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Food

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Food stories

Nightmare shift at the chicken gulag

Two hundred of us work nights in "the gulag" as some of us call the giant chicken slaughterhouse and processing factory. Many of us have been bused in 50 miles from Ipswich and Great Yarmouth. We started at 6.35pm and now it's 1.40am, so there are 75 minutes to go. The sound system blares All You Need Is Love, but we are showing violent tendencies towards what management calls "the product".

9 Feb

How Sweden controlled the bug

In 1953, 100 people died in Sweden after a salmonella outbreak. Today, the country boasts a salmonella prevalence of under 1 per cent, thanks to an alternative agriculture system, Kretslopp - agriculture in harmony with the cycle of nature.

By Libby Brooks9 Feb

Quality control tries to keep up as production lines go faster

Quality control in Britain's chicken plants is an increasing nightmare as production lines move faster.

By James Meikle9 Feb

Up to one in five chickens or turkeys contaminated

As many as one in five chickens or turkeys - fresh or frozen - contain food-poisoning bugs, and one in six have other forms of contamination, according to official statistics.

By James Meikle8 Feb

Stores blitz on infected meat

Supermarkets are fighting a secret war against contaminated meat, after tests have shown that up to one in 10 chickens is infected by salmonella or other bugs, and 9.5 million people get food poisoning each year.

By James Meikle8 Feb

Fifty a year may die eating meat or eggs

Salmonellas: As many as 50 a year die from salmonella poisoning in England and Wales. The obvious symptom is diarrhoea, but fever develops in serious cases. The bug is common in livestock and poultry, and spreads easily to humans through meat, raw eggs and dairy products.

By James Meikle8 Feb

Elusive bugs threaten our food

Up to four people a week may die from food poisoning in England and Wales. Two thousand others suffer such bad vomiting, diarrhoea or other illness that they are officially recorded as food poisoning victims.

8 Feb

Sympathy for the devil

It takes the bakery at the end of my street a week to make £90 in profits. It takes the out-of-town Tesco two miles away a matter of minutes. Yet both will contribute £90 to the Food Standards Agency every year. Welcome and necessary as the FSA is, this till tax is as unfair and divisive as the poll tax.

By George Monbiot28 Jan

Food agency launched amid shopkeeper anger at levy

A Food Standards Agency with the remit to protect public health should be in operation within a year as an ''independent and powerful voice for the consumer,'' Nick Brown, the Agriculture Minister, announced yesterday.

By Paul Brown, Environment Correspondent28 Jan

Stores charged £50m for food safety

Every restaurant and food shop throughout Britain will be charged an annual fee of £90 to fund the independent Food Standards Agency, according to the draft Parliamentary Bill which will set up the new body.

28 Jan

Small shops protest at £90 watchdog levy

Small business leaders reacted angrily tonight to plans for corner shops to pay the same £90 annual levy as supermarket giants to fund the Government's Food Standards Agency.

By Eileen Murphy, Consumer Affairs Correspondent, PA News27 Jan

Those food scares in full

E. coli The symptoms and severity of E. coli infection vary: sometimes it causes diarrhea, and in other cases (particularly among children and the elderly) it can be fatal. The majority of cases are due to undercooked meat , when intestinal content has contaminated the carcass at slaughter, or from raw milk. Although E coli bacteria are present in the human intestinal tract, it is the different strains which lead to illness. Concern over E coli reached a peak in 1997, when there were three serious outbreaks in Scotland.

By Ros Taylor27 Jan

The Food Standards Agency... in bite-sized chunks

What will the Food Standards Agency do? It will aim to protect public health in relation to food. This means that it will act as an advisory body for the Government, the public, and anyone who produces or sells food.

By Ros Taylor27 Jan

Useful links

Food safety Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) Institute of Food Research Useful fact sheets on food hygiene and different food types. Institute Of Food Science and Technology Includes lists of frequently asked questions about food and nutrition, food safety, additives and food science United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation Contains the huge FAOSTAT database, containing statistics on food supply and use and land use among many other topics.

27 Jan

Telling a corkie

Was that the sound of desperation I heard on the radio the other morning? European cork manufacturers, never the most eco-friendly bunch, have suddenly taken a poignant interest in the plight of the Spanish imperial eagle. If the cork industry dies, they say, various species of birds and animals could die with it. It's a tactic familiar to blackmailers and hostage takers: 'One move, and the eagle gets it'.

By Tim Atkin17 Jan

Food

Food stories

Nightmare shift at the chicken gulag

How Sweden controlled the bug

Quality control tries to keep up as production lines go faster

Up to one in five chickens or turkeys contaminated

Stores blitz on infected meat

Fifty a year may die eating meat or eggs

Elusive bugs threaten our food

Sympathy for the devil

Food agency launched amid shopkeeper anger at levy

Stores charged £50m for food safety

Small shops protest at £90 watchdog levy

Those food scares in full

The Food Standards Agency... in bite-sized chunks

Useful links

Telling a corkie

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