Food Roundup: China Safety Law, Europe GMO Vote, Pilgrim's Pride Closures, and More

(MoneyWatch)  China food safety law bans additives -- A new law five years in the making bans food additives unless they have been proven safe. The law also establishes unified national food safety standards, a food monitoring system and food recall processes. Milk contaminated with melamine sickened hundreds last fall and captured international headlines, but melamine isn't the only problem the country has had with dangerous food additives. The new law will take effect June 1. [Source: BBC]

Another no vote for GMO in EU -- European environment ministers on Monday upheld Austria and Hungary's bans on growing Monsanto's genetically modified maize. The crop is one of the few GMOs approved in the European Union. Other European countries ban imports of meat grown with artificial hormones, despite a World Trade Organization ruling against them. But Austria and Hungary have the strictest policies, banning even products deemed safe by the European Food Safety Authority, and Monday's vote upheld these policies. [Source: AP-FoodTechnology.com]

Pilgrim's Pride to idle plants -- In an attempt to get out of bankruptcy by the end of the year, the chicken processor is idling three of its plants, decreasing production by 10 percent. CEO Don Jackson said earlier that the company was "producing too much commodity chicken in what is a very weak market." The move will put 3,000 out of work. [Sources: FoodNavigator-USA.com, Florida Times-Union]

McDonald's Japan shuttering underperformers -- The burger chain is shutting down a few hundred Japan stores with poor sales, but it's relocating them to better spots and making all of them open 24-7. McDonald's is thriving in the global economic downturn and expanding while most companies are cutting back. [Source: MarketWatch]

Asparagus left behind in Cyprus peace deal -- A UN-brokered peace settlement is preventing people in Cyprus from picking wild asparagus from an area the UN has deemed a buffer zone between the Greek and Turkish sides of the island. Residents have been picking the crop for years and they're furious that UN soldiers won't let them in. But the UN says there's nothing they can do; their job is to keep people out of the buffer zone regardless of what's growing there. [Source: Foreign Policy]