Healthy vegetables: vegetable

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Thursday, July 7, 2011

EU says Russia signs deal to end vegetable trade ban

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Friday, July 1, 2011

Fruit and vegetable consumption declines

Canadians ate fruits and vegetables fewer times last year for the first time since 2001, Statistics Canada said.

About 43 per cent of respondents aged 12 and older reported they consumed fruit and vegetables five or more times each day in 2010, down from 46 per cent in 2009, the agency reported Tuesday.

"It's the first time we've seen a dip since we've been collecting the data," said analyst Ed Rama.

The data didn't address why.

"As an aside, what we do know is that the Canadian Price Index, their price for the fruit and vegetable basket has increased two per cent from January 2010 to January 2011," said Rama.

"I can't say there's any causality there, any link, but it's an interesting fact that they seem to be moving in the opposite directions."

Women generally consumed fruits and vegetables more often than men, according to the report.

About half of women last year consumed produce five or more times a day compared with 36 per cent in men.

Young males aged 12 to 19 were an exception. Almost 48 per cent in that age group ate fruits and vegetables, while after age 20, men ate considerably less, said Rama.

"That could have an effect of basically young men still eating at home, as opposed to moving out on their own and having the [instant pasta] diet," he speculated.

The 2010 Canadian Community Health Survey also surveyed about 65,000 people across the country on more than 30 indicators, including obesity, blood pressure, stress, smoking and access to a family doctor.

Last year, the survey results suggested that the first time, more than half of the population was classified as overweight or obese based on the body mass index or BMI that uses height and weight calculations.

Since 2003, the trend towards higher weights has been rising for men and women but the trajectory is not skyrocketing, Rama said.

Self-reports of heights and weights tend to be underestimates.

For blood pressure or hypertension, Statistics Canada said 17 per cent of respondents aged 12 and over said they have been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

"For the first time since these data have been collected by the survey, men and women reported the same rate of hypertension," the report said.

"Prior to 2010, women were more likely than men to report that they had been diagnosed with high blood pressure."

In 2010, nearly one-quarter (24 per cent) of Canadians aged 15 or older reported that most days were extremely or quite stressful, up from 22 per cent in 2008.

Women were more likely to report stress, particularly in younger age groups. Overall, one-quarter of women reported that most days were quite or extremely stressful, compared with 22 per cent of males.

Daily stress rates were highest in the core working ages 35 to 54 with about 30 per cent reporting stress.

Last year, 6.0 million people, or 21 per cent of the population aged 12 or older said they smoked daily or occasionally.

Since people typically begin smoking during their teenage years, the percentage who had not started smoking by age 20 is an indicator of future smoking rates, the report said.

In 2010, 57 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 had never smoked, a considerable increase from 41 per cent in 2003. Among men in the same age group, 45 per cent had never smoked, also a considerable increase from 37 per cent in 2003.

About 4.4 million people, or 15 per cent of the population aged 12 and older, reported that they did not have a regular medical doctor in 2010.

Of the 4.4 million Canadians without a regular medical doctor last year, 82 per cent said they had a usual place to go when they needed medical care or health advice. Most of these, 62 per cent, reported using a walk-in clinic, while another 13 per cent visited a hospital emergency room.

Residents of Indian reserves, health care institutions, some remote areas and full-time members of the Canadian Forces were excluded from the survey.

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EU, Russia in poisonous vegetable row over costly ban

{"s" : "OMXR.EX,^REURTRUSD","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} Christian Spillmann, 17:58, Wednesday 22 June 2011

The EU and Russia (EUREX: OMXR.EX - news) locked horns Wednesday over Moscow's costly ban on European vegetables with Brussels announcing an imminent end to the embargo that was swiftly denied by Russia.

Russia's three-week old ban on EU vegetables due to fears of contamination from Germany's deadly E.coli outbreak would be lifted "this week, or even tomorrow", said a spokesman for the EU's executive, the European Commission.

"An agreement was signed this morning between the EU and the Russian Federation. We are heading towards an immediate resumption of exports of European vegetables," said Frederic Vincent, spokesman for the health commissioner.

"Exports will be able to resume this week, or even tomorrow," he added.

But moments later in Moscow, the head of Russia's consumer protection watchdog threw doubt on the end of the ban affecting 25 percent of Europe (Chicago Options: ^REURTRUSD - news) 's vegetable exports.

"As far as the claim that it will happen immediately, these rumours are exaggerated," Rospotrebnadzor chief Gennady Onishchenko told the Interfax news agency after a Moscow round of negotiations aimed at ending the ban.

"We are introducing a special regime. No embargo has been lifted," he separately told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Asked to comment on Moscow's position, Vincent told AFP: "I can confirm exports will resume from tomorrow from Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland."

Russia slapped an embargo on fresh EU produce on June 2, amid the E. coli outbreak in Germany. As outrage mounted among Europe's fruit and vegetable farmers, the two sides agreed at a June 10 summit to move toward a certification system, paving the way for a resumption of trade.

About a fifth of Russia's vegetable imports come from the 27-nation bloc.

Europe's vegetable exports to Russia bring in 600 million euros ($860 million) a year, mainly from Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Belgium.

Vincent said that under an EU-Russia accord struck early Wednesday, the EU would supply Russian authorities "temporarily" with laboratory "surveillance and verification" papers to certify the products did not carry the deadly bacterium.

Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland have already put in place an E.coli monitoring and certification system.

The European Commission will transmit to Russia's health authorities "the names of the relevant national authorities competent to sign a certificate that must be stamped on exports for Russia, and the names of the national laboratories accredited to monitor the vegetables," the commission said.

The certification system will be a temporary measure kept in place until 10 days after the last human case of E.coli is reported in the EU.

In Moscow, Onishchenko said the two sides had reaffirmed the principles agreed by European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and President Dmitry Medvedev at a June 10 summit.

The two sides since have struggled to pin down the details since that meeting, and Russia said imports would remain suspended until all safety concerns were resolved.

Onishchenko said Russia and the EU still needed to agree on a list of European laboratories whose food testing standards meet Moscow's requirements.

"Everything depends on when they submit the lab list to us," Onishchenko said.

"Then we will resume" imports, he added.

View the original article here

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Vegetable scare hits Europe, 1st Ld-Writethru

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press Kirsten Grieshaber, Associated Press – Fri?Jun?3, 11:57?am?ET

BERLIN – Schools have pulled raw vegetables from menus, piles of cucumbers sit untouched on shop shelves, and farmers say they're losing millions.

As scientists scramble to find the source of an E. coli outbreak linked to raw vegetables that has killed 18 in Europe and sickened nearly 2,000, consumers are swearing off lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes just in case.

"Cook it or don't eat it," Hamburg kidney specialist Rolf Stahl told reporters at a press conference about the epidemic on Friday. "That's my personal recommendation."

Consumers from the northern German city of Hamburg — the epicenter of the outbreak — to Bulgaria, Spain, France and Sweden were worried about which vegetables and fruit they could still eat and what they should avoid.

"We no longer offer cucumbers, people just won't buy them anymore," said Mehmet Tanis, a vegetable vendor at Berlin's busy weekly market in the city's Kreuzberg neighborhood, who says his weekly profit is down euro1,000 ($1,450).

"They're completely scared to get sick — even though we always get our cucumbers from Jordan. We're also selling 80 percent less lettuce, and only half the tomatoes."

Most of those sickened say they ate vegetables beforehand. But without being able to pinpoint the source, German health authorities have issued a broad warning to stay away from all tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce.

Hamburg officials initially suspected cucumbers from Spain after three samples tested positive for E. coli, but later tests showed they were infected with a different strain of the bacteria than the one behind the outbreak.

Nevertheless, the jitters have devastated the Spanish produce industry.

In Almeria, one of Spain's main agricultural regions and probably the hardest hit, the head of a farmer's association said the market for exports to the rest of Europe is still virtually dead.

Before the crisis, Almeria exported 20,000 tons of produce a day. Now many farmers are simply destroying their crops — often right in the fields where they grow — because of lack of demand and to avoid the cost of shipping them to special centers that grind unwanted crops for compost or animal feed, said Francisco Vargas, head of the Almeria chapter of the Spanish farm association Asaja.

In Madrid, defiant businessman Javier Zaccagnini said he has made a special point of eating cucumbers even though he's not a big fan, out of solidarity with the local farmers.

"My girlfriend bought some cucumbers and I was delighted to enjoy a fresh salad with her, to make a special effort," said the 56-year-old. "There isn't a problem with Spanish produce. I realized that very early on. I have no intention of changing any of my eating habits."

Italian Maurizio Duchi also brushed aside concerns as he went into a Rome supermarket on his lunch break to pick up chicken and a salad.

"The situation seems to be under control and in any case I really don't like cucumbers," he said.

But elsewhere others were being more cautious.

"I ask where the vegetables come from when I make my procurements now," said Jessica Eng, a vegetable vendor at the Saluhall market in Stockholm. "And I would not buy anything from Germany right now."

In salad-loving Paris, Julie Cutelli, a 31-year-old teacher, said the outbreak had affected her grocery shopping, though it hadn't pushed her to give up fresh greens altogether.

"I'm laying off the cucumbers and the tzaziki and started buying other crunchy vegetables instead, like radishes," said Cutelli. "But I'm not going to stop eating salads, that's for sure."

With farmers across Europe complaining of millions in losses, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in a telephone conversation late Thursday to push for EU help for those affected.

The current outbreak is considered the third-largest involving E. coli in recent world history, and it is already the deadliest with at least 17 dead in Germany and one in Sweden. Twelve people died in a 1996 Japanese outbreak that reportedly sickened more than 9,000, and seven died in a Canadian outbreak in 2000.

Among the 1,733 people sickened in Germany, 520 suffer from a life-threatening complication that can cause kidney failure.

Nine other European nations have reported a total of 80 people sick from the bacteria, most of whom had recently visited northern Germany, the World Health Organization said.

Russia on Thursday extended a ban on vegetables from Spain and Germany to the entire European Union to try to stop the outbreak spreading east, a move the EU quickly called disproportionate and Italy's farmers denounced as "absurd." No deaths or infections have been reported in Russia.

To calm worried customers, some bistros and restaurants in Berlin started putting up posters explaining to customers they are only offering "safe produce."

Across the country, schools, kindergartens and nursing homes took all raw vegetables off menus until further notice and in the western German city of Hagen, an elementary school was closed Friday after a student fell ill with E. coli.

In Austria, medical experts even went so far as to warn local football fans attending Friday's European football qualifier against Germany in Vienna to take extra precautions to avoid infection.

Michael Kunze, a doctor of social medicine in Vienna told the Austria News Agency that Austrian fans should wash their hands well and consider using disinfectant to avoid any possible transmission of the E. coli bacteria from the Germans saying "it can't be ruled out."

The news about tainted cucumbers in Germany even scared people as far away as Bulgaria where locals hesitated to buy the popular vegetable even when vendors offered proof the produce was from local farmers.

Market prices dropped five- to tenfold and on Friday cucumbers on some open markets in Sofia were traded as cheaply as 10 euro cents per pound.

In Ireland, where government officials dismissed suggestions of a threat from imported vegetables, shoppers remained suspicious.

At one Dublin branch of the German-owned Lidl chain, trays of Spanish iceberg lettuce were discounted two-thirds but attracting few takers.

"I don't feel confident buying anything green and fresh today," said Ann O'Leary, 32, a Dublin homemaker. "We're going to be eating a lot of overcooked meats, a lot of canned food, and a lot of pasta until we're given the all clear."

She skipped the vegetable row of the supermarket entirely, stopping only for two bunches of bananas and a net of oranges. "I figure anything with a strong peel on it is safe to eat. I won't get scurvy at least!"

___

Associated Press writers across Europe contributed to this story.

View the original article here

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Vegetable scare hits Europe