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Q&A: Carbendazim and Orange Juice

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Oranges on a tree
Oranges on a tree
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received reports that low levels of the chemical carbendazim have been found in some orange juice products that contain imported orange juice concentrates.

Carbendazim is a fungus-killing chemical used in Brazil and some other countries to preserve agricultural crops. Brazil provides about 11 percent of the orange juice in the United States market, and industry reports indicate that carbendazim is being used there because of a problem with black spot, a type of mold that grows on orange trees.

However, use of carbendazim on oranges and in orange juices is illegal in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not approved the use of carbendazim as a pesticide on oranges and it is an unlawful pesticide residue under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. [Read more…]

Transporting Salmon Without Infections or Lice

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For the past three years, scientists, engineers and operators in the farming industry have been developing the well-boat technology of the future. Here are some of the results.

In the future, aquaculture will have to adapt to stringent standards of hygiene and infection control, say researchers, so they have developed a well-boat concept packed with technology that will lead to more environmentally friendly operation and better-quality fish.

Well-boats are used to transport live fish in modern fish-farming, both out to the sea-cages and from the cages to the slaughterhouse. The problem is that at present, these boats release water from the tanks that the fish swim in as the are being carried. This means that diseases and parasites such as lice can be spread with the water, explains researcher Mats A Heide. [Read more…]

The Reportable Food Registry: A Valuable New Tool for Preventing Foodborne Illness

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When Congress created the Reportable Food Registry (RFR) in Section 1005 of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Amendments Act of 2007, FDA was given the opportunity to develop a useful addition to its armamentarium of tools and techniques to prevent foodborne illness. In the law, which became Section 417 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), Congress directed that FDA establish an electronic portal to which industry must, and public health officials may, report when there is a reasonable probability that an article of human food or animal food/feed (including pet food) will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.

Read more at Food Safety Magazine.

Benzene Contamination of Soft Drinks

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15/02/2006 – US food safety authorities have re-opened an investigation closed 15 years ago into soft drinks contaminated with cancer-causing chemical benzene, following evidence the industry has failed to sort out the problem, BeverageDaily.com can reveal.

A chemist at the Food And Drug Administration (FDA) said testing in recent weeks had revealed some soft drinks contaminated with benzene at levels above the legal limit for water set by the US and Europe.

Benzene is listed as a poisonous chemical shown to increase the risk of leukaemia and other cancers.

The FDA was originally alerted in 1990 to the problem of benzene in soft drinks triggered by the preservative sodium benzoate. It never made the findings public, but came to an arrangement with the US soft drinks association that the industry would “get the word out.

But in recent months, internal documents and private tests have begun to surface, supported by claims from a former chemist for Cadbury Schweppes, who is now keen to blow the whistle on the health risk involved. He and a US lawyer commissioned new tests that have now prompted the FDA to re-open the case. [Read more…]

Nitrofuran Analyses (FAQ)

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Nitrofurans are a class of drugs that have the ability to kill micro-organisms. The group consists of four drugs. Since 1989, nitrofurazone has been discontinued from being classified as a drug by the US Food and Drug Administration.  It has been reported that most nitrofurans are mutagenic and carcinogenic. [Read more…]

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