The top 15 pathogens, which includes Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter and E. coli O157:H7, make up 95 percent of illnesses and deaths from food in the U.S.
Salmonella ranks first among the top 15 most costly foodborne illnesses, raking up around $3.7 billion every year in medical costs for Americans.
According to the latest estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service, the top 15 pathogens, which also include Listeria monocytogenes (ranked third), Campylobacter (ranked 5) and E. coli O157:H7 (ranked 9), make up 95 percent of illnesses and deaths from food in the U.S.
Salmonella’s cost is $3.7 billion, with 1,027,561 total cases, 19,336 hospitalizations and 378 deaths.
Listeria monocytogenes’s cost is $2.8 billion, with 1,591 cases, 1,173 hospitalizations and 306 deaths.
Campylobacter’s is $1.9 billion, with 845,024 cases, 8,463 hospitalizations and 76 deaths.
E. coli O157’s is $271 million, with 63,153 cases, 2,138 hospitalizations and 30 deaths.
Deaths tend to account for the bulk of the total costs. Death associated with salmonella, for example, cost nearly $3.3 billion, or almost 90 percent, of its $3.7 billion cost.
Scope J, Provision of Storage and Distribution Services, is the latest extension to the SQF scopes covered by the GFSI benchmarking requirements, and includes the management of safety schemes for storage facilities and the distribution vehicles for food and feed.
The Global Food Safety Initiative Board of Directors is pleased to announce that SQF has achieved recognition against the Guidance Document Sixth Edition for the scope of Storage and Distribution (J). This is in addition to the scopes for which SQF has already achieved GFSI recognition (AI, BI, C, D, EI, EII, EIII, EIV, F, L and M). The GFSI Guidance Document’s Scope J, Provision of Storage and Distribution Services, is the latest extension to the scopes covered by the GFSI benchmarking requirements, and includes the management of safety schemes for storage facilities and the distribution vehicles for food and feed.
Scopes of Recognition
The GFSI Benchmark Committee was led by Kevin Swoffer, director, KPS Resources Ltd with the support of Cloeann Durham, Sr. Director Quality ; CCBCC, The Coca-Cola Company and Bizhan Pourkomailian, Director Food Safety and Supplier Workplace Accountability, McDonald’s.
“The GFSI Board is delighted to recognize yet another food safety scheme against the GFSI requirements for storage and distribution activities. SQF now offers another option to companies looking for food safety management solutions in this part of the supply chain,” said Cenk Gurol, Aeon, Chairman of the GFSI Board.
“SQFI is pleased to announce the recognition and benchmarking of our Storage and Distribution of Food Products Program by GFSI. We are excited to offer these highly anticipated benchmarked modules to our stakeholders so they can be assured they are transporting and storing perishable and non-perishable food and feed products safely,” said LeAnn B Chuboff, Senior Technical Director, SQFI.
The Safe Quality Food (SQF) program is recognized by retailers and foodservice providers around the world as a rigorous, credible food safety management system. It is the only certification system recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) that offers certificates for primary production, food manufacturing, distribution and agent/broker management. This enables suppliers to assure their customers that food has been produced, processed, prepared and handled according to the highest possible standards, at all levels of the supply chain.
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a business-driven initiative for the continuous improvement of food safety management systems to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers worldwide. GFSI was launched in 2000 following a number of food safety crises when consumer confidence was at an all-time low. Its collaborative approach to food safety brings together international food safety experts from the entire food supply chain at technical working group and stakeholder meetings, conferences and regional events to share knowledge and promote a harmonized approach to managing food safety across the industry.
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) was founded to deliver equivalence and convergence between effective food safety management systems through its benchmarking process and continues to flourish in doing so. Benchmarking is a “procedure by which a food safety‐related scheme is compared to the GFSI Guidance Document”. The benchmarking process determines equivalency against an internationally recognized set of food safety requirements, based on industry best practice and sound science. These requirements are developed through a consensus building process by key stakeholders in the food supply chain and can be found in the GFSI Guidance Document Sixth Edition, freely available for download on www.mygfsi.com.
The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control has confirmed that two strains of Listeria monocytogenes found at Bidart Bros. facility in Shafter, CA, are identical to those in an outbreak that has sickened 34 in the U.S. and Canada, and killed at least three in the U.S.
Another four people who had the outbreak strains have died, and one woman who had the outbreak strain had a miscarriage. However, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Jan. 12 they are waiting for confirmation from state authorities that listeria was the cause of death in those cases.
Initially the outbreak was only associated with caramel and candy apples from companies that Bidart had supplied.
However, three of the 32 sick people in the U.S. reported eating whole or sliced “green” apples before becoming ill, according to the CDC. All but one of the sick people in the U.S. had to be hospitalized.
As of Jan. 10, 25 of the 28 sick people interviewed by health officials reported eating caramel or candy apples before becoming ill.
Bidart Bros. officials recalled their entire 2014 crop of granny smiths and galas shipped from its Shafter, facility, notifying customers in a letter on January 6. A special website, www.bidartapplerecall.com, has been set up to help people and companies related to the recall and outbreak.
So far, no details have been revealed about who received the apples from Bidart or what volumes were shipped. “Bidart Bros. is contacting all of their retailers with specific instructions as to how to return those apples to Bidart Bros.,” according to a news release from Bidart Bros. that was posted on the FDA’s website Jan. 9.
Public health warnings and recalls are in effect in Canada and several brands of caramel and candy apples are under recall, as is the entire 2014 crop of granny smiths and galas from Bidart Bros., according to the Canadian food Inspection Agency. Sliced apples marketed by Scotian Gold Co-operative Ltd. are also now included in the Canadian recall. The Scotian Gold sliced apple products were distributed to retailers in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, according to the recall notice.
The CDC report shows the first confirmed illness in the U.S. began on Oct. 17. As of the agency’s Jan. 10 report, the most recent confirmed case started Dec. 12. More cases could be confirmed because listeria can take up to 70 days to develop into a detectable infection. The testing and reporting process takes an average of two to four weeks, further delaying the reports to CDC.
A recent study noted that 57 percent of 1,804 customer transactions observed did not involve the vendor changing gloves in between handling money and the next person’s order.
The majority of New York City mobile food vendors don’t change their gloves after exchanging money and before serving the next customer, as required by law, a new study has found.
Researchers from William Paterson University in New Jersey studied 10 food carts within 10 densely populated areas of Manhattan, a total of 100 carts. They found that 57 percent of 1,804 customer transactions observed did not involve the vendor changing gloves in between handling money and the next person’s order.
Study author Corey Basch describes the results as “eye-opening from a public health perspective” because of foodborne illness risk. “Being observant to the glove-changing behaviors of the vendors as well as overall hygiene is prudent and can reveal a great deal in a short time,” she said.
The New York City Health Code 81.13 requires that food vendors change gloves “after handling raw foods, performing tasks that do not involve food preparation or processing, handling garbage, or any other work where the gloves may have become soiled or contaminated.”
While there are many tools available to help food and beverage companies manage their supply chain, the integration of electronic systems in ensuring effective connectivity can be a challenge. During a Food Safety Tech conference, a panel of industry experts shared their perspectives on how to use tools to manage and communicate recalls, and the importance of focusing on a food safety management system. Melanie Neumann, executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Acheson Group, cited recall communication programs such as Rapid Recall Exchange and Recall Info Link. “They’re great programs in that they The 2015 Food Safety Consortium Conference (November 17-20, 2015 in Schaumburg, IL) features topics on supply chain risk and vulnerabilities. Register now. communicate outbound, downstream to the recipients of recalled products. It gets [product] out of the hands of potential consumer purchasers and consumer consumption,” said Neumann. “Here’s what it doesn’t do: They have no way of knowing whether or not they’re communicating out all of the affected product. It still comes back to industry’s responsibility in effective supply chain management to know you’ve captured all of the affected recalled product that those systems are then used to communicate outbound.”
Trust in suppliers. From a global perspective, it’s about experiences. Do you trust your suppliers? Do we silo ourselves such that we forget we’re the ones who add value ? Never underestimate the importance of adding value. As business owners, it’s important to completely integrate yourself into the business. Break down the silos and integrate yourself into the business. You can’t expect everyone else to learn your language; you need to learn industry’s language. What else keeps food safety experts up at night?
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