Pathogens in raw foods
Approximately 50 years ago the Pillsbury Company was asked to develop protocols to ensure that astronauts would be free from food-borne illness during space travel. The entire process of production, harvesting, processing, and preparation of food was critically analyzed in order to identify control points that might be susceptible to the introduction of microbial contamination. Thus, Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Point (HACCP) was born. Risk assessment within HACCP was used to bypass end-product testing, which was deemed to be too expensive and essentially impractical for both NASA and the food industry. Global recognition of standardized protocols to eliminate risk at every step from “farm to fork” has translated into our national food safety policy. Unfortunately, raw foods have thrown a major linchpin into this vastly effective policy because of the lack of a verifiable kill step to ensure the elimination of food-borne disease transmission. Salmonella outbreaks in leafy greens, tomatoes, and other produce exemplify food safety issues related to the consumption of raw foods. Produce at harvest will contain indigenous bacteria and viruses, but their numbers are presumed to be relatively low and devoid of human pathogens. These assumptions have kept raw foods under the HACCP radar, and problems are exacerbated by low infectious dose for some strains and the establishment of Salmonella in environmental reservoirs. Issues with trace-back, such as co-mingling of produce lots from multiple farms before retail sale, globalization of food markets, and the short shelf-life of fresh-cut products further exacerbate the problem. These issues are complex, and easy solutions are not in sight.
Pathogens in raw foods: what the salad bar can learn from the raw bar. Curr Opin Biotechnol. Apr 14 2009
Recent Salmonella outbreaks associated with consumption of fresh produce have increased public concern for the safety of raw food products, perhaps signaling a paradigm shift in approaches to food safety. Limitations to our capacity to ensure that raw foods are safe for the consumer include the availability of sufficiently rapid and reliable technology for prevention, intervention, and risk assessment. Other food products, such as shellfish, with greater historical precedent for real or perceived public health risk may offer perspective and insight into strategies for meeting these challenges. This review documents current practices for pathogen prevention and detection in raw oysters and presents technological advances and impediments that determine the application of these methods.
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Tags: Agriculture, Biology, Food, HACCP, Health, Medicine, Microbiology, Salmonella, Science
It was never the intent of HACCP to bypass product testing. Its intent at least for NASA was to zero the risk for vomiting and diarrhea in the space tiny space capsule. Vomitus in zero gravity is an unacceptable hazard.
Today the hazards of pathogens in raw veggies etc is not beyond the scope of HAACP’s application. In most cases it is the water or soil environment that is the source of the pathogens, as they get contaminated from human and animal sources.
Water systems and manure fertilization are wild cards on most farms. I have witnessed the real world for 25 + years and agriculture has been very good at defeating scientific scrutiny and good public health policy like HACCP. The progressive farms introduce HACCP as a private program and develop their own surveillance and response program. The industries however, tend to resist and resist a state health program until the applications become so weak or voluntary as to be meaningless window dressing.
Such an “end around” in the face of the science creates a huge legal liability for those industries and states that choose to be other than progressive.