This leaflet provides a practical overview for consumers of what is done to secure the safety and purity of 7 types of organically pro-duced foods, and what the consumer can do to support those ef-forts and preserve the food safety after purchase. Other leaflets for consumers cover authenticity and fraud or taste, freshness & nu-trients, and separate leaflets aim at retailers or at production of specific commodities

Brandt, Kirsten

Ogden, Iain

Rosa, Eduardo

Wyss, Gabriela

English

Organic Eprints

  Info Organic HACCP   © BLE, Bonn / Thomas Stephan   This leaflet provides a practical overview for consumers of what is done to secure the safety and purity of 7 types of organically pro-duced foods, and what the consumer can do to support those ef-forts and preserve the food safety after purchase. Other leaflets for consumers cover authenticity and fraud or taste, freshness & nu-trients, and separate leaflets aim at retailers or at production of specific commodities.  Safety and ContaminationInformation to Consumers regarding Control of Quality and Safety in Organic Production ChainsIain Ogden, Eduardo Rosa, Gabriela Wyss and Kirsten BrandtPublished by    In co-operation with       Funded by the Commission of the European Communities under Key Action 5 of the Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development               2  The Organic HACCP Project leaflets This is no. 6 of a series of 14 leaflets comprising information on how control of quality and safety can be further improved in organic supply chains across Europe. The Organic HACCP project has reviewed studies of consumer concerns and preferences in relation to organic production systems and collected information about typical production chains for 7 commodities in regions across Europe. For each of the criteria listed below, the information was analysed to identify Critical Control Points (CCPs), defined as the steps in sup-ply chains where the qualities of the final product can be controlled most efficiently. CCPs were identified using methods developed for Hazard Analysis by Critical Control Points (HACCP), a standard procedure to prevent food safety risks. The new aspect is thus to improve how con-sumer concerns are addressed, through the use of the CCP concept for a wide range of criteria, not only safety.  Overview of the Criteria Examined  The analysis was done for the following seven criteria: 1.  Microbial toxins and abiotic contaminants 2. Potential  pathogens 3.  Natural plant toxicants  4.  Freshness and taste 5.  Nutrient content and food additives 6. Fraud   7.  Social and ethical aspects. The project analysed 29 organic supply chains in Europe for tomatoes, eggs, cabbage, wine, milk, apples and wheat bread. On the project’s homepage (www.organichaccp.org) each chain and the relevant Critical Control Points are de-scribed in detail. The present leaflet gives an overview of the outcome of the analysis for microbial toxins, abiotic contaminants, potential pathogens and natural plant toxi-cants. Two other leaflets for consumers are “Authenticity & Fraud”, and “Taste, Freshness & Nutrients”. Other leaflets address producers, retailers, etc. General issues relating to safety (pathogenic bacteria). The major safety risk in organic foods is zoonotic bacteria. They live in animals, often without causing disease, and can infect humans if the food is contaminated, e.g. from animal droppings. Examples are Salmonella from poultry and wild birds or the E. coli, strain O157 from cattle, which can cause serious illness or death in humans, even though most E. coli strains are harmless. These bacteria can grow both in some foods (if stored incorrectly) and in the human body, so even small numbers of pathogens can multiply to become a seri-ous health risk.   General issues relating to contamination (toxins) Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by mould fungi, which in high amounts can damage kidneys or immune systems of animals and humans. Mycotoxins can be formed in growing plants and the fungi can continue to develop after harvest. Most of them persist during normal cooking of food. Mycotoxins from contaminated feed can pass through the animals and occur in small amounts in meat, eggs, and milk. Mouldy or rotten materials are avoided for food production, as they would spoil the taste (and other aspects of food quality) of the food if they were used, so the actual risk to human health is minimal. Natural plant toxicants are toxic secondary metabolites produced by plants as protection against diseases and pests, which can pose a risk to human health if present in very high amounts. However, since many plant toxicants appear to have beneficial effects on human health in the low concentrations normally found in food, the real health risk is probably very small. But high levels indicate substandard food quality and should be avoided. Finally, contamination from industrial toxins such as dioxins, PCBs and furans can accumulate in the food chain. Other contaminants in organic food such as pesticide resi-dues or food additives are primarily a problem for authentic-ity, rather than safety, and are therefore described in the leaflet on Authenticity and Fraud.    Animal Products (eggs and milk) Safety depends on ensuring that pathogenic bacteria from the animal are minimised before the food is consumed.  For eggs, a good health status of the hens and careful hy-giene during production keeps transfer to a minimum, and depending on the traditions in the country, an unbroken cool chain can prevent remaining bacteria from proliferating.  For milk, all facilities used for handling it are carefully con-trolled and it is almost always pasteurised before being sold, so milk is not an important source of pathogens. Mycotoxins can occur in eggs or milk if the grain used for feed was contaminated. Analysis of mycotoxins can thus reveal if the animals received feed of inferior quality, while the levels in animal products are never so high as to pose a serious safety risk to consumers. Freshly harvested organic grain generally contains similar or lower levels of mycotox-ins than the corresponding conventional, and proper han-dling after harvest (thorough drying and storage under dry, clean and cool conditions) prevents accumulation.  Dioxins, PCBs and furans mostly originate from incinerators or industrial pollution and accumulate in the fat of animals and humans, increasing with age. Due to the requirement for outdoor runs in organic production, they can reach or-ganic hens from a variety of sources including soil, feed or                3  aerial fallout. If the birds are exposed to these toxins, some of it will show up in the eggs. In a few cases eggs have contained levels that were considered to be unsafe for hu-man consumption. To prevent this from happening, the producers can get the soil analysed before establishing outdoor runs or own feed production in polluted areas. Feed suppliers must analyse the feed material, and farmers should restrict the hens to no more than two years of laying.  Recommendations    Ensure that all utensils (including hands) that have been in contact with raw eggs are carefully cleaned before use with any other foods.    If relevant and available, buy pasteurised egg yolks and egg whites for dishes made with raw eggs (e.g. desserts).   If buying eggs produced near industrial sites, ask for information about how dioxin contamination is prevented.  Plant Products (cabbage, tomatoes and apples) Pathogenic bacteria do not naturally grow in plants, so safety risks are always due to contamination, during cultiva-tion, harvest, transport etc. Somewhat surprisingly, the proper use of manure (before sowing/planting) has not shown increased risk of pathogens under field conditions, possibly beneficial micro-organisms in the soil control the pathogens. However, all fresh produce should be treated as contaminated, you never know where birds or mice have chosen to place their droppings.  Fungal diseases (mould) or bacteria (rot) can cause my-cotoxin formation in both tomatoes and apples, and also increases the levels of natural plant toxicants. Both my-cotoxins and natural toxicants have bitter taste even in very small amounts.  Recommendations    Fresh produce should be stored under cool conditions and washed thoroughly before use.    Storage of prepared food (e.g. soups or casseroles) re-quires that the entire portion has been thoroughly boiled and then refrigerated.   Discard produce that appears or smells rotten or mouldy.  Processed Products (bread, wine) The procedures used to make bread and wine kills the ma-jority of dangerous bacteria, so there are few safety risks from pathogens. In principle mycotoxins in the raw material can contaminate the final product, but the risk is low, since spoiled raw materials cause poor quality of the final product.  Recommendations    Discard bread or wine with visible mould growth, mouldy taste or other quality defects.  Overall conclusion and recommendations  Generally, organic products are not more or less safe than other foods, in terms of pathogens or contaminants (other than pesticide residues). So as the consumer, if you take the normal precautions: remove dirt and spoiled foods, store not too long at appropriate temperatures and discard food that tastes bad, then the food can be enjoyed without risks.  Continuation in the QLIF project The work of Organic HACCP identified several areas where more research is needed to understand the quality of or-ganic products and to find better ways to fulfill consumer expectations. In 2004 the project QualityLowInputFood (QLIF, www.qlif.org) was started to broaden and deepen the understanding of quality of organic food. QLIF is an Inte-grated Project in the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme with 31 participants in 15 countries. QLIF is a 5-year project aiming to provide research and development on quality, safety and efficiency of organic and other low-input farming methods in Europe. The following topics relevant for safety and contamination will be investigated in QLIF:   Studies of relations between different aspects of food quality, consumer perceptions and buying behaviour (Consumer expectations and attitudes, 2004-2007).   Studies of effects of production methods on mycotoxins and natural toxicants in wheat and apples and Salmonella in pigs (Effects of production methods, 2004-2008).   Development of cost-effective methods to improve health of plants and animals, thus removing sources of bacteria and mycotoxins (Crop production systems and Livestock production systems, 2004-2008).   Development of HACCP procedures for control of quality and safety in organic supply chains and training courses for advisors (Transport, trading and retailing, 2006-2008).               4  Editorial Notes The editors and authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Commission of the European Communities under Key Action 5 of the Fifth Framework Research and Technological Development Programme and co-funding by the Swiss Science Agency (SBF) for the project "Recom-mendations for improved procedures for securing consumer oriented food safety and quality of certified organic products from plough to plate " (Organic HACCP; QLK1-CT-2002-02245). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Com-mission, nor do they in any way anticipate the Commission's future policy in this area. The content of this leaflet is the sole responsibility of the authors. The information contained herein, including any expression of opinion and any projection or forecast, has been obtained from sources believed by the authors to be reliable but is not guaranteed as to accuracy or complete-ness. The information is supplied without obligation and on the understanding that any person who acts upon it or oth-erwise changes his/her position in reliance thereon does so entirely at his/her own risk. Bibliographical Information Iain Ogden, Eduardo Rosa, Gabriela Wyss and Kirsten Brandt (2005): Safety & Contamination, Information to Con-sumers regarding Control of Quality and Safety in Organic Production Chains. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, CH-5070 Frick, Switzerland © 2005, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and University of Newcastle upon Tyne    FiBL, Ackerstrasse, CH-5070 Frick, Tel. +41 62 865 7272, Fax +41 62 865 7273, e-mail info.suisse@fibl.org, Internet http://www.fibl.org    University of Newcastle, Agriculture Building, UK – NE1 7RU, Newcastle upon Tyne, e-mail organic.haccp@ncl.ac.uk, Internet http://www.ncl.ac.uk/afrd/tcoa/  Language editing: Kirsten Brandt  Cover & layout: FiBL  Logo Organic HACCP: Tina Hansen, DIAS, Denmark   A PDF version can be downloaded free of charge from the project internet site at www.organichaccp.org or from www.orgprints.org/view/projects/eu-organic-haccp.html. Printed versions can be ordered from the FiBL Shop at www.shop.fibl.org. Authors  Iain Ogden (UNIABDN), Eduardo Rosa (UTAD), Gabriela Wyss (FiBL) and Kirsten Brandt (UNEW).  Contact: ain Ogden, UNIABDN: University of Aberdeen, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill, AB25 2ZD, UK. Tel. +44 1224 551132  Fax +44 1224 685604 e-mail i.ogden@abdn.ac.uk http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ims/staff/details.php?id=Iain-Ogden About Organic HACCP   The main objectives of this Concerted Action are to assess current procedures for production management and control in organic production chains, with particular reference to the characteristics valued by consumers, and from this to formu-late and disseminate recommendations for improvements.  The 2-year project started in February 2003.  The results of the project, including a database of Critical Control Points in the analysed chains, are available on the project website www.organichaccp.org. The Project Partners     University of Newcastle (UNEW), Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.   Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Frick, Switzerland.   Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL), Co-penhagen, Denmark.   Italian National Research Council, Institute of Food Sci-ence (CNR-ISA), Avellino, Italy.   University of Aberdeen (UNIABDN), Aberdeen, United Kingdom   Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Biological Agriculture (LBI) Vienna, Austria.   Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), Vila Real, Portugal.   Agro EcoConsultancy BV (Agro Eco), Bennekom, The Netherlands.   National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO), Oslo, Norway. 

Safety and Contamination Information to Consumers regarding Control of Quality and Safety in Organic Production Chains

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