The Food Chain's Posts (123)

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Quiz Time

Give this issue’s food quiz a try and you could be in with the chance of winning a fantastic prize!

 

Question 1: Which three sauces make up prawn cocktail sauce?

Question 2: Which ingredient causes bread to rise?

Question 3: What condiment is commonly served with turkey?

Question 4: What fruit is known for its unpleasant odour?

Question 5: Gluten is found in which cereal grain?

Question 6: Escargot is the culinary name for which creature?

Question 7: What is the more common name for sodium bicarbonate (often used in baking as a leavening agent)?

Question 8: The Korean dish Kimchi is made with which fermented vegetable?

Question 9: Which Japanese beef is generally considered the best in the world?

Question 10: What is the main ingredient in a falafel? 

 

safefood is delighted to offer one lucky quiz winner a fantastic food hamper (similar to pictured).

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To enter:

Send your answers to knowledgenetwork@safefood.net before 26 February 2022. This competition is open to Knowledge Network members on the island of Ireland only.

 

Congratulations to the winner of issue 21’s competition, from CAFRE, Loughry Campus, Cookstown, CO Tyrone. answers: 1 Waterford 2 Ham and Pineapple 3 three Stars 4 Switzerland 5 Sloe 6 Cilantro 7 Cheese 8 Herring 9 Potato 10 Flour and butter/Fat

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Helping Hand

Small food producers and food-focused businesses are a key part of the food industry on the island of Ireland. In fact, it is estimated that there are approximately 50,000 business producing food here and around 80% of these are small food producers.

Industry workshops previously hosted by safefood revealed that many staff working in small and medium food businesses (SMEs) don’t have a high level of food safety knowledge. This can lead to a host of serious issues, for both the businesses in questions and the general public at large.

The safefood team has been running information and education events for a number of years and, through these events, has met with small business owners and staff all across the island of Ireland. It is clear that many SME owners appreciate that the food safety knowledge gap in their businesses is something that needs to be addressed.

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However,  it can be difficult to prioritise food safety while dealing other challenges such as the competitive pressures of the sector; high turnover of staff; and the cost and time involved in training. All these factors can pull time, funds and resources away from food safety training. The issue is all the more pertinent today, with many food businesses now hiring new staff to deal with increases in demand brought about by the ongoing pandemic.

With all this in mind, safefood has introduced ‘safefood for Business’, a free e-learning programme focusing on the basic of food safety for SMEs in the food production arear. This includes SMEs working in food production, food processing, retail, catering and food services.

‘safefood for Business’ is ideally placed to help train these staff as part of their induction process and get them started in the basics of food safety. Speaking about the new enterprise Ray Dolan, safefood CEO said, “Having met many small food business owners through our all-island Knowledge Network, we understand the pressures they face and how they have a lot on their plate, including food safety training. Our aim is to provide business owners with a free and practical food safety training tool that fits their needs.”

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‘Safefood for Business’ was created using the collective experience of safefood staff as well as the latest food safety research available. The programme contains easy to understand, online modules designed to engage the participants and is ideal for both new staff and those returning to the sector. The topics featured in the online course cover all the basics of food safety and are ideal for small food businesses looking to train new staff.

“We designed ‘safefood for Business’ to be practical for small food businesses,” Dr Linda Gordon, Chief Specialist in Microbiology with safefood, explains, “so it uses short training modules with real-life scenarios. Because managers and small-business owners can track staff progress while training, it is ideal both for new staff as part of their induction process, as well as re-training staff returning to the industry.”

 

Participating staff will get a certificate of completion for each module completed and if they are interested in more advanced training, they can get this through external training providers.

 

The safefood for business course topics include:

  1. The importance of food safety
  2. Food microbiology
  3. Temperature control
  4. Personal hygiene
  5. Cleaning essentials
  6. Allergens in food
  7. Pest control
  8. HACCP

 

Get involved

The ‘safefood for Business’ eLearning programme is free to small and medium-sized food businesses on the island of Ireland.
To register or to find out more information, please see www.safefoodforbusiness.com

 

 

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Trust the meat thermometer this Christmas

This December, safefood is encouraging home cooks to ‘Trust the Meat Thermometer’ when cooking their Christmas turkey. The three-week campaign will consist of TV, radio and digital advertising as well as free information leaflets for shoppers being distributed through 200 butcher shops across the island of Ireland. The campaign communicates the three established checks for ensuring meat is properly cooked – no pink meat, juices running clear and piping hot throughout – with a meat thermometer giving that extra level of reassurance. Just pop it in the thickest part of the turkey and when it reaches 75 degrees Celsius, it’s passed the turkey safety tasty test.

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GET INVOLVED

We’d love to hear from you. Would you like us to feature your research or industry sector? What else would you like us to cover in the world of food safety? Send your article ideas, feedback and suggestions to knowledgenetwork@safefood.net.

 

Subscribe for your FREE copy

The Food Chain comes in print and email format. To subscribe for free print copies (Ireland and UK only), contact us on knowledgenetwork@safefood.net. If you receive print copies via post and have changed address, please let us know. To receive email copies, join us on www.safefoodkn.net.

 

Join the safefood Knowledge Network

To obtain free membership of the safefood Knowledge Network, go to safefoodkn.net and click ‘Sign Up’. Once your membership is quickly approved, you can follow the latest Knowledge Network news, learn about events and access Knowledge Network videos, conference presentations and lots of other useful resources.

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THE EXPERT BUSINESS BOOST

The new ‘safefood for Business’ eLearning programme is a great food safety training tool for small and medium sized businesses – and it’s free.

Small food producers and food-focused businesses are a key part of the food industry on the island of Ireland. In fact, it is estimated that there are approximately 50,000 business producing food here and around 80% of these are small food producers.

Industry workshops previously hosted by safefood revealed that many staff working in small and medium food businesses (SMEs) don’t have a high level of food safety knowledge. This can lead to a host of serious issues, for both the businesses in questions and the general public at large.

The safefood team has been running information and education events for a number of years and, through these events, has met with small business owners and staff all across the island of Ireland. It is clear that many SME owners appreciate that the food safety knowledge gap in their businesses is something that needs to be addressed.

 

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However,  it can be difficult to prioritise food safety while dealing other challenges such as the competitive pressures of the sector; high turnover of staff; and the cost and time involved in training. All these factors can pull time, funds and resources away from food safety training. The issue is all the more pertinent today, with many food businesses now hiring new staff to deal with increases in demand brought about by the ongoing pandemic.

With all this in mind, safefood has introduced ‘safefood for Business’, a free e-learning programme focusing on the basic of food safety for SMEs in the food production arear. This includes SMEs working in food production, food processing, retail, catering and food services.

‘safefood for Business’ is ideally placed to help train these staff as part of their induction process and get them started in the basics of food safety. Speaking about the new enterprise Ray Dolan, safefood CEO said, “Having met many small food business owners through our all-island Knowledge Network, we understand the pressures they face and how they have a lot on their plate, including food safety training. Our aim is to provide business owners with a free and practical food safety training tool that fits their needs.”

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‘safefood for Business’ was created using the collective experience of safefood staff as well as the latest food safety research available. The programme contains easy to understand, online modules designed to engage the participants and is ideal for both new staff and those returning to the sector. The topics featured in the online course cover all the basics of food safety and are ideal for small food businesses looking to train new staff.

“We designed ‘safefood for Business’ to be practical for small food businesses,” Dr Linda Gordon, Chief Specialist in Microbiology with safefood, explains, “so it uses short training modules with real-life scenarios. Because managers and small-business owners can track staff progress while training, it is ideal both for new staff as part of their induction process, as well as re-training staff returning to the industry.”

 

Participating staff will get a certificate of completion for each module completed and if they are interested in more advanced training, they can get this through external training providers.

 

The 'safefood for Business' course topics include:

  1. The importance of food safety
  2. Food microbiology
  3. Temperature control
  4. Personal hygiene
  5. Cleaning essentials
  6. Allergens in food
  7. Pest control
  8. HACCP

 

Get involved

The ‘safefood for Business’ eLearning programme is free to small and medium-sized food businesses on the island of Ireland.
To register or to find out more information, please see www.safefoodforbusiness.com

 

 

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NEWS AND EVENTS

The Knowledge Network Round-Up 2021

The Knowledge Network has had a very busy 2021. We have just launched safefood for Business, our new eLearning food safety programme for small food businesses. Our 2021 event calendar was packed with training workshops for small food businesses, Environmental Health Officers and food testing laboratory staff. We hosted various food safety webinars and produced food safety podcasts and various articles and publications. 

 

Small Food Business Workshops

During 2021 the Knowledge Network ran various successful workshops to assist small food business in many food safety areas including:

  • Practical allergen management for small food businesses
  • Managing allergens through cleaning and disinfection
  • Foodborne pathogens, how to control these and cleaning
  • HACCP & Record Keeping
  • Thermal Processing

 

Product Shelf-life Training for Environmental Health Officers

Throughout 2021 the Knowledge Network hosted eight online Product Shelf-life training workshops for Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) in Ireland. This training is required as food businesses are responsible for validating the shelf-life of their products, therefore EHOs need to understand the factors that influence the shelf-life of these products and verify the validation methods used by food businesses. Participants feedback post training was extremely positive with all participants saying the training was worth the time and effort and will be of benefit to them. Further workshops are planned for 2022.

 

Food Testing Laboratory Staff Training

During 2021 the Knowledge Network hosted four online Internal Auditing (ISO/IEC 17025:2017) for testing laboratory staff throughout the island of Ireland. These interactive workshops provided guidance on how to carry out internal auditing of testing and calibration laboratories to meet the requirements of ISO 17025:2017. The Knowledge Network also recently hosted a microbiological methods validation and verification workshop that provided food testing laboratory staff with vital guidance on why you need validate and verify methods, method validation and verification and proposed timetables for implementation of ISO 16140-3.

 

Food Safety Webinars in 2021

The food safety webinars that took place in 2021 included:

  • Assessment of the use of meat thermometers by consumers on the island of Ireland
  • Cold Plasma: a novel Non-Thermal Processing technology in the Agri-Food Sector
  • Update on Shiga-toxin producing E.coli in food
  • Our changing food: new protein sources and implications for the allergic consumer
  • Listeria, The Law, and What Good Control Looks Like

 

All webinar recordings can be found on www.safefoodkn.net

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A Recipe for Success?

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Journalist David Burrows takes a look at the much-hyped world of synthetic meat and what it could mean for the future of the food industry.

Twelve months ago, Singapore became the first country to approve a lab-grown meat. “For the first time, meat from real animals that hasn’t required a single animal to be killed or a single tree to be cut down can be sold,” said Josh Tetrick, Chief Executive at Eat Just, the US start-up that had created nuggets from cultivated chicken.

Around the same time, Israel’s then–prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first head of state to publicly taste a steak cultured by Aleph Farms, a start-up cofounded by Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Strauss Group and food engineer Didier Toubia. “It’s delicious and guilt-free, I can’t taste the difference,” Netanyahu said.

The prospect of meat grown in a vat rather than reared on a farm is attracting greater attention, perhaps more so now than ever given heightened interest in the food we eat and our deeper understanding of the impact it has on the planet and farmed animals. But is guilt-free meat-eating really within reach and, if so, when will Europeans be able to enjoy it? What’s more, will they even want to?

 Mimicking meat

Who can forget the world’s first lab-grown burger created by scientists at Maastricht University in the Netherlands in 2013? Only two food experts got to have a bite that day in August and their reaction wasn’t quite as glowing as Netanyahu’s. Heavy on PR, the event was more about proof of principle than the producing the perfect product. It was designed to get scientists, investors, politicians and the public thinking, and on those scores it has been a resounding success.

At the last count in 2020, US$366m (€317m) was raised by cultivated meat companies (six times that in 2019), with 70 companies working on at least 15 different types of meat – from beef to salmon, duck to lamb and 

even foie gras – according to the Good Food Institute (GFI). This was a “hallmark year for the field of cultivated meat”, GFI reported, with “considerable progress” made in scaling the technology, blossoming commercial partnerships and of course that regulatory precedent set in Singapore.

Look at the challenges facing the traditional livestock sector – from antibiotic use and labour shortages to animal welfare and climate change – and the interest and investment is hardly surprising. The role of cultivated meat in curbing carbon emissions has become particularly hard to resist.

Data published in November at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow showed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food systems increased 17% between 1990 and 2019 and now total 16.5 billion metric tonnes of CO2e (16.5GtCO2e). Of those, 43% relate to deforestation, enteric fermentation, and livestock manure.

Switch that meat from farms and barns to bioreactors and the climate footprint of beef, pork, and chicken falls by 92%, 52%, and 17%, respectively. Land use also plummets between 63% and 95%, according to the GFI.

However, unpick the life cycle assessments a little and question marks appear. More sustainable approaches to pig and poultry production in particular can put cultivated meat under pressure as far as carbon footprints go. As research by the University of Oxford and the Chatham House think tank have suggested, cultivated meat is not prima facie climatically superior to meat; it is far more nuanced than that.

Cultured meat will also have to go toe-to-toe with the footprints of other protein alternatives. Insects and plants could well win hands down unless the energy efficiency of the lab meat process is improved, and renewable energy is used.

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Cash claims

As well as the carbon footprint, there is controversy surrounding the cost of cultivated meats. A report by the US food website The Counter recently claimed that the industry is on a “billion-dollar crash course with reality”. Experts lined up to discredit the claims being made, the product launch deadlines that have been missed and the impracticality of producing significant volumes of cultured meat. As this industry attempts to mainstream and reaches more markets, scrutiny will only intensify.

Are we being sold a lame duck? That isn’t clear. What is clear is that mimicking the complex biological processes that generate what we know as meat is “mind-bogglingly difficult, and massive technological hurdles to doing it at scale remain”, according to Tom Philpott, a US writer who has reviewed through the past 15 years of claims about when lab meat will emerge. Achieving scale in an industry like food is certainly a major headache – and one which Foodnavigator has just reported on. Based on a target of cultivated meat accounting for 10% of the global meat market by 2030 you would need 4,000 facilities each housing 130 bioreactor lines to produce the 40 million tonnes of meat needed. The cost? An eye-watering US$1.3 trillion (€1.1 trillion).

Scale is essential in order for the cost of cultivated meat to come down; how far is moot, and there is a reasonable argument that traditional meat remains artificially cheap. Indeed, start to factor in the costs – environmental and financial (through subsidies) – of conventional meat production and the €1.1 trillion bill mightn’t seem excessive.

Only for the brave

GFI’s recent study suggested production costs could be as low as US$5.66 (€4.90) per kilo come 2030, based on a ‘hypothetical production facility’. This will require, among other things, dramatic cost reductions in growth factor production and (very) “relaxed” payback approaches to returns on investment. “This business is not for the faint of heart,” Eat Just’s Tetrick told Politico earlier this year. “It requires a ton of upfront capital before you see revenue.”

Future Meat, another Israeli-based start-up, has boasted that the production cost of its cultured chicken breast is down to about US$4 (€3.50) and will be half that by next year. “We will launch a product in the US market in the next 18 months that will have a commercially viable price,” chief executive Rom Kshuk told the Financial Times.

Some experts suggest the forecasts being made by industry and GFI are extremely ambitious. The costs of the facilities in particular are contentious. Contamination could be a key issue for those growing meat (bacteria grow much faster than the meat). Pharmaceutical grade plants could be required, which would see costs shoot through the roof. On the other hand, if operations can run like a brewery, then some of those GFI figures come into reach.

There are also unknowns surrounding substitutes for foetal bovine serum (FBS) – a costly and essential ingredient for helping the meat grow. The idea of FBS is a difficult one to swallow for those eschewing meat on animal welfare grounds not to mention companies claiming slaughter-free meat. A search for potentially lucrative alternatives is underway. “[…] it is not clear which cell types or growth medium future producers will use,” noted Nicolas Treich from University Toulouse Capitole in a paper for Environmental and Resource Economics earlier this year.

Treich also detailed some of the wider impacts from scaled up cultivated meat production, for example on farmers and feed companies, as well as on land use and crop production. “Cultured meat may also significantly affect market power,” he wrote. “One common fear is that the world’s protein production sector will become even more concentrated.”

Control over the nutritional composition of the meats is also a concern. “[…] the impact of cultured meat consumption on human health will have to be carefully checked and documented,” noted Sghaier Chriki and Jean-Francois Hocquetee in their paper The myth of cultured meat: a review, last year.

These are just some of the many and varied unknowns and challenges facing a technology that you may have presumed is a done deal. Overcome all of those and another two still loom large, namely regulatory and consumer approval.

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Red tape meets green meat

The reality of cultivated meats hitting supermarket shelves or menus in the EU or UK is some way off. “There are significant legal barriers to bringing these products to the market,” explains Katrina Anderson from law firm Osborne Clark.

These products have never been on the market before, so the route to approval will be through Novel Food regulations. Scientific and technical guidance on submissions has been prepared but there don’t appear to be any pending applications at UK (with the Food Standards Agency) or EU (with the European Food Safety Authority) level.

Again, this is a little behind what some in the industry had forecast and there is a long road ahead. Approval following application takes at least 18 months and likely 24 or more, so 2024 is the year now being touted. That’s still pretty ambitious according to Christofer Eggers, a food lawyer based in Frankfurt with Squire Patton Boggs. “To convince EFSA about a lab grown meat will be an uphill battle,” he explains. “I did a novel food application for a fruit juice, and it took years and years to convince toxicologists at EFSA that it was just a fruit juice. But in the end the science will be good enough.”

The sector is itching for things to move faster though. “[…] there doesn’t seem to be a path to market at all” in the UK and EU, complained Michael Seldon, co-founder at cell-based seafood developer Finless Foods’, recently. Other markets, like Japan and the US, could therefore jump the queue and leave Europe behind (so the industry’s threat goes).

Brexit could grease the wheels of any applications in the UK. The country retained relevant EU law and the substance of the risk assessments but final approval rests with ministers – most likely a less time-consuming and elaborate procedure than securing agreement across 27 members states. Predicting how politicians react to science is a thankless task, though. “Even if the science is good, an approval may be rejected because it may ‘send the wrong message to the consumer’,” says Eggers.

Expect heated debates over labelling, for example. Limits have already been placed on the marketing of plant-based alternatives in the EU, while in the US there has been lobbying to ensure meat can only be labelled as such if it comes from animals raised and slaughtered. The most recent ISO definition of vegetarian and vegan, which according to lawyers is not legally binding but influential nonetheless, concluded that cultivated meat products would not be considered acceptable as vegetarian or vegan. That said, some vegan groups are thought to remain open-minded about the idea. “Vegetarians should remain vegetarian. That’s even better for the environment,” said Mark Post, who helped create that first lab burger.

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Meat with approval

How these products are labelled and described will have an influential bearing on whether the products take off, or not. GFI has done extensive research on what to call the meats and has plumped for ‘cultivated’. This is supported by a study in the journal Foods this year showing people prefer the terms ‘cultured’ and ‘cultivated’ over ‘cell-based’ and ‘cell-cultured’.

Transparency, too, will be critical. There is growing pressure to offer method-of-production labelling of traditional meat and those involved in the lab-grown equivalent spy an opportunity to gain the upper hand. US food tech firm Upside Foods is reportedly designing a new facility with “immense windows into the production rooms”.

The Foods paper, funded by Aleph Farms, involved 2,034 UK consumers. Only 7% were very familiar with the technology involved in cell-cultured meat; but after reading about it, strong support grew from 25% to 37% while those dead against the idea fell from 23% to 18%. They also envisioned the products making up 40% of their meat intake – a “remarkable” level of interest for a technology and new food category that is not yet on market, the authors noted.

The attention on cultivated meats since that day in August 2013 has certainly been impressive but buying a burger in a bar or a steak in the shops that was grown in a lab is a few years away. It is, however, inevitable. What it will mean in terms of carbon emissions, people’s health, access and affordability, etc. remains less clear. As synthetic biologist Christina Agapakis put it at the time in a piece for Scientific American: “It is one small bite at a press conference, sold as one giant leap towards reducing the damaging effects of meat. These are big claims worthy of close scrutiny.” And that should only continue.

About David Burrows

David Burrows is a freelance writer specialising in sustainability within the food chain. A graduate in agricultural sciences, he researches and writes features and reports for publications including Just-Food.com, FoodNavigator.com, FoodserviceFootprint.com, Poultry Business, Pig World, The Grocer, and Transform.

 

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A Day in the Life

   

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We meet Raymond O’Rourke, food lawyer and former Chair of the board of the European Food Safety Authority.

Wicklow native Raymond O’Rourke is a specialist food regulatory and consumer affairs lawyer and has worked for many years in legal firms both in Dublin and Brussels. Prior to his law career, he worked in Brussels at the European Parliament and for the European Consumers Association (BEUC).

In addition to advising various food companies, Raymond has completed numerous EU-funded and UN-funded legal harmonisation projects, particularly in the Balkans and the Middle East. He has been a  member of the board of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and Bord Bia and he is presently Vice Chair of the Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI).

He has also just recently completed a stint as Chair of the board of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The position focused on ensuring the authority functioned effectively and efficiently. “EFSA is the premier risk assessment body in the EU food safety system,” Raymond explains, “and following amendments to the EU General Food Law, the so-called Transparency Regulation which came into effect on 27 March 2021, the authority will increase the transparency of its risk assessments.”

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He continues, “In future, citizens will have access to studies and information submitted by industry in the risk assessment process.  EFSA will be notified of all commissioned studies to guarantee that companies submit all relevant information and do not hold back unfavourable studies.” Raymond and his board colleagues worked to ensure that EFSA was adequately prepared for these new requirements and stakeholders also knew about their new obligations.

During his time as chair Raymond succeeded in having the EFSA Strategy 2027, a 5-year strategy document, adopted by the board. The core vision for the strategy is safe food and sustainable food systems through transparent, independent and trustworthy scientific advice.

The EFSA framework provides EU consumers with one of the safest food systems in the world but various challenges mean it requires a flexible approach to issues that may occur in the future. “Demographic changes, malnutrition and the rise of non-communicable diseases, climate change and the depletion of natural resources (including biodiversity) will require new approaches to food safety in the future,” Raymond explains. “The strategy prepares the authority for these changes.”

 The need for flexibility within all systems has been demonstrated in dramatic fashion over the last two years with the appearance, and impact, of Covid-19. As Raymond notes the food industry responded admirably to this unexpected challenge, however he suggests that there may be long-lasting changes ahead. “Food supply chains demonstrated that they were flexible during the Covid pandemic but will they return to normal once economic recovery re-emerges? Taking into account consumer surveys completed by the European Union there have been changes in consumer behaviour that may continue into the future.”

These changes included a new focus on immune boosting and ‘healing’ foods, an increased demand for shelf-stable food and a rise in popularity of local food options (e.g. direct sales by farmers) and, of course, online shopping.

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“If these consumer behaviours become a definite trend it would tilt the balance more in favour of a local food model than a globalised food trade model,” Raymond points out. “This is further emphasised in the debate on climate change and the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy presently being adopted at EU level. “

Looking to the future of the industry on a broader level, Raymond notes that one of the most important issues at European level is the implementation of the aforementioned EU Farm to Fork Strategy which aims at establishing a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system. The strategy includes initiatives to lessen the use of pesticides; establish food waste targets; achieve at least 25% of agriculture to be organic; revise existing EU Animal Welfare laws and harmonise nutrition labelling on packaging to enable consumers make healthy food choices.

The EU plans to introduce a framework law for sustainable food systems which, Raymond says, will establish general principles and requirements on the sustainability of food systems. “This will be a truly radical move,” he says, “and will mean the food you purchase in future will not only be safe to eat but also healthy and sustainable for the planet.”

ABOUT RAYMOND
Where are you from?
Bray, Co. Wicklow

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I enjoy reading, attending literary festivals, cooking, art (Islamic art in particular) and travelling to the Balkans and Middle East.

Is there a book you return to again and again?
Yes, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

 

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LISTEN UP: THE SAFEFOOD PODCASTS

The safefood podcasts bring you insights and advice from leading experts on food safety. Through the series, we’ll be looking at factors that shape the food industry on the island of Ireland. In our most recent episode guest dietitian Sarah Keogh discusses food intolerances; conflicting information found online; Coeliac disease and the role of the immune system, irritable bowel syndrome and how it is linked to intolerances and how they are tested for.  You can listen to the  safefood podcasts at www.safefood.net/professional/food-safety-podcasts or on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re interested in participating, would like to make a comment or suggest topics please email us at info@safefood.net.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Professor Colin Fricker, microbiologist and Chief Scientific Officer at Oculer  Ltd on problem solving and the ongoing threat of foodborne infections

 

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Professor Colin Fricker’s microbiology career spans 45 years and has a particular focus on the development and implementation of rapid, easy to use methods applied to the food and water industries. He obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Reading in 1987, having been awarded the WH Pierce Prize for outstanding contributions to microbiology the year before.

He was Microbiology Manager at Thames Water in London from 1990 to 2000, developing improved methods for water testing including Colilert-18, the world’s largest selling test for E.coli in water. Colin has edited five books, published more than ninety peer-reviewed publications and has contributed to the development of a wide variety of microbiological procedures used for environmental analysis in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Today he is Chief Scientific Officer at Ballina’s Oculer Ltd, a role he has held since 2015, and he is also Managing Director of the UK-based CRF Consulting which specialises in environmental microbiology.

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As Colin explains, his role at Oculer primarily covers research and development (R&D) and technical support around the company’s Greenlight technology, which offers automated assays to measure microbial contamination.

Greenlight technology is ideally suited for use in small to medium sized laboratories, Colin says, and is based upon the use of an oxygen depletion sensor. Systems based on oxygen depletion offer a number of benefits, including a reduction in the likelihood of product recalls. As they are fully enclosed, a trained microbiologist is not needed to perform the test thereby reducing lab costs for companies that use external laboratories for testing.

The R&D function of Colin’s role covers the development of new assays for use on the Greenlight system, he says. “Much of this work is focused on the development of novel and proprietary culture media that facilitate detection of a wide range of microorganisms. My role also includes the investigation of potential improvements to sensors for oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as other products of microbial metabolism.”

 

 

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It is a diverse role and one that is not without its challenges, as he explains. “The development of novel culture media that are specific enough to be used in growth-based assays is a challenge in itself but ensuring that the components required for achieving very high specificity of the assays are stable at room temperature can sometimes be difficult. However, when a new assay is completed and validated the hours spent researching methods of improving stability all seem worth it.”

The role also allows Colin to collaborate externally with academic colleagues on aspects of assay design and sensor manufacture and presentation, a process he greatly enjoys. He also assists customers in finding solutions to the challenges that they face. “Interaction with customers is an integral part of the role and one which I enjoy very much. Helping a customer solve a problem is without doubt the most satisfying aspect of the job.”

 

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When it comes to the food industry at large, Colin believes that foodborne infections and intoxications continue to be the main challenges it  faces.

“The increasing number of immunocompromised consumers will continue to present a challenge to food producers particularly with the increased demand for ready-to-eat foods.” He also points out that growing consumer demand for fresh, preservative-free products may also present a challenge, particularly in terms of product spoilage.

The solution, he believes, lies in better monitoring of processes and an awareness that further, new challenges may present themselves in the future.

“Improved monitoring of the efficacy of processing techniques will undoubtedly help reduce product spoilage and faster and more reliable monitoring is required,” Colin says, but adds a note of caution. “The emergence of new foodborne pathogens will always be a threat and we should not forget that it is less than fifty years since Campylobacter was identified as a common cause of food poisoning. It remains the most commonly reported cause of foodborne infection in the UK and Ireland but who knows what is to come?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Colin

Where were you born?
I was born and grew up in Southampton, England. I moved to Reading to undertake my PhD studies and continue to live there with my family.

What are your hobbies?
I am an avid watcher of cricket and rugby and enjoy time at home with friends and family. Food, both cooking it and eating it, is a big part of life!

Is there a mantra you live by?
Don’t worry about things that you can’t change.

 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

We are running a number of free online training workshops for those working in small food businesses, including:

 

04 Oct Effective food safety part I (HACCP and Record-Keeping)

05 Oct Practical allergen management for food caterers

06 Oct Practical allergen management for food manufacturers

19 Oct Effective food safety part II (Intro to food poisoning bacteria, how to control them & cleaning and hygiene)

 

To register please visit www.safefood.net/event

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GET INVOLVED 

 

We’d love to hear from you. Would you like us to feature your research or industry sector? What else would you like us to cover in the world of food safety? Send your article ideas, feedback and suggestions to knowledgenetwork@safefood.net.

 

Subscribe for your FREE copy

The Food Chain comes in print and email format. To subscribe for free print copies (Ireland and UK only), contact us on knowledgenetwork@safefood.net. If you receive print copies via post and have changed address, please let us know. To receive email copies, join us on www.safefoodkn.net.

 

Join the safefood Knowledge Network

To obtain free membership of the safefood Knowledge Network, go to safefoodkn.net and click ‘Sign Up’. Once your membership is quickly approved, you can follow the latest Knowledge Network news, learn about events and access Knowledge Network videos, conference presentations and lots of other useful resources.

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Listen up: THE SAFEFOOD PODCASTS

 

The safefood podcasts bring you insights and advice from leading experts on food safety. Through the series, we’ll be looking at factors that shape the food industry on the island of Ireland. Listen to our latest podcast where we are joined by Professor Chris Elliot from Queen’s University, Belfast, to discuss food fraud.

You can listen to all of our podcasts at https://www.safefood.net/professional/food-safety-podcasts or on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re interested in participating, would like to make a comment or suggest topics please email us at info@safefood.net.

 

 

 

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Quiz Time

Give this issue’s food quiz a try and you could be in with the chance of winning a fantastic prize!

 

Question 1: Which county in Ireland is famous for
the blaa?

Question 2:  Which extra toppings would you expect to find on a Hawaiian pizza?

Question 3: What is the maximum number of Michelin stars that can be awarded to a restaurant?

Question 4: Gruyère is a cheese from which country?

Question 5: Which fruit is produced by the blackthorn?

Question 6: What do Americans call coriander?

Question 7: What type of food is burrata?

Question 8: What type of fish is smoked to
make a kipper?

Question 9: Maris Piper is a type of what?

Question 10: Which two ingredients would you mix together to make a ‘roux’?

 

To enter:

Simply complete the quiz above and send your answers to knowledgenetwork@safefood.net before 12 November 2021. This competition is open to Knowledge Network members on the island of Ireland only.

 

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CONGRATULATIONS to chris Griffin of Dublin Public Analyst’s Lab, Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, Dublin who was the winner of issue 20’s quiz. Answers: 1 al dente 2 mint sauce 3 focaccia 4 squid 5 beans 6 choux 7 pomegranate 8 italian blue cheese 9 onion 10 hungary

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UPCOMING EVENTS

We are running a number of free online training workshops for those working in small food businesses, including:

 

04 Oct Effective food safety part I (HACCP and Record-Keeping)

05 Oct Practical allergen management for food caterers

06 Oct Practical allergen management for food manufacturers

19 Oct Effective food safety part II (Intro to food poisoning bacteria, how to control them & cleaning and hygiene)

 

To register please visit www.safefood.net/events

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NEWS AND EVENTS

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Protect your business from food fraud

Food fraud is a constant threat to all food manufacturing businesses on the island of Ireland, regardless of size. But how does a food business operator know if their business is susceptible to food fraud? All food businesses should be aware of the drivers, whether economic or behavioural, that can facilitate food fraud.

If you are a food manufacturing business, you should consider this from the perspective of your own business and ensure you are not vulnerable. safefood, in association with the Institute for Global Food Security in Queen’s University Belfast, have collated a wealth of information sources to help food businesses address their concerns in this regard. 

Scan the QR code to access these online resources and other tools to help protect your business.

 

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The Curious Consumer podcast

Don’t miss: The Curious Consumer podcast. It’s presented by safefood microbiologists Linda Gordon and Mairead McCann, who are on a quest to de-mystify food safety by separating fact from fiction. So if you’re curious about the origins of the “five-second rule” or who started food dating, then this is the podcast for you.

Listen here: https://www.safefood.net/Food-Safety/Busting-food-safety-myths/The-curious-consumer-podcast

 

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Trust the meat thermometer campaign

Research from safefood has found that more than half of home cooks (55%) don’t know what temperature  meat should be cooked to.  Less than 2% followed the three established checks for ensuring meat was safely cooked – piping hot, no pink meat and juices running clear. safefood is encouraging people to ‘trust the meat thermometer’ to ensure they cook their meats to 75°C and protect themselves from food safety mishaps which can lead to people getting sick.  See www.safefood.net for more.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Professor Colin Fricker, microbiologist and Chief Scientific Officer at Oculer  Ltd on problem solving and the ongoing threat of foodborne infections

 

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Professor Colin Fricker’s microbiology career spans 45 years and has a particular focus on the development and implementation of rapid, easy to use methods applied to the food and water industries. He obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Reading in 1987, having been awarded the WH Pierce Prize for outstanding contributions to microbiology the year before.

He was Microbiology Manager at Thames Water in London from 1990 to 2000, developing improved methods for water testing including Colilert-18, the world’s largest selling test for E.coli in water. Colin has edited five books, published more than ninety peer-reviewed publications and has contributed to the development of a wide variety of microbiological procedures used for environmental analysis in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Today he is Chief Scientific Officer at Ballina’s Oculer Ltd, a role he has held since 2015, and he is also Managing Director of the UK-based CRF Consulting which specialises in environmental microbiology.

As Colin explains, his role at Oculer primarily covers research and development (R&D) and technical support around the company’s Greenlight technology, which offers automated assays to measure microbial contamination.

Greenlight technology is ideally suited for use in small to medium sized laboratories, Colin says, and is based upon the use of an oxygen depletion sensor. Systems based on oxygen depletion offer a number of benefits, including a reduction in the likelihood of product recalls. As they are fully enclosed, a trained microbiologist is not needed to perform the test thereby reducing lab costs for companies that use external laboratories for testing.

The R&D function of Colin’s role covers the development of new assays for use on the Greenlight system, he says. “Much of this work is focused on the development of novel and proprietary culture media that facilitate detection of a wide range of microorganisms. My role also includes the investigation of potential improvements to sensors for oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as other products of microbial metabolism.”

It is a diverse role and one that is not without its challenges, as he explains. “The development of novel culture media that are specific enough to be used in growth-based assays is a challenge in itself but ensuring that the components required for achieving very high specificity of the assays are stable at room temperature can sometimes be difficult. However, when a new assay is completed and validated the hours spent researching methods of improving stability all seem worth it.”

The role also allows Colin to collaborate externally with academic colleagues on aspects of assay design and sensor manufacture and presentation, a process he greatly enjoys. He also assists customers in finding solutions to the challenges that they face. “Interaction with customers is an integral part of the role and one which I enjoy very much. Helping a customer solve a problem is without doubt the most satisfying aspect of the job.”

When it comes to the food industry at large, Colin believes that foodborne infections and intoxications continue to be the main challenges it  faces.

“The increasing number of immunocompromised consumers will continue to present a challenge to food producers particularly with the increased demand for ready-to-eat foods.” He also points out that growing consumer demand for fresh, preservative-free products may also present a challenge, particularly in terms of product spoilage.

The solution, he believes, lies in better monitoring of processes and an awareness that further, new challenges may present themselves in the future.

“Improved monitoring of the efficacy of processing techniques will undoubtedly help reduce product spoilage and faster and more reliable monitoring is required,” Colin says, but adds a note of caution. “The emergence of new foodborne pathogens will always be a threat and we should not forget that it is less than fifty years since Campylobacter was identified as a common cause of food poisoning. It remains the most commonly reported cause of foodborne infection in the UK and Ireland but who knows what is to come?”

 

About Colin

Where were you born?
I was born and grew up in Southampton, England. I moved to Reading to undertake my PhD studies and continue to live there with my family.

What are your hobbies?
I am an avid watcher of cricket and rugby and enjoy time at home with friends and family. Food, both cooking it and eating it, is a big part of life!

Is there a mantra you live by?
Don’t worry about things that you can’t change.

 

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A Day In The Life

We meet Adrienne Shaw, Technical Manager of the Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory (NIPHL)

 

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After graduating in Microbiology from the University of Bristol in 1982, Adrienne Shaw took up a role as Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer in the Bacteriology Department of the Belfast City Hospital (now part of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust). She practised clinical diagnostic microbiology until 2005, specialising in cystic fibrosis bacteriology for seven years. Along the way she achieved Fellowship of the Institute of Biomedical Science (1987) and has been registered as a Chartered Scientist since 2006. Adrienne has held her current post as Technical Manager of the Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory (NIPHL) since 2005.

Speaking of her role she says, “We are an excellent team delivering a comprehensive food, water and environmental microbiology service for the Department of Health. We are also an Official Control Laboratory for the Food Standards Agency, local authorities, departments within NHS Trusts in Northern Ireland and other clients, as appropriate.

“We are accredited to ISO 17025:2017 under the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). Therefore, much of my work is ensuring staff are trained and competent; and that the laboratory adheres to the technical and quality requirements of this standard.”
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Adrienne is responsible for fourteen staff comprising biomedical scientists, medical technical officers, senior assistant technical officers and assistant technical officers. Much of her time is spent managing staff and guaranteeing smooth and continuous service delivery, but there are other aspects to the role. “I also have to ensure that methods are fit for purpose, up-to-date with respect to legislative requirements, and evaluate the need for introducing new methods into the laboratory and their subsequent accreditation,” she explains.

As Deputy Quality Manager, she participates in proficiency testing user group meetings and is a member of the Public Health England Food Environmental Proficiency Testing (FEPTU) Steering Group. This helps to enhances her commitment to ensuring the Public Health Laboratory is appropriately challenged and that FEPTU has appropriate scope and challenge for its clients.

Adrienne’s role is a busy one and not without its challenges – and rewards. “Some of the most interesting and challenging aspects of the job focus on outbreaks and food premises with environmental microbiological hygiene issues working alongside Environmental Health Officers (EHOs),” she says, adding, “It is most satisfying when through laboratory testing we are able to identify the strains of organism and find a solution to the problem.

“During the pandemic there appears to be an increase in the presence of Listeria monocytogenes and this genus would be the most frequently encountered organism in our laboratory.”

Adrienne and her team work hard to support EHOs, ensuring food businesses are producing microbiological safe and hygienic products and protecting the public. It is a busy job, with staff processing and examining approximately 24,500 samples and reporting on 85,000 tests per year (pre-COVID-19). “During 2020, we had a reduction of about half in samples submitted from our eleven councils, from around 9,500 to 4,500; but saw an increase in the number of hospital waters tested for Pseudomonas aeruginosa due to opening of wards for COVID-19 patient care. The Food Standards Agency (Northern Ireland) ensured official control shellfish sampling, where the laboratory tests E.coli in live bi-valve molluscs, was maintained throughout.”

This easing in sample numbers during the pandemic gave Adrienne and her colleagues the chance to implement new measures required by their Trust’s COVID-19 policies in regard to protecting staff and clients.

 

 

 

 

9573755658?profile=RESIZE_710xAs with most workplaces, the wearing of face masks is now the new normal, social distancing has become habit as has the use of sanitiser and screens, though the labs would have always seen a high level of hygiene and safety.

“We have always had to monitor our laboratories environments and good hygiene is practised by all,” Adrienne notes. “So I don’t know if it is by intervention or sheer good luck, we have been spared from SARS-CoV-2 invading or compromising our workplace, for which we are very relieved. No complacency is the motto!”

This year sees the NIPHL workload projected to return to food sample numbers and tests to be slightly lower than pre-pandemic numbers; but a large increase in hospital water testing.

Adrienne will also be working on further extending the lab’s scope of accreditation and she’s looking forward to the challenge.

Though her career path has steered her away from her original plan of biomedical scientist, Adrienne has embraced her role as a manager. ”I consider it one of my greatest achievements, with support from senior management, to re-work the job specifications within the Public Health Laboratory, and introduce new roles.

“This means that technical staff now have a career path which will take them from Assistant Technical Officer (Laboratory Assistant duties) through to Medical Technical Officer.”

“Microbiology has been the love of my life since the age of 14,” she continues, “It has never let me down and even as a manager dealing with copious amounts of administration, there are still those opportunities to practice my skills and knowledge and know that I can make a difference in the world of public health.”

 

About Adrienne
What do you do in your spare time?
I live in rural County Down and have plenty of garden and stone walls to build and repair when I get time away from work.

Knowing the microbiological content of food has not put me off cooking and baking, which I have found has kept me sane during the pandemic.

I’m also an avid motorcyclist, spending holidays touring Europe and UK, following MotoGP, World and British superbikes.

 

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Cutting down on food waste while maintaining food safety

 

Lucas Westphal and Dan Hall at Campden BRI in the United Kingdom look at how we can reduce food waste safely 

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The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that if food waste was a country, it would be the third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China. Alarmed? With tonnes of food wasted in the UK and Ireland each year, you’re right to be.

Food manufacturers tolerate roughly 5% waste within their food processes under normal production, but often look for ways to reduce it. Monetary factors, such as the potential cost reduction and increased profits as a result of waste prevention or valorisation, can be an important driver behind reducing food waste.

While local waste legislation can play a part, many other ‘indirect’ monetary factors can play a role like the ethical responsibility of an organisation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve local food security. Other potential benefits include the improvement of the brand image and reputation of an organisation, but also the opportunity for strengthening stakeholder relationships. On top of this, food manufacturers may well face taxation in the future so planning ahead would mitigate this.

 

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Reducing food waste – a closer look at waste streams
Assessing your waste streams can help reduce food waste and there are two main approaches:

 

  1. Identifying waste streams and assessing preventable waste

Here, it’s important to consider how discrete the waste streams are: Is everything combined together? Or can a fraction be held back before this combination happens? If a waste fraction can be isolated, consider analysing it for its nutritional/functional value so the most can be made from it. For preventable waste, consider working with everyone – from factory operatives and technical to food safety – to ensure there is a full picture of how the waste is created and managed.

For example, in a scenario where the final products are considered faulty and not fit for sale: Could the process be optimised to have fewer products like this? If not, can the products be used in an alternative way? Is it a shelf-life issue or a cosmetic one? There may be an alternative sales stream that will accept these items (food banks if non-perishable etc.)

 

  1. Repurposing of “non-preventable” by-products

For those by-products that are inevitably going to be wasted, some food businesses try repurposing them. We have experience of this at Campden BRI following our research that incorporated butternut squash skins into tortillas doubling their fibre. Consumers like familiarity, so producing a high fibre product that is similar to a well-known one is a great way of helping ensure sales while increasing the public’s fibre intake. The additional advantage here was that the butternut squash skins provided a golden colour to the tortillas which added to their appeal.

Another example of repurposing what would otherwise have become food waste is our work on seafood shells. Our experts processed shells that had been removed from seafood into an aquatic feed. This shows that food waste doesn’t necessarily have to be repurposed for human consumption.

An important part of repurposing waste is the benefit-cost analysis, i.e. if we invest into repurposing this waste stream, how much will we get in return out of it? The Business Case for Reducing Food Loss And Waste is a publication by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme is a British registered charity) that can provide some insight into this.

When individual food businesses consider repurposing food waste, it’s helpful to think of what the benefit is for the industry as a whole, beyond how their business could benefit alone. For example, repurposing food that would have otherwise been wasted will help the industry combat the 1.5 million tonnes, equivalent to £1.1 billion, of food wasted during the manufacturing process, as was found in 2018 by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

 

What materials/waste streams should manufacturers look at to maximise food waste reduction?
Here, we suggest taking a holistic approach and looking at everything from raw materials to the final product at the consumer stage. Special attention should be given to bulk by-products as sometimes the best opportunities can be found here; even a small tweak in production could have a massive impact on bulk by-products. What this product is of course depends on the type of company we are looking at helping. A few examples of bulk by-products include: shells of crustaceans which are not consumed, peels/seeds of fruits and vegetables (generally anything which is the outer shell of something valuable inside)  and aqua faba.

 

A good example comes from breads often discarded by consumers at home. To give some background: Bread is one of Britain’s most wasted foods. According to figures from the UK Office for National Statistics, around 24 million slices of bread are thrown out by UK households every day – making up more than a third by weight of bakery food waste. But this isn’t an issue exclusive to the UK, we see the same story play out across Europe; 10% of bread and baked goods end up as waste after going stale or not being sold on the day of production.

With this in mind, increasing the shelf-life of bread can reduce waste at both the retail and consumer stage. How? Firstly, consumers associate the best before date of breads with its freshness (at least for packed breads), so a bread with a longer best before date will be considered fresher compared to one with a shorter one. Secondly, breads will last longer and can be consumed before reaching their best before date (some consumers don’t know the difference between best before/use by and discard everything past its due date).

 

Another example comes from cacao pulp. The cacao pod is comprised of a husk, pulp and beans. The beans are typically removed from the husk and kept in the pulp to ferment and develop flavour. The resulting fermented pulp is usually put back into the soil. Cacao pulp once fermented is full of vitamins and minerals, and a natural sugar replacer. It’s not surprising then that there are some ‘whole fruit’ chocolate products out there that use cacao fruit as a replacement for sugar. Considerations should be made for how the fermented by-product can be captured whilst keeping microbiological contamination in mind.

 

Are there any safety considerations?

A lot of by-products or waste streams have a high water content and usually high water activity is ideal for microbiological growth. Pair this with the nutrients available and the clock starts ticking for preservation to take place. An example of this is brewer’s spent grain which is high in protein and fibre, but as it is part of a live fermentation, the need to cool it down quickly is essential.

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Extracting materials for repurposing

There are different approaches for extracting materials that are to be used to repurpose food waste. The first is using by-products without sophisticated further processing. The outcome here is a material that is very cheap but also very variable in its composition and performance, the latter not being as helpful when attempting to repurpose it. Alternatively, extraction of high value components (fibres, proteins, micronutrients) preferably by physical means of separation (for example, size or molecular weight) can provide ingredients with superior functionality. It’s important to note here that physical extraction (instead of chemical/biochemical extraction) will mean a greater chance of declaring the ingredient as more clean label, i.e. without using ‘modified’ etc.

 

What to consider when marketing products made from by-products

Ultimately, the product you’ve developed by repurposing food waste will be marketed, usually to consumers. When doing this, important considerations include whether there are any pesticides on the repurposed by-product, whether it could be considered a novel food and which form the product will be supplied in and how this affects its functionality (for example, dried product can have altered properties to the hydrated form depending on the drying method).

 

Digitalisation as a solution

Our team at Campden BRI Hungary is currently working on an EIT Food funded project to optimise bakery processes and predict actual consumer demand with computational tools. This will ultimately reduce food waste. The project, known as PrO4Bake, will help small and medium-sized bakeries remain competitive by saving on costs associated with the production of baked goods.

 

How will the Industry 4.0 project achieve this?

Industry 4.0 refers to the transformation of industry through the intelligent networking of machines and processes with the help of information and communication technology (ICT). The term is used interchangeably with the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ in industry. The computational tools will allow manufacturers to adjust the amount and range of baked products to the demands of consumers, while adapting production planning and processes to best practice. This will make machine-powered processes more efficient which, in turn, will reduce raw material use, energy consumption and CO² emissions. We can expect these outcomes to lower manufacturer’s production costs all while offsetting some of their carbon footprint.

 

Food waste in a nutshell

To summarise, there are a number of ways that food and drink manufacturers can potentially reduce food waste but before doing so there are a few considerations to bear in mind. Sometimes, the best way of reducing food waste is to look at examples of how other companies have successfully achieved it and to emulate their process. Alternatively, our experts at Campden BRI have helped a number of food businesses from across the industry reach their food waste targets by building on the experience from each case.

 

ABOUT Lucas Westphal


Lucas works as a Senior Bakery Scientist within the Baking and Cereal Processing Department at Campden BRI. He holds a BSc in home economics and nutritional sciences from the University of applied sciences Niederrhein in Germany and graduated with a first class in Food Science (MSc) from the University of Reading.

 

About Dan Hall

Dan has been with Campden BRI since 2011 and works in the Product Innovation team in the Food Manufacturing Technologies department. He has a degree in Chemistry and has written publications as part of Campden BRI’s member funded research programme.

 

 

 

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A Day In The Life

 

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Elaine Clohosey, Technical Manager at BWG FOODS, on the importance of always striving to improve food safety

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It was perhaps inevitable that Kilkenny woman Elaine Clohosey would end up working in the food industry in some way, given that she grew up on a farm in Kilmacow, south Kilkenny. She headed to University College Cork (UCC) after school, where she completed a diploma in dairy science, followed by a BSc in food business. She won a scholarship and completed an MSc in food retailing as a result. In 2005 Elaine was awarded a gold medal for finishing in first place in the MSc in Food Safety Management.

Having worked for both Dunnes Stores and Dawn Meats, she took up her current position as Technical Manager with BWG Foods in 2004. One of Ireland’s leading food retail and wholesale companies, BWG’s brands include Spar, Londis, XL and BWG
Wine & Spirits. 

“I am the go-to person for everything to do with food safety at retail level,” Elaine explains. “I ensure that our retailers are aware of the most up-to-date legislation and how to implement it. The team and I review, update and evolve the BWG food safety manual on a regular basis.” 

Food safety training is a key focus and she is always looking at developing or improving BWG’s retailers’ on-line training platforms. She also assists with the wholesale business and works with other food bodies such as IBEC and safefood.

“Every day is varied and that is probably the main reason why I am still with BWG Foods after nearly 17 years. I am as enthusiastic as I was that very first day,” she says, and notes that BWG Foods is always looking at ways to develop and improve the business. This is an ethos Elaine is particularly interested in. “Everything can always be done better and nothing should stay the same simply for convenience sake. We should always look to challenge ourselves and improve on our practices, something which is at the very foundation of BWG Foods’ philosophy.”

A large part of her job involves liaising with and supporting other departments within BWG, especially trading, marketing and store development. “Food safety has a key role in so many elements of a food business. Product recalls have become a huge part of food safety and unfortunately are too frequent but the development of our new automated system has really helped us achieve successful recalls,” Elaine says.

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“Food safety also costs money. When you factor in the time spent in regularly taking temperatures, the cost of pest-proofing your premises, and paying a staff member to carry out tasks such as checking dates it all adds up. That said, it is a fact that all this monitoring and prevention can save a lot of money in the long term as well as saving the business. It’s a necessary cost to ensure your business operates at the highest standards.”

The ongoing Covid-19 situation continues to be a challenge but, Elaine says, one key food safety issue that needs constant review is the provision of accurate allergen information. “It is imperative to ensure this information is presented prominently for all loose foods on display,” she says. “In order to assist our stores in overcoming this challenge, we have approved two suppliers who provide digital allergen support for all our retailers so they can display accurate information on the tablets. Technology needs to be embraced to conquer such challenges.”

 

Elaine also notes that businesses were able to adapt quickly to the challenges that Covid-19 has brought.  “When Covid-19 arrived in our country in March 2020 it was new to us all, but the retail management and staff were to the fore at all times and assisted customers when there was initially a great level of fear. Covid-19 has developed a level of trust between customers and their local retailers and highlighted the importance of a local retailer to the communities they serve.”

This relationship is just one positive to have come out of the last year. Elaine also points to society’s improved awareness of hand washing (and how to do so correctly), which will help reduce incidences of food poisoning and flu-type illness in the long term. And there are other benefits too. 

“Living in Galway, I travelled to our head office in Dublin for meetings but BWG Foods is currently reviewing a proposal to adopt a hybrid approach to working at home and office work,” Elaine says. “I think this will have a positive impact on my work/life balance, which will be of benefit to the company, myself and my family and, indeed, everyone else working in BWG Foods.”

 

 

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About Elaine
Where are you from? I am from Kilmacow in the very south of County Kilkenny. Twelve years ago, I moved to Glinsk in Co Galway when I married my husband, but I am still a Kilkenny woman! I am fortunate to have a little girl, a boy and a dog so am kept very busy in a good way.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? I love hurling and also enjoy running, having completed four marathons under four hours. Last year I raised €4,500 for suicide charity Pieta House and the Glinsk childcare centre by completing the virtual Dublin City Marathon in my local village. I got great support on the day

 

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