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Food Focus November 2007

NZFSA’s conference highlights

NZFSA held its fifth annual conference recently in Wellington, hosting several internationally respected speakers as well as New Zealand experts. Titled ‘Food into the future’, speakers covered a raft of topics from the global dairy market to employment challenges, from genetic engineering to food safety blogs, from artificial food colours to performance indicators. Some of the keynote speakers are highlighted here

Communicating food safety messages

Dr Stef Bronzwaer, Senior Scientific Officer – Public Health Epidemiology at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), was the first keynote speaker and set the scene for our conference by explaining food safety in Europe.

EFSA was set up in January 2002, following a series of food crises in the late 1990s, as an independent source of scientific advice and communication on risks associated with the food chain. Based in Parma, Italy, it has over 190 scientific experts and has had nearly 550 scientific opinions adopted.

Dr Bronzwaer outlined country by country, the top risk concerns (from the 2006 Eurobarometer survey on risk perception and food safety), which showed how differently food concerns were perceived in each Member State, for instance:

• residues in meat – Cyprus, Greece, Belgium

• contamination by bacteria – Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovakia

• pollutants like mercury or dioxins – Belgium

• GMOs – Austria

• additives – Lithuania, Estonia

• welfare of farmed animals – Denmark, Sweden.

However, he continued, when people were asked to spontaneously cite any problems or risks associated with food, a number of things came to mind but without any real sense of unanimity. This underlined the importance of the accuracy of any source of information.

From the EFSA research it is clear consumer groups, doctors and scientists are the most trusted sources when it comes to providing information about food risks (this is in line with other consumer research conducted in the EU). Public authorities followed behind these top three.

Since November 2003, EFSA has had an Advisory Forum Working Group on Communications to promote coherence in communications and coordinate risk communications, including the very important early warning on emerging/topical issues.

In August 2006 the European Commission set targets for Member States to reduce the presence of Salmonella in poultry, and proposed trade bans on eggs from flocks with persistently high levels of the pathogen. Every Member State will have to work towards reducing the number of laying hens infected with Salmonella by a specific minimum percentage each year, to ultimately achieve a reduction in Salmonella levels to 2% or less.

Dr Bronzwaer also provided statistics of foodborne illness rates. In Europe the biggest cause of foodborne outbreaks in 2005 was Salmonella (42% of illnesses), followed by Campylobacter (10%). The EU had 197,363 confirmed cases of Campylobacter in 2005, an 8% increase on 2004 (but at 51.6/100,000 population much lower than New Zealand’s 383.5). Poultry is assumed to be the major source of infection, but Campylobacter is ubiquitous among all main animal groups – poultry flocks, cattle and sheep, and pigs. What differs is that the rates decrease across the food chain for all meats except poultry.

Genetic engineering and clones

Dr Stephen Sundlof, Director, Center for Veterinary Medicine, FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration), spoke next on future foods, specifically around cloning and genetically engineered animals and what the FDA is doing.

The FDA has sponsored focus groups to identify consumer perceptions and misconceptions and to then build a communications strategy. The study found consumers were more concerned about how animals were raised and the use of chemicals and hormones than about cloning, although misconceptions about new technologies abounded.

From this research the Centre decided it needed to explain what clones are and are not. Dr Sundlof described some assumptions around cloned animals, such as perceived health risks to animals, and the potential benefits. Current research in genetic engineering, for instance, includes:

• cows producing milk with long shelf life/digestibility

• Omega-3 fatty acid pork (TunaPig)

• mastitis-resistant dairy cows

• BSE-resistant cattle (four known animals being developed)

• collagen production for horses

• goats producing spider silk

• hypo-allergenic cats

• glo-fish.

The goal of the FDA monitoring research is safe food and feed. Dr Sundlof emphasised that many safe, effective products are expected to be developed from genetic engineering research.

Super smiley ratings system

Knud Østergaard, Head of Division of Legal Affairs and International Coordination, Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs, from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA), spoke on the second day.

The DVFA’s main purpose is to ensure the safety and high quality of food, to advise on healthy eating habits and to protect consumers against misleading marketing of food. Their responsibilities for food control are very similar to NZFSA’s, being based on the farm-to-fork principle, but go further to cover nutritional information.

A recent promotion, to improve transparency around business monitoring, has been their ‘1 2 3 4 Smileys’ – the Danes’ new guide to shops and restaurants. So when a food business is rated, it gets one of four Smiley faces, where:

1 = no remarks

2 = certain rules to be observed

3 = injunctions or prohibitions issued

4 = establishment fined, reported to police, permit withdrawn.

A report with the Smiley rating is issued and must be visible in all food businesses (eg, supermarkets, butchers, restaurants) otherwise the establishment is fined.

Mr Østergaard said consumers are extremely positive: 91% think publication of results is a good idea; 85% say they will avoid – or might avoid – a restaurant with a cross smiley; 76% knew about the smiley inspections after just four months. When consumers are told how bad or good restaurants and shops are, owners have a very strong incentive to comply with food regulations.

In 2007 a ‘super smiley’ will be added. Businesses that gain a super smiley will have reduced inspections, continuing ‘no remarks’ inspections and can use the super smiley as a marketing tool.

Networking via the Internet

The final international speaker was Ben Chapman from the University of Guelph, Canada, who spoke about the International Food Safety Network (iFSN) – a group of individuals passionately committed to reducing the incidence of foodborne illness. The daily iFSN news listservs provide comprehensive and current food safety news to food organisations globally, and underpin the numerous iFSN research, extension and educational activities. iFSN researchers engage in public discussion, and develop and evaluate the use of new messages and media to encourage individuals to practise safe food behaviours and help create a culture that values microbiologically safe food.

Food regulation workshop for Pacific Island countries

During the week of NZFSA’s conference a workshop was held on Codex and food regulation matters for our neighbouring Pacific Island countries. NZFSA organised it in cooperation with Australia and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to provide practical guidance on those areas of food regulation and standards development considered essential to improving food safety outcomes and enhancing access to overseas markets. An associated field trip explored the ‘farm to plate’ continuum, by visiting a commercial vegetable grower in Levin and then viewing retailing and point-of-sale requirements for fresh produce at a local distributor.

The workshop drew on wide-ranging expertise within NZFSA, and included a session on imports and exports, which provided practical illustration of New Zealand’s biosecurity and food safety requirements and highlighted some of the common problems encountered with Pacific Island product entering New Zealand. Raj Rajasekar, NZFSA Senior Programme Manager (Codex) said: “The key messages here were the need to be familiar with importing countries’ requirements and the need to ensure that all market access requirements are addressed before the products leave the exporting country.”

The workshop was very well received by all participants and the feedback from the meeting highlighted opportunities for follow-up action, particularly capacity building in relation to regulation of import and export. “After all, helping countries achieve better standards of food safety and meet overseas market requirements is a win-win for both exporting and importing countries,” said Raj. “Improving the capacity of Pacific Island countries to apply Codex international food standards will directly help in their efforts to improve the safety and quality of foods produced for their domestic markets and for export.”

The workshop provided practical examples of how New Zealand uses Codex guidance for food and nutrition labelling to enable consumers to make better choices. NZFSA also illustrated how it worked with various Pacific Island communities to get food safety messages across.