Paris, France | AFP | People, it seems, have never been so afraid of their food -– and, say some experts, an obsession with healthy eating may paradoxically be endangering lives. Twenty-nine-year-old Frenchwoman Sabrina Debusquat recounts how, over 18 months, she became a vegetarian, then a vegan — eschewing eggs, dairy …
Read More »Zimbabwe can feed itself again, Mugabe claims
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe produced enough food to feed its people for the first time since adopting a controversial policy to strip land from white farmers, President Robert Mugabe told parliament on Tuesday. From the year 2000, hundreds of white farmers were evicted from their farms, often violently, …
Read More »Belgium to seek compensation in tainted-eggs scandal
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The Belgian government said Wednesday that it would take legal action to obtain compensation for businesses that lost money over insecticide-tainted eggs that were shipped across the European Union and as far away as Hong Kong. The government pledged the civil action as part of several …
Read More »Dutch organic farmers feel duped in tainted eggs scandal
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Dutch farmers producing organic eggs, supposedly free from insecticides, joined a chorus of outrage Friday over the growing tainted-egg scandal, claiming they were duped by the suppliers of a reputedly natural pesticide. “Organic breeders are very depressed and feel they were fooled by the Chickfriend …
Read More »Consumers ‘left in lurch’ over Europe egg scandal
Paris, France | AFP | European consumers complained of being “left in the lurch” by food safety authorities as a scandal over insecticide-tainted eggs snowballed Friday, but said they have no intention of removing eggs from their shopping lists completely. Eggs contaminated with an insecticide called fipronil — which can be …
Read More »What we know about Europe’s contaminated eggs scare
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Europe faces a growing scandal over the contamination of millions of eggs with the insecticide fipronil, which can be potentially harmful to humans. Here is what we know about a scare which has seen eggs pulled from supermarket shelves in eight countries and involves multiple criminal …
Read More »Dutch egg probe widens to chicken meat tests
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Dutch authorities on Tuesday said they had started testing chicken meat stemming from poultry farms affected by a tainted egg scandal to determine whether it, too, was contaminated. Scientists are looking for the presence of fipronil, a substance potentially dangerous to humans, after supermarkets in …
Read More »McDonald’s to nearly double outlets in China
Beijing, China | AFP | Fast food giant McDonald’s said Tuesday it would almost double the number of restaurants in China over the next five years as it refocuses on international markets amid slowing US sales. The Illinois-based burger chain will add 2,000 stores to its current 2,500 in China and …
Read More »Sale of genetically modified salmon in Canada alarms environmentalists
Montreal, Canada | AFP |Environmentalists charged Monday that genetically modified salmon are being marketed in Canada without warning labels and called on supermarkets to withdraw them from sale. “The first genetically modified animals have arrived in the market and Canadian consumers are becoming, unwittingly, the first guinea pigs,” said Thibault …
Read More »Tainted eggs scandal spreads to Britain, France
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Britain and France said Monday that some insecticide-tainted eggs may have entered the country, as millions of chickens faced being culled in the Netherlands in a growing European contamination scandal. Belgium meanwhile vowed full transparency about why it kept the scandal secret despite originally learning in …
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