Food Regulations and Controls: Global Aspects Flashcards
What is the ICMSF?
International commision on microbiolocial specifications for foods
From prescriptive regulation to outcome based
What are the different areas of organisation of food safety managment?
- Science, research, product development
- Food safety assurance system
- Risk analysis
- Communication, information and education
What is a hazard based approach?
- Based on process control
- In HACCP a decision much be taken on how identified hazards are controlled
- No established criterion for what is acceptable or what is not acceptable
- Example: critical control points in HACCP hard to establish a direct link to level of health protection
What is a risk based approach to food safety?
- Decisions, standards and actions are based on specific knowledge of risks
- Addition to hazard based
- To evaluate how public goals can be met
- Comparrison of the effectivness of different risk managment options
What are the following abbreviations based on the formal risk analysis approach?:
1. ALOP
2. FSO
3. PO
4. PC
5. PrC
6. MC
- Appropriate level of protection
- Food safety objective
- Performance objective
- Performance criteria
- Process criteria
- Microbiological criteria
How are ALOPs achieved?
Food safety objectives are reached with perfomance objectives all the way through the food chain
Who does hazard and who does risk for production?
ALOP/Food safety objectives- government, authorities
HACCP, Good practices- FBOs
What does microbiological criterion achieve?
Allows scientifically at different stages of the food production cycle to check objectives and criterions
What is a proccess criteria?
The physical process control parameter (temp, time) at a specified step that can be applied to achieve a performance objective or criterion
What is a performance criteria?
The effect in frequency and/or concentration of a hazard in a food that must be achieved by the application of one or more control measures to provide to a PO
What is a performance objective?
The maximum frequency and/or concentration of a hazard in a food at a specified step in the food chain before the time of consumption
Or contributes to FSO or ALOP
What is a food safety objective?
The maximum frequency and/or concentration of a hazard in a food at the time of consumption that provides or contributes to ALOP
What is the appropriate level of protection?
The level of protection deemed appropriate by the member country establishing a sanitary or phytosanitary measure to protect human, animsl and plant life
What is a tariff, a non-tariff and a quota?
Tariff- taxes/duties on imported products imposed by government
Non-tariff- not directly money-related (quality standards)
Quota- limit on number/value of product imported over period
What is a sanitary certificate?
- Doccument confirming that the environment in which a product has been prepared meets minimum hygiene requirments
- Specific to product- seafood, honey
- EU requires statments assuring minimal animal welfare standards
What growth hormones and B-agonists have been banned in the EU?
Growth hormones- oestradiol, progesterone, testosterone
B-agonists- ractopamine
Why are practices like chlorinated chicken banned in the EU?
- EFSA agrees minimal risk to public but
- encourages better hygiene practices further up the food chain rather then ‘get out of jail free’
What is the concern for chlorate in food?
Long-term exposure to chlorate in food, is a potential health concern for children, especially those with mild or moderate iodine deficiency
What are the different somatic cell counts allowed in milk in UK, US and EU?
400k in EU
AHDB <150k
750k in US
What is allowed in US that is not allowed in UK?
Why can live cattle from US not be transported to UK?
Cloning is allowed in US not EU
Transport time is >8h, disease (BSE, bluetongue, bovine leucosis)
