Food and Environment

By Maria Prihtamala Omega Back in 2012, Canada produced around 20.6 million turkeys for consumption. Therefore, the business of this lean meat is important until now. But unfortunately, there are currently Avian Influenza (AI) outbreaks in British Columbia (BC), Canada. There have been ten turkey farms in Chilliwack, BC infected by Avian Influenza (possibly H5N2, H5N8 or H7N3  types). So, the turkey meats are ultimately contaminated by this virus and have been rejected by some importer countries such as Taiwan, China and others. However, CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and/or BC Agriculture closed the possible suspects of contaminated turkey farms immediately, to reduce the AI spread and infections. This is important because turkey meat is a lean healthy one and protein source for human and dog/pet consumption. On the other hand, other turkey farms, apart from BC, are not contaminated such as from Alberta or Manitoba Canada and the U.S. In terms of, the food safety orig...

1          Summery Genetically modified (GM) foods are any foods obtained from plants, animals or microorganisms in which original genetic makeup is deliberately changed by using recombinant DNA technology with one or more altered characteristics. GM foods are matter of significant public controversy in many countries of the world. Many public healths related and environment related issues have been raised against the GM foods. Significant trade dispute have been experienced among different countries regarding export and import of these products. Attitudes of peoples and authorities of different countries vary regarding GM foods and their effects on health and environment. This article will try to discuss the issues raised against GM foods and reality behind those issues. Public attitudes and technical scientific knowledge about GM foods will also be discussed briefly.   Safety and regulation of GM foods will also be reviewed bri...

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Safety of meat sold and consumed in Nepal is a major concern since long and debate about the legislation and its enforcement to assure safe meat to public has been continuing for more than a decade. Recent incidence about import of frozen chicken by International food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) from India once again makes meat safety the issue of widespread public and media interest. Government has suspended the suspected officials and started the investigation. This is out of scope for this article but issues about meat safety and enforcement of legislation has been discussed here.  

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai 1          Introduction   Being member of different international organizations, Nepal has many food safety related obligations to comply with rules and regulations of those organizations. Food safety related issues started to become matter of increased concern and one of the priority areas of the government after the country has become member of the world trade organization (WTO) in 2004. Being a developing country, food chains are generally long in developing countries like Nepal as compared to those in developed countries due to poor infrastructure which makes the food more vulnerable to be contaminated with harmful agents (microorganism and chemicals). In addition, infrastructures related to technical regulation, conformity assessment and safety of food are still in developing phase which requires more focus and investment for better functioning. Similarly, Inspections and regulation of food relate...