Food Protection Trends - October 2009 - 692

inspection system for food safety. All Items (over 100,000 registered since 2005) are tracked and verified as they enter the country based on a country of origin bar code. This is quite extensive work; therefore Dubai hires a very large workforce to accomplish the task. Alejandro Castillo, from Texas A&M University, presented a talk on progress made since the 2008 Salmonella outbreak in green peppers. He reviewed the subjects regarding the outbreak and presented steps and work that are being performed by Mexican government to improve the safety of fresh produce that have an important economic role to that country. Measures applied by the Mexican government are not only concerned with an extensive microbiological testing of samples, but also with the training and implementation of GMP and HACCP approaches to assure the safety of produce exported, for example to the United States. The presentation showed clearly the large costs involved to rebuild the confidence of an importer after a massive outbreak linked with fresh produce. Suely Nakashima, from Sadia, a large Brazilian meat product exporter presented a talk showing on how the industry works to comply with different requirements for products being exported to different countries worldwide. She presented specific examples on how Sadia’s quality management system is designed to comply with claims linked to labeling of products, biological and chemical hazards established by importers. It was shown that sometimes a quick and massive investment in equipment, personal and training to be able to export foods to several countries is required. Suely showed how Sadia is able to quickly respond, and satisfactorily comply, when there is scientific evidence proving the feasibility of requirements with the technical inquiries raised by importers so as to assure that nutritive and safe foods are commercialized. Caroline Smith-DeWaal from the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., presented a review of contemporary food safety problems and cultural perspective across three world regions. Specifically, she gave examples and recommended combining information streams to develop baselines in illness prevalence. Once baselines are established, items of public health could be determined and prioritized. S18 – Looking for Thresholds: A Multi-disciplinary Key Events Approach Reshani Nisansala Senevirathne, Louisiana State University R.D.C. Senaka Ranadheera, University of Newcastle, Australia Dr. Robert L. Buchanan from University of Maryland opened the session with a presentation on “Introduction to the Key Events Dose-response Framework (KEDRF).” The dose-response modeling is one of the important tools used by both industry and government for the assessment and management of health risks posed by foodborne pathogens. In his talk he covered emergence of World Trade Organization (WTO) as the formal governing body of international standards, risk management principles, foster innovation, and reduce budget regulatory. Furthermore, he explained about threshold level depends on the nature of the hazard such as chemical allergen or pathogenic microorganisms, examination the critical steps and treatments. Dr. Mary Alice Smith from University of Georgia gave a presentation under the topic of “Introduction to the Key Events Dose-response Framework,” which is a novel approach for evaluating low-level exposure and their potential health risk adopted by ILSI Global Threshold Project. Thresholds are the minimum dosage required to produce a biological response which can occur at every level of biological organization. She explained Key Events Framework (a framework in which to organize information about the multiple steps leading to an adverse outcome) in detail and outline of key event processes. She focused on chemical allergens and cancer/tumor development and spoke about mechanisms of carcinogenesis. She further explained key events for tumor development DNA-reactive MoA. Third presenter for this session Dr. Richard C. Whiting from Exponent also talked on “Introduction to the Key Events Dose-response Framework (KEDRF) to Pathogenic Microorganisms.” He explained about Toxigenic (C. botulinum), Toxicoinfections (E. coli) and Invasive bacteria (Salmonella spp.). He explained response modeling epidemiological approach, conditional chain of events, and identifying key events. Consequently, there is a need to understand and answer each question for each event; thereby understanding the pathways or processes can be identified. That leads to identifying the individual case or current population of the bacteria. Dr. Steven Gendel from CFSAN, FDA, Summit Agro, IL presented information on potential application of the Key Events Dose-response Framework to foodborne allergens. He defined a food allergy as an immunologic reaction to a food usually mediated by IgE. Gastrointestinal, respiratory, cutaneous and systematic symptoms may be occurred after ingestion of foods due to these reactions. The immunology of an allergic response is a two step process: Sensitization which is poorly understood so far and elicitation which more data on thresholds is available. He explained major steps of elicitation in detail with critical factors affect on each and every steps. Those include ingestion, digestion, uptake and distribution, cellular events and effector interactions with tissue signs and symptoms. Dr. Gendel concluded his presentation with the explanation of future directions of key event approach to food allergy. S19 – Round Up your Pathogen Plan: Enrichment, Sample Preparation and the Legal and Social Perspectives Ch.V. R. Kumar Tammineedi, University of Georgia Vanija Kallur, Alabama A&M University The symposium discussed about the current and new technologies of enrichment and sample preparation. The initial presentations are focused on enrichment and sample preparation. The concluding presentations discussed about the legal and social historical case studies related to a pathogen plan. Speakers included Jingkun Li (Siemens), 692 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | OCTOBER 2009

Food Protection Trends - October 2009

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