Summary of newspapers of the previous day – 02.09. 2008

EC adjusted rules for pesticides; it wants more safe foods

The European Commission (EC) adjusted and simplified rules for permitted level of pesticides in foods. The new regulation should increase food safety. At the same time it consolidated limits for pesticides in foods in all EU member states, EC reported. Nevertheless, ecological activists criticize the regulation that in some cases limits increased against the past. According to new rules foods produced in one member state have to be safe for consumers in all other member states.

Quality of feeds for farm animals and food safety

Feeds for animals are an important element in a production food chain, therefore they have a direct influence on the quality and safety of foods of animal origin. Consumers of meat, milk and eggs expect that industry and retail will supply goods of a high quality. However, a confidence of consumers in consequence of often incidents concerning foods considerably decreased which is one of reasons why the Feed Producers Union (het Productschap voor Diervoeder - PDV) decided that the industry producing feeds for animals has to guarantee the quality and safety of its products.

Scientists look for medicaments also in barley and hop

New medicinal substances were found by scientists not only in exotic plants but also in the commonly grown ones, for example in barley and hop. They pay attention also towards plants which have functioned in Czech gardens and parks only as embellishment till this time. Obtaining effective substances from plants, which we connect with other use, is one of the topics of an international conference on medicament plants at Mendel´s Agricultural and Forestry University in Brno (MZLU).

Bee-keepers: There is small amount of honey and it will rise in price

Do you like to sweeten the life with a teaspoon of honey? Then maybe it will become bitter on your tongue. You will have to pay more for your favourite pleasure. This year´s catastrophic disfavor of weather with which bee-keepers have to fight is blame for it. “Amount of honey will be smaller than usually. Against the last year the decrease will be about fifty percent”, Jiří Zavřel, a chairman of a basic organization of the Czech Bee-keepers Union in Nové Město na Moravě, who owns 79 bee colonies, confirmed.