Trying to restore food confidence

OXFORD - Europe intends to tighten up its oversight of food safety but looks like it will demur from creating an FDA clone. The European Commission last week unveiled its White Paper of Food Safety, setting out plans for what it described as a radical three-year farm-to-table legislative program as well as the establishment of new European Food Authority.

David Byrne, EU commissioner for health and consumer protection, noted that European public confidence in food safety had been dented by dioxins in food, sewage in animal feeds and the BSE crisis, although he did not bring up the GMO foods controversy. "The EU needs to re-establish public confidence in the food supply, its food science, its food law and its food controls," he said...