Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: food.gov.uk

Stories and comments across the archive that link to food.gov.uk.

Comments · 17

  1. Re:Well, if coffee needs a cancer warning... by Bryansix · · Score: 1 · on Coffee Requires Cancer Warning, California Judge Rules (cnbc.com)

    This is why people are encouraged to toast bread as lightly as possible. https://www.food.gov.uk/news-u...

  2. Re:For fuck sakes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Diet Sodas May Be Tied To Stroke, Dementia Risk (cnn.com)

    >

    If you want to know the risks of aspartame (spoiler alert: there are none unless you've been diagnosed with phenylketonuria), consult legitimate scientific bodies, like the NHS or Health Canada.

    Links supporting that statement: Health Canada, UK NHS or UK Food Standards Agency, FDA.

  3. Aspartame got an unfair bad reputation by iONiUM · · Score: 5, Informative · on Pepsi To Stop Using Aspartame

    There are two major reasons why people incorrectly think aspartame causes cancer:

    1. In 1975 a bad study was released saying aspartame caused brain and other cancers. This study became “legend”, and is what everyone thinks about aspartame, but it is not true. There is even an article on Wikipedia specifically about this controversy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy
    2. In 1998, a hoax was released saying aspartame caused all sorts of serious diseases, and people believed it: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blasp.htm. It’s also on snopes http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

    Due to the 1975 study, studies were launched and FDA officials describing aspartame as "one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved" and its safety as "clear cut" (http://web.archive.org/web/20071214170430/www.fda.gov/fdac/features/1999/699_sugar.html)

    1. The European Food Safety Authority concluded in its 2013 re-evaluation that aspartame and its breakdown products are safe for human consumption at current levels of exposure (http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/3496.htm)
    2. As do other independent studies (http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408440701516184)
    3. The national cancer institute has cleared aspartame as having no links to cancer (http://web.archive.org/web/20090212130028/http://cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/AspartameQandA)

    There are many more scientific studies on it by national governments showing it’s safe as well:

  4. Re:illegal taxi:$100 Obstruction of justice: jail by JonathanR · · Score: 1 · on Uber Suspends Australian Transport Inspector Accounts To Block Stings

    Oh lookee! Someone didn't even do some basic research before making his unfounded assertions.

    http://www.food.gov.uk/busines...

    "You must register your premises with the environmental health service at your local authority at least 28 days before opening – registration is free."

    And:

    https://www.gov.uk/food-busine...

    Contact the council to register your business if you want to carry out any ‘food operations’.

    Food operations include:

            selling food
            cooking food
            storing or handling food
            preparing food
            distributing food

  5. Re:Bare handed food handling? by xaxa · · Score: 1 · on Yelp Reviews Help NYC Health Department Find and Close Dirty Restaurants

    The rules in the UK are probably still the same, not requiring gloves.

    (Judging by the example poster the government provides: http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/... -- I don't care to find the actual regulations.)

  6. Re:The Romans found out about lead by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Insightful · on NRA Launches Pro-Lead Website

    Hell, the medical community puts mercury into injections, and expect you to inject it directly into your blood steam.

    There's no solid evidence of health risks from thiomersal. The ethylmercury it breaks down into is as different from methylmercury in its effects on the body as ethyl alcohol is from methyl alcohol. It doesn't bioaccumulate, leaving the body in about 14-18 days.

    But, that does not mean that there is anything necessarily wrong with a large piece of meat coming in contact with lead for a short while.

    Lead, on the other hand, bioaccumlates quite well. You don't want to eat much in the way of small game shot with lead. There is no safe level of lead exposure and most of it will get sacked away in your bones to be slowly released over years. (Children and pregnant women get much higher doses in the soft tissues due to the way their bones undergo remodeling.)

    Small game animals killed with shot tend to have many small fragments of lead in their tissues. The UK's Food Standards Agency advises against eating meat killed with lead shot. Eating less than half a pound of small game would increase your lead exposure by eightfold above average, and about half a pound of deer shot with led would double it. We're talking a teensy 8 oz steak here.

    With the introduction of softer, heavier alloys for non-toxic shot, there is no legitimate reason to be using lead shot other than bull-headed stubbornness or an utter disregard for anything other than your own pleasure. It's you and your family that you're poisoning after all.

  7. Some observations about Iodine by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Informative · on US Gained a Decade of Flynn-Effect IQ Points After Adding Iodine To Salt

    A lot of people in the US live in the so-called Goiter Belt, which is a band of the northernmost state (or two) of the US. Roughly speaking, the other states were once a vast inland ocean swamp, so the soil become infused with Iodine form the ocean. This gets into the water supply, with the result that Northern residents have far less Iodine in their diet than southern states.

    Another source of Iodine used to be bread - Iodine was used as a dough conditioner in bread, so a little bit got into the food chain that way. Some of the effect we're seeing might also be due to the rise of manufactured bread in the US.

    More recently, however, bread makers have started using Bromine instead of Iodine. Bromine binds to Iodine receptors so not only are we no longer getting Iodine from bread, we're less able to process the Iodine we do get.

    There's also the question of how much Iodine we need to be healthy. There's good evidence for the minimum amount to prevent disease, but that may (and for those of you in the medical community, note that I'm saying "may") be lower than the optimum amount.

    Note that doctors will tell you that 150ug is the maximum Iodine you should ever take (more would be toxic!) and yet occasionally use Iodine to enhance contrast in radiological studies, which puts as much as 20 mg in the blood stream. The RDA value is 100x less than used by doctors in some studies studies to treat disease.

    There's also disagreement as to what the minimum daily intake should be.

    We really should be studying these things. Unfortunately, a supplement that anyone could buy which will clear a patient's symptoms is incompatible with an expensive FDA-tested drug that requires office visits to administer. The medical community won't make money on supplements, so they aren't studied very well. There's enormous economic pressure against research into health (as opposed to research into disease).

  8. Re:Cool ... by wintercolby · · Score: 3, Informative · on Supreme Court Limits Patents Based On Laws of Nature

    I found this article from 1998 about Novartis and maize grown with antibiotic immunity, as well as this article on Monsanto Roundup Ready cottonseed, as well as this article on GMO safety directly from Monsanto which specifically states that they build in antibiotic resistance.

  9. Re:Inspiring and selfless by RockDoctor · · Score: 1 · on Senior Citizens Lining Up to Tackle Fukushima

    Better get your lead/tinfoil hybrid hat on just to be safe.

    Lead foil is poisonous.

    So is tin foil, probably. (UK government limit "The regulatory limit for total tin in canned products is 200 mg/kg.")

    I'd use aluminium foil. In multiple layers.

  10. Re:Sounds like by rishistar · · Score: 2 · on Activists Destroy Scientific GMO Experiment

    Odd that they don't simply spread their message by not buying these types of food.

    That is actually one of the reasons GM food isn't a big thing in the EU - there is a labelling requirement. Ironically Monsanto et al have been lobbying for this requirement to be removed (as it is in the US) strangely arguing the removal of a GM food labelling requirement would increase consumer choice!

  11. Re:so? by wall0159 · · Score: 1 · on UK's FSA Finds No Health Benefits To Organic Food

    From the actual paper about which the article was written*:
    "This review does not address contaminant content (such as herbicide, pesticide and fungicide residues) of organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs"

    To me, this seems a rather major flaw in the study, since that is such an important part organic food!

    *pdf paper can be found on this page:
    http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2009/jul/organic

  12. Re:How is it green? by Reziac · · Score: 1 · on Soy-Based Toner Cartridges?

    Well, that'll teach you :)

    Phytoestrogens are structurally similar enough to mimic animal/human hormones, which is why they're used in menopause-relief folk medicines. The reduced fertility effect has long been known in sheep, but has not yet been seriously looked at in other species (other than some studies that show a markedly reduced sperm count). However, some of us dog breeders have noticed that diets containing flaxseed reduce fertility to about 50%, vs. the species norm of ~85%, and birth defects appear that are not otherwise seen.

    The wiki has other links re fertility studies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoestrogens

    Info from various studies (PDF):
    http://cot.food.gov.uk/pdfs/phytoreport0503

    A Handy Chart -- note the extreme difference between flax, soy, and just about everything else:
    http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/phytoestrogen.php
    Consider that neither flaxseed nor soy are edible in the raw state, and whether man evolved to eat such foods...

    See also http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/phytoestrogens-hormones

  13. Re:Facts in the article is wrong by XSpud · · Score: 1 · on Former Anti-Nuclear Activist Does A 180

    It's not just Scandanavia - some sheep farms in the UK are still affected by contamination (as of 2006):

    http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2006/apr/chernobyl
    http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/Chernobyluk06.pdf

  14. Re:Makes it Worse! by Dusty · · Score: 1 · on Bayer Petitions For Approval of Biotech Rice

    Food containing GM products must be labelled as such in Europe:-

    GM Labelling

    It's possible that import restrictions aren't necessary, if the labels are correct. But if the consumers don't want GM food, then Bayer might find it doesn't have a market for it's rice in Europe.

  15. And from which bodypart do you speak? by jdbartlett · · Score: 1 · on GM Crops Create Herbicide-resistant "Superweed"

    What fresh GM veggies can you buy in the supermarket?

    It seems the geography presented in my comment has confused you. Notice that it is in the US I am buying GM foods. In the US, genetically modified food is widely available and accepted by consumers. Here is a list according to theFSA:
    Cantaloupe
    Radicchio
    Tomato
    Potato
    Squash
    Papaya
    Sugar beet
    Rice
    Sweetcorn

    ...ever seen vegetables that were anorganic?> Again, you are confused. Here is a Wikipedia article about Organic food and a definition of the term.

    They add one or two genes to add a particular trait like roundup resistance. That will not change ripening of the veggie... the plural of anecdote != data
    The very first FSA approved GM food was the Flavr Savr tomato in 1994. Here is how one article describes the Flavr Savr tomato:
    "Briefly, the Flavr Savr(TM) tomato is the result of the insertion of a single DNA sequence that interferes with the expression of a gene involved in fruit ripening."
    Moe here.

    The tomato was designed to last longer than regular tomatoes at room temperature. The incorrectness of your claim aside, it is entirely probable my experience shows, not that the Flavr Savr tomatoes don't last longer, but that grocers try to take too much advantage of the Flavr Savr.

  16. Re:People want to know exactly what is in their fo by Bogtha · · Score: 1 · on RFID Tags to Track Your Food

    I'll believe that when they demand proper labeling for GM contamination and other artificial ingredients.

    The EU has required that GM food be labelled as such since April 2004.

  17. Re:The alphabet according to google suggest by DeadSea · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Google Firefox Toolbar Out Of Beta

    It is also interesting to see the most popular web sites. Start by typing www. into google suggest. The top 10 are:

    1. www.yahoo.com - Search/Directory
    2. www.hotmail.com - Email
    3. www.google.com - Search
    4. www.ebay.com - Shopping
    5. www.msn.com - Portal
    6. www.aol.com - Portal
    7. www.ebay.co.uk - Shopping
    8. www.irs.gov - Government
    9. www.mapquest.com - Maps
    10. www.amazon.com - Shopping

    Typing one more letter shows you the top sites for that letter. Here is the top for each letter:

    This is some random commentary to make sure that my post has enough characters per line on average to get by the lameness filter. Just a few more words should do it. Then I will be over the limit. Maybe you would like to hear a bit about my projects: Attesoro - A internationalization editor for Java programs. Coinmill - A currency conversion website with many currencies, and features such as abilty to parse English sentences asking for currency conversion. Java Utilities - Utilities for common task in the Java programming language such as parsing CSV files and string manipulation.