S1056: Enhancing Microbial Food Safety by Risk Analysis
Statement of Issues and Justification
The long-term goal of this project is the establishment of a multi-disciplinary network of scientists that performs comprehensive and integrated risk-based research and outreach to improve the safety of food from farm to fork. Interested stakeholders, including food producers and/or processors, retailers and consumers, have identified the need for an approach that conducts applied research to determine the prevalence and ecology of foodborne pathogens (including antibiotic resistant bacteria) in fresh and processed foods coupling that to research aimed at establishing effective control methods to decrease pathogen contamination of foods. Several outreach objectives have also been developed in support of this project. These objectives include communication of risk-based management recommendations derived from the research aspects of this proposal to stakeholders as well as to those who interact with stakeholders. Communication strategies will be precisely tailored to the particular audience (processors, distributors, retailers, consumers). Message content will focus on risk-based strategies and microbial control opportunities deemed critical for each target audience to achieve the greatest strides in improving food safety in the U.S. Outreach to those who advise producers and consumers (e.g. educators, extension personnel) who are not part of the project will be achieved through ongoing symposia to disseminate key information concerning lessons learned during the course of this project.
This project has been specifically designed to address the critical needs of the fresh and processed food industries by developing a thorough understanding of how these foods become contaminated with foodborne microbial pathogens. It is well established that the heterogeneous distribution of pathogens in food makes studying the ecology of these pathogens difficult. The problems facing the food industry are also sufficiently complex such that solutions to these problems are beyond the scope of any single investigators programmatic outputs. This means they are most efficiently addressed through multidisciplinary efforts with expertise in risk analysis, microbial ecology, epidemiology of foodborne disease, and food safety microbiology.
The results of this project will directly impact industries that handle low moisture food sector (emphasis on nuts and dried fruits), fresh, minimally and shelf-stable processed produce, dairy, fresh and further processed seafood, meat, and poultry products (including fully cooked and read-to-eat products subject to post-process contamination), as well as other multi-component and processed foods. The studies proposed here will be the first comprehensive attempt to develop risk-based strategies leading to effective control of pathogens from the farm through consumption across all food commodities in the U.S. Additional expected outcomes include the use of microbiological data to develop risk-based models that can be used to better predict microbial contamination and predict the reduction of pathogens in foods due to application of various control strategies. It is expected that the outcomes of this project will contribute to the long-term profitability and sustainability of the food industry as a whole by making accessible a suite of new tools with which the microbial safety of foods will be enhanced. This group will also work to standardize protocols among laboratories so that research results can be easily and directly compared. Many funding opportunities for food safety require collaboration by several universities. Having a mechanism in place prior to release of a formal Request for Proposal enables the scientists in this group to be more responsive and successful in acquiring external funding than if collaborations were formed ad hoc.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently reported new, more accurate estimates of foodborne illnesses that occur annually in the U.S. Approximately 48 million cases of foodborne illness, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths occur each year from foodborne microorganisms (Scallan et al., 2011). The food safety surveillance system, FoodNet, documented in 2008 (the latest year for which data are available) that the Noroviridae were identified as the most common etiological agent of microbial foodborne disease, accounting for almost 50% of the outbreaks and 46% of illnesses. Salmonella spp. accounted for 23% of the outbreaks and 31% of illnesses. The commodities that led to the most outbreak-related illnesses were fruits and nuts (24%), vine-stalk vegetables (23%) and beef (13%) (Anonymous, 2011).
In addition to human suffering, foodborne illnesses also have a substantial economic impact in the United States. Based on data from Scallan et al. (2011) and Scharff (2010), the annual cost of foodborne illness in the U.S. is estimated at $89 billion for loss of productivity, other economic losses and medical expenditures. The most costly foodborne illnesses are caused by Vibrio vulnificus and Listeria monocytogenes (Scharff, 2010). The availability of improved microbiological methods will facilitate the goal of reducing the burden of current and emerging foodborne pathogens at all points of the food chain from farm to fork. Such methods will decrease foodborne related illnesses and deaths, and reduce economic losses to the food industry.
Finally, in addition to developing a better understanding of the microbial ecology of foodborne pathogens and methods to detect and control their presence in foods, this multi-state project will permit undergraduate and graduate students to gain experience in current and emerging methods used to identify, track, and control foodborne pathogens in the food production environment, as well as the use of modern molecular methods to identify and study emerging pathogens that may contribute to the burden of foodborne illnesses. The need for training programs to support the next generation of food safety specialists is clear, as is the need to increase the ethnic and cultural diversity among food safety researchers to reflect the ethnic and cultural composition representative of the U.S. population. Greater diversity is critical not only from the perspective of educational opportunity but also relative to food safety and public health. The prevalence of foodborne illnesses associated with culturally prepared foods and preparation practices associated with preparation of these foods is growing, making cultural competence among food safety professionals not simply attractive, but absolutely necessary.
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