Foodborne disease evaluation

Posted by Judith Hilton on October 5th 2007 in Science, safety and health

It’s important that the Agency’s initiatives are not only based on sound science and evidence, but also that we take the time to stop and evaluate what we have done and just how successful it has been before moving on. 

In 2001, the Agency set itself a target to reduce UK foodborne disease by 20% by 2006.  We researched the most robust way to measure how well we were meeting the target (the annual number of laboratory-reported cases of the five key bacterial pathogens) and, through consultation with stakeholders, we developed and published a farm-to-fork strategy to achieve this target.

When we assessed our progress in 2006, we found that between 2000 and 2005, the number of cases had reduced by more than 19%. 

Our Board felt this was an excellent result and that the strategy’s work had contributed to a significant reduction in foodborne disease in the UK.  However, this did not tell us which interventions had the greatest impact in reducing foodborne disease. 

This week we held a workshop near Cambridge where 65 experts in epidemiology and microbiology mixed with representatives from primary (farm) production, processing and retailing sectors and FSA staff. We spent two days examining what progress had been made, whether the initiatives and approaches used had been successful, what significant issues remain and how these should be addressed.

The workshop identified notable successes in several areas including meat and poultry hygiene, food safety management and publicity of good food hygiene practices.  However, it also highlighted that a large number of cases caused by campylobacter and salmonella still occur each year and that listeriosis, which although relatively rare does cause severe illness, is now twice as common as it was in 2000, and we are not yet sure exactly why. 

So yes, so far so good. But significant challenges remain to reduce foodborne disease further by continuing to make use of the effective and successful approaches already used, and by continuing to work in close partnership with industry and our other stakeholders.

Got any comments? Have your say on the blog.

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Listeria and fish

Posted by Judith Hilton on 12/11/2007 - 14:41

At the moment our surveys don't suggest there is a problem with listeria and fish. For example, as smoked fish are effectively raw I would have expected to see any change in listeria contamination reflected in work the Agency's currently doing in this area, as well as the wet unsmoked fish sector – particularly as many types of smoked fish are sold alongside unsmoked fish on fish counters in supermarkets. But there aren't any signs of that change.

And although it is plausible that raw or smoked fish could be a source of listeria, if there was a particular problem caused by fish I would also have expected to see an increase in pregnancy associated cases as well as in people over 60, as pregnant women would also be vulnerable – and that increase isn't there. Generally, we should all try and eat more fish.

increase in listeriosis

Posted by Sally (not verified) on 08/11/2007 - 09:19

Could this be due in part to the huge increase in fish being sold chilled in supermarkets allowing for growth of small numbers initially present as listeria is routinely present in fish? There has not been the ongoing publicity on bleaching surfaces, utensils etc that there has for raw poultry. Fish is often much more lightly cooked than poultry and even eaten raw. Where fish processors work on the premise that it will be introduced each day through raw material (whether it has or not) and must be eradicated each day, consumers for the post part I would suspect do not.

Reply to Val

Posted by Judith Hilton on 15/10/2007 - 11:09

Thanks for these important points, Val.

Although my posting did focus on what has been done across the food chain, the end-user does also have a vital role in preventing foodborne illness, as you rightly point out.

And we have been very active in working to raise awareness and increase understanding of the need for good food hygiene with the general public through our Food Hygiene Campaign, which has been running since 2002.

This has included our TV campaigns that featured fluorescent bugs being spread around the kitchen and a turkey causing a fight at Christmas, which are well remembered.

We have also been involved at a local level to promote food hygiene in schools through local authority projects and a mobile classroom, the Cooking Bus.

All these activities are based around the Agency’s ‘4Cs’ basic food hygiene principles, to wash hands properly and keep things clean, cook food properly, chill food properly and avoid cross-contamination, which have also been promoted at major public events like the Good Food Show and through advice to consumers on our eatwell website.

From this year, the Agency has taken responsibility for Food Safety Week, which provides a focus each year for promoting food hygiene messages at a local level throughout the UK.

We are discussing plans for Food Safety Week in June 2008 and expect to provide more information about this early in 2008.

If you want to be kept informed of future developments, please register your details at foodsafetyweek@ecgroup.co.uk and include ‘Register’ in the subject line.

Dear Val

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on 11/10/2007 - 21:30

The focus on the primary producers and manufacturers is there for just the simple reason that they are responsible of producing safe food and careless handling practices can cause outbreaks that can affect loads of people that unwillingly can go sick or even die.
It is not so easy to educate to joe public and changes lifestyles that are strongly implemented within the population. But it is also the case that if you do want to eat mouldy bread it will be your problem but if you want to sell mouldy bread to the public it shall be the public problem , that is because you can cause trouble to many people unneccessarily

fsa blog

Posted by Andrew Wadge on 11/10/2007 - 11:52

Hello onionspeak

Thanks for visiting my blog and for your feedback. I hope you'll return. Apologies for the broken link to David Miliband's blog. His blog has now moved to the Foreign Office (since he became Foreign Secretary, in fact), so we've pointed the link there instead. Thanks for pointing this out to us.

We do work very closely with food businesses across the entire sector on issues such as nutrition, food hygiene, standards and labelling.

Sorry to hear you're having problems navigating your way around the blog. It's almost a year old now so there is a lot of content on there. We're continually reviewing the structure to make it as intuitive as possible. Your feedback is useful.

fsa website

Posted by onionspeak (not verified) on 10/10/2007 - 13:52

1. why is the side bar link to DAvid Miliband's blog not user-friendly; how do I get to it?

2. It seems to me the FSA and government have to do more PR with our local shops and supermarkets; I spend ages trying to identify local and British-grown fruits and veg; in the end I usually end up with an apple with a tiny label saying New Zealand or South Africa.

3. I'm new to blogs but your site is really difficult to understand the blog - comment and how to reach this area.

FOODBORNE DISEASES

Posted by VAL COLLINSON (not verified) on 08/10/2007 - 12:32

In the context of foodborne diseases, it seems that the focus is largely on primary producers and manufacturers and hardly, if at all, on the domestic kitchen, where, I would suggest, much of the problem lies. My daughter had university friends who seemed to have no idea that work surfaces where raw chicken had been handled should be sterilized before being used for cooked foods. I should like to know what, if anything, is being done to educate the general public about hygienic food handling. Surely it would not be too difficult to introduce a one-day basic food hygiene course into the school curriculum would it? I feel sure that such a measure would have a dramatic effect in reducing the incidence of foodborne diseases.