Meeting global standards:

Pathway to a safe food supply

PROF. UPALI SAMARAJEEWA

A safe food supply is paramount to the health and the social well-being of a population.

In the early history of humans, cultivation, storage, handling and preparation of food was done at the home level.

The small level operations in the early society kept the food safety issues and resulting harmful effects limited to a few individuals. In early history, large scale deaths in human populations due to contaminated foods were more described as due to anger of the God.

St Anthony’s fire was one such instance that resulted in a few thousand deaths of humans, which was later found to be due to toxins of mould origin in rye.

PROBLEMS OF FOOD SAFETY

Man began to understand the origins of food borne illnesses with development of science, such as the inventions of microscopes that resulted in detection of microorganisms, and early food preservation technologies including use of salt and ice to preserve fish, and canning of vegetables to be used in winter in the medieval Western society.

The government interventions to ensure food safety became necessary with mass scale food production and marketing to the society. The first food regulation in the world is said to be the decision by the Romans, that only fresh fish should be sold in the markets and what is spoiled should only be sold to ‘foreigners’.

In the modern society, farming for production of foods, large scale processing for preservation and imparting attractive sensory characteristics, and catering are major food based business operations.

The chain of activities starting from food production to consumption -Farm to Folk- provide opportunities for agents that could bring about harmful effects in foods to enter at a variety of points along the food chain. The agents threatening safety of foods could be best described as physical, chemical and biological entities carrying potential risks to human health through foods.

The physical agents may include a variety of nonfood particles such as stones, nails, pieces of bones, pieces of glasses, and appendages of insects that may be visible or felt in the mouth during consumption. They are generally removed during processing and preparation of foods through use of detectors, sieving, and magnetic separations.

AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES

The modern agricultural practices associated with large scale farming have brought in the need to protect the plants and animals from diseases and pests, leading to introduction of controlled use of chemicals such as pesticides, preservatives and antibiotics.

Chemicals are also permitted to be used to impart desirable colour, flavour and textural characteristics to foods in the food processing industry. The use of all chemical agents are governed by strict food laws and regulations, derived globally and changed with appearance of new scientific evidence on their efficiency and threats to food safety arising from continuous research and surveillance studies on safety of market foods.

The toxic chemical constituents naturally present in foods have been recognized by humans through experiences gained over generations, incidences of human diseases or deaths, and are avoided to ensure safety of foods.

The toxicity of manioc due to cyanides, poisonous varieties of mushrooms and allergic effects arising from histamines in fish - especially those of tuna family- are more common examples of toxins naturally present in foods.

Illegal use of chemicals in the food industry has also had their bad effects on many instances. The most recent example is the effect of melamine adulterated milk powder on health of more than 294,000 children, hospitalization of more than 54,000 children due to kidney stones and death of six in China.

This shocking incidence of irresponsibility by the food industry and the negligence of the food safety authorities in China had massive damaging effect on the 18 billion US dollar milk powder industry. The lessons were learned globally at a high cost to human health. What actions should the food industry and the food control authorities take collectively, responsibly with a focus on prevention rather than activity after the damages is the question that should be answered for the betterment of the human health.

BIOLOGICAL AGENTS

The biological agents could be materials of plant and animal origin forming the base for food production, carrying with them toxic agents of chemical nature imparting toxic effects on humans such as poisonous fish.

Major and more problematic biological agents threatening food safety today are among the microorganisms. Of them the bacteria of fecal origin entering foods due to poor hygienic practices of food handlers at the level of food catering, and due to poor agricultural practices associated with unclean irrigation water are global issues faced by the scientists engaged in working on safe food supplies to humans.

In 2008 the tomato industry in the USA suffered massive losses due to contamination arising from poor handling resulting in hospitalization of more than 130 humans, and more than 1200 humans seeking medical assistance spread in 40 states in the USA.

Among possible causes of the problem, quality of pack house washing water came under scrutiny. The cost to the tomato industry arising from this incidence is estimated be in the region of 250 million US dollars during the six month period from February to July 2008.

Many supermarket chains and the catering industry completely withdrew fresh tomatoes from market shelves and food catering points. While this incidence marked a problem arising from poor agricultural and handling practices of fresh tomato, 2009 is marked with a similar incidence of salmonella contamination in peanut butter in the USA.

Root causes of incidence

Already eight deaths, 666 affected persons and spread of the problem in 45 states is reported. The root causes of this incidence appear to be poor raw material storage, and manufacturing practices of peanut butter.

We in Sri Lanka had our own share of salmonella problems in foods when the desiccated coconut industry almost totally lost the UK market 50 years back, due to spread of typhoid in the UK which was traced to be due to salmonella in the desiccated coconut used as a topping in cakes.

The far reaching decisions taken by the coconut industry to establish a strong network of sample collection, rigorous testing, and modernization of desiccated coconut processing plants using modern food safety concepts saved one of our important export industries.

There is no better example in Sri Lanka to show the importance of collective efforts by the food industry and those responsible in regulating the systems to ensure food safety.

The global statistics on threats to food safety brings in fear and concern on the minds of consumer. It also brings in the need to establish and operate honestly the food safety management systems that could eliminate the problems at the origin rather than punishing a few individuals occasionally found to be selling unsafe foods.

The above examples clearly highlight the inability of a State managed food control systems in understanding the issues and eliminating the problems at the bud stage. The ‘snapshot’ approach of food control systems only detects the problems occasionally, after it has already done the damage.

The expectation that the industry would do everything to ensure food safety through fear arising from policing approach has not proved effective even in preventing willful adulteration of foods as seen in the case of the melamine scandal in 2008.

The incidence has a history of the USA, Canada and South Africa animal feed authorities detecting melamine in pet foods from China in 2007. With such background information already in place, both the food industry and the regulatory authorities appears to have ignored possible toxic effects through milk powder consumed commonly by the more vulnerable children. These issues bring in the need for strong collaboration of all stakeholders in the food sector to act together for the common goal of food safety.

GLOBAL PATHWAY TO ENSURE FOOD SAFETY

The world is moving today to science based food safety management systems, which operate through preventive actions. The preventive actions are based on deep understanding of the individual food handling processes, recognizing operations specific to raw material handling, management of process parameters, and controlled storage of both raw materials and end products.

A series of food safety certification schemes have in place in the food industry addressing threats and risks right along the food chain - farm to folk. The Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Veterinary Practices (GVP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Hygienic Practices (GHP), and the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) form a series of linked activities that could ensure the expected level of food safety.

The GAP, GVP, GMP and the GHP form the foundation for HACCP; the latter by itself becomes meaningless in the absence of Good Practices that forms the foundation for it.

Today the principles of HACCP is combined with increased and documented interactions of food industry with their service providers such as, fertilizer, chemical, packaging material suppliers etc. on one hand and already established general management system of ISO 9001 on the other hand in developing a globally accepted Food Safety Management System, ISO 22000.

pressure from consumers and foreign buyers

The pressure on the Sri Lankan Food Industry by the consumers and the foreign buyers during the last few years was evident from reports that appeared in our newspapers and electronic media addressing the need to obtain HACCP certification, and ISO 22000 certification.

The food industries have started seeking assistance to obtain certification against HACCP and ISO 22000 requirements.

The certification of the food industries against these standards to meet international recognition however requires a concerted effort by the food industries and the regulatory authorities, backed by a human resource pool with strong knowledge in food science and technology and changing concepts on food safety to effectively handle the issues peculiar to different food industries.

The HACCP and ISO 22000 systems cannot operate on a common recipe applicable to all food industries and food catering bodies. Recognizing this needs of the Sri Lankan Food Industry, the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) and the National Chamber of Exporters (NCE) got together in an effort to establish a Certification Body, Indexpo Certification (Pvt) Ltd., supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) IP Program phase two in Sri Lanka, which is implemented with the Ministry of Industrial Development under the project “ Strengthening international certification capacity in Sri Lanka with particular reference to Social Accountability Standard (SA 8000) and Food Safety (HACCP/ISO 22000) Standard”. This project is funded by the Royal Norwegian Government.

CATERING INDUSTRIES

This body is working today with close collaboration with the Colombo Municipal Council in establishing food safety management systems in the food catering industries.

It also addresses separately the requirements of ISO 22000 for the food processing sector. The work is assisted by a team of food scientists from the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya.

The application of the HACCP system to food industries can take different forms. The proposed Chamber- CMC activity on food safety management in the catering organizations aims at a ‘mini-HACCP’ system, focusing specifically the food safety issues connected with the hotel and catering industries and manageable under local conditions covering small to star grade hotels. The mini HACCP brings in a conformity assessment system of interactive development of food safety concepts in the catering industry through an assessment scheme involving officers from CMC and auditors trained by Indexpo (Pvt) Ltd.

Assessment cum food safety

The Indexpo auditors are trained by a foreign auditor training organization of repute maintaining international standards. The assessment cum food safety improvement scheme developed and experimented with the assistance of the University of Peradeniya leads to a star grading system for the food catering industry organizations, with provisions for continuous improvements through interactions of the food control authorities, chamber based Certification Body and a strong food science knowledge base from the University of Peradeniya.

The certification will be done based on the mini-HACCP scheme, in collaboration with the CMC ensures safe food supply within the Colombo Municipality limits, and establish a web based information system available to local consumers and the tourists in understanding the level of food safety assured at each certified organization.

Indexpo to implement extensive training

As a means for continuous upgrading of the knowledge of the Public Health Inspectors and the Food Inspectors engaged in implementation of Food Act, Indexpo will implement extensive training based on curricula and teaching materials already developed in Sri Lanka.

Indexpo with its short duration of activities is now accepted as the only registered centre to provide UK accredited training courses in food safety from Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (UK).

The training courses will be designed by food scientists in the University of Peradeniya to suit the local operational conditions.

Training for over 1200 food handlers in the CMC area will commence soon as preliminary requirement to implementing the mini-HACCP scheme. The Food handlers who qualify at this training program, and satisfy health checks will be receiving indicative cards of recognition from the CMC. All the above developments are supported by the project of the UNIDO with the objective of bringing up the food industry in Sri Lanka to meet Global Standards.

ISO 22000 is the most recent international certification standard which defines food safety requirements that need to be followed by food industries to meet global food safety regulations.

Identifying the current need to adapt specifications addressed by ISO 22000 food safety management system to compete in the international food trade, Indexpo Certification (Pvt) Ltd. took the lead, supported by the UNIDO, to assess the compliance of Sri Lankan food industries with ISO 22000 guidelines, followed by awarding credible certification with integrity. It takes the food industry through a developmental process gradually moving from GMP through HACCP to ISO 22000.

Assessment of compliance

The assessment of compliance is conducted by a team of highly qualified food scientists and trained food safety auditors, providing on-the-spot knowledge and developmental suggestions to the food safety managers in the industries. This approach of bringing industry, food control authorities and the food science knowledge base provides a true and effective means of ensuring food safety.

The highly transparent assessment scheme, guides the food industry to highest levels of food safety as the primary objective rather than providing lists of non-conformities. The emphasis in the process is not a mere certificate for display, but an opportunity to ensure continuous food safety through operation processes examined based on sound science.

(The author is a Senior Professor in Food Science and Technology at the University of Peradeniya and International Consultant on Food Safety to United Nations Industrial Development Organization.)