Archive Article: 2000/11/03
• CONFIDENCE in French beef took another knock this week as daily newspaper Le Parisien claimed cows which had eaten grass contaminated with lead, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals had entered the human food chain. Many of the animals grazing the fields next to a polluted canal had died, it said, while others had changed colour.
• MEPs have thrown their weight behind commission plans for a new EU Food Safety Authority, voting by 461 to 12 in favour of such a body. While the EFSA would not have regulatory powers, it would play a key role in assessing food risks and giving scientific advice. The MEPs stressed the need for transparency and called for the Rapid Alert System for dealing with human food emergencies to be extended to animal feed.
• RURAL development plans for three more countries hoping to join the EU – Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia – have been approved by Brussels under the commissions SAPARD programme. The money is intended to modernise the countries agriculture and create alternative employment. The latest approvals mean that only Romania is now without a plan. Up to k520m (£300m) a year is available for all 10 candidate countries. *