WHO is looking for experts to work on the burden of disease caused by foodborne exposure to cadmium, methylmercury, arsenic, and lead.
It is part of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Nutrition and Food Safety’s process to collect and assess evidence to estimate the global burden of foodborne diseases.
Most foodborne infections rose in Sweden in 2022 compared to the year before, according to the latest figures.
A report by the National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Folkhälsomyndigheten (the Public Health Agency of Sweden), Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish Food Agency) and Jordbruksverket (Swedish Board of Agriculture) showed a rise for Campylobacter, Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli infections. Some of this was because of increased travel and more people being infected abroad.
It is likely that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a 25 percent drop in E. coli O157 cases in England in 2020 compared to 2019, according to numbers recently released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
In 2020, 1,419 confirmed cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) were reported in England and Wales. This included 402 culture-confirmed cases of E. coli O157 and 690, where a serogroup other than O157 was isolated. Five people died. For another 329 cases, samples tested positive by PCR for Shiga toxin genes, but STEC was not cultured. In 2019, 539 E. coli O157 and 768 non-O157 infections were noted.
Smoking is traditionally used to help preserve certain foods such as fish, meat and dairy products and the smoking process also changes the flavour of foods. Smoke flavourings are produced by thermal degradation of wood and can be added to a range of different foods to give a “smoked” flavour.
The Board discussed the update on the performance of the FSA’s risk analysis process. This is the process of assessing, managing and communicating food and animal feed safety risks, ensuring high standards of food and feed safety to protect consumers. The Board noted both the steady progress with regulated products authorisations and risk analysis issues, while also recognising the pressure on resources at this time. However, the Board also asked for greater pace and ambition in the longer-term reform agenda to better support innovation in this sector.
Recent cases requiring the Government Chemist’s help have ranged from genetically modified rice from China to pesticides and mycotoxins in different foods, according to a referee analyst.
Paul Hancock told attendees at the Government Chemist Conference that a variety of technically complex cases are being received with the workload returning to normal after a decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investigations into a Salmonella outbreak are ongoing but a Listeria outbreak has ended, according to the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
More than 130 people are sick with Salmonella Mbandaka after eating chicken products from Ukraine. Four patients were admitted to hospitals and one person died.
Supermarkets in the United Kingdom have reported their Campylobacter in chicken results for late 2022.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) maximum target level is up to 7 percent of birds with more than 1,000 colony-forming units per gram (CFU/g) of Campylobacter.
Data from the retailers covers October to December 2022 on high findings of Campylobacter in fresh, shop-bought, UK-produced chickens.
EFSA officially launched a new journal Food Risk Assess Europe (FRAE), an open access repository of selected scientific articles from national food safety agencies across the EU.
As an addition to EFSA Journal on Wiley, FRAE aims to promote collaboration and provide a stronger evidence base for the EU risk assessment community.
As food safety priorities can vary widely across the EU, EFSA serves as a scientific knowledge hub for all domains within its remit. National food safety agencies perform scientific assessments primarily related to their national boundaries, and these can also be relevant at the European level.
Irish authorities have told a retailer in the country to recall all frozen food of animal origin that has been imported since early March.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) also ordered Metron Stores, which trades as Iceland Ireland, to recall implicated products from consumers.
The European Commission published its 2022 report of the Alert and Cooperation Network. The report shows that there was a significant increase in agri-food fraud activity during the year, with the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) remaining the most active network. A total 4361 notifications were transmitted through the RASFF linked to health risks in relation to food or feed. In addition, 2554 Administrative Assistance and Cooperation notifications or non-compliances with the European Union's agri-food chain legislation which do not present an immediate health risk were also reported with a further, 600 suspected cases of fraud notified.
The highest number of notifications (990) were linked to pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, a marked 20% fall compared to 2021. Among suspicions of fraud, the most frequent notifications were related to the illegal movement of cats and dogs with 276 in total, while more than half of those involved animals coming from outside the EU borders. Pets were often accompanied by counterfeit health certificates, illegally issued EU passports providing false information on the origin, or forged rabies anti-body laboratory results. The latter is of particular concern for animals coming from countries where rabies remains widespread.
The EU Alert and Cooperation Network is made up of members of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed network (RASFF), the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation network (AAC) and the Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN).
Report here
Wageningen University Food Safety Research has embarked on a four-year project to create an early warning system for detecting mycotoxins in European cereal grains.
The project, named "Mycotoxin Early Alert in the European Grain Supply Chain through Machine Learning and Big Data," establishes a Public-Private Partnership by uniting scientific and nonprofit groups, government bodies, and prominent industry figures.
A consortium, led by LGC in partnership with the University of Manchester and Romer Laboratories Ltd, has recently completed a project (FS101206) funded by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to develop a multi-allergen reference material kit containing five common allergens.
Recent studies suggest that food allergies affect between 1.1 and 10.8% of the global population, and the prevalence of these allergies seems to be on the rise. Analyzing food and food ingredients for the presence of allergens is crucial to guarantee safe food for people with allergies, protect the supply chain and assit businesses and risk assessors.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated antimicrobial resistance as one of the top ten global challenges facing humanity. This is not surprising, because antimicrobials have been a cornerstone in modern human and veterinary medicine. As the efficacy of these drugs decreases due to resistance, simple infections might become problematic once again, harkening back to the pre-antibiotics era. In this article, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in major foodborne bacterial pathogens will be highlighted, and its ramifications in relation to food safety will be discussed.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has introduced a revised model for delivering food standards controls.
These checks are carried out by local authorities or district councils to make sure food produced and sold by businesses is safe and what it says it is.
IAEA and FAO are to hold an event next year focusing on the use of nuclear technologies for food safety.
The International Symposium on Food Safety and Control will take place from May 27 to 31, 2024 in Vienna, Austria.
The European Commission has stepped in to try to stop a multi-year, multi-country Salmonella outbreak associated with sesame-based products. Several patients from the United States have been confirmed.
An increased level of official controls will be applied to tahini and halva entering Europe from Syria because of the risk of Salmonella contamination. Consignments will be subject to identification and physical checks at a frequency of 20 percent
Scientists have given a preview of a forthcoming publication on the use of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) in food safety.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will launch a guide in July that outlines the capacities that need to be in place before WGS can be useful for foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response; options for implementing it; and how to integrate WGS within existing systems.
Food standards controls are the checks carried out by local authorities (district councils in Northern Ireland) to make sure food produced and sold by food businesses is safe and what it says it is.
The changes published today will help local authorities to take a more risk-based and intelligence-driven approach to inspection, focusing their time and resources on food businesses that pose the greatest risk to consumers.
On June 6-9, the World Health Organization has scheduled a series of talks on food safety to increase awareness and encourage a variety of stakeholders to debate and discuss an array of topics on health and food safety. Over four days, WHO will explore the topics behind World Food Safety Day’s theme: “Food standards save lives.”
