Safety Through The Food Chain
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- Created by: karen193
- Created on: 15-05-18 10:56
BSE - farm feeds
- Ban on feeding of meat + bonemeal to ruminants introduced - 1988
- Ban extended to cover feeding of meat + bone meal to all farm animals - 1996
- Mammalian meat + bone meal banned from all farm animal feed - 2001
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Feed Additives
- Play important role in modern agriculture + are a focus of EU regulatory framework
- They are products used to improve characteristics of feed - e.g. to enhance flavour
- often used in intensive farming on large scale
- company wishing to introduce new feed additive on EU market must obtain prior authorisation - EFSA evaluates safety + efficiency of each additive + checks for adverse effects on human helath + environment
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Feed Additives
- Technology Additives:
- e.g. Preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers
- Sensory Additives:
- e.g. Flavours, colourants
- Nutritional Additives:
- e.g. Vitamins, amino acids
- Zootechnical Additives:
- e.g. Digestibility enhancers
- Coccidiostats + histomonostats:
- antimicrobial agents to prevent parasite infections
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Veterinary Medicines
- Veterinary Medicines Directorate - regulatory agency for veterinary medicines in UK
- FSA monitors activity of VMD in relation to food + ensures that expert committees give advice about veterinary medicines take full account of public's concerns over food safety
- Agency supports use of veterinary medicines in production of food as long as:
- regulatory bodies follow precautionary approach when approving use of veterinary medicines
- acceptable safe levels can be set for residues in food
- independent scientific advice says that residues of veterinary medicines are within acceptable limits
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How are residues of veterinary medicines checked?
- every veterinary medicine must be approved before it can be sold or used on any animals in UK - includes strict testing to ensure people wont be at risk from eating animals treated with medicine
- foods that might contain residue of particular medicine, an agreed Max. Residue Limit (MRL) is calculated
- MRL - max. concentration of a residue that's legally permitted in food
- Customer safety considered when setting MRLs
- range of foods checked regularly by Gov. to ensure any residues present are at safe levels + these checks show that in UK, residues of veterinary medicines are rarely found + where they are, they're almost always at low levels that aren't a threat to health
- if foods are found to have residues over legal limit, recognised by UK, they aren't allowed to be sold
- if these foods have already been distributed, FSA works with necessary businesses + supermarkets to remove them from sale where possible
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Plant health
- introduction + spread of plant pests, such as fungi, bacteria + viruses among food crops is a serious threat that can have far reaching economic, social + environmental consequences
- plant pests often introduced to areas previously unaffected through plant imports
- in Europe, protective measures against introduction of new plant pests are based on regulatory controls on movement of plants + plant products
- the evaluation of the probability of plant pests being introduced + spreading in an area + the assessment of potential consequences help inform the decision making on protective measures
- key tasks of EFSA PLANT HEALTH (PLH) PANEL are to review pest risk assessments produced by EU member states or 3rd Parties (non-EU countries) using a wide range of specialist expertise + most current scientific knowledge available to provide scientific advice to European Commission
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Pesticides
- farmers + growers use pesticides to do various things including:
- protecting crops from insect pests, weeds + fungal diseases while they're growing
- protecting harvested crops while they're stored
- safe guarding human health, by stopping food crops being destroyed by fungi
- By Law, everyone who uses a pesticide must:
- take all reasonable precautions to protect human health + environment
- confine the application of the pesticide to crops or area to be treated
- ensure when using pesticides, in certain specified areas, e.g. those used by general public, that amount of pesticide used + freq. of use are as low as reasonably possible
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Monitoring pesticides
- There's a national monitoring programme thats overseen by PESTICIDES RESIDUE COMMITTEE (PRC) which is an independent committee of experts
- this programme measures the levels of pesticide residue in many types of food (including: fruit, veg, baby food etc.) to check that residues are within safe + legal limits
- these limits apply to food produced in UK + imported food - PRC publishes QUARTERLY reports giving results of programme
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Who controls how pesticides are used? - Organisati
- PESTICIDE SAFETY DIRECTORATE
- uk regulator responsible for agricultural + garden pesticides
- ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PESTICIDES
- advises on control of pests + approval of pesticides
- CHEMICAL REGULATION DIRECTORATE
- advises on official monitoring programme for pesticide residues in food + drink
- FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY
- independent gov. dep. set up to help protect public's health + consumer interests in relation to food
- HEALTH + SAFETY EXECUTIVE
- uk regulator responsible for non-agricultural pesticides, including fly + wasp killers (insecticides) + rat + mouse killers (rodenticides)
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Who controls how pesticides are used?
- Pesticides can prevent risks to environment, for example, to insects, birds, fish + creatures living in soil
- before pesticides are approved for use, risks are considered by experts on environmetal impacts, who sit on committees that advise on whether risks are acceptable
- gov. has long standing policy of minimising use of pesticides + encouraging farmers + others to use pesticides in ways that will have least negative impact
- no. of agricultural chemicals in use has increased in recent years - 1926, only 12 chemicals in common use, now there's over 600
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Mycotoxins
- naturally occuring chemicals produced by certain moulds - can grow on a variety of different crops + food stuffs including cereals, nuts, spices, apple juice under warm, humid conditions
- can cause a variety of adverse health effects in humans
- AFLATOXINS including AFLATOXIN B1 are most toxic + have shown to be genotoxic (can damage DNA + cause cancer in animals as well as humans)
- other mycotoxins have range of other health effects including:
- kidney damage
- gastrointestinal disturbances
- suppression of immune system
- for mycotoxins, a TDI has been est. which estimates quantity of mycotoxin which person can be exposed to daily without posing significant risk to to health
- to protect consumer safety, rules + strict legislative limits for AFLATOXINS, OCHRATOXIN A + PATULIN in certain foods are set out by EU Commission legislation - legislation applies to specified foods whether they're imported into uk or produced in UK
- there's a no. of special import conditions currently in place for some foods from certain 3rd world countries where risk from AFLATOXIN contamination is increased which further improves consumer protection
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Types of Mycotoxins - 1. AFLATOXINS
- produced by species of fungi
- crops freq. affected include:
- cereals (Maize)
- oil seeds (peanuts)
- figs
- tree nuts (brazil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts)
- toxins can be found in milk of animals that are fed with contaminated feed in form of AFLATOXIN M1
- AFLATOXINS + in particular AFLATOXIN B1 are genotoxic + carcinogenic + can cause liver cancer in humans
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Types of Mycotoxins - 2. OCHRATOXIN A
- produced by several fungi
- contamination of food commodities occurs world wide, e.g. in :
- cereals + cereal products
- coffee
- wine
- spices
- liquorice
- OCHRATOXIN A is storage mycotoxin as its formed during storage of crops
- OCHRATOXIN A causes no. of toxic effects in animal species + most sensitive + notable effect is kidnet damage
- may have effect on foetal development + on immune system
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Types of Mycotoxins - 3. PATULIN
- mycotoxin produced by variety of moulds
- Although patulin can occur in various mouldy fruits, grains + other foods, major sources of contamination are apples + apple products
- PATULIN destroyed by fermentation process + so is much less prevalent in apple beverages such as cider
- PATULIN has been shown to have various toxic effects + can harm immune system + gastrointestinal tract
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