Table of Contents
Food Safety and Traceability Strategies
Food safety hazards 10
Legislation and market drivers 11
Food safety technologies in manufacturing 12
Packaging technologies designed to improve food safety 13
Traceability systems and technologies 14
Future outlook for food safety and traceability 15
Chapter 1 Food safety hazards 18
Summary 18
Introduction 19
Food safety 19
Traceability 20
Business responsibilities 21
Threats, hazards and risks 21
Biological hazards 23
The burden of food borne disease caused by biological hazards 23
Bacteria 26
Viruses 28
Parasites 28
Food allergens 29
Chemical hazards 30
Natural biological toxins 30
Environmental contaminants 31
Processing contaminants 32
Contaminants derived from food contact materials 32
Adulterants 33
Physical contaminants 33
Identifying the major sources of food safety threats 34
EU RASFF system 34
Underlying reasons for a poor food safety record 36
China 36
Iran and Turkey 37
US 38
Options for food and drinks manufacturers 39
Chapter 2 Legislation and market drivers 42
Summary 42
Introduction 43
Legislation 43
European Union 43
US 45
State legislation 46
Japan 46
China 46
HACCP implications 47
Packaging legislation 48
Impact of legislation on international trade 50
International standards and codes of practice 50
Codex Alimentarius 50
Other international standards and codes 51
Other initiatives 52
US initiatives 53
Corporate responsibility 53
Case study 1 – Kellogg Company 54
Consumer perceptions 56
Business perceptions 56
Customer demands 58
Case study 2 - GFSI 59
Other factors 61
Pressure groups 61
Trade associations 63
The cost of food safety and traceability 64
Conclusion 66
Chapter 3 Food safety technologies in manufacturing 68
Summary 68
Introduction 69
Processing technologies 70
High pressure processing 70
Pulsed electric field 72
Alternative heating technologies 74
Microwave processing 74
Decontamination technologies 75
Irradiation 76
Ozonation 78
Bacteriophages 79
Novel preservatives 81
Natural preservatives 81
Commercial outlook 82
IT-based food safety technologies 83
Food safety management software 83
Predictive modeling 84
Testing and analysis 86
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) 86
Lateral flow assays 89
Chapter 4 Packaging technologies designed to improve food safety 92
Summary 92
Introduction 93
Protection and preservation 93
Active packaging 94
Active packaging technologies 94
Antimicrobial films 97
Nanotechnology 98
Intelligent packaging 99
Intelligent packaging technologies 99
Pathogen detection devices 102
Active and intelligent packaging trends 104
Tamper-evident packaging 105
Case study 3- Masterfoods 105
Tamper-evident technologies 105
Chapter 5 Traceability systems & technologies 110
Summary 110
Introduction 111
The concept of traceability 111
Case study 4: Tracing sources of contaminated peanut butter 112
Traceability systems 113
Essential components of a traceability system 114
Traceability system technologies 116
Barcodes 116
RFID- based systems 118
Other labelling technologies 121
Traceability data management solutions 122
Conclusion 124
Chapter 6 Future outlook for food safety and traceability 126
Summary 126
Introduction 127
Factors influencing future food safety development 128
Legislation 128
Certification schemes and standards 128
Green issues and climate change 129
Demand for healthier foods 130
Managing food allergens 131
Technological developments 131
Automation and robotics 131
Rapid test methods 132
The cost of food safety and traceability 134
Recommendations 137
Developing a food safety framework 138
Glossary 140
Index 143
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Key bacteria hazards: Threat vs. incidence 27
Figure 1.2: EU RASFF most common reported hazards (number of notifications), 2008 35
Figure 1.3: EU RASFF top five number of notifications by country of origin, 2008 36
Figure 2.4: Logic sequence for application of HACCP 48
Figure 2.5: Economic fallout from a food safety incident 54
Figure 2.6: Ranking of food safety in the annual CIES 'Top of Mind' survey, 2001-2010 57
Figure 3.7: Key food safety technologies in manufacturing: Impact/importance vs. cost 70
Figure 3.8: High pressure processing unit 71
Figure 3.9: Pulsed electric field processing 73
Figure 3.10: E-beam equipment 77
Figure 3.11: Schematic of the PCR process 88
Figure 4.12: Ageless active packaging sachets 96
Figure 4.13: Timestrip TTI labels 101
Figure 4.14: Total global active and intelligent packaging market size for the food and drinks industry ($m), 2009-2015 104
Figure 4.15: Examples of tamper-evident seals 106
Figure 4.16: Experimental tamper-evident technology 107
Figure 5.17: Information required when designing a food business traceability system 115
Figure 5.18: Traditional EAN-13 barcode symbol 117
Figure 5.19: Data matrix 2D barcode symbol 117
Figure 5.20: An electronic product code RFID tag of the type used by Wal-Mart 119
Figure 5.21: Estimated size of the market for RFID tags and systems in the farming and food industries ($m), 2010-2016 120
Figure 6.22: Key future considerations for food safety and traceability 127
Figure 6.23: Costs and benefits of food safety and traceability systems 134
Figure 6.24: Framework for a food safety and traceability enhancement strategy 137
List of Tables
Table 1.1: Incidence of laboratory-confirmed bacterial and parasitic infection per 100,000 population, 2008 24
Table 2.2: Related standards to ISO 22000 52
Table 2.3: Costs borne by Kellogg in relation to an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium food poisoning in the US, 2008/2009 55
Table 2.4: Schemes currently recognized by the GFSI 60
Table 2.5: US food poisoning outbreaks associated with nuts (number of cases), 2008 62
Table 4.6: Examples of active packaging technologies 95
Table 4.7: Examples of intelligent packaging technologies 100
Table 6.8: Average annual costs of implementing the FDA HACCP regulation by business size
($) 135