Food Protection Trends - November 2008 - 809

it was concluded that there is a close relationship between application of biosecurity and low incidence of Campylobacter in chickens in Norway. Roy Biggs from Tegel Foods, New Zealand, reviewed the progress of Campylobacter control in New Zealand. Some of the strategies employed included risk-based management, better quantification of proportion of cases attributable to poultry, understanding the relative values of different interventions throughout the food chain in reducing risks to human health, providing the basis for informed risk management decisions and designing and implementing monitoring and review programs. The primary goals of the surveillance programs include monitoring of foodborne illnesses and genotyping of strains to assist with source attribution. The monitoring programs implemented were aimed at identifying the prevalence levels both at the point of slaughter and processing operations. The industry in New Zealand has mandated a 3.78 log10 CFU/carcass in February 2008 with a moving window approach; however, the interventions applied by the industry have not been mandated. The performance target of NZFSA (New Zealand Food Safety Authority) has been a 50% reduction in the incidence of Campylobacter after five years. Roger Cook started out by discussing the history of Campylobacter and how previous talks given have been quite repetitive until this year. Judy Lee then discussed the new benchmark-setting body that consists of 177 countries and stated that New Zealand heads up this body, since they have suffered from recurrent Campylobacter-related outbreaks. She went on to discuss the Codex content, principles and elements of standards. The function of Roy’s and Judi’s joint talk was to discuss how the industry handles Campylobacter problems as opposed to the way dealt by the government in New Zealand. The industry has made progress by consistent management focus in all plants while the NZFSA has focused on lowering the incidences of foodborne campylobacteriosis within 5 years. Joe Shebuski from the UK emphasized that the Campylobacter problem is not only poultry-related, it also involves the environment as well as animals and pointed to the lack of importance placed on processing and use of antimicrobials. S3 – Globalization of Acceptance Criteria for Microbiological Methods: Separating the Science from the Politics Saurabh Kumar, University of Nebraska – Lincoln and Jeremy Adler, Colorado State University Michael Broadsky started the talk by introducing the topic and relating the ISO 16140 standard to the issue of not being widely agreed upon and differences between the method validation and harmonization. Ron Johnson discussed the global need for internationally accepted microbial testing methods due to increasing food import and export to ensure food safety and security. Currently, national testing standards differ and present an obstacle to free trade, thus creating an uneven playing field. To even the playing field, he proposed, the focus should be on performance characteristics and not a comparison of tests to a reference method. The reasoning for this is that in some cases the test (rapid or conventional) method is more sensitive than the reference method and for some there is no reference method to validate against. Scott Coates gave an overview of development of AOAC harmonized methods by working with other certification bodies (FDA, USDA, ISO, AFNOR). Some countries are legally bound to perform statutory testing procedures greatly impeding the AOAC ability to harmonizing methods across countries. Once a testing method is agreed upon he outlined the 3 approaches for validation process (i) compare with the current reference method (ii) develop a new global reference method or (iii) having no reference method which was proposed by the Best Practices for Microbiological Methods Project in 2006. Roy P. Betts discussed the dichotomy in the validation process being followed in European Union. Testing procedures performed by an ISO17025 accredited lab need only to be referenced by a published testing procedure or validated internally. However, under ISO16140 testing procedures are validated using a recognized standard. He also mentioned it is very difficult to make countries agree on standards as countries do not want concede their methods and interpretation may be different. In his opinion, performance-based prescriptive standards should be used instead of method comparison. Jeff Farber updated the validation and harmonization process being followed in the Canadian regulatory system for “The Compendium of Analytical Methods of Health Canada.” He outlined the various harmonization projects being undertaken across the globe for harmonization. The various research projects involving method validation with WHO and FDA were shown. He stressed the importance of using the natural contaminants for validation studies for better understanding of the microbial dynamics. He outlined the performance approach of the agency rather than prescriptive approach. Scott Sutton discussed the timely, dynamic harmonization process in the pharmaceutical industry and warned “be carful what you wish for.” He outlined the testing methods and quality assurance practices being followed in the pharmaceutical industry. He also stressed the involvement of scientists and industry in forming the legal perspective for better acceptance, implementation, and development of harmonized procedures. NOVEMBER 2008 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS 809

Food Protection Trends - November 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - November 2008