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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Role of government in food supply.

Food is a primary necessity of life and worldwide governments have a substantial influence on the foods offered for human consumption. Principal movement is concerned with supply of foods through assistance to farmers in general aiming to maintain a fair standard of return for those involved in agriculture. Further involvement relates to quality of foods (microbiological safety) and with consumer protection against unfair trading practice. Government economic policies influence demand for foods whilst educational strategies can stimulate particular food choices. Present nutritional ideas recommend changes to diet as part of programmes designated to reduce incidence of conditions such as coronary heart disease. It is a government responsibility to provide clear information on foods and nutrition. Rational government involvement can lead to better nutrition for the population whilst stimulating an efficient agricultural industry.

Food Supply↗

How vulnerable is the nation's food supply? Linking food safety and food security.

This paper reviews the food safety regulatory apparatus in place today. It examines the system's strengths and vulnerabilities, particularly in light of the post-September 11 environment that includes the added threat of terrorism. The paper touches upon legislative and budgetary proposals aimed at improving food security, including the growing but debated interest in a single food safety agency.

Consumer Product Safety↗

The impact of food regulation on the food supply chain.

Food regulation in the main is aimed at protecting the consumer's health, increasing economic viability, harmonizing well-being and engendering fair trade on foods within and between nations. Consumers nowadays are faced with food or food ingredients that may derive from distant countries or continents, and with a less transparent food supply. Safety concerns must cover the range of different food chains relevant to a certain food product or product group, including all relevant producers, manufacturing sites and food service establishments within a country as well as those importing into the country. Hazard analysis at critical control points (HACCP), good manufacturing practice (GMP) and good hygiene practice (GHP) are major components of the safety management systems in the food supply chain. Principally, "a hazard" is a biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food that has the potential to cause an adverse health effect. The likelihood of occurrence and severity of the same is important for the assessment of the risk presented by the hazard to the food supply chain. The Government's regulatory mechanisms in accordance with the WTO agreements (HACCPs, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, etc.) oversee the analyses of public health problems and their association to the food supply. Under the WTO SPS Agreements and the codes of practices issued by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, there now exists a benchmark for international harmonization that guarantee the trade of safe food. Inevitably, food safety is still mainly the responsibility of the consumer.

Consumer Product Safety↗

Agencies team up to protect food supply.

The Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have launched a new joint effort to protect the nation's food supply. Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in December 2003, thousands of Customs agents are now authorized to inspect food imported into the United States.

Bioterrorism↗

Adjusting energy expenditures to energy supply: food availability regulates torpor use and organ size in the Chilean mouse-opossum Thylamys elegans.

We studied how food abundance and consumption regulates torpor use and internal organ size in the Chilean mouse-opossum Thylamys elegans (Dielphidae), a small nocturnal marsupial, endemic in southern South America. We predicted that exposure to food rations at or above the minimum energy levels necessary for maintenance would not lead to any signs of torpor, while reducing food supply to energy levels below maintenance would lead to marked increases in frequency, duration and depth of torpor bouts. We also analyzed the relationship between food availability and internal organ mass. We predicted a positive relationship between food availability and internal organ size once the effect of body size is removed. Animals were randomly assigned to one of two groups and fed either 70, 100 or 130% of their daily energy requirement (DER). We found a positive and significant correlation between %DER and body temperature, and also between %DER and minimum body temperature. In contrast, for torpor frequency, duration and depth, we found a significant negative correlation with %DER. Finally, we found a significant positive correlation between the %DER and small intestine and ceacum dry mass. We demonstrate that when food availability is limited, T. elegans has the capacity to reduce their maintenance cost by two different mechanisms, that is, increasing the use of torpor and reducing organ mass.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

A safer food supply.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Food Contamination↗

Core foods of the US food supply.

The core food dietary intake/exposure model may be used to assess the average intake of nutrients, contaminants and other food components by a population group and various subgroups of the population. The core food model is a mechanism that allows for the selection of the most important foods in a population's food supply so that these foods can be obtained and analysed in the laboratory. The core foods for a population change over time as food consumption patterns are altered by changes in the food supply and/or changes in the demographics of the population. Core foods of the US diet were selected using food consumption data from the 1994-96 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Continuing Survey of the Food Intake of Individuals (CSFII). The 304 core foods were identified by placing the 5722 foods consumed by survey participants into about 300 groups. The groupings were based on food type, food use and similarity of nutrient composition. The foods within each grouping were ranked in terms of frequency of use and weight of intake, and one food item within each group was selected to become a core food and represent its group. In the model, each core food assumes the full dietary intake (by weight) for all the foods in its group. Daily mean intakes of the 304 selected core foods are presented for women and men of 19-30 years of age. If the food components of interest to investigators using this model are found in selected foods or food types, then only these foods need be analysed. The list of 304 core foods may be shortened by further aggregation to match the needs of different investigators. For example, limited data on food composition may warrant use of a shorter core food list. A shortened food list with average daily intakes of 78 core foods for women and men of 19-30 years of age is provided as an example.

Adult↗