Food-poisoning and commercial air travel

With the introduction of budget airlines and greater competitiveness amongst all airlines, air travel has now become an extremely popular form of travel, presenting its own unique set of risks from food poisoning. Foodborne illness associated with air travel is quite uncommon in the modern era. However, when it occurs, it may have serious implications for passengers and when crew are affected, has the potential to threaten safety. Quality, safe, in-flight catering relies on high standards of food preparation and storage; this applies at the airport kitchens (or at subcontractors' facilities), on the aircraft and in the transportation vehicles which carry the food from the ground source to the aircraft. This is especially challenging in certain countries. Several foodborne outbreaks have been recorded by the airline industry as a result of a number of different failures of these systems. These have provided an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and current practice has, therefore, reached such a standard so as to minimise risk of failures of this kind. This review examines: (i) the origin of food safety in modern commercial aviation; (ii) outbreaks which have occurred previously relating to aviation travel; (iii) the microbiological quality of food and water on board commercial aircraft; and (iv) how Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points may be employed to maintain food safety in aviation travel.

Interlaboratory ring test of time-resolved fluoroimmunoassays for zeranol and alpha-zearalenol and comparison with zeranol test kits

Many zeranol immunoassay test kits cross-react with toxins formed by naturally occurring Fusarium spp. fungi, leading to false-positive screening results. This paper describes the evaluation and application of recently published, dry reagent time-resolved fluoroimmunoassays (TR-FIA) for zeranol and the toxin alpha-zearalenol. A ring test of bovine urine fortified with zeranol and/or alpha-zearalenol in four European Union National Reference Laboratories demonstrated that the TR-FIA tests were accurate and robust. The alpha-zearalenol TR-FIA satisfactorily quantified alpha-zearalenol in urine fortified at 10-30 ng ml(-1) . The specificity-enhanced zeranol TR-FIA accurately quantified zeranol in the range 2-5 ng ml(-1) and gave no false-positive results in blank urine, even in the presence of 30 ng ml(-1) alpha-zearalenol. Zeranol TR-FIA specificity was demonstrated further by analysing incurred zeranol-free urine samples containing natural Fusarium spp. toxins. The TR-FIA yielded no false-positive results in the presence of up to 22 ng ml(-1) toxins. The performance of four commercially available zeranol immunoassay test kits was more variable. Three kits produced many false-positive results. One kit produced only one potential false-positive using a protocol that was longer than that of the TR-FIA. These TR-FIAs will be valuable tools to develop inspection criteria to distinguish illegal zeranol abuse from contamination arising from in vivo metabolism of Fusarium spp. toxins.

Trends in product recalls within the agri-food industry:Empirical evidence from the USA, UK and the Republic of Ireland

The increasing frequency of product recalls within the agri-food industry has led many to question food safety. Research studies also often focus on biological hazards without considering how past, present and emerging risks change over time. We undertake a systematic review of the different biological, operational and chemical hazards within the agri-food industry using a dataset of 2070 registered food recalls in the USA, UK and Republic of Ireland between 2004 and 2010. We show product recalls have become more frequent over time and operational hazards, rather than biological and chemical hazards, are the most frequent recall type within the agri-food industry. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A framework for designing robust food supply chains

After years of emphasis on leanness and responsiveness businesses are now experiencing their vulnerability to supply chain disturbances. Although more literature is appearing on this subject, there is a need for an integrated framework to support the analysis and design of robust food supply chains. In this chapter we present such a framework. We define the concept of robustness and classify supply chain disturbances, sources of food supply chain vulnerability, and adequate redesign principles and strategies to achieve robust supply chain performances. To test and illustrate its applicability, the research framework is applied to a meat supply chain.

Using vulnerability performance indicators to attain food supply chain robustness

High effectiveness and leanness of modern supply chains (SCs) increase their vulnerability, i.e. susceptibility to disturbances reflected in non-robust SC performances. Both the SC management literature and SC professionals indicate the need for the development of SC vulnerability assessment tools. In this article, a new method for vulnerability assessment, the VULA method, is presented. The VULA method helps to identify how much a company would underperform on a specific Key Performance Indicator in the case of a disturbance, how often this would happen and how long it would last. It ultimately informs the decision about whether process redesign is appropriate and what kind of redesign strategies should be used in order to increase the SC's robustness. The applicability of the VULA method is demonstrated in the context of a meat SC using discrete-event simulation to conduct the performance analysis.

Development of a rapid low cost fluorescent biosensor for the detection of food contaminants

A prototype fluorescent based biosensor has been developed for the antibody based detection of food related contaminants. Its performance was characterised and showed a typical antibody binding signal of 200-2000 mV, a short term noise of 9.1 mV, and baseline slope of -0.016 mV/s over 4 h. Bulk signal detection repeatability (n=23) and reproducibility (n=3) were less than 2.4%CV. The biosensor detection unit was evaluated using two food related model systems proving its ability to monitor both binding using commercial products and inhibition through the development of an assay. This assay development potential was evaluated by observing the biosensor's performance whilst appraising several labelled antibody and glass slide configurations. The molecular interaction between biotin and an anti-biotin antibody was shown to be inhibited by 41% due to the presence of biotin in a sample. A food toxin (domoic acid) calibration curve was produced, with %CVs ranging from 2.7 to 7.8%, and a midpoint of approximately 17 ng/ml with further optimisation possible. The ultimate aim of this study was to demonstrate the working principles of this innovative biosensor as a potential portable tool with the opportunity of interchangeable assays. The biosensor design is applicable for the requirements of routine food contaminant analysis, with respect to performance, functionality and cost. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.