Experts at a Codex committee meeting have drafted guidance on how to handle microbiological foodborne outbreaks.
The guideline will give countries a structured approach on preparedness and management to limit the scale of such outbreaks. It covers surveillance and monitoring systems, analytical methods, risk assessment and communication, using epidemiological and lab data and lessons learned.
French researchers have found out more about how the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes gets into the brain.
Listeria monocytogenes is responsible for listeriosis, a severe foodborne illness that can lead to a central nervous system infection called neurolisteriosis. This infection is fatal in 30 percent of cases, said researchers.
The Food Standards Agency has today published its strategy for improving food over the next five years and recommitted to its mission of food you can trust.
The five-year strategy reflects the FSA’s greater responsibilities now that the UK is outside of the EU and takes into account growing public concern about health and climate change.
The number of E. coli O157 infections in England shows a downward trend, according to a study covering 11 years of surveillance data.
From 2009 to 2019, there were 8,295 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O157 infections reported to national surveillance and 1,472 were classed as outbreak cases.
The scientific capabilities and technologies at our health security laboratories, including those in our science campuses at Porton Down, Chilton and Colindale and our regional labs, are at the core of our mission to protect people from all health hazards.
Our network includes reference laboratories, labs studying hazards in food, water and the environment, labs carrying out assessment of exposures to toxic substances or radiation and high containment facilities where we work with the most dangerous pathogens like Ebola.
Technical Executive, Imports & Exports (Communications & Information), Candidate Information Booklet
EFSA has recently published seven new staff positions for application.
These seven positions are:
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EFSA Professional Opportunities Service Continuity Manager – Deadline to apply: 28/03/2022 Business Analyst – Deadline to apply: 05/04/2022 Service Transition Manager – Deadline to apply: 06/04/2022 Team Leader Contaminants – Deadline to apply: 11/04/2022 Team Leader Scientific Coordination – Deadline to apply: 11/04/2022 Scientific Officer - Toxicology – Deadline to apply: 25/04/2022 Scientific Officer – Human Nutrition – Deadline to apply: 25/04/2022 |
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Food Business Operators (FBOs) must validate their microbial kill steps. When the process does not allow for the use of temperature sensors, or there is a lack of available data, microbiological challenge tests can be a valuable option, demonstrating the log reduction achieved by processing equipment and cleaning regimes.
Distribution of counterfeit goods, including food and drink, remains a problem and has been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to two European agencies.
Europol and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) said the pandemic has given opportunities for criminals who have adjusted their business models to meet this new demand. They added these fake food products can present a risk to the public.
EFSA TRAINEESHIPS CALL 2022
EFSA/NS/TR/2022
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), based in Parma, Italy is opening positions for Trainees (All Units and Departments)
Deadline for applications:
25th April 2022 at midnight (local time)#
The evolving systems for buying and selling food online will have implications for food safety, according to two reports published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
The first report looks at the impact of evolving food service business models and online providers on food safety and regulation. It covers third-party platforms for food ordering, online marketplaces, dark kitchens, direct-to-consumer options and rapid delivery solutions.
Food safety needs to be considered in situations involving food aid and limited availability, according to the FAO.
A case study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations presents two scenarios — heavy metal (lead) in corn and fungal toxins (fumonisins) in cereal grains — showing food safety issues in food insecurity situations.
safefood is inviting tenders for the provision of the provision of a database of food testing laboratory services currently available on the island of Ireland.
safefood is responsible for promoting awareness and knowledge of food safety and healthy eating on the island of Ireland. Part of this includes promoting scientific co-operation and links between food testing laboratories across the island. safefood has set up a number of support programmes that encourage and initiate inter-laboratory co-operation. In particular, such partnerships encourage information and technology transfer. Some of the initiatives launched include:
Incorporate laboratory activities within safefood’s food safety publications.
A database giving a detailed account of food testing laboratory services available on the island of Ireland will be useful to either those who already use some of these services (e.g. food businesses), to individual laboratories who may wish to avail of the specialised analyses provided by other laboratories, and to organisations or individuals who may have need of some of the analyses offered.
The database will be available in the laboratory section of the safefood website www.safefood.net accompanied by a search facility.
The closing date for receipt of tenders is 4pm Friday 1st April 2022.
safefood is responsible for promoting food safety and healthy eating on the island of Ireland. To support our knowledge base, we would like to invite tenders for research in the following specific projects:
Project Ref 02-2022: Food messaging to children and adolescents – what works?
Project Ref 03-2022: Applied interventions to promote good hand hygiene practices
The closing date for receipt of tenders is 4pm Thursday 14th April 2022
safefood is committed to promoting equality of opportunity.
Over 3,414 consumer complaints were received by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s (FSAI) Advice Line in 2021, with 36% of complaints relating to unfit food and 24% to poor hygiene standards. Overall, the 2021 complaints saw a 23% increase compared with 2020. That year saw a considerable decrease on the previous year due to COVID-19, and the 2021 numbers are more in line with the pre-COVID-19 figures of 3,460 in 2019.
This is Tenet's quarterly publication helping in house counsel and those from a science background assessing food safety keep up to date with current and emerging fraud related risks.
If you work in the food and drinks industry and take an interest in fraud and financial crime impact in the sector, please take a look at the 3rd issue of The Secret Ingredient.
The report presents results of testing for specific antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria, from lamb and turkey meat on retail sale in the UK between October 2020 and February 2021.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is investigating whether three illnesses in the United Kingdom are connected to an outbreak in the United States from infant formula.
On 28 February 2018 LGC hosted a workshop titled 'An analytical roadmap for detecting allergens'.
Food allergens represent a clear threat to the health and well-being of those affected and place an increasing pressure on food producers and the regulatory bodies which govern them.
During 2015, a number of spice products were the subject of a recall owing to the suspected unlabelled presence of almond. In one of the cases (cumin), although initial conventional screening indicated the presence of almond, the results of subsequent analyses could not confirm this. Further detailed analyses by the Government Chemist team, using a multidisciplinary approach (comprising mass spectrometry, DNA-based methods and ELISA), conclusively demonstrated that the presence of almond (Prunus dulcis) could be discounted in favour of a similar species, Prunus mahaleb. These results illustrate the limitations of adopting single methods, and highlight that more than one analytical approach to detect food allergens can be required. The workshop focused on providing advice, guidance and best practice on the application of a range of complementary analytical techniques for the detection of allergens in spices.
The presentations included:
