Biosecurity, Food Adulteration, and Food Supply protection Flashcards
what is the legal definition of food adulteration?
food adulteration is used to mean that a food product fails to meet legal standards
what are the forms of food adulteration? (4)
- adding an ingredient of lesser value (melamine in milk)
- adding color or flavour to mask a defect
- using a species of lesser value (cow milk used to dilute goat milk, horse meat instead of cow meat)
- using an ingredient from n “off-label” geographic location (i.e. using Asian oysters, but selling the oysters as Canadian oysters)
definition fo food security
food security is defined as access to sufficient calories on a daily basis
where is the possibility of becoming ill form food of more significant concern, developed countries or developing countries? why?
in the developed world because there is relative abundance of food which can drive the emergence of other food issues such as new foodborne illnesses
what is the issue with “convenience foods” in regards to food safety?
the desire for quick-to-prepare or ready-to-eat foods has resulted in consumers being exposed to a broader array of potentially contaminated foods from around the globe
(i.e. Vibrio vulnificus does not grow in cold Canadian waters, but if raw oysters are bought from the Gulf of Mexico there could be cases recorded in Canada)
why is food safety a food security issue?
Food safety is a food security issue since contaminated food cannot be eaten and may threaten the food supply
what is food bioterrorism?
Food bioterrorism is intentional contamination of food for economic gains or to cause harm
what has been put in place to mitigate food bioterrorism?
several safeguards are added to decrease the chances of tampering
what has been put in place to control traditional biological contaminants of concern for food safety
the hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) system
what generally causes foodborne illnesses?
system failure that enables the introduction, growth, and survival of the contaminant to reach levels high enough to cause harm
what is the approach to minimize risk of intentional contamination?
evaluate the degree to which the intervention reduces the vulnerability to each system within the overall food supply infrastructure:
- analyse the vulnerability of an operation within the food system
- deploy an intervention
- analyze the vulnerability again
what is the limitation of the approach to intentional food contamination risk management?
it does not address if the intervention is economically justified
what are the 2 sets of risk management tools to help with risk management of intentional food contamination?
- operational risk management (ORM)
- critically, accessibility, recuperability, vulnerability, effect, recognizability (CARVER)
what is operational risk management ORM?
a function of the severity of the failure and the probability of the failure
what are the 5 steps of ORM for identifying and managing risk?
- identify hazards
- assess the potential consequences of the hazards
- determine which risks to manage with which interventions
- implement the interventions
- assess the success of the interventions
what are the two scales used for operational risk management?
severity and probability
what is the difference between the severity scale and the probability scale of ORM
severity measures the degree of impact this could have on the population (morbidity/mortality) where as probability is measures how vulnerable the system is
what should be known when using the general approach of ORM?
the general chanracteristsics of the food system of concern: how much of a contaminant could be added to a product, and if there are potential mitigation steps downstream such as thermal treatments or filtration
what is the general approach of ORM?
- select the food system(S) of concern and identify points of vulnerability and then conduct a severity vs. probability assessment for the vulnerability
- once intervention efforts take place to mitigate risk, the ORM process stats again to evaluate the success of the intervention
what is CARBER+Schock?
a process used to evaluate the vulnerability of a food operation system by evaluating each node within the system
what are the 7 elements of CARVER+Shock?
- critically
- accessibility
- recuperability
- vulnerability
- effect
- recognizability
- shock
what is the “critically” element of CARVER+Shock??
The degree to which public health or economic consequences are nationally significant
what is the “accessibility” element of CARVER+Shock??
Physical access to the target
what is the “recuperability” element of CARVER+Shock??
The overall system resiliency as measured in the time required to bring the system back into operation
what is the “vulnerability” element of CARVER+Shock??
Attack feasibility as viewed by the potential for a successful attack
what is the “effect” element of CARVER+Shock??
Direct losses from a food attack as defined by the fraction of the food system that has been impacted by the attack
what is the “recognizability” element of CARVER+Shock??
The ease of target identification, or the amount of specialized knowledge needed to identify the point for intentional contamination
what is the “shock” element of CARVER+Shock??
The combined health, economic, and psychological impacts of a successful attack
what are the 2 first steps of CARVER+Shock?
- define a scale so that points can be assigned to high-risk nodes, and low-risk nodes
- evaluate the food facility and identify unique nodes, and each node when taken in total should represent the entire production system
areas in the processing facility that could be vulnerable to contamination are generally ….
restricted access
what is the approach for evaluating detection and diagnostic system intervention options?
Detect to Prevent, Detect to Protect, and Detect to Recover
what is “detect to prevent”?
overall strategy that enables positive confirmation of contamination before the finished food item leaves the facility in order to eliminate any chance of public health concerns
what is “detect to protect”?
strives to prevent any public health consequences but takes place after the food has left the factory. If detection can prevent the sale of contaminated food, then public health and economic consequences are averted
what is “detect to recover”?
a response strategy to enable rapid identification of intentional contamination in order to quickly contain the event and minimize the impact. Here the public health and economic impacts are significant, but in many ways this is how our system works
