Challenges in food safety as part of food security : lessons learnt on food safety in a globalized world

Food safety should accomplish food and nutrition security. A key challenge to scale up food safety globally is to better leverage existing capacity and research working towards evidence-based decisions. At Ghent University since 2009 an annual 3-months international Intensive Training Program on Food Safety, Quality Assurance and Risk Analysis has been organized (www.itpfoodsafety.UGent.be). The trainees were asked to express their opinion on food safety concerns in their country and to select a case study to work on throughout the course. Main food safety issues had to do with bacterial pathogens, pesticide residues and mycotoxins which were challenged by lack of food safety knowledge and appropriate legislation and enforcement by government. They welcomed education and training on these topics in particular to elaborate on control measures including good hygienic practices, implementation of certified food safety management systems and setting of appropriate criteria. A number of topics are highlighted here in particular as these topics were shown to have a common ground of interest by several participants in several countries and throughout the years. These topics include among others safety of street foods, safe milk and cheese production, and risk assessment to control Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli in meat (and other foods). Although some recurring food safety issues could be identified, other topics are of particular concern in selected countries because of specific cultural appropriate eating habits. The world is changing fast. Problems change and the information stream is very intense. Leaders in food security should be aware about food safety as well, and will have to develop an attitude of continuous learning, critical thinking and be given the right tools("know how") to develop local solutions to address the emerging societal and environmental challenges to provide sufficient, safe, healthy, nutritious and sustainable produced food to the world's population

Stabiliteit van norovirussen in de voedselketen

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Potential of human norovirus surrogates and Salmonella enterica contamination of pre-harvest basil (Ocimum basilicum) via leaf surface and plant substrate

Fresh produce has been identified as an important vehicle for foodborne pathogen transmission and fresh culinary herbs have occasionally been associated with human pathogens and illness. In this study, the fate of human NoV surrogates [murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1) and Tulane virus (TV)] and three strains of Salmonella enterica on pre-harvest basil (Ocimum basilicum) was investigated. The persistence after contamination via either leaf surface or plant substrate was tested respectively. After 3 days, both MNV-1 and TV on pre-harvest leaves were at non-detectable levels (>5.5-log reduction for MNV-1 and >3.3-log reduction for TV). The three Salmonella strains showed consistent reductions of 3- to 4-log. At day 6 and 9, all the tested samples showed low levels of infectivity which were close or below the detection limits (1.7-log PFU/sample leaf for MNV-1 and TV, 0.7-log CFU/sample leaf for Salmonella) except for S. Thompson FMFP 899, one out of three samples showed to maintain present at exceptional high levels (day 6: 5.5-log CFU/sample leaf; day 9: 6.7-log CFU/sample leaf). Possibilities of microbial internalization into the edible parts of basil via the roots was demonstrated with both MNV-1 and S. enterica Thompson FMFP 899. The infectivity of internalized MNV-1 and S. enterica both decreased to non-detectable levels within 9 days after inoculation. Moreover, it should be noticed that very high microbial inoculation was used in the experimental set-up (8.46-log PFU/ml of MNV-1, 8.60-log CFU/ml of S. enterica), which is abnormal in the real-life expected contamination scenario. Within the tested scenarios in this study, S. enterica contaminated on the adaxial leaf surface of basil plants while in growth, and remained/reached a high population of over 6-log CFU/sample leaf after 9 days in one out of three samples, thus showed the highest potential for causing foodborne infection

Exposure assessment to Salmonella by consumption of informally marketed milk and Gouda cheese in Musaner town, Rwanda

This study assesses the exposure to Salmonella by consumption of boiled milk and Gouda cheese in Musanze town, Rwanda. A consumer survey (n = 90) revealed that among milk buyers in milk shops, 40.0% were also buying boiled milk for their families resulting in consumption by 136 consumers, mainly adults aging between 19-29 years (32.3%). Among those interviewed consumers in households, 66.7% were re-boiling the milk and 33.3% were storing it refrigerated before consumption. Gouda cheese is usually sold in supermarkets belonging to the formal market. A cheese portion with a weight of 62.5 g is mainly consumed (80.0 %, n=370), and the weekly consumption frequency is most in practice (38.1%). A probabilistic exposure model was built up by taking into account prevalence data of Salmonella contamination in boiled milk and Gouda cheese in Rwanda, assumed concentration data of Salmonella, information of the milk chain gathered by observation, and collected consumption data and consumer behavior information. Finally, the risk of infection per day and per year were calculated for different categories of consumers. It appears that even though Salmonella is eliminated by milk boiling, the risk of infection still persists due to post-contamination in the milk shops (8.4% of consumers infected per year), but is decreased by additional boiling in households to 4.9% (children) and 4.6% (adults) per year. For cheese consumption, the risk of infection was lowered by multiple food safety interventions for cheese producers such as trainings on food hygiene and provision of modern equipments improving thus the situation from before to after 2012 by 30.0%% per year in case of adults. Those calculations demonstrate clearly that the additional efforts to reduce the occurrence of Salmonella in the Rwandan dairy chain will benefit the Rwandan population and decrease the burden of food borne disease

Horticultural assessment scheme: insight in prevalence and distribution of microbial contamination to evaluate water management in fresh produce processing industry

Title: Horticultural Assessment Scheme: insight in prevalence and distribution of microbial contamination to evaluate water management in fresh produce processing industry. Introduction: Microbial food safety is a global concern. Particularly, fresh produce is increasingly involved in some outbreaks. Many food borne illnesses are related with contamination during the postharvest processing (e.g. washing, chilling). The source and contamination level of the used water is an important issue that influences the degree of contamination at all stages in the chain. Purpose: The purpose is to present the concept of a ‘Horticultural Assessment Scheme’ as systematic approach in sampling and analysis in order to obtain a helicopter view on microbial quality, hygiene and safety level of products and processes in a company. It may help to identify bottlenecks in management of food safety and water. Methods: A Horticultural Assessment Scheme (HAS) is developed to assess the level of microbiological quality of leafy vegetables during postharvest processing. HAS is a procedure that defines the identification of critical sampling locations, the selection of microbiological parameters, the assessment of sampling frequency, the selection of sampling method and method of analysis, and finally data processing and interpretation. Results: The results of the HAS showed that (a) neither Salmonella nor L. monocytogenes were detected in the frame of this sampling plan. It turned out that the (b) total psychrotrophic aerobic count is perceived to be, neither for the fresh produce samples nor for the water or environmental samples, a good indicator of overall microbial quality and good practices during production and processing. And (c) if there is a lack of refilling the water and high product/water ratio’s, a fast build up of E. coli and transfer to the end product occurs. Significance: The results obtained by analysis of hygiene indicator E. coli along with the information obtained on the ratio of the product/water used in the washing baths and frequency of refilling water enabled to evaluate water management in these two companies involved in production of pre-packed cut fresh produce. The companies need to validate their water management and optimize the process to guarantee a proper water quality from the start until the end of the process. However, the difficulty about a proper water management is the lack of guidelines on acceptable microbial contamination in wash water, product/volume ratio and frequency of refilling fresh water to washing baths