EU-wide monitoring of biological hazards along the food chain: achievements, challenges and EFSA vision for the future

Current Opinion in Food Science

Volumn 12, Issue , 2016, Pages 52-62

  Boelaert, Frank ^a   Amore, Giusi ^a   Van der Stede, Yves ^a   Hugas, Marta ^a  

^a EUROPEAN FOOD SAFETY AUTHORITY   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84985931185     PISSN: 22147993     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.cofs.2016.08.004     Document Type: Review

References (56)

1. 1• Ammon, A., Mäkelä, P., Integrated data collection on zoonoses in the European Union, from animals to humans, and the analyses of the data. Int J Food Microbiol 139:Suppl. 1 (2010), S43–S47 This paper describes the flow and analysis of data, at the EU-level, on zoonoses and agents thereof that integrate the information from human cases and their occurrence in food and animals.
2. 2 Directive 2003/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the monitoring of zoonoses and zoonotic agents, amending Council Decision 90/424/EEC and repealing Council Directive 92/117/EEC. OJ L, 325, 2003, 31.
3. 3•• European Food Safety Authority, Report of the Task Force on Zoonoses Data Collection on the statistical analysis of temporal and spatial trends of zoonotic agents in animals and food: Part I. Critical review of the statistical analysis carried out on the Community Summary Report 2006 data. EFSA J, 7, 2009, 77, 10.2903/j.efsa.2009.253r This scientific report of EFSA provides a critical review of the statistical analysis of time trends applied by EFSA in the EU zoonoses Summary Reports. Further developments of trend analysis are introduced, as well as a review of the most commonly used statistical methods in spatial epidemiology, together with data needs for meaningful spatial analysis at EU level.
4. 4•• European Food Safety Authority: Statistical analysis of temporal and spatial trends of zoonotic agents in animals and food: Part II. Applications of spatial analysis and further developments of temporal analysis. EFSA J, 9, 2011, 72, 10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2331 This scientific EFSA report provides examples of application of spatial analysis to investigate the geographic distribution of zoonotic agents. Diverse spatial statistics were performed to evaluate clustering of infection at different spatial scales. Secondly, the report presents the results of temporal trend analysis of Salmonella in laying hens from 2004 to 2006 using the statistical packages R, Stata and SAS.
5. 5•• European Food Safety Authority: Technical specifications for monitoring community trends in zoonotic agents in foodstuffs and animal populations. EFSA J, 8, 2010, 45, 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1530 This important scientific report of EFSA proposes technical specifications for the monitoring of temporal trends in zoonotic agents in animal and food populations at EU-State or Member State-group level in the framework of Directive 2003/99/EC. Two types of trend monitoring are identified: trend watching, which covers general observations of harmonised or non-harmonised data for possible trends, and trend analyses which means statistical analyses of harmonised data for the detection of trends over time. Trend watching can be regarded as the first and preliminary step in trend monitoring. Suggestions for minimum sample sizes and number of time points needed for identifying trends are provided.
6. 6• EFSA Scientific Committee: Statistical Significance and Biological Relevance. EFSA J, 9, 2011, 17, 10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2372 This EFSA scientific report made a clear distinction between the concepts of biological relevance and statistical significance and produced descriptions of the terms. It is recommended that experts/authors should use this terminology and that the nature and size of biological changes or differences seen in studies that would be considered relevant should be defined before studies are initiated. The size of such changes should be used to design studies with sufficient statistical power to be able to detect effects of such size if they truly occurred.
7. 7 EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ), Scientific opinion on a review on the European Union Summary reports on trends and sources zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2009 and 2010 – specifically for the data on Salmonella, Campylobacter, verotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes and foodborne outbreaks. EFSA J, 10, 2012, 25, 10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2726.
8. 8 EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW), Scientific opinion on Review of the European Union Summary Report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2009 and 2010 specifically for the data related to bovine tuberculosis, Echinococcus, Q fever, brucellosis and non-food borne diseases. EFSA J, 10, 2012, 13, 10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2765.
9. 9 Commission Implementing Decision 2013/652/EU of 12 November 2013 on the monitoring and reporting of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic and commensal bacteria. OJ L 303 (2013), 26–39.
10. 10• Gilsenan, M., Data handling: observatories/databases/data storage/legal framework EFSA data collection. Options Méditerranéennes A111 (2015), 75–82 This paper presents an overview of the core data collections of food-borne chemical and microbiological hazards within EFSA's remit as well as their underpinning regulatory framework. Progress towards standardisation of data from several food safety domains using the standard sample description (SSD), the EFSA standard of receipt of analytical occurrence data on food-borne hazards, is described. The establishment of an EFSA data warehouse is also described, as also opportunities and challenges of moving towards more open data.
11. 11 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control): Technical Report on a Fatal Human Case of Bacillus anthracis Infection and Bovine Meat Contamination in Bulgaria. First Update, 7 August 2015. EFSA Supporting Publication; 2015:4 http://dx.doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2015.EN-863.
12. 12 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control): Technical Report on Multi-Country Outbreak of Shiga Toxin Producing Escherichia coli Infection Associated With Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome. EFSA Supporting Publication; 2016:13 http://dx.doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2016.EN-1017.
13. 13 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority): Technical Specifications for the Pilot on the Collection of Dataon Molecular Testing of Food-Borne Pathogens from Food, Feed and Animal Samples. EFSA Supporting Publication; 2014:58 http://dx.doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2014.EN-712.
14. 14• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Report of the task force on zoonoses data collection on the analysis of the baseline study on the prevalence of Salmonella in holdings of laying hen flocks of Gallus gallus. EFSA J, 97, 2007, 85, 10.2903/j.efsa.2007.97r This article reports and discusses the results of the first of several Salmonella EU-wide baseline surveys. The results provided the scientific basis for setting prevalence reduction targets for Salmonella in laying flocks of Gallus gallus, in commercial large scale laying hen holdings with at least 1000 laying hens on the holding, in the EU.
15. 15 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Report of the task force on zoonoses data collection on the analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Salmonella in broiler flocks of Gallus gallus. Part A. EFSA J, 5, 2007, 85, 10.2903/j.efsa.2007.98r.
16. 16 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Report of the task force on zoonoses data collection on the analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Salmonella in turkey flocks. Part A. EFSA J, 134, 2008, 91, 10.2903/j.efsa.2008.134r.
17. 17• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Report of the task force on zoonoses data collection on the analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Salmonella in slaughter pigs. Part A. EFSA J, 135, 2008, 111, 10.2903/j.efsa.2008.135r This article reports and discusses the results of the first slaughterhouse Salmonella EU-wide baseline survey, in slaughter pigs. The results provided the scientific basis for the analysis of the costs and benefits of setting a target for the reduction of Salmonella in slaughter pigs. The latter study is available online at: http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/docs/biosafety_food-borne-disease_salmonella_fattening-pigs_slaughthouse-analysis-costs.pdf.
18. 18•• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Salmonella in holdings with breeding pigs in the EU, 2008, Part A: Salmonella prevalence estimates. EFSA J, 7, 2009, 10.2903/j.efsa.2009.1377 93 pp. This article reports and discusses the results of the Salmonella EU-wide baseline survey, in holdings with breeding pigs. Breeding pigs may be an important source of dissemination of Salmonella throughout the pig-production chain. The results of this survey provided valuable information for assessing the impact of Salmonella transmission originating from holdings with breeding pigs.
19. 19• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Campylobacter in broiler batches and of Campylobacter and Salmonella on broiler carcasses in the EU, 2008, Part A: Campylobacter and Salmonella prevalence estimates. EFSA J, 8, 2009, 100, 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1503 This article reports and discusses the results of the second slaughterhouse EU-wide baseline survey, on Campylobacter in broiler batches and on Campylobacter and Salmonella on broiler carcasses. The survey resulted in reliable estimates of the prevalence of Campylobacter-colonised broiler batches, of Campylobacter-contaminated broiler carcasses, of Salmonella-contaminated broiler carcasses, as well as of the counts of Campylobacter on broiler carcasses.
20. 20 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Salmonella in holdings with breeding pigs, in the EU, 2008 – Part B: factors associated with Salmonella pen positivity. EFSA J, 9, 2011, 159, 10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2329.
21. 21•• European Food Safety Authority, Analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in certain ready-to-eat (RTE) foods in the EU, 2010–2011 Part A: Listeria monocytogenes prevalence estimates. EFSA J, 11, 2013, 75, 10.2903/j.efsa.2013.3241 This article reports and discusses the results of the first EU-wide baseline survey at the retail-level, with the aim of estimating the EU level prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in certain ready-to-eat foods at retail. Batches of packaged (not frozen) hot or cold smoked or gravad fish, packaged heat-treated meat products and soft or semi-soft cheeses were sampled from 3632 retail outlets. All 13,088 food samples were examined for the presence of Listeria monocytogenes, in addition to the determination of the Listeria monocytogenes counts.
22. 22•• European Food Safety Authority, Analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in certain ready-to-eat foods in the EU, 2010–2011 Part B: analysis of factors related to prevalence and exploring compliance. EFSA J, 12, 2014, 73, 10.2903/j.efsa.2014.3810 This scientific report presents more in depth analysis of the EU-wide baseline survey on Listeria monocytogenes. Packaged (not frozen) hot or cold smoked or gravad fish, soft or semi-soft cheeses (excluding fresh cheeses) and packaged heat-treated meat products were sampled. Multiple-factor analysis (generalized estimating equations) was used to investigate the statistical association between several factors on which information was gathered during the baseline survey, and two outcomes: prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes and proportion of samples with counts exceeding 100 cfu/g, in the surveyed fish and meat products (no analysis is presented for cheese samples, owing to the small number of contaminated samples).
23. 23• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority): Scientific report on technical specifications for a European baseline survey on norovirus in oysters. EFSA J, 14, 2016, 4414, 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4414 66 pp. This article proposes a protocol for an EU-wide baseline survey on the prevalence of norovirus (NoV) in raw oysters. The objective of the survey is to estimate the European prevalence of NoV-contaminated oysters at production areas and batches of oysters at dispatch centres, with a 95% level of confidence and a level of precision of 5% considering an expected prevalence of 50%. The survey protocol defines the target population, the sample size for the survey, sample collection requirements, the analytical method for the quantification of NoV copy number (genotype I and genotype II), the data reporting requirements and the plan of analysis. The sample unit in production areas is a classified production area actively growing commercial oysters and for dispatch centres is a quantity of live oysters which are being packed and labelled with an identification mark.
24. 24 Commission Regulation (EC) No 517/2011 implementing Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a Union target for the reduction of the prevalence of certain Salmonella serotypes in laying hens of Gallus gallus and amending Regulation (EC) No2160/2003 and Commission Regulation (EU) No 200/2010. OJ L 138 (2011), 45–51.
25. 25 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), The European Union summary report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks in 2014. EFSA J, 13, 2015, 191, 10.2903/j.efsa.2015.4329.
26. 26 EU Coordinated Control Programmes for Salmonella: http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/biosafety/food_borne_diseases/salmonella/index_en.htm.
27. 27 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), The Community Summary Report on trends and sources of zoonoses, zoonotic agents, antimicrobial resistance and foodborne outbreaks in the European Union in 2006. EFSA J, 130, 2007, 352, 10.2903/j.efsa.2007.130r.
28. 28 Commission regulation (EC) No 213/2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 1003/2005 as regards the control and testing of Salmonella in breeding flocks of Gallus gallus and turkeys. OJ L 73 (2009), 5–11.
29. 29 Commission Regulation (EC), No 200/2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a Union target for the reduction of the prevalence of Salmonella serotypes in adult breeding flocks of Gallus gallus. OJ L 61 (2010), 1–9.
30. 30 Commission Regulation (EC) No 517/2011 implementing Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a Union target for the reduction of the prevalence of certain Salmonella serotypes in laying hens of Gallus gallus and amending Regulation (EC) No2160/2003 and Commission Regulation (EU) No 200/2010. OJ L 138 (2011), 45–51.
31. 31 Commission Regulation (EC) No 200/2012 concerning a Union target for the reduction of Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium in flocks of broilers, as provided for in Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council. OJ L 71 (2012), 31–36.
32. 32 Commission Regulation (EC) No 584/2008 implementing Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards a Union target for the reduction of the prevalence of certain Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium in turkeys. OJ L 162 (2008), 3–8.
33. 33 Council Directive 64/432/EEC on animal health problems affecting intra-community trade in bovine animals and swine. OJ 121 (1964), 1977–2012.
34. 34 Regulation (EC) No 854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down specific rules for the organisation of official controls on products of animal origin intended for human consumption. OJ L, 139, 2004, 206.
35. 35 Regulation (EC) No 2075/2005 laying down specific rules on official controls for Trichinella in meat. OJ L 338 (2005), 1–23.
36. 36• Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 of 15 November 2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs. OJ L 338 (2005), 1–26 This regulation establishes microbiological criteria for certain microorganisms and the implementing rules to be complied with by food business operators. Food business operators at each stage of food production, processing and distribution, including retail, shall take measures, as part of their procedures based on HACCP principles together with the implementation of good hygiene practice. The aim pursued is to ensure the following: (a) that the supply, handling and processing of raw materials and foodstuffs under their control are carried out in such a way that the process hygiene criteria are met; (b) that the food safety criteria can be met under reasonably foreseeable conditions of distribution, storage and use. Further provisions are laid down as regards testing, sampling and labelling. Annex I specifies microbiological criteria for meat and meat-based products, milk and dairy products, egg products, fishery products, vegetables, fruits and products thereof.
37. Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety
38. 38 Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.
39. 39•• Weiser, A.A., Thöns, C., Filter, M., Falensky, A., Appel, B., Käsbohrer, A., FoodChain-lab: a trace-back and trace forward tool developed and applied during food-borne disease outbreak investigations in Germany and Europe. PLOS ONE 11 (2016), 1–11 This article presents FoodChain-Lab, a modular open-source software for trace-back and trace-forward analysis in food-borne disease outbreak investigations, developed. Its development has been driven by a need for appropriate software in several food-related outbreaks in Germany since 2011. The software allows integrated data management, data linkage, enrichment and visualization as well as interactive supply chain analyses. Identification of possible outbreak sources or vehicles is facilitated by calculation of tracing scores for food-handling stations (companies or persons) and food products under investigation. The software also supports consideration of station-specific cross-contamination, analysis of geographical relationships, and topological clustering of the tracing network structure. The software is most useful in complex, multi-area outbreak investigations where epidemiological evidence may be insufficient to discriminate between multiple implicated food products.
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41. 41 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Data Quality Monitoring and Surveillance System Evaluation – A Handbook of Methods and Applications. 2014, ECDC, Stockholm, 91, 10.2900/35329.
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43. 43 World Organization for Animal Health Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines.
44. 44 EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Analysis of the baseline survey on the prevalence of Campylobacter in broiler batches and of Campylobacter and Salmonella on broiler carcasses, in the EU, 2008: Part B. Analysis of factors associated with Salmonella contamination of broiler carcasses. EFSA J, 8, 2010, 132, 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1522.
45. 45 Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: https://www.healthypeople.gov.
46. 46 Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC). The Optimization of the Methodology of the Control Program: Sampling Size for the Study of Trends. Advice 21-2012 of the Scientific Committee. Available Online: http://www.favvafsca.fgov.be/scientificcommittee/advices/_documents/Advice21-2012_000.pdf.
47. 47• Mäkelä, P., Beloeil, P.-A., Rizzi, V., Boelaert, F., Deluyker, H., Special issue: harmonisation of monitoring zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and foodborne outbreaks. EFSA J, 10, 2012, 7, 10.2903/j.efsa.2012.s1013 This article overviews the technical specifications for the monitoring and reporting of biological hazards in the EU Member States. The harmonisation of these is crucial to enable proper analyses and interpretation of the information at EU level. EFSA's published technical specifications cover the monitoring of Verotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Yersinia enterocolitica and antimicrobial resistance in food and animals as well as reporting on foodborne outbreaks. The grant project reports submitted to EFSA provide recommendations on the monitoring of foodborne parasites, Q fever and rabies as well as on the conduct of national surveys on zoonotic agents in food. These specification and reports guide the Member States in the implementation of risk-based monitoring and designing surveys in animals and food.
48. 48 Mannelli A, Martello E, Tomassone L, Calzolari M, Casalone C, De Meneghi D, Dottori M, Estrada-Peñ a A, Fabbi M, Ferreri L, Ferroglio E, Luini M, Nicolau Solano S, Ortega C, Pautasso A, Prati P, Vesco U: Inventory of Available Data and Data Sources and Proposal for Data Collectionon Vector-Borne Zoonoses in Animals. EFSA Supporting Publication; 2012:189 http://dx.doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2012.EN-234.
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54. 54• Vallmuur, 54 K., Machine learning approaches to analysing textual injury surveillance data: a systematic review. Accid Anal Prev 79 (2015), 41–49 This article gives a nice systematic review of machine learning approaches to analyse text data provided in surveillance data. The advantages and limitations of each of the listed methods are well explained.
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