US government was the first to introduce Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, the system that had a tremendous impact on everybody's life starting from the food and packaging companies up to consumer themselves. The rest of the nations simply followed US approach with a considerable delay both in terms of legislation and implementation. In the case of genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered foods, the situation was entirely different. United States benefited from the 'dubious', and definitely not proved, 'substantial equivalence' principle invoked as the most practical approach to assess the safety of GM foods and food ingredients. US legislation appeared to be considerably more lenient than the European Union. The latter required many more analyses and labelling of GM food or food components. In this article, an update is attempted of the entire US legislation falling in fields like food safety, food technology, GM foods and finally legislation referring to specific foods (animal origin - meat, poultry, fish, dairy; and agricultural produces - vegetables, fruits) and water quality by means of fourteen comprehensive tables.

Reuse of water in the food industry is attracting much attention due to the increasing cost of water and water discharge. A major obstacle for extensive reuse is the associated risk of microbiological contamination of food and the production environment. A hazard analysis critical control point based generic model has, therefore, been elaborated for implementation and evaluation of systems for the reuse of water in the food industry. The model includes information on food and water borne pathogens and their sensitivity towards various water treatment methods. Previous implementation of the pre-requisite programs and combination of knowledge from very different research areas are also required for safe implementation of water reuse in the food industry.

Se han medido el pH y la aw de distintos preparados alimenticios elaborados en establecimientos dedicados a la restauracion social. Ambos parametros son considerados como factores inhibidores del desarrollo microbiano. Los alimentos elaborados o semielaborados se clasificaron en varios grupos: hortalizas, legumbres, cereales y derivados -arroz y pasta-, pescados y mariscos, carnes y productos carnicos, huevos y ovoproductos y miscelaneos -salsas, sopas...-.