Maybe not surprising, but due to the current situation in Europe with the corona virus pandemic, the EWFC board in good harmony with the Italian colleagues from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry has cancelled the spring meeting in Rome that was supposed to be held coming April in Rome.

A new date will be set when the situation is under control and normalized.

Six consumer groups from the BEUC network tested 250 electrical goods, toys, cosmetics and other products bought from online marketplaces such as Amazon, AliExpress, eBay and Wish. They selected the products based on possible risks and found that 66% of them fail EU safety laws with possible consequences such as electric shock, fire or suffocation.
The products failed safety tests because of a diverse range of issues. These include smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that do not detect smoke or carbon monoxide, toys that contain chemical levels 200 times over the limit and a power bank that melts during testing. In some scenarios this could put consumers in a life-or-death situation.

Although online marketplaces often seem to take down products when informed, they too often reappear1. One of the major problems is that marketplaces do not consider themselves to be liable for the safety of products sold on their platforms and therefore do not seem to sufficiently control the trustworthiness of sellers upfront.
The tests were conducted through the International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT) network, on behalf of a consortium led by Test Achats/Test Aankoop (Belgium) and which includes Altroconsumo (Italy), Consumentenbond (Netherlands), Forbrugerrådet Tænk (Denmark), Stiftung Warentest (Germany) and Which? (United Kingdom). DECO (Portugal) and OCU (Spain) are also publishing the results.

Consumer groups in California USA file action against US Department of Agriculture for issuing New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) rules that may undermine pork-safety inspection in slaughterhouses.

Food & Water Watch (FWW), Center for Food Safety (CFS), and two supporting members filed an action against the U.S. Department of Agriculture as they strongly oppose the New Swine Inspection System that handover foodsafety control tasks to the companies that run the slaughterhouses.

EWFC member BFSO present at fair "Saveurs et Métiers" at Namur (Belgium) in collaboration with our long term partner TESTO instruments.

According to a new report published by consumer group BEUC, the number of food controls and the resources allocated to them are “dwindling” across Europe.

All EU member states are required by law to report on their inspection activities every year, but the BEUC has reported that national governments are “cutting corners” on food safety.

Phosphates are essential nutrients (a form of phosphorus), which are present naturally in the human body and are an essential part of our diet. A group of substances commonly referred to as “phosphates” are authorised as food additives in the European Union.
They are added to a wide range of foods for “technological” functions and appear on labels as "emulsifiers", "antioxidants".
Some of them can and may be used in foods for infants and young children.

First ‘combined’ safe intake for phosphates

a spokesperson said: “The panel has re-assessed the safety of phosphates and derived, for the first time, a group acceptable daily intake [ADI] of 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight [mg/kg bw] per day. “Because phosphates are also nutrients and essential to our diets, in our approach we defined an ADI which considers the likely phosphorus intake from various sources, including natural sources and food additives.”
The ADI corresponds to an intake of 2.8 grams of phosphorus per day for an average adult weighing 70kg.
EFSA stated further: “Importantly, the ADI does not apply to people with moderate to severe reduction in kidney function, which is considered a vulnerable population group. This conclusion is based on the recognised effect of high phosphate intake on the kidney.”