Welcome to the July edition of AFICNews.

Most common food safety topic in the daily press is foodborne illness. Press reporting of foodborne illness is characterized by strong focus on news of mass food-poisoning incidents, and little advice or information on what consumers can do to prevent it. Other topics to attract strong interest during the period were Indian approval for commercial cultivation of Bt cotton  implementation of amended Chinese biosafety and labelling regulations for biotechnololgy foods revelations in Japan of mislabelling of foods in the wake of confirmed BSE in cattle, and government proposals to strengthen monitoring and control procedures; EU authorities temporary import ban of chicken and seafood products from China and SE Asia, in response to concerns over veterinary drug residues.

NUTRITION TOPICS

Most common nutrition topic in the daily press is advice and commentary on optimal diet and lifestyles to protect against chronic diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke.  Weight management which is closely associated with many of these chronic diseases is also a topic of great public interest with many features on both the risks of overweight and obesity and the strategies and benefits associated with effective weight management. Many of the reports on children’s health and diet also include a strong focus on weight management, along with interest in allergy, asthma and diets to maximise intellectual social and physical development. Public interest in functional foods remains steady but strong with features divided between traditional Asian healing foods, and the latest research and development from the west on non-essential bioactive ingredients that seem to confer some health benefits such as protection against disease or enhanced feelings of wellbeing.