Food Safety Program Performance Assessment in Tennessee, 2003-2011.

To assess food safety program performance, the Tennessee Department of Health conducted food service surveys of randomly selected establishments and reviewed routine inspection reports by environmental health specialists (EHSs) of the same facilities. The individual restaurant sanitation scores, along with types and frequencies of violations noted by the survey team, were compared with records from the previous year. In addition, EHSs were observed as they each performed two routine inspections. Survey team staff consistently marked more critical violations than did field EHS staff. Differences between survey teams and field EHS staff in marking critical violations were statistically significant for all 10 critical violations in the first review cycle, 8 in the second cycle, and 7 in the third cycle. Over the course of the review period, there was a small but measurable improvement in scoring by field EHS staff. Marking of critical violations increased, sanitation scores decreased, and discrepancies with survey teams in both areas decreased.

The Effect of Inspection Announcement on the Outcome of Food Science Establishment Sanitary Health Evaluations.

This study evaluated whether a difference existed between one-hour and one-day notice on inspection announcements versus unannounced inspections on health inspection ratings of food establishments. Three hundred food establishments were randomly assigned into three sections of no announcement, one-hour announcement, or one-day announcement. Certified food inspectors performed routine inspections of these establishments for foodborne illness risk factors. Inspection results were analyzed using chi-square analysis. A significant interaction was found: those who had no notice were more likely to have an unsatisfactory outcome (4%) than establishments that had either one-hour or one-day notice (0%). One-hour notice did not result in a significant difference in outcome when compared with no notification. One-day notice did result in a significant difference in outcome when compared with no notification. This result suggests that one-hour notification is not a significant amount of time to impact the outcome of an inspection, but is sufficient to allow management to logistically prepare for an inspection and still maintain the objective of the inspection process.

Yelp Versus Inspection Reports: Is Quality Correlated With Sanitation in Retail Food Facilities?

Consumer-generated restaurant review sites offer a wealth of information about dining options. These sites are based on consumers' experiences; therefore, it is useful to assess the relevance between restaurant review (for food quality) and retail food facilities (RFFs) inspection results (for sanitation) from health departments. This study analyzed New York City restaurant ratings on Yelp.com to determine if there was a relationship to RFFs' violation scores for those same facilities found on the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene web pages. In addition, we assessed differences between RFFs defined on Yelp as quick service versus full service, and chains versus nonchains. Yelp ratings were found to be correlated only with sanitation in chain RFFs.

The effect of follow-up inspections on critical violations identified during restaurant inspections.

Follow-up inspections are recommended by the Food and Drug Administration as a tool to verify corrections to violations cited during restaurant inspections. The effectiveness of follow-up inspections as a tool in reducing critical violations is unknown, however. The purpose of the authors' study was to assess whether a serious violation that leads to a follow-up inspection reduces the probability of specific critical violations occurring during the next routine inspection. Outcome measures included poor personal hygiene, improper holding temperatures, substandard equipment cleanliness, potential cross contamination, and improper sanitizer concentration. The risk of having a violation increased for all targeted critical violations during inspections conducted after a follow-up inspection compared to restaurant inspections without a prior follow-up, when adjusting for restaurant type, inspector experience, and season.

Authenticity of food products in the Polish market checked during 2005-2012.

BACKGROUND: Food fraud/adulteration has ever increasingly become a dominant food issue of the modern world in both developed and developing countries. It is presumed that globalisation is mainly one of the underlying reasons. OBJECTIVES: To assess and analyse the occurrence of food fraud on the Polish market during 2005-2012. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Adulteration of foodstuffs was determined from official food inspections carried out by the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection (IJHARS) in 2005-2012. On average, foodstuff manufacturers inspected ranged from 1300 companies in 2011 to 3000 in 2006. The amount of results so collected, allowed a meaningful assessment to be thus made of food fraud on the Polish market. RESULTS: Food fraud was found to vary in the Polish market for the specific areas researched (ie. organoleptic properties, physico-chemistry and labelling) as well as in the agri-food sector. Levels of food fraud were not significantly different to those observed in other countries. CONCLUSIONS: Appropriate control measures, at both national and international levels, are thereby indicated to halt the adulteration of foodstuff products that constitute a health hazard or pose a life-threat to consumers as well as constituting a financial fraud.

Bovine tuberculosis slaughter surveillance in the United States 2001-2010: assessment of its traceback investigation function.

BACKGROUND: The success of tracing cattle to the herd of origin after the detection and confirmation of bovine tuberculosis (TB) lesions in cattle at slaughter is a critical component of the national bovine TB eradication program in the United States (U.S.). The aims of this study were to 1) quantify the number of bovine TB cases identified at slaughter that were successfully traced to their herd of origin in the U.S. during 2001-2010, 2) quantify the number of successful traceback investigations that found additional TB infected animals in the herd of origin or epidemiologically linked herds, and 3) describe the forms of animal identification present on domestic bovine TB cases and their association with traceback success. RESULTS: We analyzed 2001-2010 data in which 371 granulomatous lesions were confirmed as bovine TB. From these 114 bovine TB cases, 78 adults (i.e. sexually intact bovines greater than two years of age), and 36 fed (i.e. less than or equal to two years of age) were classified as domestic cattle (U.S. originated). Of these adults and fed cases, 83% and 13% were successfully traced, respectively. Of these traceback investigations, 70% of adult cases and 50% of fed cases identified additional bovine TB infected animals in the herd of origin or an epidemiologically linked herd. We found that the presence of various forms of animal identification on domestic bovine TB cases at slaughter may facilitate successful traceback investigations; however, they do not guarantee it. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide valuable information with regard to epidemiological traceback investigations and serve as a baseline to aid U.S. officials when assessing the impact of newly implemented strategies as part of the national bovine TB eradication in the U.S.

Optimal Food Safety Sampling Under a Budget Constraint.

Much of the literature regarding food safety sampling plans implicitly assumes that all lots entering commerce are tested. In practice, however, only a fraction of lots may be tested due to a budget constraint. In such a case, there is a tradeoff between the number of lots tested and the number of samples per lot. To illustrate this tradeoff, a simple model is presented in which the optimal number of samples per lot depends on the prevalence of sample units that do not conform to microbiological specifications and the relative costs of sampling a lot and of drawing and testing a sample unit from a lot. The assumed objective is to maximize the number of nonconforming lots that are rejected subject to a food safety sampling budget constraint. If the ratio of the cost per lot to the cost per sample unit is substantial, the optimal number of samples per lot increases as prevalence decreases. However, if the ratio of the cost per lot to the cost per sample unit is sufficiently small, the optimal number of samples per lot reduces to one (i.e., simple random sampling), regardless of prevalence. In practice, the cost per sample unit may be large relative to the cost per lot due to the expense of laboratory testing and other factors. Designing effective compliance assurance measures depends on economic, legal, and other factors in addition to microbiology and statistics.

State health agency workforce shortages and implications for public health: a case study of restaurant inspections in Louisiana.

The study described in this article evaluated the effects of public health workforce cuts on routine food safety inspections and the occurrence of critical violations. Routine inspection information was collected from two Louisiana databases for permanent food establishments categorized as risk category 3 or 4 in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, for the years 2005, 2007, and 2009. The length of time between routine inspections nearly quadrupled from 2005 to 2009. For risk category 4 establishments, a significant increase occurred in the proportion of inspections that resulted in a critical violation between the three years. The amount of time between routine inspections was significantly higher for inspections that resulted in a critical violation versus those that did not. Lastly, the amount of time between routine inspections, an establishment's risk category, and history of complaint were found to have significant predictive effects on the incidence of a critical violation during a routine inspection, although results varied by year. Study results indicate that decreased workforce capacity in Louisiana may negatively affect the outcomes of routine food safety inspections.

An investigation to determine association between foodborne illness and number of citations in a food establishment.

This article analyzes the inspectional data for the food protection program at the Cincinnati Health Department prior to the implementation of a standardization program for food inspections and food inspection training. The main objectives of the authors' study were to assess if current foodborne illness risk factors were associated with different risk classes of food establishments and the relationships between foodborne illness risk factors using non-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) foodborne illness risk factors and CDC foodborne illness risk factor criteria. Additionally the authors' study provides information on whether the standardization of staff reduced the number of risk factors at food establishments, reducing the opportunity for a foodborne illness. This research compares the mean number of violations cited per inspection at food establishments of various risk classes. The authors' findings show that both CDC and non-CDC foodborne illness risk factors were positively associated to the risk class of the food establishment; however, more non-CDC than CDC foodborne illness risk factors were cited by the sanitarians at each level of risk class.

Electronic data collection to enhance disease surveillance at the slaughterhouse in a smallholder production system.

Globally, meat inspection provides data for animal health surveillance. However, paper-based recording of data is often not reported through to higher authorities in sufficient detail. We trialled the use of an electronic meat inspection form in Kenyan slaughterhouses, in lieu of the currently used paper-based format. Meat inspectors in two ruminant slaughterhouses completed and submitted an electronic report for each animal slaughtered at their facility. The reports, which captured information on the animal demographics and any eventual condemnations, were stored in a central database and available in real-time. A stakeholder meeting was held towards the end of the study. Over the 2.75 year study period, 16,386 reports were submitted; a downward linear trend in the monthly submissions was noted. There was a week effect, whereby more reports were submitted on the market day. Of the slaughtered animals, 23% had at least a partial condemnation. The most frequently condemned organs were the liver, lungs and intestines; the primary reasons for condemnations were parasitic conditions. Lack of feedback and difficulty capturing animal origin information were the primary challenges highlighted. The study demonstrated that electronic data capture is feasible in such challenging environments, thereby improving the timeliness and resolution of the data collected.

Short communication: Correlation of on-site inspection and laboratory milk testing results for Wisconsin grade A dairy farms in 2007 and 2008.

This study examined whether regulatory on-site dairy farm inspection results correlated with reported laboratory somatic cell count (SCC), standard plate count (SPC), and beta-lactam drug residue (DR) results for individual farms. Results were obtained for Wisconsin grade A dairy farms in 2007 and 2008 (>11,000 farms, >1.4 million data points). The proportion of farms failing an on-site inspection ranged from 12% for farms that had never failed an SCC test (>750,000 cells/mL), an SPC test (>100,000 cfu/mL), or a DR test (drug detected) to 55% for farms that had failed at least 1 of each type of test. Conditional probability analysis showed that the probability of a farm failing an on-site farm inspection was higher if the farm had failed a DR test and increased as the proportion of samples failing SCC or SPC or both increased. However, the statistical correlations were weak (R

An in-home video study and questionnaire survey of food preparation, kitchen sanitation, and hand washing practices.

Foodborne illnesses pose a problem to all individuals but are especially significant for infants, the elderly, and individuals with compromised immune systems. Personal hygiene is recognized as the number-one way people can lower their risk. The majority of meals in the U.S. are eaten at home. Little is known, however, about the actual application of personal hygiene and sanitation behaviors in the home. The study discussed in this article assessed knowledge of hygiene practices compared to observed behaviors and determined whether knowledge equated to practice. It was a descriptive study involving a convenience sample of 30 households. Subjects were recruited from the Boston area and a researcher and/or a research assistant traveled to the homes of study participants to videotape a standard food preparation procedure preceded by floor mopping. The results highlight the differences between individuals' reported beliefs and actual practice. This information can aid food safety and other health professionals in targeting food safety education so that consumers understand their own critical role in decreasing their risk for foodborne illness.

The association between meat inspection codes, footpad lesions and thinning of broiler flocks in the Danish broiler production.

The foundation of the condemnation practices in Post-Mortem Inspection (PMI) of poultry should be based on up-to-date scientific evidence about the cause of infection and hence whether the lesions observed are of food safety, animal health or welfare concerns. This study aimed to investigate the association between meat inspection codes, footpad lesions, and thinning of flocks in Danish broiler production. The data set was based on the delivery of chicken flocks to one of the two larger chicken slaughterhouses in Denmark, representing 71 farms, 174 houses, and 4,068 flocks over three years from January 2016 to December 2018. Post-mortem condemnation data of slaughtered chickens recorded and stored in the Danish Quality Assurance System (KIK) database was used in the study. Five potentially causal models were developed to investigate whether there was an association between dermatitis, arthritis, systemic infection, emaciation, mortality and possible explaining factors` (footpad lesion, age at slaughter, scratches, ascites, systemic infection and thinning of the flock). These five ecological logistic regression models were analyzed with the three levels: farm, house, and flock. Data from a total number of 126,137,002 (N) slaughtered chickens recorded in KIK databases were used for modeling and analyses. The prevalence of condemned carcasses was 1.1 % (n = 1,420,812). Overall, 12 individual reasons for condemnation of carcasses were recorded. The most frequently observed reason for condemnation was skin disease (scratches and dermatitis) with a prevalence of 0.5 %. Prevalence of ascites was 0.2 %, discoloration 0.09 %, emaciation 0.09 %, hepatitis 0.09 % and arthritis 0.07 %. In the first model, dermatitis was shown to be positively associated with age at slaughter with an OR = 1.04 (CI95 %: 1.02-1.05), while arthritis was considered an intervening variable. Moreover, there was a small protective effect of thinning of the flock for first and second delivery. There was a positive association between arthritis and age at the time of slaughter with an OR = 1.13 (CI95 %: 1.12-1.15). Systemic infections were associated with scratches with an OR = 24.5 (CI95 %: 16.6-36.3) and footpad lesions with an OR = 1.007 (CI95 %: 1.006-1.008). Further modelling of emaciation and mortality was not considered because of unbalanced groups in the data probably caused by the fact that some condemnation codes were rare. We observed that the most common causal factors of condemnation in the systemic infection models were scratches and footpad lesion, therefore preventing and controlling such lesions could reduce losses. Specific management and environmental etiological factors of the main infections causing condemnation in Danish broilers should be determined.

Food sanitation practices in restaurants of Ramallah and Al-Bireh district of Palestine.

Safe handling of food in restaurants is a basic element in the reduction of foodborne illness. We investigated knowledge and practices about food safety by food-handlers in restaurants in Ramallah and Al-Bireh district of Palestine. A high proportion of workers in the restaurants had no previous experience in other restaurants and 63.4% had received no training on food sanitation and safety. Most of the restaurants in the refugee camps, villages and towns had only 1 worker. Restaurants lacked basic conditions for food sanitation and safety, such as hot water in most and cleaning materials in some. Many workers had poor personal hygiene practices. Training is needed for restaurant owners and staff to improve food handling practices and standards.

Recalls of Foods due to Microbial Contamination Classified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, 2000 to 2017.

Recall of microbial-contaminated food products is an important intervention in preventing the transmission of foodborne illness. Here, we summarize the number and nature of foods recalled as a result of microbial contamination, classified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, for the period 1 January 2000 through 31 December 2017. A total of 10,432 food products were recalled from 2,094 recall events in Canada because of microbial contamination during this period. The meat, meat products and poultry category, followed by fishery and seafood products and nuts and edible seeds, contained the food products most commonly associated with microbial contamination. Most microbial-contaminated food products reported were recalled because of the presence bacterial pathogens. Salmonella contamination was responsible for the largest number of recall events, whereas Listeria monocytogenes contamination accounted for the greatest number of food products recalled because of microbial contamination. L. monocytogenes contamination was also most commonly associated with major food recall events, although records may be inflated because of an invested effort to prevent future L. monocytogenes outbreaks following a 2008 deli meat recall. The findings and data we present in this study will support future surveillance and analysis of microbial-contaminated food recalls in Canada.

Spatio-temporal patterns and characteristics of swine shipments in the U.S. based on Interstate Certificates of Veterinary Inspection.

Domestic swine production in the United States is a critical economic and food security industry, yet there is currently no large-scale quantitative assessment of swine shipments available to support risk assessments. In this study, we provide a national-level characterization of the swine industry by quantifying the demographic (i.e. age, sex) patterns, spatio-temporal patterns, and the production diversity within swine shipments. We characterize annual networks of swine shipments using a 30% stratified sample of Interstate Certificates of Veterinary Inspection (ICVI), which are required for the interstate movement of agricultural animals. We used ICVIs in 2010 and 2011 from eight states that represent 36% of swine operations and 63% of the U.S. swine industry. Our analyses reflect an integrated and spatially structured industry with high levels of spatial heterogeneity. Most shipments carried young swine for feeding or breeding purposes and carried a median of 330 head (range: 1-6,500). Geographically, most shipments went to and were shipped from Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. This work, therefore, suggests that although the swine industry is variable in terms of its size and type of swine, counties in states historically known for breeding and feeding operations are consistently more central to the shipment network.

Analysis of the monitoring status of residual nitrite in meat products in China from 2000 to 2011.

The aim of this article was to analyze the monitoring status of nitrite in meat products consumed from 2000 to 2011 in 24 provinces, autonomous regions or direct-controlled municipalities in China. Statistical analyses were performed on the monitoring status including number, proportion, and distribution of 13,316 samples, of which 11,320 (85%) contained up to 2808.2mg/kg nitrite and 1996 (15%) contained no nitrite. A total of 10,299 samples (77%) qualified for GB/T 5009.33-2003, 2003; however, 3017 samples (23%) contained nitrite at levels higher than the national standard. The districts with high percentage of samples with no nitrite were Shanghai (49%), Beijing (47%), and Liaoning (30%). While the districts with high percentage of meat products containing nitrite at levels exceeding the national standard were Jiangxi (49%), Jiangsu (33%), Shandong (29%) and Sichuan (29%). Therefore, the status of residue nitrite in meat products is of concern.

A time-series approach for clustering farms based on slaughterhouse health aberration data.

A large amount of data is collected routinely in meat inspection in pig slaughterhouses. A time series clustering approach is presented and applied that groups farms based on similar statistical characteristics of meat inspection data over time. A three step characteristic-based clustering approach was used from the idea that the data contain more info than the incidence figures. A stratified subset containing 511,645 pigs was derived as a study set from 3.5 years of meat inspection data. The monthly averages of incidence of pleuritis and of pneumonia of 44 Dutch farms (delivering 5149 batches to 2 pig slaughterhouses) were subjected to 1) derivation of farm level data characteristics 2) factor analysis and 3) clustering into groups of farms. The characteristic-based clustering was able to cluster farms for both lung aberrations. Three groups of data characteristics were informative, describing incidence, time pattern and degree of autocorrelation. The consistency of clustering similar farms was confirmed by repetition of the analysis in a larger dataset. The robustness of the clustering was tested on a substantially extended dataset. This confirmed the earlier results, three data distribution aspects make up the majority of distinction between groups of farms and in these groups (clusters) the majority of the farms was allocated comparable to the earlier allocation (75% and 62% for pleuritis and pneumonia, respectively). The difference between pleuritis and pneumonia in their seasonal dependency was confirmed, supporting the biological relevance of the clustering. Comparison of the identified clusters of statistically comparable farms can be used to detect farm level risk factors causing the health aberrations beyond comparison on disease incidence and trend alone.

Occurrence of Campylobacter, Salmonella, Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes in some retail food products in Novi Sad.

The official reporting system in the Province of Vojvodina (PV) indicates that cases of human salmonellosis were partly covered by complete epidemiological investigation including laboratory analysis of the suspected food. Intestinal campylobacteriosis and yersiniosis and four cases of septicemias caused by Listeria monocytogenes were not fully epidemiologically investigated. Actual country legislation on food safety does not include provisions for a routine control of the above mentioned pathogens except for Salmonella. In the PV, there are no other sources of data that contribute to risk assessment of the above food-borne diseases. A pilot investigation, performed in Novi Sad, indicated that 8.17% out of the total number of 257 retail food samples (90 of fresh meat and 167 of ready-to-eat food) had been contaminated with one of the tested bacteria Campylobacter or Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes. Yersinia enterocolitica was not detected in any of the tested samples. Fresh poultry meat and other fresh meats were the dominant sources of the detected pathogens compared to samples of ready-to-eat food (p < 0.05). Campylobacter was detected in 18.8% and 10.0% samples of fresh poultry and other fresh meat respectively, which was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Salmonella was detected in 3.3% samples of fresh poultry meat. Listeria monocytogenes was detected in 5.0% samples of fresh poultry and in 3.3% samples of other fresh meat, the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). One sample (0.6%) of ready to eat food was contaminated with Campylobacter and one (0.6%) with Salmonella.