Field application of farm-food safety risk assessment (FRAMp) tool for small and medium fresh produce farms

The objective of this study was to develop a farm food safety-risk assessment tool (FRAMp) which serves as a self-assessment and educational tool for fresh produce farms. FRAMp was developed in Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet software using standard mathematical and logical functions and utilised a qualitative risk assessment approach for farmers to evaluate their food safety practices. The FRAMp tool has since been tested on 12 fresh produce farms throughout UK. All the farms determined that FRAMp was interesting but 17% found it too long while 25% of the farms felt the tool was too complicated. The instructions on FRAMp usage were revised and farmers were given the options to skip and select specific steps in the farm risk assessment. The end users (farmers/farm managers) determined that developing their own action plans and using it as proof of assessment for future third-party audits were most useful to them. FRAMp tool can be described as an illustrative risk ranking tool to facilitate farms to identify potential risk factors during their crop production.     

食源性致病菌风险评估研究进展

食源性致病菌是食源性疾病的首要病因, 由其引起的食源性疾病长期以来一直是食品安全的主要威胁, 尤其在发展中国家,形势更严峻, 应引起重视。食品安全风险评估在降低食品安全风险、保障食品安全中发挥的重要作用日益显著。本文对近年来国内外食源性致病菌风险评估的研究进展进行综述,介绍了风险评估实际应用过程中我国学者对国外模型构建的利用和优化, 并总结我国食源性致病菌风险评估中存在的问题, 为更好地开展食源性疾病监测和食源性致病菌风险评估提供参考。     

危害分析在食品安全风险管理的应用

危害分析源自HACCP体系即"危害分析与关键控制点",应用危害分析并建立的HACCP体系,在国内外已经有较长久的应用发展历史。危害分析着重强调食品中存在危害的预防,应用于从初级生产到最终消费整个食品链中,是以科学性和系统性为基础,以对人体健康风险的科学证据为指导,识别特定危害,确定控制措施,从而有效确保食品的安全性。本文主要以保健食品为例,克服依靠食品安全控制的传统方法和传统经验进行风险管理的方法,而是通过科学应用危害分析,导入风险评估的原理进行定性定量分析,从源头对危害识别、危害分析、危害解决和监视等,提出在保健食品安全风险管理的预防性实际应用方案,从而将产品中典型、潜在的危害消除或降低到可接受水平。     

Hazard identification and exposure assessment for microbial food safety risk assessment

The four cornerstones of microbial food safety risk assessment are hazard identification, exposure assessment, hazard characterization, and risk characterization. These steps represent a systematic process for identifying adverse consequences and their associated probabilities arising from consumption of foods that may be contaminated with microbial pathogens and/or microbial toxins. This paper presents a discussion of the first two steps: hazard identification and exposure assessment, and considerations for different approaches that can be used to analyze the relevant information.     

Application of classification and regression trees for sensitivity analysis of the Escherichia coli O157:H7 food safety process risk model

Microbial food safety process risk models are simplifications of the real world that help risk managers in their efforts to mitigate food safety risks. An important tool in these risk assessment endeavors is sensitivity analysis, a systematic method used to quantify the effect of changes in input variables on model outputs. In this study, a novel sensitivity analysis method called classification and regression trees was applied to safety risk assessment with the use of portions of the Slaughter Module and Preparation Module of the E. coli O157:H7 microbial food safety process risk as an example. Specifically, the classification and regression trees sensitivity analysis method was evaluated on the basis of its ability to address typical characteristics of microbial food safety process risk models such as nonlinearities, interaction, thresholds, and categorical inputs. Moreover, this method was evaluated with respect to identification of high exposure scenarios and corresponding key inputs and critical limits. The results from the classification and regression trees analysis applied to the Slaughter Module confirmed that the process of chilling carcasses is a critical control point. The method identified a cutoff value of a 2.2-log increase in the number of organisms during chilling as a critical value above which high levels of contamination would be expected. When classification and regression trees analysis was applied to the cooking effects part of the Preparation Module, cooking temperature was found to be the most sensitive input, with precooking treatment (i.e., raw product storage conditions) ranked second in importance. This case study demonstrates the capabilities of classification and regression trees analysis as an alternative to other statistically based sensitivity analysis methods, and one that can readily address specific characteristics that are common in microbial food safety process risk models.     

2013年滁州市食源性致病菌监测分析

目的了解和掌握滁州市食品中食源性致病菌污染状况,为开展食品安全风险评估和确定高危食品种类、分布提供科学依据。方法按照《2013年国家食品污染和有害因素风险工作手册》中的标准操作程序,对市售10类食品进行金黄色葡萄球菌、沙门氏菌、志贺氏菌、单增李斯特菌、蜡样芽胞杆菌、阪崎肠杆菌、致泻大肠埃希氏菌、铜绿假单胞菌共8种食源性致病菌的检测。结果共抽检169份样品,检出致病菌17株,总检出率10.06%。其中蜡样芽胞杆菌12株、铜绿假单胞菌3株、致泻性大肠埃希氏菌2株。结论滁州地区市售食品存在不同程度的食源性致病菌污染,有一定的食品安全风险。其中婴幼儿食品、乳制品和桶装水等污染较为严重,主要污染菌为蜡样芽胞杆菌、铜绿假单胞和致泻性大肠埃希氏菌。     

Risk assessment of Listeria monocytogenes in fish products: some general principles, mechanism of infection and the use of performance standards to control human exposure

Risk assessment is increasingly used as a scientific process to assess the potential for adverse health effects to occur and as a basis for management of unacceptable risks. For each risk assessment activity, the purpose of the assessment should be clearly stated. For Listeria monocytogenes, the purpose of risk assessment may be providing information on the relative contribution of listeriosis to infectious diseases. For control purposes, the emphasis may be put on factors contributing to the risk of occurrence in a food or to inform risk managers that they should be setting food safety objectives. For an adequate risk assessment of L. monocytogenes, sound scientific data are necessary. This especially applies both to exposure assessment and hazard characterisation. Surveillance data indicates that cold storage to prolongs product shelf-life has opened an ecological window for the growth of L. monocytogenes. Assessment of dose-response relationship is often regarded as a key element in risk characterisation. Due to the large variability of the current assessed dose-response data, their contribution to assessing risks is low. The use of epidemiological data on incidence rate, types of food involved in listeriosis, etc. may be good alternatives. The use of performance standards or criteria, such as inactivation by heat or by fermentation, combined with processes that prevent outgrowth of the organism should be reconsidered. Presently, performance standards can simply be assessed since mathematical tools for their calculations are becoming increasingly available.     

A risk microbiological profile of the Australian red meat industry: risk ratings of hazard-product pairings

A risk profile of microbial hazards across the supply continuum for the beef, sheep and goat meat industries was developed using both a qualitative tool and a semi-quantitative, spreadsheet tool, Risk Ranger. The latter is useful for highlighting factors contributing to food safety risk and for ranking the risk of various product/pathogen combinations. In the present profile the qualitative tool was used as a preliminary screen for a wide range of hazard-product pairings while Risk Ranger was used to rank in order of population health risk pairings for which quantitative data were available and for assessing the effect of hypothetical scenarios. 'High' risk hazard-product pairings identified were meals contaminated with Clostridium perfringens provided by caterers which have not implemented HACCP; kebabs cross-contaminated by Salmonella present in drip trays or served undercooked; meals served in the home cross-contaminated with Salmonella. 'Medium' risk hazard-product pairings identified were ready-to-eat meats contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes and which have extended shelf life; Uncooked Comminuted Fermented Meat (UCFM)/Salami contaminated with Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and Salmonella; undercooked hamburgers contaminated with EHEC; kebabs contaminated by Salmonella under normal production or following final "flash" heating. Identified 'low' risk hazard-product pairings included cooked, ready-to-eat sausages contaminated with Salmonella; UCFM/Salami contaminated with L. monocytogenes; well-cooked hamburgers contaminated with EHEC. The risk profile provides information of value to Australia's risk managers in the regulatory, processing and R&D sectors of the meat and meat processing industry for the purposes of identifying food safety risks in the industry and for prioritising risk management actions.     

冷鲜肉中致病菌定量风险评估研究进展

随着生鲜畜禽产品消费需求的增加,食源性致病菌在冷鲜肉加工、贮藏和消费过程中的存在与消长规律及其消费者健康的影响逐渐进入公众视野,其引发的食品安全风险逐渐受到重视。微生物定量风险评估（quantitative microbialriskassessment,QMRA）是此类食品安全风险分析的核心,为冷鲜肉加工过程中危害分析与关键控制点、食品安全目标与法规的制定提供了理论依据。我国自《食品安全法》颁布、食品安全风险评估中心成立以来,QMRA工作已取得一定进展。本文对近年来在畜禽肉制品中已开展的常见的食源性致病菌的定量风险评估进行归纳,并对过程风险模型、模块化过程风险模型与组学技术在QMRA中的研究进展进行综述,总结了QMRA在生鲜肉食品安全管理中的应用现状,以期为冷鲜肉中的致病菌定量风险评估发展应用提供参考。     

婴儿奶瓶及食品包装材料中双酚A的风险评估

双酚A作为婴儿奶瓶及食品包装材料的生产原料是否对人类的健康有潜在风险以及风险的大小如何,是公众和政府密切关注的问题.根据风险评估理论的四个步骤,即危害鉴定、危害特征描述、暴露评估和风险特征描述,对双酚A进行风险评估,结果表明人体暴露于双酚A的量是微不足道的,没有对人体健康构成已知的风险.     

Microbiological risk assessment for personal care products

Regulatory decisions regarding microbiological safety of cosmetics and personal care products are primarily hazard‐based, where the presence of a potential pathogen determines decision‐making. This contrasts with the Food industry where it is a commonplace to use a risk‐based approach for ensuring microbiological safety. A risk‐based approach allows consideration of the degree of exposure to assess unacceptable health risks. As there can be a number of advantages in using a risk‐based approach to safety, this study explores the Codex Alimentarius (Codex) four‐step Microbiological Risk Assessment (MRA) framework frequently used in the Food industry and examines how it can be applied to the safety assessment of personal care products. The hazard identification and hazard characterization steps (one and two) of the Codex MRA framework consider the main microorganisms of concern. These are addressed by reviewing the current industry guidelines for objectionable organisms and analysing reports of contaminated products notified by government agencies over a recent 5‐year period, together with examples of reported outbreaks. Data related to estimation of exposure (step three) are discussed, and examples of possible calculations and references are included. The fourth step, performed by the risk assessor (risk characterization), is specific to each assessment and brings together the information from the first three steps to assess the risk. Although there are very few documented uses of the MRA approach for personal care products, this study illustrates that it is a practicable and sound approach for producing products that are safe by design. It can be helpful in the context of designing products and processes going to market and with setting of microbiological specifications. Additionally, it can be applied reactively to facilitate decision‐making when contaminated products are released on to the marketplace. Currently, the knowledge available may only allow a qualitative or semi‐quantitative rather than fully quantitative risk assessment, but an added benefit is that the disciplined structuring of available knowledge enables clear identification of gaps to target resources and if appropriate, instigate data generation.     

论中国食品安全风险监测和评估工作的形势和任务

从食品安全风险监测和评估的基本概念开始,系统地介绍了我国食品安全风险监测和评估的法律法规、发展现状、近2年的工作目标以及下一步的具体工作。我国的食品安全风险监测和评估工作在保障食品安全和确保食品食用安全性方面发挥了重要作用,但仍存在许多不足。进一步提高我国食品安全风险监测和评估体系的国际认可度,建立与国际接轨的食品安全风险监测和评估体系已迫在眉睫。     

Role of epidemiology in microbial risk assessment

Microbial risk assessment (MRA) is a systematic tool to evaluate the likelihood of exposure to food-borne pathogens and the resulting impact of exposure on consumer health. In addition, MRA can be used to evaluate the public health impact of intervention or control measures designed to prevent or reduce pathogens at any or all of the steps in our complex food production system. Epidemiological studies provide useful information and data for MRA. This paper discusses the use and limitations of epidemiological data in the development and validation of MRA using examples from published microbial risk assessments.     

供应链视角下我国突发食品安全事件风险评价

目的:分析我国食品供应各环节食品安全风险的大小,为今后制定突发食品安全事件应急管理策略提供理论基础和技术支持。方法:基于突变理论模型,构建突发食品安全事件风险评价指标体系,对我国2005—2014年间的食品安全风险进行综合评价。结果:总体而言,近10年我国食品安全风险呈缓慢下降趋势,但是从食品供应的3个具体环节来看,风险一直呈现波动趋势,特别是农产品生产和食品生产消费这2个环节,近2年来食品安全风险呈现增长态势。结论:完善食品安全法律法规体系和食品安全监管体系,推动农业分散经营模式向规模化生产模式转变,建立食品安全强制责任保险制度。     

剂量反应分析在食品微生物风险评估中的应用

微生物风险评估(Microbiological risk assessment, MRA)是食品安全管理的重要工具之一,一直是国际食品安全研究的热点。微生物剂量-反应分析是进行食品微生物风险评估中的重要工具,描述了特定人群中特定病原体(或其毒素)暴露引起特定反应的概率。本文综述了食品微生物风险评估中剂量-反应分析的研究现状,阐述了剂量反应分析研究中存在的问题,并对其进一步需开展的工作进行了展望,以期为我国食品微生物风险评估和食品安全监管提供参考。     

Challenges in Risk Assessment: Quantitative Risk Assessment

The process of risk analysis consists out of three components, risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. These components are internationally well spread by Codex Alimentarius Commission as being the basis for setting science based standards, criteria on food safety hazards, e.g. setting maximum limits of mycotoxins in foodstuffs. However, the technical component risk assessment is hard to elaborate and to understand. Key in a risk assessment is the translation of biological or chemical pathways into a mathematical framework. Within the International Training Program ‘ITP food safety, quality assurance and risk analysis’ of Ghent University, department of Food Safety and Food Quality, we developed for low and middle income countries and emerging countries a training module on risk assessment. In where (semi-) quantitative probabilistic risk assessment calculations or qualitative risk rankings are trained for both microbial and chemical food safety hazards along the agro-food chain. This presentation will explain these methodologies demonstrated with examples from former ITP trainees.     

Plenary lecture: innovative modeling approaches applicable to risk assessments

Proper identification of safe and unsafe food at the processing plant is important for maximizing the public health benefit of food by ensuring both its consumption and safety. Risk assessment is a holistic approach to food safety that consists of four steps: 1) hazard identification; 2) exposure assessment; 3) hazard characterization; and 4) risk characterization. Risk assessments are modeled by mapping the risk pathway as a series of unit operations and associated pathogen events and then using probability distributions and a random sampling method to simulate the rare, random, variable and uncertain nature of pathogen events in the risk pathway. To model pathogen events, a rare event modeling approach is used that links a discrete distribution for incidence of the pathogen event with a continuous distribution for extent of the pathogen event. When applied to risk assessment, rare event modeling leads to the conclusion that the most highly contaminated food at the processing plant does not necessarily pose the highest risk to public health because of differences in post-processing risk factors among distribution channels and consumer populations. Predictive microbiology models for individual pathogen events can be integrated with risk assessment models using the rare event modeling method.     

Food safety considerations and research priorities for the cultured meat and seafood industry

Cell-cultured meat and seafood offer a sustainable opportunity to meet the world's increasing demand for protein in a climate-changed world. A responsible, data-driven approach to assess and demonstrate safety of cell-cultured meat and seafood can support consumer acceptance and help fully realize the potential of these products. As an initial step toward a thorough demonstration of safety, this review identifies hazards that could be introduced during manufacturing, evaluates applicability of existing safety assessment approaches, and highlights research priorities that could support safe commercialization. Input was gathered from members of the cultured meat and seafood industry, researchers, regulators, and food safety experts. A series of workshops were held with 87 industry representatives and researchers to create a modular manufacturing process diagram, which served as a framework to identify potential chemical and biological hazards along the steps of the manufacturing process that could affect the safety of a final food product. Interviews and feedback on draft documents validated the process diagram and supported hazard identification and evaluation of applicable safety methods. Most hazards are not expected to be novel; therefore, safety assessment methods from a range of fields, such as conventional and novel foods, foods produced from biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and so forth, are likely to be applicable. However, additional assessment of novel inputs or products with significant differences from existing foods may be necessary. Further research on the safety of the inputs and associated residues, potential for contamination, and development of standardized safety assessment approaches (particularly animal-free methods) is recommended.     

Risk, consent and public debate: some preliminary considerations for the ethics of food safety

Two conceptual frameworks for understanding ethical responsibility with respect to risk impinge on food safety. On the one hand, optimization or public health frameworks define responsibility in terms of outcomes – benefits and harms – that are the result of choosing a particular action or policy. Statistics and probability theory provide a way for advocates of this approach to cope with imperfect or indeterminate knowledge of future outcomes. Informed consent criteria, on the other hand, demand that riskbearers be provided with all available information about the risks to which they are being exposed, and that they have a viable option of nonparticipation – of withholding consent to being placed at risk. Both approaches have relevance to food safety. In application, the optimization approach has relied on scientific assessment of outcomes associated with food-borne pathogens, while the informed consent approach has sanctioned the view that each individual has a right to apply their own definitions and values with respect to which foods are safe. Thus, in practice, 'science' has prescribed a particular theory of moral action – one that promotes optimization, rather than informed consent. By common agreement, science should be neutral with respect to moral claims. Scientists should, thus, find a narrower basis on which to state their factual claims about food safety risk.