The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Medicines Agency  (EMEA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control are concerned about the impact of use of antibiotics on the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A new report from the three agencies presents new data on antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance and reflects improved surveillance across Europe.
Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “To contain antibiotic resistance we need to fight on three fronts at the same time: human, animal and the environment. This is exactly what we are trying to achieve in the EU and globally with our recently launched EU Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance.
“This new report confirms the link between antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance in both humans and food-producing animals.”
The Joint Interagency Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance Analysis (JIACRA) report highlights that there are still important differences across the EU in the use of antibiotics in animals and humans. Reducing their unnecessary use will have an impact on the occurrence of resistance.
Overall antibiotic use is higher in food-producing animals than in humans, but the situation varies across countries and according to the antibiotics.
In particular, a class of antibiotics called polymyxins – which includes colistin – is used widely in the veterinary sector. It is also increasingly used in hospitals to treat multidrug-resistant infections.
Other antibiotics are more often used in humans than in animals. These include third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins and quinolones, antibiotics that are also considered critically important for human health.
The report notes that resistance to quinolones, used to treat salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis in humans, is associated with use of antibiotics in animals. The use of third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins for the treatment of infections caused by E. coli and other bacteria in humans is associated with resistance to these antibiotics in E. coli found in humans.

European Food Safety Authorityhttp://tinyurl.com/ydhfkh85

With one in four global consumers increasing their consumption of confectionery over the past year because there is more variety & novelty available, the food industry is responding. New data from Innova Market Insights finds a 15 percent average annual growth in global confectionery launches with a “discovery” claim (CAGR 2013-2017). Consumer curiosity to discover something new and different is leading to more unusual and often bolder flavours and blends, surprise textures and a greater focus on visual appeal in the sweets and snacks arena. Heightened sensory delivery is also being increasingly combined with an element of the unexpected. As such, we are seeing activity in areas such as unusual colours, popping candy, hot & spicy options, cooling effects and more interactive, personalized packaging.

A study conducted by researchers in California and France has found that meat protein is associated with a sharp increased risk of heart disease while protein from nuts and seeds is beneficial for the human heart.

Like fine wines, sea salts are artisanal products that inspire talk of terroir, texture and provenance. Now there’s evidence that they can also be sources of spoilage moulds.
New research from Cornell mycologist Kathie Hodge and doctoral candidate Megan Biango-Daniels reveals varying levels of mould contamination in commercial sea salts. Among those moulds were important food spoilage moulds like Aspergillus and Penicillium, and even some notorious producers of mycotoxins.
“This new finding contradicts the conventional wisdom that salts are sterile ingredients,” said Biango-Daniels. The research stressed the importance of understanding the risk of using sea salt during food production.
Starting with seven different commercial salts, the researchers extracted living fungi and grew them in the lab for identification. The fungi discovered in the salt have potential to spoil food when used as an ingredient and can introduce mycotoxins or allergens when consumed.
At the levels discovered in the study, about 1.7 spores per gram, you’re not risking your health by sprinkling sea salt on food you are about to eat. But big problems may result when sea salts are used at home or industrially to make cured meats, fermented pickles or brined cheeses that mature over time, when moulds introduced with sea salt can begin to grow and spoil food, maybe even rendering it toxic.
“Fungi can survive in surprisingly hostile places. They can’t increase or grow in a container of sea salt – nothing can – but spores of some fungi survive quite happily there. Later they can wake up and make trouble in our food,” said Hodge, associate professor in the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Cornell Universityhttp://tinyurl.com/ydc7abxq