The Food Standards Agency and Public Health England are reminding people to take care when handling and cooking frozen raw breaded chicken products at home, such as nuggets, goujons, dippers, poppers and kievs.

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A global food safety network has been involved in almost double the number of incidents in the past few years.

INFOSAN was active during 162 food safety events across all regions in 2018 and 2019. This included 84 in 2019 and 78 in 2018. It was involved in 84 international incidents during 2016 and 2017.

The International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN), launched in 2004, is managed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

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This report of the European Food Safety Authority Advisory Forum Task Force on Data Collection and Data Modelling presents the outcomes of the discussions of the Task Force related to data collection and reporting processes, data models, IT infrastructure and data analysis. The objective of the Task Force was to deliver strategic recommendations to EFSA, to the European Commission and to Member States on food chain safety data, theirmanagement and use.The report includes summaries of initiatives and recommendations flowing from other discussion groups which are of relevance to the topic and context, e.g. the European Interoperability Framework. The report also contains the resultingvision of a future ideal food safety system, conclusions and recommendations foridentified quick wins, short‐to medium‐term and long‐term actions

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The 19^th issue (vol 9 | issue 2) of the International Journal of Food Studies, second issue of the 9^th year of publication, is now online.

First of all, we hope to find you safe and in good health!

This issue counts with the last two invited papers from the 5^th International ISEKI Food Conference - ISEKI Food 2018 - The Food System Approach - New challenges for Education, Research and Industry, in the area of Education methods, one invited paper from the 2^nd edition of the International School on Modeling and Simulation in Food and BioProcesses, together with more six research papers and one critical review paper of scientific literature.

We take the opportunity to announce and invite you to participate at the e-conference organised and supported by the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (UASVM of Bucharest) and the ISEKI-Food Association in collaboration with the ISEKI-Food Special Interest Group (SIG) "Food Structure and Bionanotechnology". This e-conference will take place from 18 - 19 November 2020 and will be focused on topics "From production to consumption" for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system.

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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are industrial chemicals which are used in several industrial processes and consumer products, due to their special technical properties. This group of substances includes more than 4,700 different compounds.

In the perfluoroalkyl substances sub-group, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) are the most thoroughly studied substances. Like many PFAS, these two compounds are not readily degradable, and are now detectable in the environment, the food chain, and in humans.

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Can edible insects trigger allergies? In September 2020, the BfR launched a new joint research project to protect consumers from potential allergic reactions: Allergen-Pro. The aim:
to establish methods for the in-depth analysis of allergens in food and to describe their impact on those with allergies. Seven partners from Switzerland and Germany are involved in
developing suitable and reproducible detection methods for insect components in food products.

Those with food allergies must avoid allergens in food. Health problems can be triggered by even the smallest traces for those affected. This is why manufacturers of ready-made foods
must list the ingredients on the packaging. A special declaration obligation applies to major allergens, such as peanuts, celery or egg, even if these are only found in small quantities in
the recipe.

However, the declaration of allergens that inadvertently enter a food, in other words which are not part of the regular ingredients, is not regulated. These kinds of inadvertent allergenic entries can happen due to transport and production conditions, for example, and pose a health risk to those with allergies.

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Listeria was detected in almost a quarter of frozen vegetable samples in England, according to a study.

Between December 2018 and April 2019, 1,050 frozen fruit and vegetable samples were collected. Listeria monocytogenes or other Listeria species were detected in 167 samples of vegetables. Listeria monocytogenes was present in 10 percent of frozen vegetables.

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Officials in Sweden and Denmark are investigating a hepatitis A outbreak with frozen imported berries suspected to be the source of infection.

Since mid-July, nine patients with the same type of hepatitis A virus have been reported from five different regions in Sweden. The latest patient fell ill on Sept. 18.

Six women and three men from Norrbotten, Västra Götaland, Stockholm, Uppsala and Södermanland are infected with the liver virus. Patients range from 2 to 78 years old. Also, a couple of people are ill in Denmark.

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Consultation to seek comments from stakeholders on the proposal to make the Animal Feed (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020.

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This year has brought nothing but huge changes for the world, especially for the food industry. Shutdowns, new operational models, and re-openings at this scale are new territory for us all. Even the definition of food safety culture has changed from “what you’re doing when no one is watching” to “what you do when everyone is watching.”

Customers and employees have their eyes open wider than ever before. Employees are watching to make sure you’re not taking their safety for granted, and customers are watching closely to make sure your employees’ actions don’t ring any alarm bells for health and safety.

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The UK National Food Crime Unit have launched a new newsletter, intended as a means of informing professionals about what they believe to be current issues affecting the food industry. You can read the first issue: NFCU Industry Newsletter September.pdf, and if you’d like to sign up to their newsletters, you can reach out to NFCU.Outreach@food.gov.uk.

Monthly summary of articles on food fraud and adulteration - July-August, 2020. Food fraud cases: wine, fish and fish products, eggs and egg producs, non-alcoholic beverages, milk and milk products, prepared dishes and snacks, herbs and spices, alcoholic bevarages, cereals and bekary products, fruit and vegetables, meat and meat products, nuts, fats and oils, honey and other.

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As transparency becomes ever more important to consumers, Nina Constantine from Eurofins Genomics discusses the new frontiers in food safety and traceability.

Traceability, food fraud and food safety have never been more interlinked; we are seeing a growing demand from consumers for transparency on the provenance and safety of products.
As such, we are turning to Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) methods, combined with other emerging technologies, such as blockchain, in order to help respond faster, more accurately and more effectively than ever before.

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REF: IRC259676

DEPARTMENT: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Northern Ireland (AFBI)

LOCATION: AFBI Stormont, Belfast, BT4 3SD

EFSA's Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) has launched today, 7^th October 2020, an open consultation on several sections of the draft scientific opinion on “maximum levels of cross-contamination for 24 antimicrobial active substances in non-target feed”. These sections include the description of the methodology proposed to answer the term of reference 1 of the mandate, which is related to antimicrobial resistance development, the uncertainties associated with it, and the data gaps/other considerations identified.

Additional sections of the draft opinion are shared to provide the background, contextualize the methodology, and to provide an example of the assessment if the methodology would be used (e.g. tetracyclines). These additional sections are provided only for information and are not submitted for consultation.

Please note that the deadline for interested parties to submit written comments is 18 November 2020.

Please find here the link to the dedicated EFSA webpage where you will find all relevant information and documents.

https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/Public_consultation_AMR_GP_feed

In case of any questions or enquiries on the consultation, please contact biocontam@efsa.europa.eu