Posts from the "Latest News" category
ES: Reported Foodborne Outbreaks Due to Fresh Produce in the United States and European Union: Trends and Causes
This study addresses the occurrence of reported foodborne outbreaks associated with fresh fruits and vegetables consumption in the United States and European Union during the period 2004 – 2012, where data are available. Special attention is paid to those pathogens responsible for these outbreaks, the mechanisms of contamination, and the fresh produce vehicles involved. [T]he pattern of fresh produce outbreaks differed in the United States and European Union by the type of microorganism and the food vehicle involved.
Click here to access the full report in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.
US: Scientists, public at odds over food safety
The Californian: What worries consumers about the food supply is opposite from what scientists fret over, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. And 98 percent of surveyed scientists say it’s a problem that average folks don’t know what the eggheads are talking about.
That’s a disparity that causes sleepless nights for Teresa Thorne, executive director of Watsonville-based Alliance for Food and Farming. The mission of the alliance is to promote consumption of fruits and vegetables to maintain health. She said the messages consumers receive – particularly about pesticide residue – can confuse and dissuade them from eating healthy foods.
“While health officials repeatedly tell consumers to eat more organic and conventional fruits and vegetables every day for better health, they [consumers] are also hearing inaccurate and scary statements calling into question the safety of conventionally grown produce,” Thorne said.
Click here to read the full story by Dennis L. Taylor at The Californian.
AU: Watch the wash for food safety in fruit production
All quality assurance (QA) schemes list water as an input to be managed for potential hazards. The challenge with managing water quality is its variability due to multiple environmental factors which are beyond grower control.
However, growers can control water quality at point of use in fruit packing operations. The importance of this was clearly demonstrated in the tropical fruit industry in separate incidents in recent years. On two occasions WA tropical fruit was contaminated with Salmonella and traceback linked the source to the wash water. A treated water source was in use and no previous known issues had been identified with the fruit from routine laboratory testing.
Click here to read the full fact sheet from the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food.
This is one of a number of useful food safety documents available from the Food Safety Section of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food website. Click here to access.
Image credit: Andrea R / Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
US: Keep these things in mind to minimise risk of a food safety outbreak involving Listeria monocytogenes in your packinghouse operations – Dr. Bob Whitaker
The US produce industry has witnessed a number of product recalls in the last few years and some illness outbreaks owing to Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) contamination and a number of these have been tied to packinghouse operations where sanitation practices have been reported to be less than optimal. In this post Dr. Bob Whitaker lists a few things to remember about Lm and packinghouse operations.
Click here to read the full article on PMA/LinkedIn.
US: Count of generic Escherichia coli on spinach at the preharvest level determined by the multi-factorial effect of ambient temperature, precipitation, farm management and environmental factors
American Society for Microbiology: A repeated cross-sectional study was conducted to identify farm management, environment, weather, and landscape factors that predict the count of generic Escherichia coli on spinach at the preharvest level. E. coli was enumerated for 955 spinach samples collected on 12 farms in Texas and Colorado between 2010 and 2012. Odds of contamination decreased with implementation of hygiene practices (OR = 0.06) and increased with an increasing average precipitation amount (mm) in the past 29 days (OR=3.5) and the application of manure (OR=52.2). On contaminated spinach, E. coli counts increased with the average precipitation amount over the past 29 days. The relationship between E. coli count and the average maximum daily temperature over the 9 days prior to sampling followed a quadratic function with the highest bacterial count at around 24 °C. These findings indicate that the odds of a contamination event in spinach are determined by farm management, environment and weather factors. However, once the contamination event has occurred, the count of generic E. coli on spinach is determined by weather only.
Click here to access the full abstract from the American Society for Microbiology.
Mars, Inc. and IBM Research Launch Collaborative Food Safety Platform
Food Safety Magazine: Mars, Incorporated has partnered with IBM Research to launch a consortium to drive advances in global food safety. The ‘Sequencing the Food Supply Chain Consortium‘–a collaborative food safety platform–will leverage advances in genomics to further our understanding of what makes food safe.
The research consortium marks an alternative approach in how companies traditionally tackle unsafe food. While many companies, such as Mars, already have rigorous processes in place to ensure food safety risks are managed appropriately, the application of genomics being pioneered by this consortium will enable an in-depth understanding and categorization of micro-organisms and their activity on a much bigger scale than has previously been possible.
Click here to read this article from Food Safety Magazine.
Click here to access the media release from Mars, Inc.
What are industry’s science and technology needs?
Food Navigator: Food fraud, healthy diets and sustainability are among the issues needing innovation in science and technology, according to a major survey from Campden BRI.
Read Article →
EU: Salmonella and raw leafy greens most dangerous according to EU risk assessment model
Doug Powell writes: “The top ranking food/pathogen combination was Salmonella spp. and leafy greens eaten raw followed by (in equal rank) Salmonella spp. and bulb and stem vegetables [onion, leek, celery, etc.], Salmonella spp. and tomatoes, Salmonella spp. and melons, and pathogenic Escherichia coli and fresh pods, legumes or grains. Despite the inherent assumptions and limitations, this risk model is considered a tool for risk managers, as it allows ranking of food/pathogen combinations most often linked to foodborne [illness] human cases originating from [food of non-animal origin] FoNAO in the EU.”
Click here to read the full article on barfblog.
Click here to access the report from the International Journal of Food Microbiology.
Image credit: Liz West / Flickr, CC by 2.0
NZ: Food Act Consultation Underway
Horticulture New Zealand: Consultation on the proposed regulations for the Food Act 2014 is now under way. The Ministry for Primary Industries is holding public meetings around the country to allow the community to consider a wide range of issues around how the Act will be administered when it comes fully into force by 1 March 2016. The Act will apply to around 85,000 food premises, growers and food importers, and up to 200,000 sellers of food.
The proposals cover a wide range of areas to bring the Act into operation, including requirements for registration and verification (auditing) of businesses, requirements to ensure food is safe and suitable, requirements for importers of food, cost recovery, infringements and exemptions.
Click here to read this article from Horticulture New Zealand.
Click here to access the Consultation documents and submission form from MPI.
NZ: Does my food business need a food recall plan?
NZ MPI: Even within the best managed food business, an issue involving the safety of a food product may occur. This could be the result of a packaging defect, a preservation failure, a production problem, contaminated ingredients, sabotage or inadequate labelling. It is important that food businesses assume that a food safety issue may arise with their products and, therefore, plan ahead. These systems and plans should be periodically tested to ensure that they are effective and remove the unsafe product from consumers and/or the distribution chain.
Click here to access the Ministry for Primary Industries Recall Guidance Material.