There have been seven Food Allergen incidents identified by the FSAI in the past two months. All related to undeclared allergenic content on the product label as follows:
To familiarize yourself with all Allergen legislation and to understand how to develop an Allergen Management Programme see our Food Allergen Control course brochure.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) are seeing a big increase in the number of requests for information from people interested in starting a new food business, probably reflecting the downturn in the economy. In the National Technology Park here in Limerick, a new business, yum yums, has recently started delivering good quality lunches, door to door to offices and businesses in the Park. The refrigerated van arrives daily before lunch, selling sandwiches, wraps, soups etc.
Sean and Sinead set up their new food enterprise in 2009. Sean was a self-employed builder and Sinead a Sales Manager in GE Money. We all know the difficulties in the building sector and then Sinead became redundant from her sales job. They decided to establish this food business. Last year they had one van delivering door to door. Since January they now have two.
To support such enterprises, the FSAI has just published a new ‘Guide to Food Law for Artisan/Small Food Producers Starting a New Business’. The guide covers areas such as:
- Food Law
- Registration and Approval
- Food Safety Management System
- Training
- Traceability and Recall
- Legislation Summary
- Voluntary Irish Standards
Training is one area where we can help Artisan/Small Food Producer. We have twelve Food Safety training courses covering HACCP, Food Allergen Control, Food Safety Auditing, Food Legislation, Food Hygiene, Risk Management and the ISO 31000 standard.
This guide is available on the FSAI website.
Sean and Sinead hope to employ 10 people by end 2010. We wish them the very best of luck with their venture.
A report just published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will be of interest to people attending our Food Safety training courses, particularly the HACCP, Global Standard for Food Safety and Food Safety Auditing courses.
The EFSA report gives the results of a survey carried out in 2008 among 26 member states on Campylobacter and Salmonella in chicken at slaughterhouses in the EU. Campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis are the two most reported food-borne diseases in humans in the EU. The overall finding was that a high prevalence of Campylobacter was found in chickens, whereas Salmonella was less frequently detected.
All Member States participating in the survey reported Campylobacter in the chickens they sampled. The samples were taken at the beginning and at the end of the slaughter line – when the chickens arrived at the slaughterhouse and when their carcasses were chilled after slaughtering. On average, the bacterium was found in the intestines of 71% of chickens, indicating that they were already infected when alive, and on 76% of sampled carcasses, which suggested some further contamination during slaughtering. The survey showed that these figures varied greatly between Member States. The respective results for Ireland were 83% compared with the EU average of 71%, for chickens, and 98% compared with an EU average of 76%, for carcasses. The results showed that Ireland was fourth highest result for chickens and second highest for carcasses among the 26 member states surveyed.
The survey found that 22 of the 26 Member States reported Salmonella in the chicken carcasses they sampled. On average, 16% of sampled carcasses were found to be contaminated and again figures varied between Member States. The figure for Ireland was 11%, which though lower than the EU average was still the tenth highest result.
The FSAI comment on this EFSA report and also cite their own report, which is currently being finalised which highlights that 13.2% of the external surface of chicken packaging and 10.9% of the surface of retail display cabinets were contaminated with Campylobacter species.
According to Professor Alan Reilly, CEO, FSAI the findings of both studies provide significant data for the FSAI’s Scientific Committee which is currently working with the food industry and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to look at practical measures to form the basis of a Campylobacter control programme in Irish chicken … Similar to all bacteria found naturally on meat and poultry, the danger posed by Campylobacter can be removed by thoroughly cooking products and by preventing cross-contamination between raw meat and ready-to-eat foods.
The results above further emphasise the critical importance of good hygiene practice when handling chicken in slaughter houses, in retail outlets and in the home.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) do trojan work in the whole area of food safety.
Last week it announced details of communications received on their advice line in 2009. In total 9,444 communications were received, of which 1,981 (21%) were complaints from consumers.
The 1,981 complaints were broken down into:
858 (43%) complaints on unfit food
363 (18%) complaints on suspect food poisoning
408 (21%) complaints on hygiene standards
112 (6%) complaints on incorrect information on food labelling
20 (1%) complaints on incorrect advertising of food products
220 (11%) other
Consumer awareness of food hygiene and safety issues is evident in my opinion from the fact that 38 people on average contacted the FSAI each week with complaints. However we must remember that this only reflects the number of consumers who actually took the time to make contact with the FSAI – most likely only a fraction of the number of consumers who encountered problems.
Foreign objects that contaminated food included insects, hair, pieces of skin, glass and rodent droppings. Complaints about poor hygiene standards related to food handling staff not washing their hands, touching their face and then handling food and handling raw and cooked food with the same kitchen utensils.
44% of communications received by the advice line were from the food industry. The main requests were for publications, advice on food labelling, food safety training information and information on how to set up a new food business.
We here at SQT also do a lot of training in the area of food safety. In total we have twelve courses in this area including:
Food Safety Auditing
HACCP Development, Implementation & Verification
Food Allergen Control
Global Standard for Food Safety BRC Issue 5
Instructor Skills for the Food Industry
Introduction to Food Legislation
Food Hygiene
A number of these courses are FETAC accredited.
Full information on the courses listed is available by clicking on the above links or here for our full range of food safety courses.
Full details of FSAI announcement is here.
To fully integrate allergen control measures into a food safety management system, all food business operators need to understand the fourteen allergens that must be labelled if present in food products as defined in legislation.
According to the Food Safety Authority, an allergen is a substance, usually a protein, capable of inducing an allergic reaction. True food allergens have the following characteristics:
Examples of food allergens are milk protein, egg white, fish and soya.
Food intolerance however is a reproducible reaction to a food which occurs without an IgE – mediated reaction (no measurable immune system reaction). An example is lactose intolerance – lacking the enzyme lactose which is necessary to digest lactose in milk.
The fourteen allergens as outlined in European Food Safety Legislation & BRC – Issue 5 are:
Why do food manufacturers need to be aware?
During 2008, mislabelling of allergens accounted for approximately 50% of all food recalls announced by the UK Food Standards Agency and the US Food & Drugs Administration.
Our training course, details here is designed to give delegates a good understanding of Food Allergen Control including: understanding the classification of adverse food reactions, having an understanding of the Food Allergy reaction mechanism, knowing how to carry out allergen risk assessment/management, understanding how to validate cleaning operations and finally understanding product labelling/“May Contain”.
This post was written by Denis Kiely, our Food Safety Tutor
In November last year, the International Organization of Standarization (ISO) released the first International Risk Management Standard entitled:
ISO 31000:2009, Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines.
The standard aims to provide organisations with guidance and a common platform for managing different types of risks irrespective of the organizations size, complexity or activities.
The establishment of the European Food Safety Authority and the reorganisation of food safety legislation via regulation 178/2002 was based on the idea of risk management. Under Article 3 of 178/2002, it gave five risk-based definitions which are fundamental to designing and developing a Food Safety Management System.
Risk – means a function of the probability of an adverse health effect and the severity of that effect, consequential to the hazard
Risk Analysis – means a process consisting of three interconnected components, risk assessment, risk management and risk communication
Risk Assessment – means a scientifically based process consisting of four steps, hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment and risk characterization
Risk Management – means the process, distinct from risk assessment, of weighing policy alternatives in consideration with interested parties, considering risk assessment and other legitimate factors and if needs be selecting appropriate prevention and control options
Risk Communication – definition too long, complex and confusing to write or explain!
The above definitions, written in 2002, in my view are not user friendly and would need to be revisited.
The definition for risk management in ISO 31000 is:
Co-ordinated activities to direct and control an organization with regards to risk
All food safety, health and safety/environmental professionals need to be comfortable with the concept of risk, how it is assessed, treated, monitored, reviewed and hence managed. All audits, particularly in the area of legal compliance are risk based. The majority of customer/retail audits are also risk based as illustrated by the BRC – Issue 5 Global Food Safety Standard.
To begin to understand risk and the new risk management standard, ISO 31000, one has to explore:
Clause 3 The eleven risk management principles
Clause 4 The risk management framework, and
Clause 5 The risk management process.
ISO 31000 does not have all the answers, and it is not prescriptive however it does provide food business operators with principles and guidelines to assist in developing a risk management strategy.
Full details of our new Introduction to ISO 31000 Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines are here
The BRC (British Retail Consortium) Global Food Safety Standard has been the benchmark for many food manufacturing companies over the past ten years. This standard, though difficult to achieve, was a blessing in disguise for food business operators (FBO). For the first time UK retailers, who are fiercely competitive on many issues such as price, product availability, choice, customer service, etc, had pooled their technical resources to develop an International Food Safety Standard which was well written, user friendly and prescriptive. It allowed FBOs to understand the retailer mindset and to prepare for third party audits.
However it now appears that Tesco are going it alone with the Tesco Food Manufacturing Standard (TFMS). The following is a very brief comparison of the two standards using five criteria commonly used by auditors to measure the efficacy of a food safety management system.
58 references to Risk Assessment is extremely demanding and food safety professionals need to be comfortable when carrying them out. These are the challenging questions being posed by third party auditors:
1) How do you, (the FBO) risk assess your pre-requisite programme?
2) How do you determine your Internal Audit frequencies based on risk?
3) Do you risk assess based on your controls working or your controls failing?
4) How do you risk assess the various allergens you may have on site?
The demands that the TFMS is placing on FBOs are significant and technical departments need to be competent and confident that all necessary control measures are in place.
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