Safety Through The Food Chain

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  • Created by: karen193
  • Created on: 15-05-18 10:56

BSE - farm feeds

  • Ban on feeding of meat + bonemeal to ruminants introduced - 1988
  • Ban extended to cover feeding of meat + bone meal to all farm animals - 1996
  • Mammalian meat + bone meal banned from all farm animal feed - 2001 
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Feed Additives

  • Play important role in modern agriculture + are a focus of EU regulatory framework
  • They are products used to improve characteristics of feed - e.g. to enhance flavour
  • often used in intensive farming on large scale 
  • company wishing to introduce new feed additive on EU market must obtain prior authorisation - EFSA evaluates safety + efficiency of each additive + checks for adverse effects on human helath + environment 
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Feed Additives

  • Technology Additives:
    • e.g. Preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers
  • Sensory Additives:
    • e.g. Flavours, colourants 
  • Nutritional Additives:
    • e.g. Vitamins, amino acids 
  • Zootechnical Additives: 
    • e.g. Digestibility enhancers 
  • Coccidiostats + histomonostats: 
    • antimicrobial agents to prevent parasite infections 
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Veterinary Medicines

  • Veterinary Medicines Directorate - regulatory agency for veterinary medicines in UK 
  • FSA monitors activity of VMD in relation to food + ensures that expert committees give advice about veterinary medicines take full account of public's concerns over food safety
  • Agency supports use of veterinary medicines in production of food as long as:
    • regulatory bodies follow precautionary approach when approving use of veterinary medicines 
    • acceptable safe levels can be set for residues in food 
    • independent scientific advice says that residues of veterinary medicines are within acceptable limits 
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How are residues of veterinary medicines checked?

  • every veterinary medicine must be approved before it can be sold or used on any animals in UK - includes strict testing to ensure people wont be at risk from eating animals treated with medicine
  • foods that might contain residue of particular medicine, an agreed Max. Residue Limit (MRL) is calculated 
  • MRL - max. concentration of a residue that's legally permitted in food 
  • Customer safety considered when setting MRLs 
  • range of foods checked regularly by Gov. to ensure any residues present are at safe levels + these checks show that in UK, residues of veterinary medicines are rarely found + where they are, they're almost always at low levels that aren't a threat to health 
  • if foods are found to have residues over legal limit, recognised by UK, they aren't allowed to be sold 
  • if these foods have already been distributed, FSA works with necessary businesses + supermarkets to remove them from sale where possible 
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Plant health

  • introduction + spread of plant pests, such as fungi, bacteria + viruses among food crops is a serious threat that can have far reaching economic, social + environmental consequences 
  • plant pests often introduced to areas previously unaffected through plant imports
  • in Europe, protective measures against introduction of new plant pests are based on regulatory controls on movement of plants + plant products 
  • the evaluation of the probability of plant pests being introduced + spreading in an area + the assessment of potential consequences help inform the decision making on protective measures 
  • key tasks of EFSA PLANT HEALTH (PLH) PANEL are to review pest risk assessments produced by EU member states or 3rd Parties (non-EU countries) using a wide range of specialist expertise + most current scientific knowledge available to provide scientific advice to European Commission 
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Pesticides

  • farmers + growers use pesticides to do various things including:
    • protecting crops from insect pests, weeds + fungal diseases while they're growing
    • protecting harvested crops while they're stored
    • safe guarding human health, by stopping food crops being destroyed by fungi 
  • By Law, everyone who uses a pesticide must:
    • take all reasonable precautions to protect human health + environment
    • confine the application of the pesticide to crops or area to be treated 
    • ensure when using pesticides, in certain specified areas, e.g. those used by general public, that amount of pesticide used + freq. of use are as low as reasonably possible 
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Monitoring pesticides

  • There's a national monitoring programme thats overseen by PESTICIDES RESIDUE COMMITTEE (PRC) which is an independent committee of experts 
  • this programme measures the levels of pesticide residue in many types of food (including: fruit, veg, baby food etc.) to check that residues are within safe + legal limits 
  • these limits apply to food produced in UK + imported food - PRC publishes QUARTERLY reports giving results of programme 
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Who controls how pesticides are used? - Organisati

  • PESTICIDE SAFETY DIRECTORATE
    • uk regulator responsible for agricultural + garden pesticides
  • ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PESTICIDES
    • advises on control of pests + approval of pesticides
  • CHEMICAL REGULATION DIRECTORATE
    • advises on official monitoring programme for pesticide residues in food + drink 
  • FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY
    • independent gov. dep. set up to help protect public's health + consumer interests in relation to food 
  • HEALTH + SAFETY EXECUTIVE
    • uk regulator responsible for non-agricultural pesticides, including fly + wasp killers (insecticides) + rat + mouse killers (rodenticides)
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Who controls how pesticides are used?

  • Pesticides can prevent risks to environment, for example, to insects, birds, fish + creatures living in soil 
  • before pesticides are approved for use, risks are considered by experts on environmetal impacts, who sit on committees that advise on whether risks are acceptable
  • gov. has long standing policy of minimising use of pesticides + encouraging farmers + others to use pesticides in ways that will have least negative impact
  • no. of agricultural chemicals in use has increased in recent years - 1926, only 12 chemicals in common use, now there's over 600
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Mycotoxins

  • naturally occuring chemicals produced by certain moulds - can grow on a variety of different crops + food stuffs including cereals, nuts, spices, apple juice under warm, humid conditions 
  • can cause a variety of adverse health effects in humans 
  • AFLATOXINS including AFLATOXIN B1 are most toxic + have shown to be genotoxic (can damage DNA + cause cancer in animals as well as humans)
  • other mycotoxins have range of other health effects including:
    • kidney damage
    • gastrointestinal disturbances
    • suppression of immune system
  • for mycotoxins, a TDI has been est. which estimates quantity of mycotoxin which person can be exposed to daily without posing significant risk to to health 
  • to protect consumer safety, rules + strict legislative limits for AFLATOXINS, OCHRATOXIN A + PATULIN in certain foods are set out by EU Commission legislation - legislation applies to specified foods whether they're imported into uk or produced in UK 
  • there's a no. of special import conditions currently in place for some foods from certain 3rd world countries where risk from AFLATOXIN contamination is increased which further improves consumer protection
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Types of Mycotoxins - 1. AFLATOXINS

  • produced by species of fungi 
  • crops freq. affected include:
    • cereals (Maize)
    • oil seeds (peanuts)
    • figs
    • tree nuts (brazil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts)
  • toxins can be found in milk of animals that are fed with contaminated feed in form of AFLATOXIN M1 
  • AFLATOXINS + in particular AFLATOXIN B1 are genotoxic + carcinogenic + can cause liver cancer in humans 
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Types of Mycotoxins - 2. OCHRATOXIN A

  • produced by several fungi 
  • contamination of food commodities occurs world wide, e.g. in :
    • cereals + cereal products 
    • coffee
    • wine
    • spices
    • liquorice 
  • OCHRATOXIN  A is storage mycotoxin as its formed during storage of crops
  • OCHRATOXIN A causes no. of toxic effects in animal species + most sensitive + notable effect is kidnet damage 
  • may have effect on foetal development + on immune system
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Types of Mycotoxins - 3. PATULIN

  • mycotoxin produced by variety of moulds 
  • Although patulin can occur in various mouldy fruits, grains + other foods, major sources of contamination are apples + apple products 
  • PATULIN destroyed by fermentation process + so is much less prevalent in apple beverages such as cider 
  • PATULIN has been shown to have various toxic effects + can harm immune system + gastrointestinal tract 
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