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I’ve gotten way behind on posting reports, so I thought I’d take care of several today.  These international reports on one or another aspect of food systems are all worth a read.

The UK Food Resilience report: Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap

This is Tim Lang’s masterful analysis of what the UK needs to bounce back after interruptions to its food supply.  The UK currently depends on emergency services from police, ambulance, firefighters, and rescue services, but these “have next to no engagement on food matters.” The report considers who and what is needed to make sure populations have enough to eat during crises of one kind or another.  There is much useful to be learned here.

The U.K.’s food strategy (Thanks to Lindsay Graham for this one)

This document sets out the context and key challenges facing the food system, a high-level vision of what the UK food system of the future looks like, its approach to a patriotic campaign to realise that vision, what will make the vision a reality, and the next steps that need to be taken.

Health & Global Food Systems: An Investor’s Guide (Thanks to Carlos Monteiro for sending)

The Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group — the world’s seventh-largest bank with US$2.8 trillion in assets — explains in detail why ultra-processed foods pose major risks to food sector investors, and urges them to push companies to cut reliance on these products.

IFPRI’s 2025 Global Food Policy Report | Food Policy: Lessons and Priorities for a Changing World

This report examines the evolution and impact of food policy research and assesses how it can do better. Written by IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute), it explores a broad range of issues and research related to food systems, from tenure and agriculture extension to social protection, gender, and nutrition to conflict, political economy, and agricultural innovation, and more.  A textbook!

That’s enough for today.  More to come!

I could hardly believe it when I saw this item: Taiwan state distillery taps food market with alcohol-based instant noodles.   Taiwan’s state distillery has diversified into the food industry with alcohol-based instant noodles, blending beverage expertise with ready-to-eat innovation… Read more

The Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation (TTL)’s

most well-known products are Taiwan Beer which is considered an icon in Taiwanese culture and also the most popular beer locally; as well as traditional Chinese Hua Tiao wine.

The latter has been used in TTL’s instant noodle innovation to create its viral TTL Hua Tiao Chicken Noodles, which incorporate not only significant Hua Tiao wine content but also Chinese herbs and meat chunks.

“These are not your average instant noodles – Hua Tiao wine elevates the noodles to another level, as it is traditionally known for its antioxidant content as well as benefits for digestion and blood circulation….”We already have the alcohol in production, and we are indeed well-known for our liquors, so it made a lot of sense to us.”

I’ll bet.

I suppose young people will have to be carded to be allowed to eat it.  Whatever.  You can’t make this stuff up!

Forthcoming November 11, 2025

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The safety of pet food matters because we have one and only one food supply.  If pet food is unsafe, our safety is at risk.

You don’t believe me?  Try this: Darwin’s raw pet food linked to human case of E. coli O157:H7 in four-year-old child

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising the public not to feed certain lots of Darwin’s Natural Pet Products raw food to their pets after a four-year-old child became ill with E. coli O157:H7…The child was hospitalized, and developed a severe case of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), requiring dialysis. He spent a total of six weeks in hospital and is at risk of permanent injury to his kidneys.

The world of people who care about this sort of thing and demand that authorities do something about it is a small one.  I learned about this from Phyllis Entis, author of  TAINTED. From Farm Gate to Dinner Plate, Fifty Years of Food Safety Failures and TOXIC. From Factory to Food Bowl, Pet Food Is a Risky Business.

She learned about it from food safety advocate Bill Marler.  As the food alert explains,

The contamination came to light after food-safety attorney, William Marler, initiated third-party testing of an previously unopened package of BioLogics All-Natural and Grain Free, Beef Recipe for Dogs found E. coli O157:H7 in the raw, frozen product. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) confirmed that the strain found in the pet food was a match for the strain recovered from the child…when Marler reviewed the files once more, he noted that the family had a dog, and…learned that the dog exclusively ate Darwin’s pet food, and had begun vomiting one day before the child fell ill…Marler arranged for an accredited third-party laboratory to test the sealed packages of food that were still in the family’s freezer.

Marler has plenty of work to do.  He now asks: After Listeria, Salmonella and E. coli positive samples, and HUS in a child, why no mandatory recall by the FDA?

In less than one year Darwin’s Natural Pet Products have been found to be contaminated with Listeria, Salmonella (three times) and E. coli O157:H7.  This year Dawin’s pet food has been epidemiologically and genetically linked to kidney failure in a young child in Utah.

Yet, although Darwin’s has refused voluntary recalls in both instances, the question must be asked, why has the FDA not used its mandatory recall authority?

Comment: It’s great that Bill Marler took lthis on but shouldn’t this be the FDA’s responsibility?  Producers are supposed to produce foods safely—by law.  The FDA is responsible for making sure they do.  Its responsibilities apply to pet foods and well as human foods.  Raw pet food is uncooked and potentially risky; it requires vigilant attention to prevention controls.  This line of pet foods is not getting needed attention to food safety.  The FDA should be enforcing food safety rules, vigilantly, and yes for pet foods too.  What happened to this child and his family was entirely preventable.

Note to dog lovers: if you feed your pet raw food, you are taking a risk, and not only to your animal.

Forthcoming November 11, 2025

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One of the underfunded and understaffed FDA’s major responsibility is to ensure the safety of the food supply.  Here’ are the actions the Trump Administration’s FDA is announcing lately.

I.  RUF Releases Produce Safety Roadmap: A Call for Action

The Reagan-Udall Foundation (RUF) for the FDA released its Roadmap to Produce Safety: Summary Report of the Produce Safety Dialogue…the report makes two primary recommendations:

• Implement a shared responsibility approach

• Form a structured, stakeholder-led collaboration

In line with the RUF recommendation, the FDA is calling on growers, buyers, sellers, and federal and state regulators to form a sustainably funded stakeholder collaboration that includes academia and consumer advocates and actively improves conditions and practices to reduce contamination and prevent foodborne illness.

Comment: The RUF is an independent group created by Congress to support the FDA.  Produce safety is a huge issue for the FDA, complicated because oversight is split between it and the USDA.  Produce becomes unsafe when it is exposed to pathogenic organisms spread by animal waste.  Yes, everyone involved in the food chain shares responsibility for safety.  By law, everyone who produces food is supposed to do it safely.  In practice, everyone points fingers at everyone else.  Collaboration would be nice.  But calling for enforcement of existing laws makes more sense.

II.  FDA Releases 2025 Human Foods Program Guidance Agenda

The FDA’s Human Foods Program published their proposed 2025 guidance agenda…These topics are a priority for the agency’s Human Foods Program to complete during 2025. New topics include:

• Action Level for Opiate Alkaloids on Poppy Seeds: Draft Guidance for Industry
• Food Colors Derived from Natural Sources: Fruit Juice and Vegetable Juice as Color Additives in Food; Draft Guidance for Industry
• New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) Notifications and Related Issues: Identity and Safety Information About the NDI: Guidance for Industry

Other guidance documents

• Fact Sheet: FDA Good Guidance Practices
• Human Foods Program Regulations Under Development | FDA
• FDA Guidance Documents
• What Does FDA Regulate

Comment:  The list of items under regulatory development is long and involves this one among many others: Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food Proposed Rule.  I think preventive controls are extremely important in ensuring food safety.  I looked up this one.  It’s written in FDA-speak:

This proposed rule would remove certain requirements that currently apply when a manufacturer/processor of human food has identified a hazard that requires a preventive control, but does not control that hazard. Although that manufacturer/processor would still be required to provide documentation that the food has not been processed to control the identified hazard, that manufacturer/processor would no longer be required to obtain written assurance from the commercial customer that the identified hazard will be controlled.

Jellyfish supplements are a new one to me.  Here’s study claiming that they improve cognitive function and memory.  If only it were that easy.

The study: Neil E. Wolkodoff, Gerald M. Haase, Joyce A. Curry, (2025), Effects of a Jellyfish Collagen-Based Amino Acid Supplement on Cognitive Function and Memory: A Pilot Investigation, J Clinical Research and Reports, 19(5); DOI:10.31579/2690-1919/532

Purpose: The goal of the current study was to evaluate the effects of oral consumption of an encapsulated powder form of a proprietary jellyfish extract on global cognitive parameters during an eight-week open-label trial in middle-aged and older adults.

Method: The study consisted of supplement consumption twice daily for eight weeks with an at-home, computer-based standard cognitive battery completed at pre-study baseline and at the end of the trial.

Results: EEG total reaction times…decreased by 130 milliseconds and combined trail-making scores demonstrated a reduction of test time by 12 seconds. Both were statistically significant…over half the individuals throughout the study period voluntarily reported positive outcomes, especially related to alertness, energy, focus, and sleep/dream patterns.

Conclusions: This pilot investigation showed that taking a proprietary oral jellyfish collagen supplement may offer meaningful benefits for overall cognitive function and brain activity.  The supplement, derived from marine invertebrate collagen, appears to be a promising way to support brain health in healthy middle-aged and older adults.

Comment: This is one of those studies that immediately raises the question: “Who paid for this?”

The funder: The supporting entity, Certified Nutraceuticals, Inc., had no role in study design or execution, data collection or analysis, or manuscript preparation. CN did provide product and testing support for the study.

To this, I say, that’s what they all say.  Sometime it’s actually true, but mostly it’s not.  Funding influences.  And not always in your best interest.

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I made a mistake and did not get this one scheduled correctly.  I’m trying again to get it posted (sigh, my error).

The USDA’s Economic Research Service (what’s left of it) has released its annual report on food assistance, which cost $142 billion in 2024 for all of the 16 programs.

This is a decrease from the $168 billion spent in 2023.

Food assistance accounts for two-thirds of USDA’s budget.

SNAP accounts for 70% of USDA’s food assistance budget.  Its 14% (inflation-adjusted) decline from 2023 “was larger than for any other year on record.”  And that’s before this year’s proposed cuts.

SNAP participation and costs track closely with poverty and food insecurity; when they go up, SNAP goes up.

Comment: The best way to cut SNAP?  Cut poverty.

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Forthcoming November 11, 2025: What To Eat Now

An as yet unpublished evaluation of how well American diets adhere to the dietary guidelines comes to an alarming conclusion: 86.3% are of poor quality.  The study comes from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of California San Francisco, and Nourish Science.

The study: Understanding Sociodemographic and Dietary Determinants of Cardiometabolic Risk: Cross-Sectional Evidence from the U.S. Healthy Eating Index to Inform Diet Quality Categories.

Methods: The authors used dietary recall data from the 2009-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) and compared participants’ dietary intakes to the Healthy Eating Index.

Results: Compared to adults with high diet quality, those with very low diet quality consumed:

• Less unprocessed or minimally processed foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and seafood
• More ultra-processed foods, refined grains, and red and processed meats

They also were more likely to be overweight, have lower HDL cholesterol, but higher triglycerides, fasting glucose, and hemoglobin A1c (a marker of type-2 diabetes).

The authors explain their study in an Infographic and a YouTube video.

NHANES collects dietary intake information from representative population samples by interview.

The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) was developed in 1995 as a tool to measure adherence to recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  It is calculated on the basis of foods consumed and calories, sodium, saturated fats, and total fats.

The results of this study lead to obvious policy recommendations for healthier eating:

• More unprocessed or minimally processed foods, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and seafood
• Less ultra-processed foods, refined grains, and red and processed meats

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Forthcoming November 11, 2025: What To Eat Now

The FDA announced that it is revoking 52 obsolete standards of identity for food products.  It said it is doing this as part of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda.

“I’m eliminating outdated food regulations that no longer serve the interests of American families,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Today marks a crucial step in my drive to cut through bureaucratic red tape, increase transparency and remove regulations that have outlived their purpose.”

Two readers, Sharon Sass and Ashley Schuering, wrote to ask me to comment on this move.

For starters, the purpose of the Standards of Identity for Food (SOI) is to ensure that a product contains what is expected.  The SOI states what a food must contain, what is optional, and, sometimes. the amount or proportion of ingredient, and the method of production or formulation.

Current SOIs are at 21 C.F.R. Chapter 1, Subchapter B, Parts 131-169.

The easiest example is infant formula.  The SOI states the amounts of each nutrient that must or can be in the formula.  Infants depend entirely on those nutrients.  The SOI makes sense.  The FDA is not touching it at the moment.

It is more difficult to make sense of the SOI for fruit preserves and jams.  One of the rules reads like this:

Any combination of apple and one, two, three, or four of such fruits in which the weight of each is not less than one-fifth and the weight of apple is not more than one-half of the weight of the combination; except that the weight of pineapple may be not less than one-tenth of the weight of the combination.

The SOI also specifies the use of these ingredients:

(1) Nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners.

(2) Spice.

(3) Acidifying agents.

(4) Pectin, in a quantity which reasonably compensates for deficiency, if any, of the natural pectin content of the fruit ingredient.

(5) Buffering agents.

(6) Preservatives.

(7) Antifoaming agents, except those derived from animal fat.

This, it seems to me, could use some updating.

A law firm, Morrison Foerster, has a succinct summary of the relevant regulatory history.

FDA recognized the need to modernize its SOIs dating back to 1995. In 2005, FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a proposed rule in an effort to initiate the process of modernizing SOIs. Then, in 2018, as part of the agency’s Nutrition Innovation Strategy, FDA sought to restart its efforts to modernize its aging SOIs. At a public meeting the following year, stakeholders expressed broad support for FDA’s and USDA’s efforts to finalize the 2005 proposed rule and called for a reopening of the comment period for the 2005 proposed rule to collect information on manufacturing, food technology, market trends, and nutrition science. FDA and USDA ultimately reopened the comment period in 2020. Based on the comments received, the agencies withdrew the 2005 proposed rule to “reconsider how best to approach general principles and food standards modernization

Here is the List of Standards Affected by FDA’s First Set of Food Standard Revocation Rulemakings

Comment

I don’t think this makes any difference.  The revocations will give food companies more flexibility in what they put into the listed products, but they will have to disclose the contents of their products on the food label.  Even if they remove real ingredients and substitute additives, they will have to say what is in the products.  The moral: read food labels!

The FDA’s Actions

• A direct final rule revoking standards for 11 types of canned fruits and vegetables that are no longer sold in U.S. grocery stores, including seven standards for fruits artificially sweetened with saccharin or sodium saccharin (and a companion proposed rule in case it needs to adjust this).
• A proposed rule to revoke standards for 18 types of dairy products.
• A proposed rule to revoke standards for 23 types of food products.

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Forthcoming November 11, 2025: What To Eat Now