Congress on Food Fraud The 2013 horse meat scandal has put the issue of food fraud under the spotlight. The revision of the EU control regulations, adopted in March 2017, now places more emphasis on the control of fraudulent practices.
DG Trade and DG JRC have just published an analysis of female jobs associated to EU exports. The note reveals that while exports provide important employment opportunities for women across the EU (almost 12 million jobs in 2011) a gender gap to the disadv European Commission services in charge of Trade policy together with the Joint Research Centre have just published an analysis of female jobs associated to EU exports. The note reveals that while exports provide important employment opportunities for women across the EU (amounting to a total of almost 12 million jobs in 2011) a gender gap to the disadvantage of women persists.
Evaluation of method for determination of multi-mycotoxins in maize and wheat JRC scientists - in close collaboration with the Italian Institute of Sciences of Food Production - evaluated the performance of an analytical method for the determination of multi-mycotoxins in maize and wheat by means of international proficiency testing.
Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi and can contaminate a wide range of agricultural products. Although over 300 mycotoxins have been identified, only a few of them cause food-borne illnesses and are of major concern worldwide.
Ochratoxin A can be found at trace level in spices, cocoa and drinking chocolate JRC scientists developed and validated (international ring trial) a method that allows the determination of the carcinogenic mycotoxin Ochratoxin A in several food commodities at trace levels.
Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a secondary metabolites mainly produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium fungi.
The presence of OTA has been reported in a wide range of food products such as all types of cereals, cereal-derived products, pulses, dried fruits, wine, grape juice, beer, coffee, cocoa, nuts, spices, liquorice, and meat products.
The structure of ecological networks, such as those mapping the ecological interactions between plants and pollinators, can help understand biodiversity. In an article published in Ecology and Evolution on 13 June, Strona and Veech demonstrate how the underlying assumption in ecological network analysis that all species interactions are possible (e.g. all plants can potentially be pollinated by a given insect, and all insects can potentially use a certain plant) can produce misleading results.
Chewing gum containing E171 JRC scientists contributed to the comparison of the biokinetics of single doses of titanium dioxide nanoparticles applied in rats by intravenous injection, oral exposure by gavage and intratracheal instillation.
Agriculture accounts for 65% of biomass supply in the EU The JRC has recently published a technical report that illustrates the flows of biomass for each sector of the EU bioeconomy, using the Sankey biomass diagram.
Focusing on the dry matter content of biomass, it splits biomass supply into the traditional sectors of agriculture (represented in green), forestry (brown) and fisheries (blue), and biomass uses made into the various categories for which it is used.
#Blockchain4EU is a forward looking exploration of Blockchain and other DLTs applications for industry. The JRC's EU Policy Lab and DG GROW have launched the project #Blockchain4EU: Blockchain for Industrial Transformations, running until February 2018.
3D human cell microscope background JRC scientists have shown human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) to be a promising in vitro model for neurotoxicity testing. These stem cell-based systems offer an innovative human-relevant alternative to traditional animal tests that can improve the efficacy of drug discovery and support safety assessment.
Cytomegalovirus JRC scientists contributed to a research study assessing the robustness and transferability of digital PCR detection methods for the quantification of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV). The study demonstrated that carefully optimised digital PCR based detection methods can be transferred between laboratories delivering higher quality and more equivalent data compared to more classical quantitative PCR detection methods.
