Food Safety Policy

  • Throw away the key; Canadian politicos to punish food safety offenders

    Posted: June 7th, 2012 - 6:12am by Doug Powell

    The Canadian government is unveiling a food-safety bill today that will hike penalties for serious offences to $5 million.

    Sarah Schmidt of Postmedia News writes the bill, to be tabled in the Senate, could bring together as many as five food statutes with varying standards under one piece of legislation — the food provisions of the Food and Drugs Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, the Meat Inspection Act, the Fish Inspection Act and the Canada Agricultural Products Act.

    The move follows a recommendation from Sheila Weatherill to simplify and modernize federal legislation and regulations that affect food safety. The government turned to Weatherill to conduct an independent investigation on the state of food safety in Canada after the 2008 deadly listeriosis outbreak linked to deli meats produced at a federally inspected facility.

    Weatherill, who zeroed in on a "vacuum in senior leadership" among government officials, directed more than half of her 57 recommendations to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency following the death of 23 Canadians who consumed contaminated meat.

    Under current rules, anyone convicted of a serious offence could be fined up to $250,000. Under the new act, penalties could be as high as $5 million, or, in the case of the most serious offences, even higher at the court's discretion.

     

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  • Was your edumacation of any use? Public health survey for aspiring PhD

    Posted: June 5th, 2012 - 4:40pm by Doug Powell

    Evan wants to know if health types investigating outbreaks of foodborne illness – or, as it’s initially described, a lot of people barfing, go figure out why – have any training. And if so, what kind of training was offered and whether it was any good.

    Evan Henke, a PhD student at the University of Minnesota (right, pretty much as shown) wants to know this info to be able to summarize the typical training and work experiences of public health disaster responders in the U.S.

    And get his PhD.

    Evan writes, “To build the evidence base of determinants of health department performance, The University of Minnesota has developed an online survey for state and local epidemiologists and environmental health professionals involved in foodborne disease outbreak response in the U.S.

    “The Institute of Medicine has long recognized the need to describe the organizational and environmental determinants of public health department performance. This need is intensified in programs related to public health emergency preparedness and response, where public health activities are critical to the mitigation of and recovery from disasters.

    “Foodborne disease outbreaks are regularly recurring disasters requiring public health action including laboratory testing, epidemiological investigation, environmental inspection, and regulatory product traceback.

    “Several determinants of public health performance for these activities have been proposed. In focus groups conducted in 2010 by the University of Minnesota, state and local foodborne disease responders identified predictors of performance including the following:

    -Size of Jurisdiction
    -Disease Reporting Laws
    -Program Budget
    -Organizational Structure
    -Surveillance Processes
    -Staff Training
    -Staff Experience in Similar Disaster Response
    -Inter-Professional Relationships and More

    “If you are an epidemiologist or environmental health professional, please consider reviewing the survey consent and participating at the link below. The survey will require 15-20 minutes.”

    https://live.datstat.com/DCSS-Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=FOBOS_Survey_1

    This survey has been approved by The University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board (Study 1110E05746). If you have questions about the survey, please contact Evan Henke, PhD candidate at The University of Minnesota, at henk0071@umn.edu.

     

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  • Another brick in the wall: schools don’t want no pink slime

    Posted: June 5th, 2012 - 3:36pm by Doug Powell

    AP reports U.S. school districts are turning up their noses at pink slime, the beef product that caused a public uproar earlier this year.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the vast majority of states participating in its National School Lunch Program have opted to order ground beef that doesn't contain the product known as lean finely textured beef.

    Only three states - Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota - chose to order beef that may contain the filler.

    But as of May 18, the agency says states ordered more than 20 million pounds of ground beef products that don't contain lean finely textured beef. Orders for beef that may contain the filler came to about 1 million pounds.

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  • It’s not all about pets: US urges action to nurture public, food and research veterinarians

    Posted: June 3rd, 2012 - 1:23pm by Doug Powell

    As food inspection regulators in the U.S., Canada, Australia and elsewhere grapple with how best to get the most bang per regulatory buck, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has issued a report identifying the future skills veterinarians should possess to actually implement such changes.

    With more than half of veterinary students seeking training in companion animal medicine, many veterinary sectors, including academia, industry, food animal and public service, face potential shortages of qualified veterinarians that could have significant effects on public health, according to a National Research Council of the National Academies of Science report released May 30, 2012.
    .
    The report, written by the Committee to Assess the Current and Future Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine, warned that without immediate action, the academic veterinary community may not successfully prepare future generations of veterinarians for faculty teaching and research positions, jobs in state diagnostic laboratories and federal research and regulatory agencies, and the pharmaceutical and biologics industry.

    This potential shortage could be exacerbated by a strengthening economy that could create many new jobs in industry, according to committee member Fred Quimby, retired vice president and senior director of the Laboratory Animal Research Center at Rockefeller University in New York.

    The rising cost of veterinary education contributes to the situation, as costs could deter some veterinarians from pursuing advanced degrees and others from applying for lower paying positions, including government jobs in food safety, epidemiology and wildlife management. Moreover, the report found that a declining return on investment for veterinary education could reduce the quality of future applicants to veterinary school and diminish the quality of the education itself.

    This potential shortage of veterinarians with advanced training could diminish food safety and animal health standards, human and veterinary drug development, infectious disease control and wildlife and ecosystem management, according to the report.

    “Companion animal medicine and its growing number of specialties that improve the health and lives of pets has been a success story, but it dominates veterinary schools’ curriculum and resources, sometimes to the detriment of equally critical fields,” said Alan Kelly, chair of the committee that wrote the report and emeritus professor of pathology and pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. “We must ensure that schools train qualified veterinarians in sync with the diverse and growing array of societal needs.”

    Food safety and zoonotic disease prevention are among those societal needs, especially as meat production in developing, and often hot and humid, countries, according to Kelly.

    “The fact that 60 percent of all infectious diseases in humans are of animal origin and 75 percent of emerging infection diseases in the last decade arose from animals underscores the importance of maintaining expertise in other areas of veterinary medicine,” he said.

    The 320-page report culminates with five conclusions and 10 recommendations, including discussion of shortening the length of veterinary education by combining the DVM degree with other advanced degrees (notably MPHs, Ph.D.s, and MBAs).

    The report is available for download at: www.nap.edu.
     

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  • But will it mean fewer sick people? Canadian food rules being rewritten

    Posted: June 3rd, 2012 - 12:49pm by Doug Powell

    First a single inspection agency, now a move to a single inspection approach across all commodities.

    As reported by Sarah Schmidt of Postmedia News, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency released Friday its vision to modernize food inspection, making the case for getting rid of eight separate programs for dairy, eggs, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, imported and manufactured food, maple, meat and processed products.

    “This challenges the CFIA to manage risks consistently across different types of establishments and different foods. It creates situations in which foods of similar risks may be inspected at different frequencies or in different ways,'” CFIA writes of the current system in its discussion paper.

    “The model should raise the bar and set expectations for food control systems that are developed and maintained by industry with risk-based government oversight. It should also standardize requirements and procedures across all food, based on science and risk.”

    The release of the proposal, dubbed The Case for Change, kick-starts consultations, with a final plan to be released by next year and phased in over the next five years.

    A new food safety act, bringing together multiple laws under one piece of legislation, is also expected to be tabled as early as this month.

    Together, these changes will represent the single largest transformation since CFIA was created in 1997, when food inspection programs from different federal departments were brought under the umbrella of the agency.

    View the CFIA’s The Case for Change and the direction that the Agency is taking to improve food inspection on the inspection modernization section of the CFIA website.

    Forewarned: multiple summaries are easy to find, actual details, not so much. Typical CFIA.

    And it wouldn’t be CFIA without heaps of self-referential praise.

    "We already have a top-tier food safety system but our goal is to be the best," said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "Simply put, we want Canadians to have the safest food in the world. That is why we are seeking input from consumers, inspectors, food safety experts, industry and everyone who has a role to play in food safety."

    Sounds good. Walk the talk. Provide better information about outbreaks, especially homegrown ones.

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  • Vilsack says industry should learn from pink slime

    Posted: June 2nd, 2012 - 1:30pm by Doug Powell

    The U.S. ag secretary says pink slime is a “lesson” for meat companies about the power of social media.

    This is why producers and processors should not tie their brand to government.

    Social media allow the amplification of a risk issue to be accelerated, but the underlying faults that created the risk scenario remain the same – whether transmitted through Intertubes, paper or Aristotle's aether.

    Decades of food safety issues have revealed that communication is important, but must be coupled with risk assessment and management; fail at any of these components, and there will be losses.

    As reported by Meatingplace.com, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a conference call with the media Thursday that the storm over lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is, “a good wake-up call for food companies generally, that when there is an effort that uses the social media effectively, there has to be a rapid and specific and quick and comprehensive response. Hopefully that is a lesson that all food companies throughout the United States have learned.”

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  • Loophole, money concerns contributed to peanut death of student at fancy Melbourne school

    Posted: June 2nd, 2012 - 11:50am by Doug Powell

    A prestigious Melbourne private school has been slammed by a coroner who found it directly responsible for the death of a student who was fed beef satay despite having a known peanut allergy.

    The Sydney Morning Herald cited coroner Audrey Jamieson as saying Scotch College was ignorant of recently released guidelines on anaphylaxis and showed a lack of respect to people with dietary preferences or requirements when it gave 13-year-old Nathan Francis the meal that claimed his life.

    Two other cadets with a peanut allergy had the same meal.

    The boy's mother had informed the school of his allergy before Nathan attended the annual college army cadet camp at the Wombat State Forest in March 2007.

    The inquest heard Scotch College bought ration packs from the Australian Defence Force in a bid to save $39,000.

    But because the packs are not sold to the public, and since people with allergies are not permitted to join the army, they were not subject to food labeling legislation.

    "This lackadaisical approach to the distribution of the ration packs possibly represents a certain mindset about the 'type' of boy/man that should be in the army/army cadets, but at a minimum represents a lack of respect or prejudice towards those with dietary preferences and/or requirements," Ms Jamieson said.

    "The systematic failures may have commenced at the level of the army, but whatever lay behind and drove the process of distribution, it lacked rigour at the Scotch College level and operated in a way without regard to the consequences.

    "Scotch College failed to exercise reasonable care and attention to the medical and food allergy information provided and known to them at the time preparations were being made for the camp."

    In a finding delivered on Friday, the coroner said Nathan's death was directly related to the college's failure to take reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of the boys attending the cadet camp.

    She said his death could have been prevented if the college had exercised reasonable care and attention.

    Ms Jamieson said college staff at the camp had an unacceptable level of complacency towards student safety.

    The inquest heard there was a 10-minute delay in Nathan receiving his EpiPen (allergy treatment injector) because a staff member felt "uncomfortable" administering it.

    Outside court, Nathan's father Brian thanked the coroner for her strong findings.

    "To say Nathan's death has devastated our lives is too simplistic and understates the horror that has torn through our family," he said.

    "Scotch college could have so easily prevented Nathan's death.

    The family reached a confidential settlement with the school and the ADF following a Federal Court ruling that the army pay a $210,100 penalty over Nathan's death.

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  • Self-reported food safety surveys still suck, especially web ones, IFIC 2006-2010

    Posted: June 2nd, 2012 - 12:45am by Doug Powell

    Consumer attitudes toward food safety and their food-handling practices help to determine their risk of foodborne illness. The food safety questions in the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation Food and Health Survey have tracked these attitudes and self-reported practices using an annual, web-delivered survey each year since 2006, with more extensive food safety questions starting in 2008.

    Participants were members of an online panel compensated with a point system by a survey company, were recruited annually, and reflected the latest Census data for the United States population on key Census characteristics, including age, gender, race, and level of educational attainment. Each year’s Survey included approximately 1,000 participants.

    From 2008 to 2010, when the Survey included detailed food safety questions, participant confidence in the food supply increased (P = .000) and respondent reports of the following key food safety practices — hand washing (P = .001), washing cutting boards (P = .000), separating raw meat and poultry from ready-to-eat food products (P = .000), cooking to required temperature (P = .001), and properly storing leftovers (P = .000) — as well as following microwave cooking instructions declined (P ≤ .001).

    White, more highly educated respondents, and respondents from households that included individuals who were particularly vulnerable to foodborne illness, were more likely to report following recommended food safety practices. Survey respondents reported using expiration dates (68%), ingredient listings (54%), allergen labeling (9%), organic labeling (16%), and country of origin labeling (16%) on package labels to make food purchase and consumption decisions.

    Consumers used a range of sources for food safety information. The most trusted sources were government agencies/officials (39%), health professionals (37%), health associations (31%) and television news programs (31%).

    Consumer responses show gaps in knowledge and implementation of food safety behaviors that can be addressed by food safety educators, and demographic differences documented by survey responses can help educators put their information into contexts that will make it more compelling. Food safety information needs to have consistent, actionable messages distributed through multiple delivery systems to reach target audiences.

    International food information council foundation food and health survey, 2006–2010, food safety: a web-enabled survey
    Food Protection Trends, Vol. 32, No. 6, Pages 309–326
    Mildred M. Cody, Robert Gravani, Marianne Smith Edge, Carrie Dooher
    and Christy White

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  • Reform falters in Europe after 53 deaths from E. coli O104 in sprouts

    Posted: May 31st, 2012 - 8:50pm by Doug Powell

    In May, 2011, the delayed reporting of cases between agencies due to a decentralized government and its agencies was a contributing factor in the Germany-based E. coli O104 outbreak that led to 53 deaths and over 4,000 sick people. The E. coli strain responsible for the outbreak was unusually virulent, with high mortality and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) rates observed in healthy adults.

    A year later, Marian Turner writes in Nature that governments have made little progress towards improving the monitoring and reporting systems that allowed the crisis to drag on for weeks.

    Although the panic has sparked some proposed policy changes, these have become mired in political debate at both German and European levels.

    Under Germany’s current system, it can take up to 18 days for local and state health departments to relay case reports to the Berlin-based Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German federal agency for disease surveillance. Legislators have proposed a law to bring the country’s disease-reporting schedule into line with the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations. The law would require local health authorities to report cases of notifiable diseases to state authorities on the next working day; the states would then have another day to relay the information to the RKI. “We’ve been waiting almost a decade for this,” says Alexander Kekulé, a microbiologist at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany.

    The draft law has been passed by Germany’s federal parliament but is stuck in negotiations at the legislative council that represents Germany’s 16 states. For scientists, though, this change would still not be enough. “What really delayed the detection of this outbreak was the irregularity with which patients were referred for microbiological follow-up,” says Gérard Krause, an epidemiologist at the RKI. Like many European countries, Germany does not require that a patient with bloody diarrhoea or haemolytic uraemic syndrome (a life-threatening complication of some E. coli infections) be tested for the causative bacterial strain. The same is true of the United States.

    After the outbreak, German diagnostic laboratories were provided with kits to test samples for genes belonging to certain pathogenic strains of bacteria, such as those expressing particular toxins, or proteins involved in adhesion or invasion.

    But physicians are responsible for requesting the tests, and the cost is not covered by German health-insurance companies. “The problem is mostly getting the money to use these kits,” says Angelika Fruth, a microbiologist at the RKI, “and that situation is just the same as before the outbreak.”

    In the wake of the outbreak, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that sprouted seeds pose a particular food-safety concern, and recommended that a standardized test for sprouts be developed and adopted across the European Union (EU). But EU member countries are still discussing the proposal, and scientists have yet to develop reliable methods to isolate pathogenic bacteria from seeds or sprouts.

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  • Sleeps with the fishes: illicit shellfish trade risking UK health

    Posted: May 29th, 2012 - 10:50pm by Doug Powell

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    The illicit and highly-lucrative trade in shellfish is putting the health of many thousands of people at risk with tonnes of potentially contaminated seafood feared to be entering the food chain.

    The Independent reports UK health officials and food watchdogs are concerned that a boom in the illegal harvesting of cockles, clams and oysters for sale to restaurants and wholesalers threatens outbreaks of serious food poisoning.

    The thriving seafood rustling industry, which sees unlicensed gangs of pickers target beaches and mudflats across the country to steal molluscs worth thousands of pounds at a time, has prompted a crackdown by the authorities.

    But with some pickers operating in organized gangs, fisheries protection bodies say they lack the resources to effectively tackle the problem.

    With an annual value of at least £250m, the legitimate shellfish industry is a major part of Britain’s food economy. Properly gathered molluscs are subject to strict purification treatments, including ultra-violet light and filtering, to ensure they are fit for human consumption.

    But shellfish taken from prohibited or unclassified fishing grounds, or sold before being properly treated, put the public at risk of serious illness caused by E. coli, norovirus, and salmonella, which can all be found in contaminated molluscs.

    An investigation by The Ecologist and The Independent has been told that in the event of a major health scare, the illegal trade would make it difficult for officials to verify the origin of some shellfish despite strict documentation procedures which are supposed to ensure traceability of all consignments of shellfish moved or sold on a commercial basis.

    The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it received “regular” reports of illegal shellfish harvesting and warned of the risks it poses to consumers.

    Highly-organised gangs, some believed to be operating directly on behalf of fish merchants, others run by gangmasters, are known to have targeted shellfish stocks in Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria and Teeside, amongst other areas, in recent years. Parts of north Wales and Scotland have also been affected. 

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