CREMe Safety Newsletter
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May 2007 - Vol 2, Issue 5
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Greetings,

Globalisation has led to a huge increase in International trade of food commodities. No country is fully self-sufficient anymore when it comes to food, agriculture or chemicals. What are the implications of this trend to food safety, security and regulation?

In this issue, we consider some of the challenges arising from the international trade of food commodities. We also have news on our new microbial food safety assessment model in CREMe Food Safety, a clarification from our April newsletter and of course some of the latest questions from CRN.

Ship Containing Imported Goods
Requirement for Routine Monitoring

Due to the large quantities of food being imported by countries in today's global markets, routine monitoring of these imported products for chemical contaminants is essential to ensure compliance with chemical safety regulations. Chemicals that have long been removed from the supply chain for products and commodities produced locally can turn up in imported shipments of products.

It is the responsibility of the regulatory authorities and food industry to protect consumers from these potential hazards. These organisations have to monitor the quality and safety of products entering into their food supply chains and answer the following question on each occasion that a product is imported:

What are the consequences for health of releasing this product into the food supply?

In a number of cases, the answer is simple: the commodity or product does not contain any chemicals at a level of concern, which means that it is safe to release or use the product.

But, what happens if an imported shipment of product is found to contain a prohibited chemical, or a chemical with a concentration above the recommended level? In terms of potential health risks, what are the consequences of approving the shipment and allowing it into the market? Should the entire shipment be disposed of, at great expense to the supplier?

In these situations, difficult decisions are required and it is important to have the best possible information available in order to make an informed decision. It is important that one has strong scientific evidence to support measures that will prevent adverse health effects in the population.

Suppose a large shipment of honey arrives at a port, and on routine random sampling, a chemical is found in the honey at up to 10 times the allowed reference dose. Should the central inspection agency destroy the shipment or release it to the market?
Microbes
Microbial food safety concerns have been high profile in the industry in recent years, from E. Coli in spinach to salmonella in peanut butter and chocolate bars.

To facilitate more detailed and accurate exposure results, CREMe have added a microbial food safety assessment model to the online CREMe Food Safety tool.

CREMe Food Safety now provides a detailed probabilistic exposure tool for calculating the microbial contaminant exposure levels of the population from their food consumption habits. Researchers, regulators and manufacturers can now predict the risk of high levels of consumer exposure to microbial contaminants with more confidence and accuracy.

Detailed results are available in cells of microbial contaminant consumption per day or cells per kg bodyweight for assessment results for different demographic groups of the population.

More Information on CREMe Food Safety


Clarification on our April Newsletter

An attentive reader of our April newsletter informed us that there was in fact evidence of consumers falling ill from the salmonella contamination of chocolate. We have updated our online version of the newsletter and you can view the updated version here:

Newsletter Vol. 2 Issue 4, April 2007
Below are some questions that were recently asked within the CRN Forum. We would be delighted to hear from anybody who has expertise in any of these areas.

1. Evaluating a plant protection product dossier, under the Directive 91/414/EEC I found a plant metabolism study performed on a variety of GMO potatoes.

Is it acceptable to perform such a study, under the EU evaluation process, using GMO plants?

Read Original Thread in CRN

2. Does anybody have any information on health impacts that pesticide spraying can have in residential areas, for humans (especially the elderly), pets and wildlife? I would be particularly interested in weed killers with the active ingredient glyphosate.

Read Original Thread in CRN

3. I would be grateful if anyone could give me any information (scientific papers, reports, public databases, etc.) regarding occurrence and concentration of natural flavouring substances in processed foods and beverages. We are particularly interested in raspberry ketone.

Read Original Thread in CRN

The CREMe newsletter is our way of communicating with you - the food and chemical exposure professionals of this world. You have received this newsletter either because: you have signed up for it, you have expressed an interest in our CREMe products and services over the last number of years, we have worked directly together on a project or you have joined CRN.

CREMe promotes health and safety by enabling regulators, safety authorities, food, personal care product and chemical manufacturers to evaluate exposure levels of consumers to chemicals. If you have any questions or queries on our articles or if you would like us to discuss a particular topic, please contact us. This and all previous newsletters are available at: the CREMe Newsletter site.

Yours Sincerely,
Cronan McNamara
CREMe Software Ltd.

phone: +353 1 896 8451