Relevance of microbial finished product testing in food safety management

Management of microbiological food safety is largely based on good design of processes, products and procedures. Finished product testing may be considered as a control measure at the end of the production process. However, testing gives only very limited information on the safety status of a food. If a hazardous organism is found it means something, but absence in a limited number of samples is no guarantee of safety of a whole production batch. Finished product testing is often too little and too late. Therefore most attention should be focussed on management and control of the hazards in a more pro-active way by implementing an effective food safety management system. For verification activities in a food safety management system, finished product testing may however be useful. For three cases studies; canned food, chocolate and cooked ham, the relevance of testing both of finished products and the production environment is discussed. Since the level of control of different processes can be largely different it is beneficial if the frequency of sampling of finished products and production environments would be related to the associated human health risk, which can be assessed on the basis of risk assessment and epidemiological data. Keywords: Sampling; Verification; Microbiological food safet

Consumer habits and their impact on the food safety of cooked chilled foods: results of a survey in Belgium

The consumer exposure to pathogenic microorganisms due to consumption of cooked chilled foods is influenced by the industrial production process and consumer behaviour. A consumer survey was organised to assess the consumption frequency, storage time, reheating practices and perception of and respect for the product’s ‘use by’ date. Of the 874 respondents, over three quarters (77.5%, n=677) had consumed at least one REPFED over the last year. Consumption frequency was the highest between the ages of 18 and 30. Nine out of ten consumers were able to give an acceptable estimate of the shelf life of cooked chilled foods (e.g. less than four weeks). By contrast, only half of the consumers (53.3%) fully respected the ‘use by’ date as indicated on the packaging, the remaining consumers consider a margin of 3 days or more to be acceptable. In addition only half of the consumers fully complied with the reheating instructions on the label. To determine the distribution of the time a cooked chilled food spends in a consumer fridge, the consumers were asked how frequently they bought these products and how they stored them. This information was used to construct a Time to Consumption (TTC) distribution. This TTC demonstrated that approx. 20% of the products was consumed on the day of purchase; about half (52.9%) were consumed within two days of purchase, 75.5% within four days and over 90% during the first week. Furthermore, the data shows that frequent consumers are likely to store the products for shorter times. These short storage times are likely to reduce the exposure to psychrotrophic microorganisms present in cooked chilled foods

Observations on quasi-uniform products

AbstractWe prove that any product of quotient maps in the category of quasi-uniform spaces and quasi-uniformly continuous maps is a quotient map. We also show that a quasi-uniformly continuous map from a product of quasi-uniform spaces into a quasi-pseudometric T0-space depends on countably many coordinates.Furthermore we characterize those quasi-uniformities that are unique in their quasi-proximity class and prove that this property is preserved under arbitrary products in the category of quasi-uniform spaces

RiskBenefit4EU project – a strategy for risk-benefit assessment of foods in Portugal

O balanço entre os riscos e benefícios para a saúde resultante do consumo de alimentos é um importante contributo para apoiar a definição de políticas de saúde e a promoção da literacia dos consumidores. No âmbito do projeto RiskBenefit4EU, financiado pela European Food Safety Authority e coordenado pelo Departamento de Alimentação e Nutrição do Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge, o presente trabalho pretende descrever a estratégia implementada para a capacitação das equipas portuguesas em avaliação de risco-benefício de alimentos (RBA). Concretizada pelos parceiros do Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique e da Technical University of Denmark, a capacitação consiste em três atividades principais: 1) Formação teórica, focando os conceitos-chave para a avaliação de RBA; 2) Formação prática, aplicando os conceitos adquiridos e as metodologias transmitidas a um estudo de caso; e 3) Missões científicas, de curta duração, para formação avançada em domínios específicos da avaliação de RBA. No que diz respeito à formação prática, e com o objetivo de consolidar os conhecimentos adquiridos em avaliação de RBA, está previsto o desenvolvimento de um estudo de caso português sobre alimentos à base de cereais habitualmente consumidos por crianças. A estratégia de capacitação seguida neste projeto servirá de modelo para outras equipas e países, contribuindo para a disseminação de uma cultura de avaliação de RBA nas vertentes toxicológica, microbiológica e nutricional a nível internacional.The balance of risks and health benefits from food consumption constitutes a crucial topic to consumer literacy and health policy-makers. Through the RiskBenefit4EU project, funded by the European Food Safety Authority, and coordinated by the Food and Nutrition Department of Portuguese National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, the present work intends to identify the applied strategy to capacitate the Portuguese teams for the development and implementation of risk-benefit assessment (RBA) in food. The training of the Portuguese team is being accomplished by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research and the Technical University of Denmark members, through three main capacity building activities: 1) Theoretical training, focusing on the key concepts for RBA; 2) Practical training, applying the concepts acquired and the methodologies transmitted to a concrete case study; and 3) Short-term scientific missions for advanced training in specific areas of RBA. In order to complete the training of the Portuguese teams and consolidate the knowledge acquired in RBA, a Portuguese case study on cereal-based foods usually consumed by children is planned. The training strategy followed in this project will contribute as a model of capacity building for disseminating a culture of risk-benefit assessment in the toxicological, microbiological and nutritional aspects at the international level.Trabalho desenvolvido no âmbito do projeto “RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach” financiado pela EFSA Partnering Grants (Grant Agreement Number A/EFSA/AFSCO/2017/01 – GA02).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Risk-Benefit Assessment of Cereal-Based Foods Consumed by Portuguese Children Aged 6 to 36 Months-A Case Study under the RiskBenefit4EU Project

This article belongs to the Section Pediatric Nutrition.Cereal-based foods, including breakfast (BC) and infant cereals (IC), are among the first solid foods introduced to infants. BC and IC are sources of macro and micronutrients that have bene ficial effects on health, but can also be sources of harmful chemical and microbiological contaminants and nutrients that may lead to adverse health effects at high consumption levels. This study was performed under the RiskBenefit4EU project with the aim of assessing the health impact associated with consumption of BC and IC by Portuguese children under 35 months. Adverse effects associated with the presence of aflatoxins, Bacillus cereus, sodium and free sugars were assessed against the benefits of fiber intake. We applied a risk–benefit assessment approach, and quantified the health impact of changes in consumption of BC and IC from current to various alternative consumption scenarios. Health impact was assessed in terms of disability-adjusted life years. Results showed that moving from the current consumption scenario to considered alternative scenarios results in a gain of healthy life years. Portuguese children can benefit from exchanging intake of IC to BC, if the BC consumed has an adequate nutritional profile in terms of fiber, sodium and free sugars, with levels of aflatoxins reduced as much as possible.This research was funded by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) (Grant Agreement Number–GA/EFSA/AFSCO/2017/01–GA02) (The authors declare that this manuscript reflects only the authors’ view and EFSA is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.). R.A., P.A. and C.M. also thanks FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020), through national funds. R.A. was supported by FCT Individual CEEC 2018 Assistant Researcher Grant CEECIND/01570/2018.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Consumption of cereal-based foods by Portuguese children: a risk-benefit assessment

De uma forma geral, o consumo de alimentos pode apresentar potenciais riscos e benefícios para os consumidores. Os alimentos à base de cereais, incluindo os cereais de pequeno-almoço e os cereais infantis, representam componentes importantes da dieta humana e estão entre os primeiros alimentos sólidos que são introduzidos na dieta. Estes alimentos constituem uma fonte importante de vários nutrientes, incluindo o sódio, fibras e açúcares livres, que podem estar associados a efeitos benéficos e adversos para a saúde. Simultaneamente, os alimentos à base de cereais podem também ser veículo de contaminantes químicos (por exemplo, micotoxinas) e microbiológicos (por exemplo, Bacillus cereus). As aflatoxinas, um grupo de micotoxinas que apresenta maior potencial tóxico, são frequentemente detetadas em cereais. No âmbito do projeto RiskBenefit4EU, o presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar os riscos e os benefícios associados ao consumo de alimentos à base de cereais pelas crianças portuguesas. Os riscos (teores de aflatoxinas e B. cereus, sódio e açúcares livres) e os benefícios (teor de fibra) associados ao consumo de cereais de pequeno-almoço (CPA) foram comparados com aqueles associados ao consumo de cereais infantis (CI). Os resultados obtidos revelaram que a mudança do consumo atual para os cenários alternativos considerados (em especial para o consumo de cereais de pequeno-almoço com características semelhantes ao “Melhor CPA”) poderia resultar num ganho de anos de vida saudável.Foodstuffs, as cereal-based products, may present both potential risks and benefits to consumers. Cereal-based foods including breakfast and infant cereals represent important components of human diets and are among the first solid foods that young children usually eat. Cereal-based products constitute a source of several nutrients, including sodium, fibre and free sugars, which could be associated to beneficial and hazardous effects. Simultaneously, cereal-based foods could also present chemical (e.g. mycotoxins) and microbiological (e.g. Bacillus cereus) contaminants. Aflatoxins, a frequent mycotoxin found in cereals, are undoubtedly the most toxic. Developed under RiskBenefit4EU project, the present study aimed to assess risks and benefits associated with the consumption of cereal-based products by the Portuguese young children. The risks posed by the consumption of breakfast cereals (BC) versus infant cereals (IC), due to aflatoxins, B. cereus, sodium and free sugars, were evaluated against the benefits of the intake of fibre. Obtained results showed that moving from the current consumption to the considered alternative scenarios (especially if considered the consumption of breakfast cereals similar to “Best BC”) could result in a gain of healthy-life years.Este trabalho foi desenvolvido no âmbito do projeto RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen the risk-benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach financiado pelas EFSA Partnering Grants (Grant Agreement Number – GA/EFSA/AFSCO/2017/01 – GA02) 1.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Meta-analysis for growth and survival data

Meta-analysis enables to re-analyse “existing” data, generated previously by scientists working on a comparable subject. These existing data are made available through peer-reviewed publications but also through scientific reports from regulatory agencies, database, etc. Since the data have been collected by different research teams, in different laboratories with different experimental set up (within the same subject of interest, though), there is a natural heterogeneity between studies. For instance when studying the effect of heat treatment on survival of bacteria, several research teams could have worked on the same bacterial species and the same temperature range, but not exactly with the same experimental protocols. The choice of strains and heat-treatment medium could also differ. The advantage of the meta-analysis is to take explicitly the heterogeneity due to the study and other co-variables (e.g. strain, media) into account; the inter-study variation is quantified. As a consequence, meta-analysis enables to produce a more precise estimate of the effect of a particular treatment (e.g. heat-treatment effect) than a statistical analysis where the data are pooled regardless their sources. Meta-analysis is widely used in medical research; it is gaining interest in food safety and risk assessment. It has been used from estimating the prevalence of hazards on raw materials up to dose-response characterization. It has been also widely used to re-analyse existing data collected on either survival or growth of microorganisms in food matrix. That makes a lot of sense considering the abundant literature on microbial survival studies (since mid of the 20th century) and on microbial growth (with the boom of challenge testing and predictive modelling in the last 30 years). Meta-analysis could be equally valuable in food safety and food spoilage applications. In this presentation, meta-analysis principle and added value in food microbiology will be illustrated though various concrete examples

The role of validation, verification and microbiological sampling in a food safety management system

International audienc

Quantitative risk assessment and food processing

International audienc

Use of Predictive Modeling in Industry in Europe

International audienc