The perception of risks associated with food-related hazards and the perceived reliability of sources of information

This study aimed to explore, on the one hand, public perception of risks associated with different food‐related hazards and, on the other hand, perception of reliability of various sources providing information on food‐related risks. Some differences were found when consumers compared six food‐related hazards in terms of perceived personal risk and their knowledge of potential food risks. The concern about food risks was found to be statistically significantly dependent on the perception of risk to the individual. As far as the perception of the reliability of information was concerned, a principal component analysis revealed some differences in terms of respondents’ perception when the sources were compared. Furthermore, a regression analysis showed that the perceived amount of information each source contained about food‐related hazards was an important element in perception of reliability, as well as the degree of concern consumers believed the agencies had with protecting their health from food risks.     

Risk ranking: investigating expert and public differences in evaluating food safety hazards

The allocation of resources with respect to food safety issues requires that decision makers prioritize these issues, which may conflict with the public's opinions on these matters. The purpose of this study was to compare how Canadian expert and lay respondents rank different food hazards, with a view to better understanding their underlying rationales for making decisions on food safety. A Carnegie Mellon risk ranking model was adapted for use by individuals with different backgrounds to rank six food safety issues: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, botulism, paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), and acrylamide. Focus groups were conducted using public (n=29) and expert (n=21) participants. Key themes were identified from the focus groups as reasons why issues were rated high or low. The most common themes for high rankings were prevalence (of an agent) and/or severity (of a disease) and knowledge and control of a food safety issue. For the lowest rankings, common themes included low prevalence and severity and personal control over an issue. Explanations for why choices were made included availability, affect, numeracy, and optimistic bias. The majority of the rationales used by all participants were similar with the exception of the high ranking given to acrylamide by the public participants. The effect of attribute framing seemed to be the most influential in a participant's choices. Understanding that comparable reasoning is used in food safety decisions by both experts and the public has important implications for developing productive risk communication dialogues about issues and priorities.     

Food-borne Listeria monocytogenes risk assessment

Listeria monocytogenes is ubiquitous in the environment and in food processing plants. Consequently, foods are frequently contaminated. However, the occurrence rate of listeriosis is only about five cases per million people per year. Listeriosis primarily strikes immunocompromised individuals, pregnant women and the elderly with a fatality rate of 20-25%. The FDA is in the process of finishing a risk assessment that is being conducted as an initial step in reviewing its approach to maximizing the public protection from foodborne L. monocytogenes . The risk assessment evaluated the presence and quantitative levels of L. monocytogenes in 21 groups of ready-to-eat foods. The potential growth of L. monocytogenes between retail point-of-sale, where contamination data originated, and consumption was modelled. The frequency and amount of consumption of these foods completed the data for the exposure assessment. For the hazard characterization or dose response part of the risk assessment, data from animal studies, virulence assays and epidemiological investigations were used to estimate the likelihood of illness for different human groups from consuming different numbers of L. monocytogenes . This risk assessment is a virtual review of current scientific knowledge. Quantitative modelling provides greater insight than a qualitative review and also indicates the uncertainty about our knowledge. The risk assessment does not attempt to define an acceptable or tolerable level of L. monocytogenes consumption or propose changes in regulations. These decisions are the responsibility of risk managers who consider additional factors such as food preferences, technical feasibility and societal values when evaluating regulatory policies.     

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。     

Who is at risk and what do they know? Segmenting a population on their food safety knowledge

Although the public is increasingly concerned about food-related risks, the rise in food poisoning cases suggests that people still make decisions on food consumption, food storage and food preparation that are less than ideal from a health and safety perspective (O’Riordan, N., Cowan, C., & McCarthy, M. (2002). Safety of Irish beef—concerns, awareness and knowledge of Irish consumers. Journal of Food Safety, 22(1), 1–16; Shaw, A. (2003). Public understanding of food risks: expert and lay views. FoodInfo Online, 2–3. Science Central from IFIS publishing. Available from <http://www.foodsciencecentral.com/library.html#ifis/11831>; FSAI (2004). Report on zoonoses in Ireland 2000 and 2001. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Available from <http://www.fsai.ie/publications/reports/Zoonoses_report.pdf>). Consumer knowledge has been cited by many studies as a factor that influences risk assessment and thus behaviour (Frewer, L. J., Shepherd, R., & Sparks, P. (1994). The interrelationship between perceived knowledge, control and risk associated with a range of food-related hazards targeted at the individual, other people and society. Journal of Food Safety, 14, 19–40; Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (1995). A guide to risk assessment and risk management for environmental protection, Department of the Environment, HMSO, 77–78; Fife-Schaw, C., & Rowe, G. (1996). Public perceptions of everyday food hazards: a psychometric study. Risk Analysis, 16(4), 487–500). In this paper we report on a quantitative study (n = 1025) that examines knowledge levels about food safety practices, food safety and food science amongst the population on the island of Ireland and identifies food knowledge segments within this population. The findings suggest that the majority of the population of Ireland know what they should be doing in their kitchen from a food safety perspective but they are not, in many cases, following the best practice guidelines and regard less than ideal food handling practices as safe. Furthermore, while food safety knowledge levels were high, the level of food science knowledge was rather low. The segmentation of the sample based on knowledge levels yielded some interesting findings. Four segments were clearly identified by Hierarchical Cluster Analysis and labelled “At-Risk”, “Food Safety Conscious” (FSC), “Food Science Knowledge Deficient” (FSKD) and “Informed”. The At-Risk segment (13%) were of particular interest as members of this segment clearly have less than ideal food safety practices and when compared with the other segments also have significantly lower knowledge about what they should be doing, about food safety and about food science issues. This segment may require targeted promotions from food safety communicators but, given their demographic profile, effective communication could prove difficult.     

CONSUMER FOOD SAFETY KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES

Consumer knowledge of safe handling guidelines and their reported practices assessed by a mail survey indicated consumers considered themselves informed about food safety, and most reported taking action to minimize risk from potential hazards. However, most responses were related to nutritional changes, and 20% indicated they did not know how to reduce risks from microbiological hazards. Consumers were knowledgeable about appropriate safeguards in selection and cooking specific foods, however mistakes were reported in temperature control and handling leftovers. Consumer Reports, university scientists, health professionals and science magazines were considered ihe most reliable source of food safety information. Industry advertisement appears to raise consumer concern in some areas. Educational intervention should emphasize the importance of temperature control and sanitation rather than taste to determine safety. Consumers should receive information about protective technologies like heat and irradiation pasteurization.     

良好农业规范和HACCP构筑速冻莲子质量安全防线

依据莲子生长、采收特性以及速冻莲子生产工艺、包装形式, 将良好农业规范(good agricultural practices, GAP)与HACCP有机结合应用于速冻莲子生产, 确保其质量与安全。通过莲子种植过程与加工生产过程质量安全风险评估与危害分析, GAP应用于种植过程, 对可能存在的潜在危害进行分析排查; 对生产过程潜在的风险因素, 从物理危害、化学危害、生物危害逐一进行分析, 确定生产工艺中的关键控制点(critical control point, CCP), 通过CCP来控制或者避免显著危害的发生; 采取监控措施保证CCP有效实施, 并在其发生偏离时采取相应的纠偏措施。将GAP与HACCP有机结合应用于速冻莲子的生产过程, 将全面构筑速冻莲子质量安全防线。     

Seeking confirmation? Biased information search and deliberation in the food domain

Individuals are often confronted with choosing between competing food attributes (e.g., healthiness vs. tastiness). To promote healthier food choices, is it important to understand what drives these choices. One potential driver of food choices is a confirmation bias, namely, a systematic bias in our approach to seeking information related to food attributes. This bias may generate avoidance of belief-disconfirming information and/or discounting of the value of belief-disconfirming arguments, both of which are documented in other domains (e.g., politics, religion). This study aimed to examine the confirmation bias in the food domain. We conducted an online study with a large sample (N = 427) stratified by sex and body mass index. Our sample, hypotheses, and analysis plan were pre-registered on the Open Science Framework. We measured pro-health and pro-taste food-related information aimed at directly testing the presence of the confirmation bias in the food domain. We also examined whether higher deliberation (indexed by higher amount of thought, lower sleepiness, and higher cognitive reflection) modulated this bias. Results showed that individuals avoided exposure to information that promoted the food attribute that they utilized less (i.e., healthiness or tastiness). Furthermore, arguments promoting less used food attributes were perceived as weaker, and this effect was enhanced for more alert individuals (i.e., less sleepy). To our knowledge, these findings provide the first evidence for a confirmation bias in the food domain and suggest that unlike other cognitive biases, higher deliberation may enhance this bias. Marketing could focus efforts on convincing consumers that healthy food is tasty, rather than convincing them to care more about health.     

Perceived risk of harm from cigarettes or smokeless tobacco among U.S. high school seniors.

This study examined perceived risk of harm from smoking or ST use in a U.S. nationally representative sample of high school seniors and examined its association with current smoking status. Data were derived from the Monitoring the Future project for 1999 through 2003 (n = 11,093). We used multiple logistic regression analysis to examine the association between comparative perceived risk of harm of smoking and ST use with current smoking status, while adjusting for sex, race, and perceived risk of harm from smoking. In 1999-2003, 74.0% of high school seniors perceived great risk of harm from smoking and 44.9% perceived great risk from using ST. Perceived risk varied by smoking intensity: 80.3% of non-smokers perceived great risk of harm from smoking, compared to 49.7% of students who smoked about one-half pack per day and 36.1% of pack-a-day smokers. Overall, 52.7% perceived equal risk of harm from using either product, 41.3% perceived greater risk from cigarettes, and 6.1% perceived a greater risk from using ST. Adjusting for sex and race, high school seniors who perceived that smoking conveyed a greater risk for harm than did using smokeless tobacco were significantly more likely to be smokers than were those who perceived equal risk from the products (odds ratio [OR] = 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29-1.60). Those who perceived that using smokeless tobacco was riskier than smoking were even more likely to be current smokers (OR = 2.43; 95% CI 1.96-3.01). Effective methods for communicating accurate health risks to young people are needed.     

FACTORS AFFECTING THE EMERGENCE OF NEW PATHOGENS AND RESEARCH STRATEGIES LEADING TO THEIR CONTROL1

Control of foodborne emerging or reemerging microbial pathogens has proven to be difficult. Even the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach is intended to manage known hazards. We propose that each change occurring in the food chain – encompassing human, technological, and environmental factors – creates a new selection pressure that drives microbial adaptation and emergence potential. Escherichia coli O157:H7 is examined here, as a case study, to illustrate the multidimensional nature of pathogen emergence. While future emergence or reemergence events are expected, the fundamental questions of what, where, who, when, and how such events will unfold are unknown. Contingency planning can provide responses to probable hazard scenarios, with a goal of developing practical controls. Examples of potential microbial hazards and changes in the food chain are presented. Once a hazard, associated food, locale, and at-risk population are identified, critical acute research questions need to be answered. Longer term research will improve our ability to respond to the next inevitable emergence event. Such coordinated endeavors will permit rapid modification and deployment of a science-based hazard management system that will prevent or minimize human risks.     

Locating calories: Does the high-calorie bias in human spatial memory influence how we navigate the modern food environment?

Human memory appears to be adaptively “biased” towards remembering the locations of (fitness-relevant) high-calorie nutritional resources. It remains to be investigated whether this high-calorie bias in human spatial memory influences how individuals navigate the modern food environment, and whether it is proximally associated with attentional processes. 60 individuals completed computer-based food eye-tracking and spatial memory tasks in a lab setting, as well as a food search and covert food choice task in an unfamiliar supermarket. The high-calorie spatial memory bias was replicated, as individuals more accurately recalled locations of high-calorie relative to low-calorie foods, regardless of hedonic evaluations or familiarity with foods. Although individuals were faster at (re)locating high-calorie (versus low-calorie) items in the supermarket, the bias did not predict a lower search time for high-calorie foods, or a higher proportion of high-calorie food choice. Rather, an enhanced memory for high-calorie food locations was associated with a lower perceived difficulty (i.e. greater ease) of finding high-calorie items in the supermarket, which may potentiate later choice of a high-calorie food. The high-calorie spatial memory bias was also found to be expressed independently of the amount of visual attention individuals allocated to high-calorie versus low-calorie foods. Findings further substantiate the notion that human spatial memory shows sensitivity to the caloric content of a potential resource and automatically prioritizes those with greater energy payoffs. Such a spatial mechanism that was adaptive for energy-efficient foraging within fluctuating ancestral food environments could presently yield maladaptive “obesogenic” consequences, through altering perceptions of food search convenience.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE RHEOLOGICAL AND SENSORY PROPERTIES OF A LEMON PIE FILLING

A range of lemon pie fillings containing the ingredients corn starch, sugar, egg yolk, lemon juice and water were prepared using a constant weight mixture design. There were five ingredients in the system and four ratio variables were employed resulting in 25 formulations. Dynamic rheological and sensory measurements were performed. The latter used magnitude estimation to evaluate the characteristics of thickness, sweetness and lemon flavour. The relationship between the complex viscosity (η*) and perceived thickness was in good agreement with previous work on simpler model systems. Perceived sweetness showed a greater decrease than perceived lemon flavour with increased viscosity. The decrease in sweetness with increasing viscosity increased with increasing sucrose concentration, but was less than has been observed for systems thickened by random coil polysaccharides. An attempt has been made to explain this in terms of solution structure.     

Quantitative risk assessment,food chemicals,and a healthy diet

Abstract

Choices about what to eat to improve health and what substances should be prohibited in food to prevent harm both involve judgments that must be made in the absence of definitive information. Scientists and government regulators have refined the limited data on chronic toxicity, especially cancer, from low‐level exposure to chemicals in food by using quantitative risk assessment techniques. Quantitative risk assessment, which produces an exact numerical risk, facilitates decision making about food additives, pesticide residues, and other chemicals present in food. This article examines the feasibility and utility of a similar quantitative approach to the risks and benefits from dietary factors such as fats and fiber. The article concludes that although a more quantitative approach in this area is possible, it would be less useful than it is in regulating potentially carcinogenic food chemicals. Quantitative risk assessment for carcinogenicity is necessitated, in part, by serious gaps in our knowledge about whether and how chemicals induce cancer in people. Although this technique yields a precise measurement of risk, it has no verifiable relationship to what actually happens in the body. Somewhat paradoxically, a greater knowledge of how the diet influences health makes it less necessary to strive for exactness in describing it.     

USE OF TIME/TEMPERATURE INTEGRATORS, PREDICTIVE MICROBIOLOGY, AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES FOR ASSESSING THE EXTENT AND IMPACT OF TEMPERATURE ABUSE ON MEAT AND POULTRY PRODUCTS

Temperature abuse is a main concern for chilled and/or MAP meat and poultry products since it will not only cause economic loss, but may also lead to a foodborne illness hazard. A major question for such products is whether organoleptic spoilage due to microbial or chemical action will occur before pathogen numbers or toxin levels become a risk when a product undergoes abuse temperatures. Time-temperature integrators (TTI) have shown potential to indicate or estimate temperature abuse. However knowledge of predictive food microbiology is needed for each food to employ a TTI tag. The simple Monod and the nonlinear Gompertz function can be used to obtain growth parameters (i.e., lag time, exponential growth rate) from kinetic studies of microbial spoilage. The temperature dependence of these parameters is best evaluated by the Arrhenius or the square root model. Effects of temperature on other deteriorative processes can also be described similarly. Three approaches are presented to evaluate the extent and impact of temperature abuse on meat and poultry by use of TTI tags, which include the effective temperature, the equivalent time and the equivalent point approach. Other technologies to evaluate or to reduce the impact of temperature abuse are also discussed .     

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.     

HACCP在速冻面点生产中的应用

分析了速冻面点生产流程中可能存在的潜在危害,应用HACCP确定关键控制点,并制定相应的解决方法。通过在生产过程中对危害的有效控制,可以确保速冻面点的安全性。     

Associations between dry period length and time to culling and pregnancy in the subsequent lactation

The association between dry period length (DPL) and time to culling and pregnancy in the subsequent lactation may be important for the economically optimal length of the dry period. Therefore, this study aimed to (1) quantify the association between DPL and hazard of culling and pregnancy in the subsequent lactation; (2) develop continuous functions of DPL for the hazard ratios of culling and pregnancy; and (3) investigate the effect of a cause-specific hazards model and a subdistribution model to analyze competing events. The data used in this observational cohort study were from dairy herd improvement milk test lactation records from 40 states in the United States. After edits, there remained 1,108,515 records from 6,730 herds with the last days dry in 2014 or 2015. The records from 2 adjacent lactations (current, subsequent) were concatenated with the DPL of interest, 21 to 100 d, in between both lactations. We defined 8 DPL categories of 10 d each. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to show associations between DPL and time to culling or pregnancy for 3 lactation groups: lactation 1 and 2, lactation 2 and 3, and lactation 3 and greater. To control for confounding factors in Cox proportional models, we included 6 current lactation covariates and 3 time-dependent variables in the survival models. Hazard ratios of culling were estimated for 4 days in milk (DIM) categories from 1 to 450 DIM. Hazard ratios of pregnancy were estimated for 3 DIM categories from 61 to 300 DIM. Competing risk analysis of 8 disposal codes (i.e., farmer reported reasons) for culling and the culling event for pregnancy were conducted by a cause-specific hazards model and a subdistribution model. Hazard ratios were also estimated as quadratic polynomials of DPL. Compared with the reference DPL category of 51 to 60 d, hazard ratios of culling and pregnancy of the other 7 DPL categories ranged between 0.70 and 1.49, and 0.93 and 1.15, respectively. Short DPL were associated with lower risk of culling in the early lactation but not over the entire lactation. Short DPL were associated with greater hazard of pregnancy. Trends in hazard ratios over the ranges of the 8 DPL categories were not always consistent. Competing risk analysis with both models provided little differences in hazard ratios of culling and pregnancy. In conclusion, variations in DPL were associated with meaningful differences in the hazard ratios for culling and pregnancy and minor differences in the relative frequency of disposal codes. Subdistribution hazards models produced hazard ratios similar to cause-specific hazard models. The quadratic polynomials may be useful for decision support on customization of DPL for individual cows.     

筷子安全危害源分析

危害源识别是风险分析的重要起点,也是风险评估的重要环节,有利于发现消费品在使用过程中可能出现的风险,有助于将事后监管转变为事前对风险进行预防控制。本文依照日用消费品风险评估通则,从物理危害、化学危害和生物危害3个方面,分析了竹木、金属和塑料等市场上主要筷子产品可能存在的安全危害源及其严重程度,重点分析了重金属、二氧化硫、防霉剂等化学危害产生的原因。为筷子产品质量安全风险评估提供参考。