The Application of Risk Communication to Food Standards and Safety Matters


Book Description

With increased public concern regarding food safety, greater demands are placed on risk communicators to involve the public and other interested parties in an interactive dialogue and to explain the magnitude and severity of risks associated with foodborne hazards in clear and comprehensible terms that convey credibility and trustworthiness. This requires communicators to recognize and overcome gaps in knowledge as well as obstacles inherent in the uncertainties of scientific risk assessment. This document is the report of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on the Application of Risk Communication to Food Standards and Safety Matters was held from 2-6 February 1998 at the Italian Ministry of Health, Rome.




Enhancing Food Safety


Book Description

Recent outbreaks of illnesses traced to contaminated sprouts and lettuce illustrate the holes that exist in the system for monitoring problems and preventing foodborne diseases. Although it is not solely responsible for ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees monitoring and intervention for 80 percent of the food supply. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's abilities to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks. Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration, a new book from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, responds to a congressional request for recommendations on how to close gaps in FDA's food safety systems. Enhancing Food Safety begins with a brief review of the Food Protection Plan (FPP), FDA's food safety philosophy developed in 2007. The lack of sufficient detail and specific strategies in the FPP renders it ineffectual. The book stresses the need for FPP to evolve and be supported by the type of strategic planning described in these pages. It also explores the development and implementation of a stronger, more effective food safety system built on a risk-based approach to food safety management. Conclusions and recommendations include adopting a risk-based decision-making approach to food safety; creating a data surveillance and research infrastructure; integrating federal, state, and local government food safety programs; enhancing efficiency of inspections; and more. Although food safety is the responsibility of everyone, from producers to consumers, the FDA and other regulatory agencies have an essential role. In many instances, the FDA must carry out this responsibility against a backdrop of multiple stakeholder interests, inadequate resources, and competing priorities. Of interest to the food production industry, consumer advocacy groups, health care professionals, and others, Enhancing Food Safety provides the FDA and Congress with a course of action that will enable the agency to become more efficient and effective in carrying out its food safety mission in a rapidly changing world.




Ensuring Safe Food


Book Description

How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as: What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States? Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.




Managing Food Safety Risks in the Agri-Food Industries


Book Description

Modern farming practices involve more stakeholders in the supply chain, presenting issues of storage, transportation, and distribution prior to reaching the consumer. This increasing complexity in food production chains creates more points for introducing microorganism contamination of crops, livestock, and aquatic organisms. Managing Food Safety Risks in the Agri-Food Industries addresses existing and emerging risks in the primary agri-food sectors and discusses ways to manage, reduce, or prevent these risks from occurring. Following a short introduction, the authors examine the advantages and disadvantages of various food chain risk assessment tools. The book covers three primary production sectors—crops, terrestrial livestock, and aquaculture products—along with a chapter on game and wild fish catch. Under each sector, the book addresses the existing and emerging food safety risks, challenges, and intervention strategies. Each chapter focuses on microbiological and natural or man-made chemical hazards that occur at the farm level with potential to cross-contaminate or bioaccumulate. The book addresses horticulture crops and microbiological contaminants, food safety hazards and prevention strategies in beef, and milkborne outbreaks. It discusses Campylobacter and Salmonella risk in the broiler industry, and the prevalence of Salmonella in pig meat, risk factors, and intervention approaches. The book also covers potential parasites and diseases from game and exotic meat and microbiological and environmental contaminants in captured fish as well as in farmed fish and shellfish. The authors conclude with an exploration of how consumers and agri-food stakeholders perceive risk and the best means for communicating risk to the public.




Communication Practices in Engineering, Manufacturing, and Research for Food and Water Safety


Book Description

This book demonstrates some of the ways in which communication and developing technologies can improve global food and water safety by providing a historical background on outbreaks and public resistance, as well as generating interest in youth and potential professionals in the field History of muckraking in the food industry Case study on groundwater regulation Interviews with members of the beef industry and livestock market owners




Microbiological Risk Assessment in Food Processing


Book Description

The chilling and freezing of meat remains an essential way of extending shelf-life and maintaining quality. Based on the work of the internationally-renowned Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Centre (FRPERC), Meat refrigeration provides an authoritative guide both to the impact of refrigeration on meat and best practice in using it to maximise meat quality for the consumer. Part one considers the impact of refrigeration on meat quality. There are chapters on the microbiology of refrigerated meat and its influence on shelf-life, drip production, weight loss and the effect of refrigeration on colour and texture. Part two looks at best practice in managing the cold chain from carcass to consumer. The authors discuss primary chilling, freezing, thawing and tempering, transport, storage, retail display and consumer handing. Part three of the book looks at aspects of process control, including chapters on such issues as temperature measurement, the design and optimal use of refrigeration systems. Both authoritative and practical, Meat refrigeration is a standard work for all those wishing to maximise the quality of refrigerated meat. The standard work on meat refrigerationCovers both individual quality issues and the management of the cold chain from carcass to consumer.













Encyclopedia of Food Safety


Book Description

With the world’s growing population, the provision of a safe, nutritious and wholesome food supply for all has become a major challenge. To achieve this, effective risk management based on sound science and unbiased information is required by all stakeholders, including the food industry, governments and consumers themselves. In addition, the globalization of the food supply requires the harmonization of policies and standards based on a common understanding of food safety among authorities in countries around the world. With some 280 chapters, the Encyclopedia of Food Safety provides unbiased and concise overviews which form in total a comprehensive coverage of a broad range of food safety topics, which may be grouped under the following general categories: History and basic sciences that support food safety; Foodborne diseases, including surveillance and investigation; Foodborne hazards, including microbiological and chemical agents; Substances added to food, both directly and indirectly; Food technologies, including the latest developments; Food commodities, including their potential hazards and controls; Food safety management systems, including their elements and the roles of stakeholders. The Encyclopedia provides a platform for experts from the field of food safety and related fields, such as nutrition, food science and technology and environment to share and learn from state-of-the art expertise with the rest of the food safety community. Assembled with the objective of facilitating the work of those working in the field of food safety and related fields, such as nutrition, food science and technology and environment - this work covers the entire spectrum of food safety topics into one comprehensive reference work The Editors have made every effort to ensure that this work meets strict quality and pedagogical thresholds such as: contributions by the foremost authorities in their fields; unbiased and concise overviews on a multitude of food safety subjects; references for further information, and specialized and general definitions for food safety terminology In maintaining confidence in the safety of the food supply, sound scientific information is key to effectively and efficiently assessing, managing and communicating on food safety risks. Yet, professionals and other specialists working in this multidisciplinary field are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with developments outside their immediate areas of expertise. This single source of concise, reliable and authoritative information on food safety has, more than ever, become a necessity