged disk drives that stop the data from getting through?
There's now a plain language book that promises to show you how to clean up your Windows-based PC. It is called Degunking Windows by Joli Ballew and Jeff
Duntemann, (US price $24.99, 350 pp, ISBN 1-932111-84-0).
They claim this step-by-step guide shows users how to clean their machines, speed them up, secure them from hackers, clean up e-mail, reduce spam and make their computers work as fast and reliably as the day they bought them.
|
