HEATING UP OR COOLING DOWN?

Rick HolleyDept Food Science

BC Food Protection Assoc’nOct 1, 2012, Burnaby, BC

FOOD SAFETY ISSUES IN CANADA

Canadian Food Safety Causes of illness

- Changing pathogens- The setting contribution

Regulatory/Consumer priorities- Inspection and product testing- Recalls

Canadian system - Limitations

Prevention

Cost each year: $3 to 13 billion Illnesses:11 to 13 million people per year Mortality ? Agents responsible?*

Source: Food animals, directly or indirectly Carry zoonotic bacteria that rarely make animals sick, but

cause human illness

* Bosilevac, 2006, USDA, ARS : data are percent

Agent * Illness Hospitalization Deaths

Bacteria 30.2 59.9 71.7

Parasites 2.6 5.3 21.2

Viruses 67.2 34.8 7.1

Change in incidence of typhoid and non-typhoid salmonellosis in the US

Canada US 2010S. Enteritidis 22%S. Newport 14%S. Typhimurium 13%

Year Country Pathogen Illnesses Source

1985* USA S.Typhimurium 170,000 pasteurized milk

1991* China Hepatitis A 300,000 clams

1994* USA S. Enteritidis 224,000 ice cream premix

1996 Japan E. coli O157:H7 9,000 radish sprouts

2006 USA E. coli O157:H7 205 baby spinach

2007 USA S. Tennessee 628 peanut butter

2008 USA S. Saintpaul 1438 jalapeno peppers

2008 Canada L. monocytogenes 57 cured meats

2009 USA S. Typhimurium 683 peanut butter

2010 USA S. Montevideo 272 fermented sausage

2010 USA S. Enteritidis 1938 table eggs

2011 Germany E. coli O104:H4 4400 vegetable sprouts

2011 USA S. Heidelberg 100 frozen ground turkey

2011 USA L. monocytogenes 146 cantaloupe

2012 USA S. Typhimurium 178 cantaloupe

2012 USA/Can S. Braenderup 124 mangoes

* WHO (2008)

Canadian Food Safety System Issues Rapid reaction to illness outbreaks evident National foodborne enteric disease surveillance

system?- Active surveillance foodborne illness needed- Capture complete clinical/food incident data- Use data to plan interventions

Two-tiered inspection, co-ordinated by 3 gov’t levels - Inspection uniformity/relevance = goals- Make inspection more risk/science- based- Emphasis on industry operation of food safety systems

- Domestic and foreign

Inter-government interface is a reactionary barrier- Seamless operation, better resource/data sharing

Safe Food for Canadians Act

Bill S-11 Consolidates Food Trade Acts

MIA, FIA, CAPA, CPLA Inspection focus, “modernization” Last step in response to Weatherill Report

Shortcomings: No modification of FDA & R Bill is mislabelled Major Food Safety Gaps Remain Not comparable to US Food Safety &

Modernization Act

Food safety is important when an outbreak occurs Other things more important when outbreak over

Doing things right vs. doing the right things Properly build, operate and interrogate food safety systems Canadian system wholly reactive Food safety agencies act autonomously- fragmentation

Old and US outbreak data guide Canadian policy But regional, national, and temporal differences FBI data needed (baseline, planning, evaluating)

Government should test and inspect more? But can’t inspect or test safety into food

Need to better separate plant/animal agriculture Interrupt transmission of pathogens to produce

NESP 2009 Annual Report

PHAC, 2011

Relative rates of lab-confirmed cases of Salmonella, Shigella and VTEC E. coli compared to 1998-2000

Salmonella Shigella VTEC E. coli

“... a subset of laboratory isolations within each province and may not reflect the incidence of disease either provincially or nationally”

Relative rates of laboratory-confirmed infections with Campylobacter, STEC* O157, Listeria, Salmonella, Vibrio, and Yersinia, and overall measure of change, compared with 1996–1998 rates, by year, FoodNet 1996–2011†

Percent change in incidence* of laboratory-confirmed bacterial and parasitic infections in 2011† compared with average annual incidence during 2006–2008, by pathogen, FoodNet

Pathogen

CA CO GA NM Overall means

National Health Objectives

2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2020

Campylobacter 29.4 14.1 7.6 16.7 13.0 13.6 12.30 8.5

L. monocytogenes 0.5 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.24 0.2

Salmonella 17.9 11.8 24.6 16.9 15.2 17.6 6.80 11.4

Shigella 5.5 2.4 6.7 4.6 4.0 3.8 _ _

STEC O157 1.2 2.3 0.2 0.5 1.0 0.9 1.00 0.6

STEC non- O157 0.1 1.5 0.3 1.2 0.6 1.0 _ _

Vibrio 0.6 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.4 0.4 _ 0.2

Yersinia 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.3 0.3 _ 0.3

Cryptosporidium 1.7 1.6 3.3 7.4 2.9 2.8 _ _

Cyclospora 0 0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 _ _

* Lab confirmed infections/100,000 persons in 4/10 states and overall mean for 10 states, CDC (2010, 2011).

Wegener (2009)

Sources of human salmonellosis in Denmark-maintaining the focus on the most important sources

S. Enteritidis in eggs sickened1938 people in the US in 2010

Salmonellosis case frequencies

Weeks Jan-Sep 2010

Normal case number

DeCoster, Galt, Iowa

recall

Listeriosis from US cantaloupe

Jensen Farms, Granada, CO

146 ill, 31 deaths, 28 statesrecall

PCA peanut butter683 people

Peppers1438 people recall

recall

German Sprout Outbreak 2011

recall

4075 cases50 deaths

Water Supply Safety Proper kitchen hygiene Food plant sanitation

Control Listeria

Poultry pasteurization by irradiation Control Campylobacter

Reduce pathogen accumulation in animals Control Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7

Need to manage greatest risks Determine what they are

Ensure food safety programs continuously

work Operate pro-active programs for prevention Insightful inspection, verification

Education Recall and standardized traceability

Importance reduced when safety systems work

SAFE FOOD