FSA consultations

Originally from: mona parr
                        
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/

Consultation on waste food
Apparently there is trade in recycled sandwiches (fillings onto fresh bread) and recycled pies. Scary stuff!!!

Also--Consultation on hygiene of animal feed England and Scotland.

This country is in a mess. Knowing what they are doing to our fishermen over the cod stocks, Denmark is allowed to continue fishing for sand eels (cod food) to feed its pigs.
I despair.
Mona
                        

Originally from: Joyce
                        

Denmark is allowed to continue fishing for sand eels (cod food) to

feed its pigs.

Not sure about that Mona see:

http://www.news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=63692003

Sea bird colonies off Scotland's east coast have been given a huge boost after EU ministers agreed to extend a ban on sand eel fishing for another year.

Over-fishing of the sand-eel had posed a serious threat to the kittiwake and puffins which rely on the small shoaling fish to feed their young.

The ban was due to be lifted at the start of 2003, but at a meeting of the Council of Fisheries Ministers (CFM) delegates agreed to extend it from the north east of Scotland down to Northumberland for another year.

It will continue the exclusion of the Danish fleet which traditionally targeted the area and hoovered up the majority of the Total Allowable Catch of one million tonnes a year.

The CFM are also understood to be tabling a proposal for making the closure permanent, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland.

Around 90 per cent of the fish caught in Scotland were being taken from areas surrounding the Forth estuary, leaving the birds facing an uncertain future.

Since the embargo came into force, puffins have seen a significant revival in their fortunes as the eel was their major source of food for rearing chicks in the breeding season. However, other species such as kittiwakes, shags, guillemots and arctic turns are still recovering from previous over fishing.

RSPB Scotland's fisheries policy officer, Darren Kindleysides, welcomed the extension of the ban as "excellent news".

He said: "Ross Finnie and Elliot Morley [the Scottish and Westminster ministers responsible for fishing] have pursued the extension of this closure to good effect and we are very pleased with them on this issue.

"The sand eel is right at the bottom of the food chain and feeds a lot of seabirds and also many species of commercial fish. For almost every seabird, the sand eel is the food item of choice and is very rich in oils and proteins.

"As such, it is just the sort of fish that is ideal for birds to feed to their young and constitutes about 80 per cent of all the live fish caught by seabirds in the North Sea and fed to their young during the breeding season."

Before the ban, the eels caught were processed into fish meal and fish oil. The meal is used to make livestock feed for Denmark's pig farms and turned into pellets for fish farming. A factory at Grangemouth processed Danish-caught sand eels into feed for Scottish salmon farms.

The oil is used in a wide range of baking products including digestive biscuits, cakes, breads and ice-cream. It is also used in shoe polish. Pressure groups such as the RSPB have been pressing for tighter controls on the fishery since the mid-1990s.

Mr Kindleysides added: "There have been a run of bad years of breeding success for kittiwakes which was leading to a reduction in their population and absence of sand eels has also been linked to starvation in tern colonies as well.

"Sand eels are also a big proportion of the diet for certain species of fish, including cod, haddock and mackerel, so this is also beneficial for commercial fish species and that must be seen as very good news in these troubled times."

During this year further monitoring of the breeding performance of sand eel-dependent birds in breeding colonies in the region will be undertaken.

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