Tuesday, May 22, 2007

About overseas local authority.....FSIS

Adapted from http://www.fsis.usda.gov/About_FSIS/index.asp

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.

....THE OFFICIAL ROLE OF THIS AGENCY....KNOWN TO BE WITHIN THE USDA.....


more will be from evelyn....

On Staph. Aureus....for overall food concern of our pie

Staphylococcus aureus
Source

Sores

boils

infected skin areas

nasal passages of man and animals

Symptoms

Vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, chills, and subnormal body temperature commonly occur 1-6 hours after consumption of the contaminated foods.

Fever is not present

Symptoms last about a day

Cause

Toxigenic strains produce a heat stable enterotoxin when they are allowed to grow in a food. Normally you would expect that there would need to be at least 1,000,000 organisms per gram in order to produce enough toxin to cause an outbreak.

Toxin is heat stable - organism is not.

In order to get "Staph" poisoning it is necessary for the food to have been contaminated (almost always from food handlers) and subjected to enough temperature abuse to permit the organisms to increase to 1,000,000 per gram and produce toxin.

This organism is the classic cause of many picnic outbreaks. Why?

Prevention:

Prevent contamination from food handlers.

This is best accomplished by requiring all food handlers to wear gloves and training them in proper handling techniques.

Avoid temperature abuse by maintaining the product below 40F or above 140F.

Cooking will not eliminate the hazard once the toxin has been formed.

On Clostridium perfringens.....for our prawns...

Clostridium perfringens

These organisms are responsible for a large number of toxicoinfections from food products. Cooked meat products and gravies are the primary foods involved in these outbreaks.

Outbreaks involving this organism are not as easy to document as some of the others we have discussed.

Like botulinum, perfringens is an anaerobic spore former and thus doesn't present a hazard in raw foods. Unlike botulinum, live organisms must be ingested before illness occurs.

Symptoms

Diarrhea, cramps, vomiting is rare.

Onset is typically 12 hours after ingestion.

Duration of symptoms is usually 24 hours.

Cause

Foods are cooked enough to kill organisms, but not enough to kill perfringens spores.

Foods are then allowed to cool slowly by being left out at room temperature or by being improperly refrigerated.

Organisms multiply and then are consumed and sporulate in the gut.

When they do this they produce a toxin that causes the symptoms.

Prevention

Proper cooking and cooling will prevent this type of outbreak.

Care should be taken with large bowls of gravy and large roasts because they can take a long time to cool even when refrigerated.

Cooking the cooled products before consumption will kill the organisms and make food safe.

On Salmonella....

Salmonella
Salmonella are a cause of foodborne infections.

The source of contamination in Salmonella outbreaks can always be traced to humans or animals. The natural habitat of Salmonella is the intestinal tract of animals.

Once infected with this organism, it is very difficult to completely get rid of it.


Source

Intestinal tract of warm-blooded animals and fecal contamination from infected animals.

Often associated with poultry products including eggs.

Reptiles can also be a source.

Found in fecal material.

Symptoms:

Fever, nausea, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea which continue for 2-6 days.

The onset of symptoms appears 24 hours after eating the contaminated food.

Death may occur in persons who were already severally compromised (primarily very old or very young), but normal health adults would not ordinarily suffer any long-term consequences.

Cause:
Foods are contaminated from some animal source. Animals may be easily contaminated from intestinal tract if they are improperly slaughtered. Cutting boards in the home may be used to cut up contaminated product that is then cooked and presents no hazard. The cutting board may be used subsequently to prepare something that won't be cooked and the organisms are transferred to this product. If the contaminated product is then subjected to temperature abuse that allows the organism to grow and increase in numbers, then an outbreak of disease is likely.

Prevention:
The first line of defense is to prevent contamination by limiting the exposure to diseased animals and feces or products from these animals. The second line of defense is to keep the uncooked products properly refrigerated to prevent the organisms from multiplying. Thirdly, the organism can be readily destroyed by proper cooking so that even contaminated products become safe after cooking. Recontamination of properly cooked foods must be avoided.

Roles of Local Authority.....in Singapore

hi guys some info on the roles of AVA(Agri-food and veterinary authority)

Ensuring food safety

AVA is the national authority on food safety for both primary and processed food. AVA ensures the safety of all food from production to just before retail. AVA adopts a science-based risk analysis and management approach based on international standards to evaluate and ensure food safety.

The vital components of AVA's comprehensive and integrated food safety system includes:
Review of production systems and practices at source
Risk assessment and the setting of food safety and food labelling standards
Tagging of consignments of primary produce to trace sources, and food labelling to facilitate recall
Inspection of primary produce and processed food at the points of entry into Singapore
Pre and post-slaughter inspections at local abattoirs
Inspection and accreditation of source farms, abattoirs, food-processing factories, both local and overseas
Monitoring and surveillance programmes for a wide range of food-borne hazards in primary and processed food
State-of-the art laboratory testing capabilities for detecting and analysing a wide range of pathogens and chemical contaminants in livestock, frozen and chilled meat, live and chilled fish, vegetables, fruits, eggs and processed food
Promoting the adoption of good agricultural and manufacturing practices, and food safety assurance systems by the food industry
Close rapport with other national authorities

Close monitoring of world situation for new developments in food safety and potential threats

This food safety system is backed up by enforcement of food safety standards through a well-established legal framework as well as through food safety public education on the collective responsibility of AVA, the food industry and the public in ensuring food safety.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

More on product recall....a summary

Outline of a Successful Recall Process
1. Planning ahead: A successful recall process depends on
planning of the recall management well before a problem
occurs.
2. Acting quickly: Time is a vital factor in the recall process.
The sooner harmful or misleading events are prevented,
the faster the negative publicity and financial
burden are eliminated.
3. Effective communication during a recall: The firm
should immediately provide recall instructions to everyone
in the product distribution channels. Public notification
about the recall through press releases and specialized
media is also an integral part of the recall process.
4. Recall assessment: Post-recall assessment is extremely
important in determining the effectiveness of the recall
plan in order to improve the efficacy of potential future
recalls. The current recall plan also should be evaluated
through simulated recalls.

References
1. American Society for Quality Product Safety and Liability
Prevention Interest Group, 1999. The Product Recall Planning
Guide. ASQ Quality Press, 2nd ed., Milwaukee, WI.
2. http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/recall2.html
3. http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/895_recalls.html
4. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/recalls/rec_intr.htm

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Prawns.....and the microbes related

this is a summary of wad i have found and most importantly we can add it in template 4...short and concise
THIS MICROBES ARE RELATED TO PRAWNS THE FIRST FEW CAN BE RELATED TO POULTRY

Yersinia enterocolitica Infection- Growth range is 0 0C to 60 0C. Psychrotrophic. Commonly found in seafood, poultry and meat.

Symptoms: Diarrhoea, fever.

Vibro parahaemolyticus Infection- Commonly found in seafood.

Symptoms: Abdominal pain, fever, headache.

Vibrio Vulnificus- associated with seafood and the marine environments and animals, common in raw or undercook seafood

Symptoms and effects: organism is highly invasive and causes primary septicaemia, can cause gastroenteridis, adverse effects- death due to enhance effect from hepatitis or chronic cirrhosis

Yersinia enterocolitica Infection- Growth range is 0 0C to 60 0C. Commonly found in seafood.

Symptoms: Diarrhoea, fever.


Norwalk Virus - major source from shellfish because they concentrate virus from contaminated water

Symptoms: stomach pain, diarrhea, and vomiting

Sara Mortimore and Carol Wallace.1998.HACCP A PRACTICAL APPROACH. Aspen Publishing