Food safety
pull back on some work, citing increased demands on capacity. While it insists its focus remains on reducing foodborne disease, the agency admitted some of its work was delayed or even shelved, including scheduled reviews on food safety guidance for businesses and a consultation and legislation on making the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme mandatory across England.
So, are regulators up to the challenge? What even are those challenges? Webb acknowledges there is a shifting food safety and supply landscape: “We are seeing rapid innovation in food across the board. We are seeing things like new gene-edited crops, cultured animal cell food products, and novel approaches to produce food ingredients.” She adds, though, that the agency is committed to providing support because these developments result in more choice for consumers and some of the technology being used will be “critically important as industry works to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change on food production”.
What’s the global picture for 2023? Right now, climate change, natural disasters, the pandemic, political instability and armed conflict are jeopardising food supplies. The World Food Programme warns there is a global food crisis of unprecedented proportions. Compared with the situation pre-pandemic, in the span of only two years, the number of people facing or at risk of acute food insecurity increased from 135 million across 53 countries, to 345 million in 82 countries. This crisis has led some to caution that food safety might be overlooked. This is a view echoed by Cahill: “This is a concern and a reason why food safety needs to remain front and centre to addressing food security. If food is not safe, it is not food. Overlooking food safety will ultimately hinder efforts to achieve food security.” She acknowledges there are challenges, including in many parts of the world mycotoxin contamination of staples remains a concern. “So, risk management strategies need to be put in place which try to find a balance between food availability and food safety, while efforts continue to improve the safety of the food supply.”
Both Bessy and Cahill agree that while food-safety challenges are often unique region-to-region, globally there are several to contend with. These include: identifying new and emerging risks arising from climatic and environmental changes, and addressing them in a time-sensitive way; the need to ensure food safety remains at the centre of the efforts for change, particularly as system transformation gains pace; ensuring consumers and the food chain receive valid and reliable information when it comes keeping food safe, critical as the prevalence of the likes of social
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
media continues to grow; ensuring technology is appropriately applied, and that certain parts of the world are not left behind; and the unique challenges posed by new or emerging foods, such as cell-based. “As food production systems, production environments, ingredients and types of products continue to evolve, the approach to producing food safely will also evolve,” says Bessy. She believes regulators need the high-level commitment of their government to enable them to respond to change and evolve in a timely manner. “Without that, often outdated systems are being used to try and address new problems,” she says.
Bessy adds that as management systems evolve towards better data management, away from paper- based activities to digital systems, it will prove to be “not an easy transition” and particularly for developing countries. There is always a need to identify potential hazards and assess the risk when a change is introduced to the way we grow, process, transport and prepare food, she continues. For example, if there is a change to ingredients – such as a reduction in sugar or salt to align with new public health requirements – it will require an assessment of any alternative ingredients. For the impact on the broader public health, the impact of microbiological risks, for example, will need to be addressed.
“We are still grappling with supply chain shortages stemming from Covid and the war in Ukraine, including strains in the availability of labour, raw materials and other ingredients which continue to challenge food supply.” Taryn Webb
Cahill adds that global challenges may appear to not be immediately connected to food safety, such as climate change, will also have an impact on food safety. “Policies need to evolve to take the aspect of sustainability into account; systems need to factor that in when making choices about the instruments they will use – maybe less or more ‘energy saving’,” she says. “Hazards and risks will evolve too – including well-known hazards that migrate to different climatic zones, such as mycotoxins in ‘temperate’ climates.”
Ensuring a safe supply chain A late 2022 review of FDA activity by the Reagan-Udall Foundation, commissioned by FDA Commissioner Dr Robert Califf, highlighted ways the US could better secure its food systems and supply chains. It identified critical tracking events – such as cooling, initial packing, shipping, receiving and transforming the goods – that require records to
77
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90
