Next steps to evidence-based food safety risk analysis: opportunities for health technology assessment methodology implementation

Food safety risk analysis and health technology assessment (HTA) are two different paradigms sharing multiple common features. Decision makers in both fields have the responsibility to promote the health of society deciding on intervention opportunities based on disease burden, intervention feasibility, effectiveness and cost, equity and ethical considerations. The evolution of HTA in the last two decades has resulted in the establishment and widespread use of quantitative tools to support and justify evidence-based decisions. In contrast, decision making in the food safety domain is still a qualitative process rendering ad hoc weights to all aspects considered. This review evaluates whether HTA methodology is suitable for quantitative decision support in food safety risk analysis. We conclude that cost-utility analysis (CUA) could better serve the priority settings in food safety risk management than the currently (rarely) applied cost-benefit analysis (CBA), considering either broad resource allocation or specific safety measure decisions. Development of multi-criteria decision analysis tools could help the introduction of consistent and explicit weighting among cost and health impacts, equity and all other relevant aspects. Cost-minimisation and cost-effectiveness analyses would be relevant for ‘threshold’ and ‘as low as reasonably achievable’ approaches to single food safety risk assessments, respectively. Assuming a future widespread use of HTA methodology in the food safety paradigm, a vision of integrated healthcare, food safety and nutritional policy emerges, with the re-evaluation of budgets and resources of these large systems in a rational and socially acceptable way

Monitoring biosecurity in poultry production: an overview of databases reporting biosecurity compliance from seven European countries

Compliance with required on-farm biosecurity practices reduces the risk of contamination and spread of zoonotic and economically important diseases. With repeating avian influenza epidemics in the poultry industry, the need to monitor and improve the overall level of biosecurity is increasing. In practice, biosecurity compliance is assessed by various actors (e.g., academic, private and public institutions), and the results of such assessments may be recorded and gathered in databases which are seldom shared or thoroughly analyzed. This study aimed to provide an inventory of databases related to the assessment of biosecurity in poultry farms in seven major poultry-producing European countries to highlight challenges and opportunities associated with biosecurity data collection, sharing, and use. The institutions in charge of these databases were contacted and interviewed using a structured questionnaire to gather information on the main characteristics of the databases and the context of their implementation. A total of 20 databases were identified, covering the gamut of poultry species and production types. Most databases were linked to veterinary health authorities or academia, and to a lesser extent interbranch organizations. Depending on the institutions in charge, the databases serve various purposes, from providing advice to enforcing regulations. The quality of the biosecurity data collected is believed to be quite reliable, as biosecurity is mostly assessed by trained farm advisors or official veterinarians and during a farm visit. Some of the databases are difficult to analyze and/or do not offer information concerning which biosecurity measures are most or least respected. Moreover, some key biosecurity practices are sometimes absent from certain databases. Although the databases serve a variety of purposes and cover different production types, each with specific biosecurity features, their analysis should help to improve the surveillance of biosecurity in the poultry sector and provide evidence on the benefits of biosecurity

Occurrence of Campylobacters in the food-chain and effect of environmental factors on their survival and destruction

Napjaink élelmiszer-eredetű humán megbetegedéseinek leggyakoribb oka az élelmiszerek mikrobiális kontaminációja. Az elmúlt években a legtöbb élelmiszer által közvetített betegséget olyan mikroorganizmusok okozták, amelyek állatról emberre terjednek, a hagyományos kórokozókhoz képest enyhébb tünetekkel járnak, és széles körben okoznak fertőzéseket a humán populációban. Ezen mikroorganizmusok legfontosabb képviselői a Salmonella és Campylobacter fajok. A Campylobacter jejuni a leggyakoribb élelmiszer-eredetű megbetegedést kiváltó baktérium, a világszerte előforduló enterális zoonózisok leggyakoribb okozója. Annak ellenére, hogy a Campylobacter jejuni viszonylag gyenge ellenálló képességű baktérium, képes az élelmiszerekben tartósan életben maradni és fertőzőképességét megőrizni. A megfelelő felügyelethez meg kell értenünk a Campylobacter jejuni terjedési mechanizmusát, ehhez pedig epidemiológiai vizsgálatok és a mikroba tulajdonságait célzó vizsgálatok szükségesek. Hogy képet kapjunk a Campylobacter fajok hazai körülmények közötti elterjedtségéről, mintákat vettünk egy baromfiállományból, napos kortól egészen a vágásig, nyáron és télen (összesen 195 mintát). Nyáron az első két mintavételi időpontban (0 és 12 napos korban) az összes (70) minta negatív volt. A 26 napos korban vett minták (összesen 35) közül egy kloáka minta, egy szellőzőnyílás melletti falfelület-minta és egy rovarminta volt pozitív. 42 napos korban, a vágóhídon vett mintavételi pontok mindegyikén (90 minta) találtunk Campylobacter fajokat. A téli mintázás során sem a 0, sem a 10 és a 31. napon vett mintákból nem sikerült Campylobactert izolálni, de 42 napos korban, a vágóhídon már igen. A vágóhídon az élő állatok 93,3%-a volt fertőzött, a vágósor végére pedig már a minták 100%-a. A vágóhídi dolgozók kezéről és a vágóberendezésekről is sikerült Campylobactert kimutatni. A pozitív minták 95,5%-a Campylobacter jejuninak bizonyult. A humán campylobacteriosis megelőzésének igen hatékony és fontos eszköze a baromfihús megfelelő hőkezelése. A Campylobacter fajok érzékenyek a hőkezelésre, a szokásos háztartási főzési eljárások elpusztítják, ennek ellenére a humán megbetegedések leggyakoribb oka a nem megfelelően hőkezelt baromfihús. 7 Az értekezés a SZIE ÁOTK Élelmiszer-higiéniai Tanszékén folyó, Campylobacter jejuni túlélésének, pusztulásának, illetve az ezeket befolyásoló tényezőknek vizsgálatával foglalkozó kutatásokat ismerteti. Elsőként a túlélő sejtek kimutatására alkalmazott új, gyors mikrobiológiai mérési eljárás eredményei kerülnek ismertetésre. A hőpusztulási kísérletek során az értekezés a redoxpotenciál mérésen alapuló élősejtszám-meghatározási módszer eredményeit hasonlítja össze a klasszikus tenyésztéses eljárással, és megállapítja, hogy a két módszer alkalmazása a hőpusztulási paraméterek (D és z) értékeire azonos eredményt ad. A további kísérletek során arra kerestük a választ, hogy a környezeti tényezők – ezen belül a vízaktivitás és a pH – változása milyen hatással van a baktérium szaporodására és túlélésére. Kísérletünkben hat (0,995, 0,985, 0,976, 0,946, 0,920, 0,874) vízaktivitási értéken vizsgáltuk a C. jejuni túlélését a szaporodási optimumnak megfelelő 42 °C hőmérsékleten. A vízaktivitási értékeket három vegyülettel (NaCl, glicerin, glükóz) állítottuk be, így lehetőségünk nyílt ugyanazon a vízaktivitási értéken a különböző anyagok C. jejunira kifejtett hatását vizsgálni. A 0,995, 0,985, 0,976 vízaktivitásokon egyik oldatban sem változott a minta 45. percben mért mikrobaszáma a kiindulási értékhez képest. Ez az eredmény megegyezik a nemzetközi szakirodalomban publikált adatokkal. 0,946 vízaktivitási értéken már jelentős eltéréseket tapasztaltunk az egyes oldatok között. Ezen körülmények között a NaCl-os oldatban gyors és nagymértékű mikrobapusztulást figyeltünk meg, a 0. percben vett mintában gyakorlatilag már nem lehetett élő sejteket kimutatni. 0,920 vízaktivitáson már csak a glicerines és glükózos oldatokban vizsgáltunk élősejtszámot. 0,874 vízaktivitáson a glicerines oldatban azonnali és teljes baktériumpusztulást tapasztaltunk, így ezen az értéken több vizsgálatot nem végeztünk. A pH mikroba-túlélésre gyakorolt hatásának vizsgálata során azt tapasztaltuk, hogy a mikroba a pH-változását 4,5 és 10 között túléli, de szaporodni csak az 5,5-tıl 8-ig terjedő pH tartományban képes. A környezeti tényezők hatásának vizsgálata során tapasztaltak arra világítanak rá, hogy a Campylobacter jejuni a hőkezelésre, a beszáradásra érzékeny baktérium, a szokásos élelmiszeripari és konyhai kezelési eljárások elpusztítják a kórokozót. Így a magas humán campylobacteriosis adatok mögött feltehetően a kenődés, keresztszennyeződés és higiéniai hiányosságok állnak. A kísérletünk eredményei és ezek magyarázata hozzájárulhat ahhoz, hogy a Campylobacter jejuni-ról szerzett ismeretek bővítésével közelebb jussunk a kórokozó által jelentett valós kockázatok megértéséhez és ezek hatékony kezeléséhez.One of the most important risk factors of food related human diseases is the microbial contamination. In past decades the food industry made efforts to eliminate most of the classic microbial causative agents, but parallel to this they had to face a new risk: bacteria causing mild to moderate symptoms to humans, but with higher incidence and economic loss like Salmonella and Campylobacter species. From this group of bacteria Salmonella species have been the leading human enteric illness causatives for several years, but in the recent past more and more Campylobacter caused human diarrhoeal diseases were observed. Campylobacter jejuni is the most important source of enteric zoonoses worldwide. Despite that Campylobacter species are described as sensitive to small changes of environmental factors, they seem to be able to survive permanently in food and to remain infectivity. To the appropriate control we need to know the spreading mechanism of Campylobacter jejuni, and for this there is a need for from-farm-to-fork investigations and experiments concerning the characteristics of the microbe. During farm and slaughterhouse samples to obtain an overview of spreading of Campylobacter species within a flock samples were taken from broiler flocks from settling till slaughter in the summer and in the winter as well (total 195 samples). In the summer on the first two sampling days (day 0 and day 12) all samples (70) were negative. On day 26 one cloaca sample, one sample from the surface of the wall near the ventilation aperture and an insect-sample was positive. On day 42 Campylobacters could be detected on every sampling point (90 samples) at the slaughterhouse. In the winter sampling period, none of the farm samples were positive. On day 42, we found Campylobacters on every sampling point at the slaughterhouse. A total of 93.3% of the live animals’ cloaca and 100% of the carcass surface samples after plucking, after washing and after chilling were positive. We could isolate Campylobacter jejuni from the surface of the staff’s hands and from the samples from the slaughtering equipment as well. Out of the Campylobacter positive samples 95.5% (84 of 88) were infected with Campylobacter jejuni. For the prevention of diseases caused by Campylobacter jejuni food preservation procedures should be developed. The changes of environmental conditions (temperature, water activity, and pH) can be used to decrease the growth of bacteria, so these methods may be the most important tools for combating foodborne human campylobacteriosis. 9 The thesis describes experiments carried out at Szent István University, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Department of Food Hygiene on the occurrence of Campylobacter species in Hungary, and on survival and destruction characteristics of Campylobacter jejuni and the influence of environmental factors on these. During examination of resistance of Campylobacter jejuni to environmental factors the applicability of a new rapid microbiological method, the redox-potential measurement based living cell number determination, was investigated for death kinetics experiments. Based on experiment results the redox-potential rapid method is suitable for evaluation of heat destruction experiments. Then experiments are presented on how the environmental factors, like temperature, water activity and pH, as well as combinations of these changes, impacts the bacterial growth, survival and death. During experiments on effect of water activity on survival of Campylobacter jejuni the change of living cell number can be observed at different water activity levels set with different substances (NaCl, glycerine and glucose), letting us to draw conclusions on microbial death. At water activities 0.995, 0.985 and 0.976 the cell number did not change significantly after 45 minutes. At water activities 0.946 and 0.920 the living cell concentration largely decreased in the moment of inoculation in case of all three substances. The level of decrease was the highest in case of NaCl, the cells practically died in the moment of inoculation. In glycerine the initial fast decrease is followed by slower changes. The glucose had not significant immediate effect on the bacterial death, but the living cell concentration decreased constantly and at 45 minutes it was at the same level as in glycerine. At water activity of 0.876 the microbe was destroyed within 15 minutes in case of glucose and glycerine as well, the microbe is sensitive for osmotic shock. During the experiments on the effect of pH we found that Campylobacter jejuni is able to multiply in pH range of 5.5 – 8.0 and is able to survive circumstances between pH 5.0 – 8.5. The experience gained during investigation of the effect of environmental factors highlights that Campylobacter jejuni is sensitive to heat treatment, drying, and the usual industrial and kitchen food processing destroys the microbe. Thus cross-contamination and hygiene deficiencies stand behind high human campylobacteriosis data. The results of the experiments and their explanation can contribute to the understanding of the real risks and their effective control

Next steps to evidence-based food safety risk analysis: opportunities for health technology assessment methodology implementation

Food safety risk analysis and health technology assessment (HTA) are two different paradigms sharing multiple common features. Decision makers in both fields have the responsibility to promote the health of society deciding on intervention opportunities based on disease burden, intervention feasibility, eff ectiveness and cost, equity and ethical considerations. The evolution of HTA in the last two decades has resulted in the establishment and widespread use of quantitative tools to support and justify evidence-based decisions. In contrast, decision making in the food safety domain is still a qualitative process rendering ad hoc weights to all aspects considered. This review evaluates whether HTA methodology is suitable for quantitative decision support in food safety risk analysis. We conclude that cost-utility analysis (CUA) could better serve the priority settings in food safety risk management than the currently (rarely) applied cost-benefi t analysis (CBA), considering either broad resource allocation or specific safety measure decisions. Development of multi-criteria decision analysis tools could help the introduction of consistent and explicit weighting among cost and health impacts, equity and all other relevant aspects. Cost-minimisation and cost-effectiveness analyses would be relevant for ‘threshold’ and ‘as low as reasonably achievable’ approaches to single food safety risk assessments, respectively. Assuming a future widespread use of HTA methodology in the food safety paradigm, a vision of integrated healthcare, food safety and nutritional policy emerges, with the re-evaluation of budgets and resources of these large systems in a rational and socially acceptable way

Holistic risk assessments of food systems

Food systems are composed of interrelated activities that transform agricultural products into food. Their operations need to meet several food security, food safety, and sustainability requirements. Therefore, risk assessment of food systems must be multidisciplinary and include food safety, nutrition, environmental, economics, and social criteria. However, combining these criteria to assess multiple impacts remains a challenge in complex and multi-stakeholder systems. Until now, only a few holistic assessments, whether domain-oriented or generic and with different levels of quantification, have covered all criteria and the whole food systems. We reviewed and presented the various assessment methods and their applications in food systems, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. Recommendations were made for a tiered approach combining different holistic assessment methods

Pre-Harvest Modelling and Mitigation of Aflatoxins in Maize in a Changing Climatic Environment: A Review

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A Systematic Review of the Efficacy of Interventions to Control Aflatoxins in the Dairy Production Chain—Feed Production and Animal Feeding Interventions

The study presents a systematic review of published scientific articles investigating the effects of interventions aiming at aflatoxin reduction at the feed production and animal feeding phases of the milk value chain in order to identify the recent scientific trends and summarize the main findings available in the literature. The review strategy was designed based on the guidance of the systematic review and knowledge synthesis methodology that is applicable in the field of food safety. The Web of Science and EBSCOhost online databases were searched with predefined algorithms. After title and abstract relevance screening and relevance confirmation with full-text screening, 67 studies remained for data extraction, which were included in the review. The most important identified groups of interventions based on their mode of action and place in the technological process are as follows: low-moisture production using preservatives, acidity regulators, adsorbents and various microbiological additives. The results of the listed publications are summarized and compared for all the identified intervention groups. The paper aimed to help feed producers, farmers and relevant stakeholders to get an overview of the most suitable aflatoxin mitigation options, which is extremely important in the near future as climate change will likely be accompanied by elevated mycotoxin levels