India and Pakistan heavily invest in mobile food safety testing labs. To make best use of the limited space, on-board analytical devices are ideally small but powerful. This is one of the key goals of the recently-funded TITAN project: creating portable, simple-to-use devices that, combined with artificial intelligence, can provide additional insights and data interpretation.
The last two blogs on the cronobacter and listeria incidents showed how competent authorities failed to take timely action and lives were lost. In this post we are looking at two examples of competent authorities that are transparent, proactive and communicate with stakeholders at all levels.
Artificial intelligence is used in many areas to improve processes. Is there a role for artificial intelligence in food safety?
Before the cronobacter case in the US with infant formula, there was the so-called "Wilke case" in Germany. Wilke, a sausage manufacturer - apparently knowingly - sold products that were contaminated with listeria and caused the death of at least three people. Authorities were not inspecting the plant or not taking measures. There are striking similarities with the cronobacter case in the US in regard to the competent authorities' shortcomings.
Contamination of infant formula with cronobacter caused the death of several infants in the US. Inspectors and competent authorities acted hesitantly. Could the deaths have been prevented? What went wrong? What can be done better?
While having a single threshold for precautionary food allergen labelling (PAL) seems attractive at first sight, the analytical challenges and the labelling need to consider food matrices and consumers’ literacy levels.
The new recommendations on food allergen thresholds from the ad hoc Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Food Allergens has been published.
This is the food allergen newsfeed, containing the latest information on developments and events from around the world.
The big 8 food allergens have been listed in Codex Alimentarius since the 1990s. After more than twenty years, it was time for a review. And while the number of food allergens on this list remained the same, the allergens on it have changed.
