Risk Assessment or Assessment of Risk? Developing an Evidence-Based Approach for Primary Producers of Leafy Vegetables To Assess and Manage Microbial Risks

Augustin, Jean-Christophe; Bassett, J.; Betts, Roy; Pourkomailian, B.; Zwietering, Marcel H.

doi:10.4315/0362-028x.jfp-16-237

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This lack of efficient kill-step means that the fresh produce industry must rely on preventive measures such as good agricultural practice (GAP) and hazard analysis of critical control points (HACCP) (Sela and Manulis-Sasson, 2015). This approach requires decisions based on evidence and a framework for describing the decision process within the supply chain (Monaghan et al, 2017). …”

Section: The Hurdle Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hurdle Approach–A Holistic Concept for Controlling Food Safety Risks Associated With Pathogenic Bacterial Contamination of Leafy Green Vegetables. A Review

et al. 2018

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Consumers appreciate leafy green vegetables such as baby leaves for their convenience and wholesomeness and for adding a variety of tastes and colors to their plate. In Western cuisine, leafy green vegetables are usually eaten fresh and raw, with no step in the long chain from seed to consumption where potentially harmful microorganisms could be completely eliminated, e.g., through heating. A concerning trend in recent years is disease outbreaks caused by various leafy vegetable crops and one of the most important foodborne pathogens in this context is Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC). Other pathogens such as Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes should also be considered in disease risk analysis, as they have been implicated in outbreaks associated with leafy greens. These pathogens may enter the horticultural value network during primary production in field or greenhouse via irrigation, at harvest, during processing and distribution or in the home kitchen/restaurant. The hurdle approach involves combining several mitigating approaches, each of which is insufficient on its own, to control or even eliminate pathogens in food products. Since the food chain system for leafy green vegetables contains no absolute kill step for pathogens, use of hurdles at critical points could enable control of pathogens that pose a human health risk. Hurdles should be combined so as to decrease the risk due to pathogenic microbes and also to improve microbial stability, shelf-life, nutritional properties and sensory quality of leafy vegetables. The hurdle toolbox includes different options, such as physical, physiochemical and microbial hurdles. The goal for leafy green vegetables is multi-target preservation through intelligently applied hurdles. This review describes hurdles that could be used for leafy green vegetables and their biological basis, and identifies prospective hurdles that need attention in future research.

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Section: The Hurdle Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hurdle Approach–A Holistic Concept for Controlling Food Safety Risks Associated With Pathogenic Bacterial Contamination of Leafy Green Vegetables. A Review

et al. 2018

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“…Monaghan et al. (, p. 726) report that risk assessment is a term that can lead to confusion as it is applied to both “a scientific process consisting of formal components and quantification of levels of risk as outlined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC, ) and a more general, qualitative approach based more on expert opinion.” In addition, Jacxsens, Uyttendaele, and De Meulenaer () report that risk assessment is hard to elaborate and to understand, and discuss the need for, and development of, training approaches for (semi‐)quantitative probabilistic risk assessment calculations or qualitative risk rankings. Thus, the duality of use of the term risk assessment is a weakness in the evolution of FSMS.…”

Section: Systematic Approaches To Food Safety Management Using Haccpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While pathogens may be recognized as potential food safety hazards, emerging chemical hazards such as fipronil, sildenafil, or pieces of golf ball in frozen hash browns (FDA, ) may not. Further, the HACCP approach is often difficult to apply at farm level and there is a growing trend instead to develop risk‐based preventive control processes (Monaghan et al., ).…”

Section: Systematic Approaches To Food Safety Management Using Haccpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As previously described, the commonly used private standards in the food supply chain, have a typical checklist compliance based structure and it can be argued that due to the reactive nature of private standards’ evolution, issues are often addressed in multiple sections potentially leading to duplication and confusion. Moreover, the structure and elements included in private standards are not necessarily based on scientific concepts or quantitative risk assessment and as a result can seem arbitrary, especially where they are addressing an issue where the food safety risk to consumers is deemed as negligible (see also Monaghan et al., ).…”

Section: Compliance Approaches To Food Safety Using Food Supply Chainmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Evolution and Cultural Framing of Food Safety Management Systems—Where From and Where Next?

Manning

Luning

Wallace

2019

Comp Rev Food Sci Food Safe

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The aim of this paper is to review the development of food safety management systems (FSMS) from their origins in the 1950s to the present. The food safety challenges in modern food supply systems are explored and it is argued that there is a need for a more holistic thinking approach to food safety management. The narrative review highlights that while the transactional elements of how FSMS are developed, validated, implemented, monitored, and verified remains largely unchanged, how organizational culture frames the operation and efficacy of FSMS is becoming more important. The evolution of a wider academic and industry understanding of both the influence of food safety culture (FS‐culture) and also how such culture frames and enables, or conversely restricts the efficacy of the FSMS is crucial for consumer well‐being. Potential research gaps worthy of further study are identified as well as recommendations given for the application of the research findings within the food industry.

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“…On the other hand, the use of irrigation water with different microbial quality did not significantly affect the bacterial community of tomato fruit [ 10 , 11 ]. Agricultural (ag) water has been recognized as one of the major potential vectors of enteric human pathogens during primary production [ 12 – 15 ]. Several strategies have been proposed to reduce the risk of foodborne pathogen contamination including, selection of irrigation water sources, application practices and disinfection technologies such as chemical, physical and combined treatments [ 16 – 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of chlorine dioxide disinfection of irrigation water on the epiphytic bacterial community of baby spinach and underlying soil

Truchado

Gil

Suslow³

et al. 2018

PLoS ONE

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The contamination of pathogenic bacteria through irrigation water is a recognized risk factor for fresh produce. Irrigation water disinfection is an intervention strategy that could be applied to reduce the probability of microbiological contamination of crops. Disinfection treatments should be applied ensuring minimum effective doses, which are efficient in inhibiting the microbial contamination while avoiding formation and accumulation of chemical residues. Among disinfection technologies available for growers, chlorine dioxide (ClO2) represents, after sodium hypochlorite, an alternative disinfection treatment, which is commercially applied by growers in the USA and Spain. However, in most of the cases, the suitability of this treatment has been tested against pathogenic bacteria and low attention have been given to the impact of chemical residues on the bacterial community of the vegetable tissue. The aim of this study was to (i) to evaluate the continual application of chlorine dioxide (ClO2) as a water disinfection treatment of irrigation water during baby spinach growth in commercial production open fields, and (ii) to determine the subsequent impact of these treatments on the bacterial communities in water, soil, and baby spinach. To gain insight into the changes in the bacterial community elicited by ClO2, samples of treated and untreated irrigation water as well as the irrigated soil and baby spinach were analyzed using Miseq® Illumina sequencing platform. Next generation sequencing and multivariate statistical analysis revealed that ClO2 treatment of irrigation water did not affect the diversity of the bacterial community of water, soil and crop, but significant differences were observed in the relative abundance of specific bacterial genera. This demonstrates the different susceptibility of the bacteria genera to the ClO2 treatment. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that the phyllosphere bacterial community of baby spinach was more influenced by the soil bacteria community rather than that of irrigation water. In the case of baby spinach, the use of low residual ClO2 concentrations (approx. 0.25 mg/L) to treat irrigation water decreased the relative abundance of Pseudomonaceae (2.28-fold) and Enterobacteriaceae (2.5-fold) when comparing treated versus untreated baby spinach. Members of these two bacterial families are responsible for food spoilage and foodborne illnesses. Therefore, a reduction of these bacterial families might be beneficial for the crop and for food safety. In general it can be concluded that the constant application of ClO2 as a disinfection treatment for irrigation water only caused changes in two bacterial families of the baby spinach and soil microbiota, without affecting the major phyla and classes. The significance of these changes in the bacterial community should be further evaluated.

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Risk Assessment or Assessment of Risk? Developing an Evidence-Based Approach for Primary Producers of Leafy Vegetables To Assess and Manage Microbial Risks

Abstract: . 2017. Risk assessment or assessment of risk? Developing an evidence based approach for primary producers of leafy vegetables to assess and manage microbial risks.

Cited by 15 publications

References 25 publications

The Hurdle Approach–A Holistic Concept for Controlling Food Safety Risks Associated With Pathogenic Bacterial Contamination of Leafy Green Vegetables. A Review

The Hurdle Approach–A Holistic Concept for Controlling Food Safety Risks Associated With Pathogenic Bacterial Contamination of Leafy Green Vegetables. A Review

The Evolution and Cultural Framing of Food Safety Management Systems—Where From and Where Next?

Impact of chlorine dioxide disinfection of irrigation water on the epiphytic bacterial community of baby spinach and underlying soil

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