International Food Safety Handbook

Science, International Regulation, and Control

Kees Van der Heijden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351437417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Covers all aspects of food safety--science, regulation, and labeling requirements--integrating major developments in the fields of toxicology, analytical chemistry, microbiology, hygiene, and nutrition. Designed to be a reference that bridges the gaps between science, regulation and control of food safety. While this might have been a rather ambitious aim, in putting together this book, the editors have certainly succeeded in gathering a group of experts from industry, government agencies, academia, consumer groups and the media whose knowledge and expertise reflect the complex and multisectoral/multidisciplinary nature of food safety." ---Food Science and Technology

1
Food Safety: A Worldwide Public Issue

FRITZ K. KÄFERSTEIN

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

YASMINE MOTARJEMI AND GERALD G. MOY

World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

F. QUEVADO

National University Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru

INTRODUCTION

The importance of food safety for health and development has been recognized and addressed in many international fora [1–4]. The most recent, the FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition declared that “… access to nutritionally adequate and safe food is a right of each individual” [4]. In spite of this recognition and advances in food science and technology that provide the know-how and tools to ensure food safety, hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from communicable and noncommunicable diseases caused by contaminated food. These diseases, also referred to as foodborne diseases, today remain as one of the most widespread health problems and an important cause of reduced economic productivity [2].

Foodborne diseases are caused by a wide range of agents (see Table 1), with varying degrees of severity ranging from mild indisposition to chronic or life-threatening illness. Their importance as a vital public health problem is often overlooked because the true incidence is difficult to evaluate and the severity of the health and economic consequences are often not fully appreciated. For most foodborne diseases only a small proportion of cases comes to the notice of health services, and even fewer are investigated. It is believed that in industrialized countries less than 10% of the cases are reported, while in developing countries reported cases probably account for less than 1% of the total [2]. Studies in some industrialized countries point to an underreporting factor of up to 350 for certain foodborne diseases [5,6]. Despite these limitations in reporting, available data give evidence of a tremendous public health problem. Moreover, in some industrialized and developing countries, the data indicate an increasing trend.

Table 1 Some Agents of Important Foodborne Diseases and Salient Epidemiological Features

BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION

Developing Countries

Biological contaminants, i.e., bacteria, viruses, and parasites, constitute the major cause of foodborne diseases. In developing countries they are responsible for a wide range of disease (e.g., cholera, campylobacteriosis, E. coli gastroenteritis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, brucellosis, amoebiasis, poliomyelitis). Diarrhea] diseases, especially infant diarrhea, are the dominant problem and indeed one of massive proportions.

Annually, some 1,500 million episodes of diarrhea occur in children under the age of 5, and of these over 3 million die as a result [7]. While traditionally it was thought that contaminated water supplies were the main source of pathogens causing diarrhea, it is now shown that up to 70% of diarrheal episodes may be foodborne [8,9]. Various pathogens have been identified as a cause of diarrhea. These include bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., Vibrio cholerae 01, and Campylobacter jejuni; protozoa such as Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba histolytica, and Cryptosporidium spp.; and also enteric viruses such as rotavirus [10]. Infections due to pathogenic E. coli are the most common cause of diarrhea. Weaning food contaminated with pathogenic E. coli causes up to 25% of all diarrheal episodes in infants and children. Campylobacteriosis and shigellosis account for 5–15 and 10–15%, respectively, of diarrheal disease episodes in infants and children [9,10].

The seventh pandemic of Vibrio cholerae 01 biotype El Tor, which started in 1961 in Indonesia, spread in 1991 to South and Central America and Mexico. In 1993, cholera was reported to be endemic in some 80 countries [11], and several hundreds of thousands of people are affected annually. In an important number of cases, food has been found to be the vehicle for transmission [12].

Infections due to helminths are also a worldwide public health problem, affecting particularly developing countries. Examples are Trichinella spiralis, Taenia saginata, and Taenia solium, which are acquired through consumption of undercooked or uncooked meat. Ascariasis is one of the most common parasitic infections and is estimated to affect some 1,000 million people. Trematodes such a Clonorchis spp., Fasciola spp., Opisthorchis spp., and Paragonimus spp. infect some 40 million people, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. More than 10% of the world’s population is at risk of becoming infected by these parasites, which are transmitted through the consumption of raw or inadequately processed freshwater fish, shellfish, or aquatic plants [13,14].

Industrialized Countries

Although the situation regarding foodborne diseases is very serious in developing countries, the problem is not limited to these countries. In recent years industrialized countries have experienced a succession of major epidemics. The estimated annual incidence of foodborne diseases in the United States of America ranges from 6.5 to 80 million cases [15–17]. Surveys in several other countries suggest that up to 10% of the population may annually suffer from a foodborne disease [6,7,16,18–21].

With today’s improvement in standards of personal hygiene, development of basic sanitation, safe water supplies, effective vaccination programs (especially for poliomyelitis), food control infrastructure, and the increasing application of food-processing technologies such as pasteurization, many foodborne diseases have been either eliminated or considerably reduced in industrialized countries (e.g., poliomyelitis, brucellosis, cholera, typhoid and paratyphoid fevers, milkborne salmonellosis). Nevertheless, most countries are now experiencing an important increase in several other foodborne diseases. The situation in western Germany illustrates this phenomenon (Fig. 1) [22].

Figure 1 Infectious enteritis, typhoid, and paratyphoid fevers in Germany. Infectious enteritis includes non-typhoid salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, yersiniosis, staphylococcal infection, Bacillus cereus enteritis, and Clostridium perfringens enteritis. (From Ref. 22.)

Salmonellosis, specifically, has increased tremendously on both sides of the Atlantic over the past few years [23]. In many cases it is due to Salmonella enteritidis.Figure 2 shows the increase of this microorganism in relation to other Salmonella strains in Switzerland (Federal Health Office, Switzerland, personal communication). In many countries, poultry meat, eggs, and foods containing eggs have been identified as the predominant sources of this pathogen. In certain countries, up to 60–100% of poultry meat is contaminated with Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter, and meat, frogs legs, chocolate, and milk have also been implicated [24–26]. In 1985, some 170,000–200,000 persons were involved in an outbreak of salmonellosis in Chicago, which was caused by contaminated pasteurized milk [27].

In addition, many industrialized countries are experiencing outbreaks of diseases due to relatively new types of foodborne pathogens such as Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, and E. coli H 157:07. Campylobacteriosis has increased to such an extent that it is now the leading foodborne disease in several industrialized countries, e.g., the United Kingdom (see Fig. 3) (Public Health Laboratory Service, U.K., personal communication). As in the case of Salmonella, the main vehicles for the transmission of Campylobacter are poultry meat and unpasteurized milk. Listeria monocytogenes may cause severe foodborne infections, with a high fatality rate in susceptible individuals. The fatality rate, especially in neonates and immunocompromised adults, is in the range of 27–30% [28,29]. This microorganism has been implicated in several important outbreaks involving different types of food such as milk, cheese, vegetables, and meat products. At present there is no clear understanding of its biology, but it is known to be able to grow at refrigeration temperatures and at a wide range of pH; it is thus of major concern to food industries producing products with extended cold storage, such as cheese.

Figure 2 Number of cases of salmonellosis in Switzerland. Source: (24).

Outbreaks of E.coli 0157:H7 are causing concern in many countries, because the pathogen causes severe damage to health, and even death, particularly in children. Outbreaks of this infection have been reported in Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States, and many European countries [30,30a]. In 1993, a major outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 infection affected some 500 people in the northwestern states of the United States. Many children developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, and four died as a result [31]. Another large outbreak caused by this pathogen occurred in Africa, affecting thousands of people. Drinking water and cooked maize were the vehicle for transmission [32]. In 1996, in an outbreak of E. coli 0157:H in Japan, 6,309 school children and 92 school staff members were affected. The outbreak resulted in two deaths. The epidemiological investigation has identified fresh radish sprouts (kaiware-daikon) as the probable cause of the outbreak. This was the largest outbreak ever recorded from this pathogen [33]. Another important outbreak of E....