TRACEABILITY AND CERTIFICATION IN MEAT SUPPLY CHAINS

Food safety problems such as the BSE and dioxin crises focused attention on traceability systems and the certification of such systems. This study analyzes the status and perspectives of traceability systems and certification schemes, and reviews their potential costs and benefits. Results indicate that traceability and certification in meat supply chains comprise a very dynamic area with an increasing impact. Necessary transparency, control of livestock epidemics, increasing due diligence, and a declining role for governments are critical factors. Findings also reveal there is a general focus on the technical characteristics of traceability and certification, and there is a lack of economic considerations. Therefore, specific topics are emphasized for an economic research agenda, such as an analysis of the break-even point for the level of detail of traceability systems, the reconsideration of liability and recall insurance schemes, and regulatory incentives to motivate adoption by free-riders.certification, cost-benefit analysis, livestock production, supply chain, traceability, Industrial Organization, Livestock Production/Industries,

Are Product Recalls Insurable in the Netherlands Dairy Supply Chain?

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Production Economics,

Role and Position of the Modern Quality Assurance Manager

Quality assurance management in the food industry is complex, as it is the total of activities and decisions performed in an organisation to produce and maintain a safe product with the desired quality level against minimal costs (Luning, 2006). It includes: i) quality design, ii) quality control, iii) quality improvement, iv) quality assurance, and v) quality policy and strategy (Luning, 2007, 2009). Hence, it deals not only with all physical aspects of food products and their technological processes, but also with food handlers’ decisions in daily production as well as management’s decisions that impact food safety and quality (Luning, 2007). A proper quality management (i.e. total quality management) have shown to result in a better performance of the food business (Psomas, 2010; Fotopoulos, 2009, 2010)

Financial Evaluation of Different Vaccination Strategies for Controlling the Bluetongue Virus Serotype 8 Epidemic in the Netherlands in 2008

Background: Bluetongue (BT) is a vector-borne disease of ruminants caused by bluetongue virus that is transmitted by biting midges (Culicoides spp.). In 2006, the introduction of BTV serotype 8 (BTV-8) caused a severe epidemic in Western and Central Europe. The principal effective veterinary measure in response to BT was believed to be vaccination accompanied by other measures such as movement restrictions and surveillance. As the number of vaccine doses available at the start of the vaccination campaign was rather uncertain, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Dutch agricultural industry wanted to evaluate several different vaccination strategies. This study aimed to rank eight vaccination strategies based on their efficiency (i.e. net costs in relation to prevented losses or benefits) for controlling the bluetongue virus serotype 8 epidemic in 2008 Methodology/Principal Findings: An economic model was developed that included the Dutch professional cattle, sheep and goat sectors together with the hobby farms. Strategies were evaluated based on the least cost - highest benefit frontier, the benefit-cost ratio and the total net returns. Strategy F, where all adult sheep at professional farms in the Netherlands would be vaccinated was very efficient at lowest costs, whereas strategy D, where additional to all adult sheep at professional farms also all adult cattle in the four Northern provinces would be vaccinated, was also very efficient but at a little higher costs. Strategy C, where all adult sheep and cattle at professional farms in the whole of the Netherlands would be vaccinated was also efficient but again at higher costs. Conclusions/Significance: This study demonstrates that a financial analysis differentiates between vaccination strategies and indicates important decision rules based on efficienc

Cost Analysis of Various Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza Surveillance Systems in the Dutch Egg Layer Sector

Background: As low pathogenic avian influenza viruses can mutate into high pathogenic viruses the Dutch poultry sector implemented a surveillance system for low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) based on blood samples. It has been suggested that egg yolk samples could be sampled instead of blood samples to survey egg layer farms. To support future decision making about AI surveillance economic criteria are important. Therefore a cost analysis is performed on systems that use either blood or eggs as sampled material. Methodology/Principal Findings: The effectiveness of surveillance using egg or blood samples was evaluated using scenario tree models. Then an economic model was developed that calculates the total costs for eight surveillance systems that have equal effectiveness. The model considers costs for sampling, sample preparation, sample transport, testing, communication of test results and for the confirmation test on false positive results. The surveillance systems varied in sampled material (eggs or blood), sampling location (farm or packing station) and location of sample preparation (laboratory or packing station). It is shown that a hypothetical system in which eggs are sampled at the packing station and samples prepared in a laboratory had the lowest total costs (i.e. J 273,393) a year. Compared to this a hypothetical system in which eggs are sampled at the farm and samples prepared at a laboratory, and the currently implemented system in which blood is sampled at the farm and samples prepared at a laboratory have 6 % and 39 % higher costs respectively

Samenvatting ESBL-Attributieanalyse (ESBLAT) : Op zoek naar de bronnen van antibioticaresistentie bij de mens

Samenvatting over een project rondom ESBL's. Doelstellingen waren: vaststellen wat de bijdrage is van alle ESBL-reservoirs aan het dragerschap en infecties bij mensen en vaststellen wat de transmissieroutes zijn vanuit deze reservoirs naar de (geïnfecteerde) mens

Food quality, food safety and certification

Chapitre 16  This chapter introduces concepts of food quality, food safety, and certification strategies and challenges facing the implementation of these concepts. The issues are introduced from multiple perspectives, including those shared by governments and by policy decision-makers, producers, food industries, retailers, and food consumers.Ce chapitre introduit les concepts de qualité alimentaire, de sécurité alimentaire et de certification et les challenges liés à ces concepts pour l’industrie, pour les consommateurs et pour le régulateur

Agreement between four commercial diagnostic tests and routine bacteriological culture of milk to determine the udder infection status of dairy cows

Mastitis is usually treated based on clinical signs or somatic cell count information rather than on results of bacteriological culture of milk. In many countries an optimal mastitis treatment is considered important from the perspective of therapy efficacy, prudent antimicrobial use and farm economics. Farmers can optimize their mastitis treatment decisions if they know whether and which mastitis pathogen is involved. Information on the mastitis pathogen involved can be acquired from diagnostic mastitis tests such as culture-based tests. This study aimed to determine the agreement of four commercial culture-based mastitis tests with routine bacteriological culture of milk to determine the intramammary infection status of a quarter or cow. The commercial culture-based tests evaluated in this study were CHROMagar Mastitis (CHROMagar, France), Hardy Diagnostics Mastitis Triplate (Hardy Diagnostics, USA), Minnesota Easy Culture System II Tri-plate (University of Minnesota, USA), and VétoRapid (Vetoquinol, the Netherlands). We used 866 prospectively collected milk samples, routinely submitted to the bacteriological laboratory of GD Animal Health for routine bacteriological culture of milk from April to June 2016. Samples were cultured on routine bacteriological culture of milk and on the commercial culture-based tests. We calculated the agreement beyond chance of each commercial culture-based test result with the result of routine bacteriological culture using 2x2 contingency tables. Furthermore, inter-reader agreement was determined for 597 samples read by two masked readers. The agreement of the four commercial culture-based mastitis tests with routine bacteriological culture of milk for Gram-positive bacteria ranged from 0.14 (95% CI 0.11-0.16) using Hardy Diagnostics Mastitis Triplate to 0.25 (95% CI 0.22-0.28) using Minnesota Easy Culture System II Tri-plate. The agreement for Gram-negative bacteria was approximately 0.70 (95% CI 0.66-0.74) for all four commercial culture-based tests. The agreement for no growth ranged from 0.22 (95% CI 0.19-0.25) using Hardy Diagnostics Mastitis Triplate to 0.34 (95% CI 0.31-0.38) using VétoRapid. This category was affected by prevalence and bias as the prevalence adjusted and bias adjusted kappa ranged from 0.63 (95% CI 0.56-0.69) using CHROMagar Mastitis to 0.68 (95% CI 0.62-0.74) using Hardy Diagnostic Mastitis Triplate. Agreement between readers was almost perfect. Although only for Gram-negative bacteria a good agreement was found between commercial culture-based tests and routine bacteriological culture of milk, and further on-farm evaluations are needed to determine the effect of these findings on udder health, commercial culture-based tests are of added value to support decisions whether and how to treat cows with mastitis.</p