Food Matters
Acrylamide and food
Acrylamide has been found in starch-containing foods cooked at high temperatures, such as fried or roasted potato products and bread. [ more .. ]
Additives
Food additives play an important part in our food supply ensuring that our food is safe and meets the needs of consumers. If you want to know more about a particular food additive look at the ingredient list on the food label where you will find the food additive's name, function and number. Food Additives list is an easy to use consumer guide to the additives in our food today.[ more.. ]
Caffeine
Caffeine is naturally occuring in tea, coffee and chocolate [ more.. ]
Dioxins in food
Australian food generally has very low levels of dioxins. Levels of dioxins in Australian foods are similar to those found in New Zealand foods and lower than levels found in foods from other industrialised parts of the world. [ more… ]
Food Allergies
Foods, food ingredients or components of an ingredient that can cause severe adverse reactions in some individuals - such as peanuts and other nuts, seafood, fish, milk, gluten, eggs and soybeans [ more.. ]
Food intolerances
Adverse reactions to foods occur in a small proportion of the population. These reactions are not the same as allergies but may include: [ click here for more information ]
Irradiation is a food preservation process and a quarantine measure. Food is irradiated to destroy bacteria that cause food decomposition and food poisoning. Food can only be irradiated if there is no other safe method available. [ more.. ]
Food Labelling
Food labels are a wealth of information and we all use them at some time or other. Yet do we know exactly what they mean? There have been some changes to labels recently as the Australian and New Zealand Health Ministers decided in November 2000 that labels on most packaged food would be improved. [ more.. ]
Food Recalls
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) coordinates food recalls in Australia - but not in New Zealand. Recalls occur in consultation with the senior food officers or their deputies in the States and Territories, and a sponsor which is usually the product' s supplier, for example, the manufacturer or the importer.
A food recall is defined as - action taken to remove from sale, distribution and consumption foods which may pose an unacceptable safety risk to consumers'. Recalls can be conducted at the trade or consumer level. [ more.. ]
Fortification of food with vitamins and minerals
Fortification refers to the addition of vitamins and minerals to foods. The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code states that a vitamin or mineral must not be added to food unless the addition of that vitamin or mineral is specifically permitted in the Code. [ more..]
Genetically Modified or GM Foods
Genetically modified foods ( GM foods) come from crops and other food sources that have been modified using gene technology. This technology allows food producers to alter more precisely certain characteristics of a food crop by introducing genes from another source. An example of this is a corn plant with a gene that makes it resistant to insect attack [ more.. ]
Healthy Eating
Good health is not only dependent on a healthy diet, physical activity is very important too. [ more ]
Health, Nutrition and related claims
At present, nutrient content claims are allowed (eg‘ this food is high in fibre’), as are some health maintenance claims (eg ‘calcium is important for healthy bones and teeth’). However, there is a prohibition on all other types of claims, with the exception of claims about the benefit of maternal consumption of folate , to prevent neural tube defects in developing foetuses. [ more...]
Listeria
Listeria is not a new disease but it' s only over the last ten years that it's been widely recognised that the bacteria can be transmitted through food. While listeria infection is uncommon and causes few or no symptoms in healthy people, it can be very dangerous. [ more..]
Mercury in Fish
FSANZ has released updated advice on mercury in fish. The revised advice has been extended to provide not just advice for pregnant women, and women considering pregnancy, but also for young children and the general population. [ more... ]
Nanotechnology
While there is no internationally agreed definition for ‘nanotechnology’, the term is usually applied to the process of controlling the size and shape of materials at the atomic and molecular scale. Generally, the term applies to deliberately engineered matter less than 100 nanometres (nm) in size in one dimension. At this size, particles are much smaller than human cells and even bacteria and viruses. [ more ]
Novel foods
Novel foods are those new foods or food ingredients which have not been traditionally used in Australia or New Zealand and for which there is considered to be insufficient knowledge in the community to ensure safe use. [ more.. ]
Pregnancy and food
For the health of you and your baby during pregnancy, it is important that you select a nutritious diet from a wide variety of food such as vegetables, fruit, dairy foods, bread, cereals, pasta, lean meat, fish, eggs and nuts.[ more...]