Summary of newspapers of the previous day – 30. 10. 2008

State will buy out cereals

Prices of basic cereals fall on, they are lower than two years ago. A financial crisis, a fall of prices of rock-oil and other commodities and good crop. That all subscribed to a steep fall of cereal prices in the whole world, including the Czech Republic. This happened despite the fact that world reserves, which determine in a measure the price on the commodity exchange, haven´t increased too much. However, Czech crop was year-on-year one of the highest in Europe – by eighteen percents. Prices of basic kinds of cereals in the CR have already fallen at a level of 2006 when there was excess-crop in the whole Europe.

There is little amount of coal. Will heat be luxury?

If Plzeňská teplárenská had to heat more than 40 thousands households in all ten town districts by gas instead of brown coal, prices would climb as much as to triple of the present payments. The catastrophic scenario, to which moreover a contract of the heat station with a supplier of brown coal terminating at the end of next year plays up, is not on the order of the day, fortunately. “Meanwhile Plzeňská teplárenská has reserves of brown coal; prices will be kept at an acceptable level. We only reckoned how the situation would look like if we had to switch to other resource. Actually, we rataplaned to the government and the Parliament so that they would start to solve the present situation with dispatch”, a general director Tomáš Drápela says.

Changes in food hygiene regulations

Regulations 1019/2008/ES, 1020/2008/ES and 1021/2008/ES have been issued. They change the regulations 852/2004/ES and 853/2004/ES about food hygiene. One of the changes is connected with a possibility to use in wider extent “clear water”, even also sea one for rinsing and cooling of fishery products. A definition of clear sea water is defined in the regulation 852/2004/ES. Use of sea water is interesting from a technology point of view because it contributes to maintenance of organoleptic properties of these products removing risk of osmotic shock.

Egg consumption in EU

Eggs are estimated as tasteful, quality and budget-priced food apart from whether we consume them cooked for breakfast, fried as a small snack, or whether we use them as an ingredient in cooking. The average egg consumption in the EU was reckoned by the Head Office for Market and Price News Service in Bonn (ZMP - Zentrale Markt- und Preisberichtstelle GmbH) to 13,6 kilogram per head in 2007, a press agency Landvolk reported. However, popularity of eggs in particular EU member states is very different. The highest consumption was registered in Spain and in Hung ary last year; every inhabitant of these countries consumed at average almost 18 kg of egg matter.