Microbial hazards in food

Water Safety Plans and HACCP implementation in water utilities around the world: benefits, drawbacks and critical success factors

Drinking water is of paramount importance for people's health. Many outbreaks due to poor water quality are being recorded even nowadays. Although the institutional framework exists at global (e.g., WHO guidelines) and national level, there are still many factors contributing to water contamination. Risk assessment tools, such as HACCP and Water Safety Plans, are being elaborated all over the world to act proactively referring to drinking water quality. The present paper aims at reviewing the implementation status of risk assessment tools around the world and presenting the benefits and the difficulties recorded during the implementation process. The benefits include improved water quality, improved operational efficiency, reduced consumers' complaints, reduced production cost, and reduced potential hazardous incidents. Studying the difficulties, the identification of critical success factors for the implementation of such tools is feasible. Some of the critical success factors include the financial and human resources, staff training, effective identification of critical control points, correct estimation of the occurrence and the severity of the hazards, effective coordination, and efficient monitoring.

Application of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) to the Cultivation Line of Mushroom and Other Cultivated Edible Fungi

The Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) is a preventive system which seeks to ensure food safety and security. It allows product protection and correction of errors, improves the costs derived from quality defects and reduces the final overcontrol. In this paper, the system is applied to the line of cultivation of mushrooms and other edible cultivated fungi. From all stages of the process, only the reception of covering materials (stage 1) and compost (stage 3), the pre-fruiting and induction (step 6) and the harvest (stage 7) have been considered as critical control point (CCP). The main hazards found were the presence of unauthorized phytosanitary products or above the permitted dose (stages 6 and 7), and the presence of pathogenic bacteria (stages 1 and 3) and/or heavy metals (stage 3). The implementation of this knowledge will allow the self-control of their productions based on the system HACCP to any plant dedicated to mushroom or other edible fungi cultivation.

Risk management in primary apicultural production. Part 2: a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point approach to assuring the safety of unprocessed honey

In managing risks associated with the human consumption of honey, all sectors of the production chain must be considered, including the primary production phase. Although the introduction of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system has not been made compulsory for purposes of quality and safety control in farming operations, European legislation makes many references to the key role of primary production in food safety management and the HACCP system has been indicated as the preferred tool to ensure that consumers are provided with safe foods. This article describes a systematic HACCP-based approach to identifying, preventing and controlling food safety hazards occurring in primary apicultural production. This approach serves as a useful tool for beekeepers, food business operators, veterinary advisors, and for Food and Veterinary Official Control Bodies in their planning and conducting of audits and for establishing priorities for the evaluation of training programmes in the apicultural sector.

A discussion paper on challenges and limitations to water reuse and hygiene in the food industry

Drinking water is becoming a scarce resource in many areas and both use of water and wastewater outlet are of major ecological and economical importance in many countries. Consumption and discharge may be considerably minimized by means of water reuse. The food industry has a large consumption of water, but until now very limited reuse has taken place due to legislations constraints and hygienic concerns. Legal space for use of water of qualities other than drinking water has been opened with the current legislation. This will, however, in many cases require careful analyses of individual cases based on a thorough understanding of the hazards involved in order to avoid compromising the safety of the food product and thereby the health of consumers. Implementation of water reuse practices in the food industry presents a great challenge for both companies and public health authorities regarding knowledge, technical expertise and documentation. Regulatory, technological, monitoring, verification and ethical aspects associated with microbiologically safe reuse of water in the food industry are discussed and some examples of the challenges ahead and possible approaches are given.