It was also found that this likelihood increases even further if the person has a low income.

During the study a review of African Americans on incomes above and below $40 00 per year living from half to five miles away from fast food restaurants was done.

All other influencers on BMI, like; gender, age, owning a home or renting, married or not, children or not and employment status were all controlled, so they were not involved in the findings.

The study found that those on a low income living up to two miles away from at least one fast food restaurant were more likely to have significantly higher BMIs than others.

African American women are recognized as having an increasing obesity rate and this study finding only makes this situation potentially much worse.

The study was lead by Lorraine Reitzel (PhD), who believes that the main factor influencing this finding is the lack of transport within this group. It is not too far for people to walk two miles to get the appealing, convenient and affordable food, so people appear to be doing so, especially when they have a low inclome.

Whether these finding can be translated into other countries and groups is not yet known, but if they do, this may contribute to our understanding of how obesity is increasing across the western world.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post It looks like even proximity to fast food restaurants can increase obesity. appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

As part of the recognition of this important week, the Australian Government launched a new allergen information source, to highlight some of the best techniques and information for food allergy management.

The portal is on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand website and shows several information sources for the various parts of our community.

It is the result of joint work by between Government, industry and consumer representatives and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).known as the Allergen Collaboration. Members included; the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), the AFGC Allergen Forum, the Allergen Bureau, the Food and Beverage Importers Association, Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia, the Australian Hotels Association, Restaurant and Catering Australia, Woolworths, Coles, Metcash Limited and Aldi Australia.

The Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Shayne Neummann, said; “It will allow important allergen information to be picked up by stakeholders and promoted in cost-effective was, such as through social media, existing newsletter, and email subscription lists to individual stakeholder groups. It’s an important addition to the suite of tools available in promoting awareness about food allergies and how to manage them.”

The portal can be found at – http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumerinformation/foodallergenportal/

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post Food Allergy Awareness Week appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

They have a major part to play in agriculture and without them we would not have many of the foods that are a key part of our lives.

Therefore the numbers and health of bees in our country and around the world are crucial to food security. Unfortunately, there is a general decrease in numbers and health of honey bees happening currently.

Recent research by both the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is showing that the numbers are decreasing due to a variety of factors, including; parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure.

Other studies have shown that a contributing factor may be the food that the bees are eating. If a sugar solution is used instead of honey, bees are most likely not getting the material they need to make them strong enough to withstand the impacts on them and as such numbers can decline.

Honey is recognized as being antibacterial and having other properties, so it makes sense that bees will be stronger if they are eating it. Research at the University of Illinois has also found that honey has a detoxification effect on the bees as well.

As bee numbers and health is such an important part of food securit, there continues to be a lot of research going on into finding ways to improve the situation. However, at this stage it seems that the saying “that you are what you eat” is most definitely true when it comes to bees.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post The Bees have it!!!!! appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

There are increasing numbers of products available that contain some added caffeine. This is obviously being done to increase sales as more and more people are looking for a caffeine fix.

You only need to look at the wave of interest in coffee, in cafes and now at home, that is happening across the food industry to realize that caffeine is alive and well. Coffee has now overtaken tea as the beverage of choice in Australia, with specialist coffee businesses and now capsule based machines readily available for home and work use, coffee is now king. Caffeine and the increasing desire for it is a large part of that.

Alcoholic drinks with added caffeine or it’s alternatives (like guarana) have been removed from trade in the US because of the concern that the extra stimulate will have on those consuming the products, and have not been allowed for sale in Australia.

If the caffeine is being added to foods and beverages that are only consumed by adults, then they can make informed choices. However, when these foods are also available to children, there really needs to be discussion about suitability.

The USA‘s Food and Drug Administration has started such a discussion with it’s new investigation of the safety of caffeine in foods and beverages, especially in those available to children, and adolescents.

It has been prompted by the release of a new caffeine containing chewing gum in the US. Although the manufacturer says the gum is intended for, and marketed to, 25 – 49 year olds, it could be accessible to children and adolescents.

According to Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine at FDA, the gum is equivalent to four cups of normal coffee. The FDA is concerned that it is not just this gum but other children accessible and attractive foods that now have added caffeine.

For some time now, there have been energy drinks available in Australia with caffeine and it’s alternatives to increase the “benefits” of these products. There is a set level of these ingredients allowed to be added, according to the Food Standards Code and the products must be clearly labelled as “containing caffeine”. It is also required that the labelling show that these beverages are not for consumption by children.

This US investigation is not the only one being undertaken by an authority around the world, other agencies like Food Standards Australia New Zealand are keeping a close eye on this situation.

The post Caffeine or not? appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

If the cruelty is identified in another country, Australians have little they can do about it, however.

Once again animals from Australia have been sent to another country and cruelty has been identified. This has resulted in yet another ban on live animal exports, this time to Egypt.

Those who are advocates against animal cruelty, and especially live animal export, are obviously very pleased that the ban has been put in place.

So is this live animal export a good thing or bad?

In this country, most people eat their beef after it is bought in the supermarket or local butcher. In the country many folk have home slaughter and the meat is stored in their freezers until needed, but the vast majority of us rely on the food industry to supply what we want, when we want it.

We have refrigeration and very good transport in Australia, so we are able to have the slaughter done in relatively central locations and then the meat held in storage, either during transport, in the shop or at home, until we cook and eat it.

In many countries this is a luxury they do not have. So animals are often slaughtered daily for the meat needed by people on that day and there is no cold storage and shelf life. The meat is slaughtered and eaten the same day in little towns and markets all over these countries.

This means that there needs to be a ready supply of live animals available to meet this need. Australian cattle are recognized worldwide as being of exceptional quality, so these countries really do want to purchase our stock.

On top of this is the matter of Halal. This is a religious requirement for those of the Islamic faith. The meat must have meet specific requirements to be considered Halal or suitable for those of this faith to eat. Many of the countries that have limited refrigeration are also heavily Islamic.

We have Halal beef in this country, however the process used here is not necessarily considered to be traditional by many of those Moslems from these countries, so they want to slaughter their animals in the orthodox way in their own countries.

Australia has a huge live animal export industry. There are probably a million cattle in northern Australia that are intended to be sent to these countries to meet the demand for Halal and the daily need for fresh meat. A ban of any sort on this trade has hugely significant impacts on not only individual farmers but towns in that area and the industry as a whole.

To reinforce this point, the ban that was imposed by the Australian government a year ago has resulted in the Indonesian government reducing the import of live cattle from Australia to a quarter of what it was previously. This is actually making some farmers start to think seriously about shooting their cattle instead of trying to sell them. Transporting and feeding them is costing so much and there is almost no market available for them to sell them in.

The industry is now asking the question, what impact will this latest ban have?

So is live animal export a good or bad thing?

There is no simple answer but it would seem that when the impact on a whole industry and the towns of far north Western Australia of not having the exports are considered, it is a trade that is essential to all of us.

The next question that needs to then be asked and answered if this trade is to continue, is “how can this country ensure that when our cattle are delivered to these other countries they are treated humanely and without any cruelty?” This is an immensely complex issue as it really involves state rights.

This whole issue of live animal exports has far reaching implications and is well worth watching.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post Live animal exports – good or bad? appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

This is not surprising as people generally become more health conscious, however for the very well known soft drink and cola brands, this heralds some bad news. Most of the bottled water brands are already owned by the same companies that make these soft drinks and colas, so sales will not actually decrease, however the marketing mix will alter.

It is the Asian market that will be the main driver, as the research shows that one of every three litres of bottled water is consumed in Asia. This is being driven in part by the need for “clean” water and the desire to be seen drinking such a product within increasingly affluent areas.

There are several large Asian countries that still have low bottled water consumption, so there is a huge market potential.

In western countries, it is the health benefits and low kilojoule contribution that is seen as the main driver for these markets. So although these markets are not growing as quickly as Asia, there is steady growth but low margins.

There is a major problem with bottled water and that is the bottles themselves and especially what happens with them once the water is gone.

These bottles are now recognized as an increasingly significant environmental issue. The material they are made from does not generally break down well or easily and so millions of these bottles are being added to landfill annually. It is a big problem. On top of this problem, are the bottles that make their way into the oceans and become both pollution and risks to wildlife, both in and on the water.

The Australian Packaging Covenant requires that manufacturers must take responsibility for their product from development to disposal. It is voluntary but has increasing membership. The manufacturers of all bottled water in this country must follow the requirements of the Covenant to ensure that the material used is able to break down or be able to be easily recycled.

This is the only way that we can reduce the already large amounts of these bottles, and this quantity is set to increase based on the research by Canadean.

This article was written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post Bottled water – good or bad? appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

Terry E. Acree, Ph.D, a Professor of Food Science at Cornell University in New York, who was presenting at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society showed that people can see flavours before eating them.

Professor Acree said; “There have been important new insights into how people perceive food flavours. Years ago, taste was a table with two legs – taste and odor. Now we are beginning to understand that flavour depends on parts of the brain that involve taste, odor, touch and vision. The sum total of these signals, plus our emotions and past experiences, result in perception of flavours, and determine whether we like or dislike specific foods.”

Tests have been done on assessing the role that eyesight plays in the taste of food. One such test involved asking people to drink a white wine with distinct flavor notes and then drinking the same win but coloured red. Those being tested were found to only taste the flavours of red wines and not those of the white.

Our visual perception can also be over ridden, because there are some foods that simply look unpalatable but we love them anyway, especially at some times of the year and in certain cultures. There is a cheese in Italy that should be eaten only when it has been allowed to be full of maggots. As another example, there is a type of egg that is eaten in China that contains a very young chick.

These foods look completely inedible but are loved by those who eat them. The eyes of these people are seeing something that most others do not. They see these foods are being delicious when the rest of us would not touch them.

At university we did a taste test on venison and served exactly the same sample, cooked identically, under different coloured lights. The green light yielded very poor results. It was the eyes of the testers that were deciding what the venison was like before they even tasted it.

The research now being undertaken is confirming that it is not only taste than determines flavor but smell and eyes as well. It seems that the eyes do truly have it.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post Do the eyes have it? appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

There are many that say that organic food tastes better and is much better for you. Others believe that it goes off more quickly than chemical contact produce.

In Australia a business needs to meet specific requirements to be able to claim that it’s food is organic, and only when this is confirmed, can it label it’s products with the recognized organic logo. Our industry is self regulated with strong consumer protection through the Trade Practices Act. The US has a different situation, where the organic industry is regulated and has legislative requirements.

Everyone who goes shopping would know that organic food is more expensive than produce that has had contact with chemicals. This is a distinct inhibitor to sales generally. The industry says that the reason the price is higher is to allow for the higher losses with organic produce as well as other reasons.

Organic food is recognized as being better for the environment and this is increasingly a reason cited for it’s purchase.

However, even though a recent poll in the US shows that people are buying organic in part because of it’s better environmental impact, at least half of the respondents believed that labelling as organic is just an excuse to charge higher prices.

This means that, based on the results of this poll, at least half of Americans probably believe that food labelled organic is actually not organic, just labelled that way to make more money.

Mike de Vere, President of the Harris Poll said; “What surprised us most was that while Americans are showing more concern for the environment, they aren’t necessarily willing to pay more to do anything about it. While Americans feel better about the economy, many are wary of the ‘greenwashing’ concept that gives companies a chance to cash in on consumers who want to help the planet but are confused by all the eco-friendly jargon.”

Even though when asked most Australians say that the main reason for not buying organic food, there is still in many people a cynicism to the organic labelling. However, the poll in the US and recent research in Australia have shown that there is an increasing trust in the recognized organic logo.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post So what do people think organic actually means? appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

The problem is that salt has been attributed to specific health issues and therefore there is a global move in manufacturing to reduce the salt content of our processed foods.

There are food safety issues associated with this move, as we have discussed in articles here previously. As salt has antibacterial properties, this reduction can create potential food safety issues. This has to also be carefully managed against the taste problems and likely loss of sales.

To ensure that the new limits, set by governments around the world, are being met, there is a requirement to very accurately test the foods.

To assist with this, a well known manufacturer of precision testing equipment, Mettler Toledo, has developed a new eBook that can be downloaded for free from it’s website.

Mettler Toledo is based in Switzerland is is often associated in most people’s minds with the highest quality weighing equipment. However, the company also makes other testing equipment.

This Salt Guide explains where salt comes from and it’s importance to us and our food. It then details the recognized and other methods that can be used to test for salt levels in foods.

Mettler Toledo said; “Salt is one of the key ingredients for almost any food product. Determining the right salt content makes or breaks the quality of food products.”

You can download the Salt Guide here

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post New Salt Guide appeared first on Food Safety Australia.

Woolworths Ltd Macro Vegetarian Bites (foreign matter (metal) contamination)

Woolworths has recalled Macro Vegetarian Roasted Vegetable, Split Pea & Spinach Bites from all Woolworths Supermarkets, Safeway, Food for Less, and Flemings Supermarkets nationally due to foreign matter (metal) contamination. Food products containing metal fragments may cause injury if consumed. Consumers should not eat this product. Any consumers who may have this product should return it to their nearest Woolworths/Safeway/Food for Less/Flemings Supermarket for a full refund.

Date notified to FSANZ – 8 April 2013

Food type – Chilled vegetable product

Product name-Macro Vegetarian Roasted Vegetable, Split Pea & Spinach Bites

Package description & size – Re-sealable plastic pouch, 225g

Date marking – All best before dates up to and including 29 April 2013

Country of origin – Australia

Reason for recall – Foreign matter (metal) contamination

Distribution – Nationally in Woolworths Supermarkets, Safeway, Food for Less, and Flemings Supermarkets

Consumer advice – Food products containing metal fragments may cause injury if consumed. Customers should return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Contact – Woolworths Consumer Enquiries Hotline 1800 103 515

There are two other Food Product Recalls currently underway, one related to allergens and the other about contamination,but both are specific to certain states. Go to www.foodstandards.gov.au for more information

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams – The Green Food Safety Coach.

The post Current Recalls appeared first on Food Safety Australia.