Call for Listeria control review
The following is a media release from Food Standards Australia New Zealand and is included here with permission.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) today called for submissions on an application for a processing aid to reduce the risk of the food poisoning bacteria Listeria.
FSANZ Chief Executive Officer, Steve McCutcheon, said Micreos B.V (previously EBI Food Safety Ltd) had applied for permission to use a bacteriophage preparation called P100 as a processing aid for ready-to-eat foods to reduce levels of Listeria monocytogenes.
“Processing aids can’t be used in food production without a rigorous safety assessment by FSANZ,” Mr McCutcheon said.
“FSANZ is proposing that P100 be approved for the surface treatment of solid ready-to eat meat (including poultry) and meat products, cheese, fish and fish products, and fruit and vegetables and their products.”
P100 is a bacteriophage that selectively destroys the food poisoning bacteria, Listeria, helping to improve the safety of ready-to-eat foods. Bacteriophage are harmless to plants, animals and humans. They do not alter the properties of food and break down into natural compounds such as amino acids.
While Listeria has little impact on healthy people, it can cause severe illness in people with reduced immune systems such as pregnant women and their babies, young children, cancer patients, people with HIV/AIDS, and the elderly.
The use of bacteriophage preparations to treat food has been approved in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.
Following the call for submissions there will be a further assessment period before it is considered by the FSANZ Board in around July 2012.
The period for submissions closes on 27 April 2012.
- Application A1045 – Bacteriophage Preparation P100 as a Processing Aid
- Bacteriophages and food – fact sheet
Media contact
Phone: 0401 714 265 (Australia) or +61 401 714 265 (from New Zealand)
Email: media@foodstandards.gov.au
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Food labels must tell the truth
A case is in front of the Federal Court currently that should send a warning to all food businesses with food labelling.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has the responsibility for monitoring compliance to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (or what was the Trade Practice Act 1974).
The court case has been taken by the ACCC against an egg supplier in South Australia who between March 2007 and October 2010 allegedly supplied eggs that were represented as being free range when a substantial proportion were actually caged eggs.
The ACCC alleges that such conduct contravened section 55 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (now known as the Competition and Consumer Act 2010).
The final part of the hearing is scheduled for the end of March, and the supplier may then be required to pay both penalties and costs as well as attend training and apologising to all customers.
This is a loud warning to all those food businesses that have food labels. Tell the truth and don’t state anything on the label that is not able to be proven.
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Current Product Recall
The following information is included here with permission from Food Standards Australia new Zealand.
Please find below information on a recent Australian consumer level food recall. This information is also available on our website at www.foodstandards.gov.au
Vitaco Health Australia has recalled all flavours of Healtheries Kidscare Rice Wheels and Healtheries Wiggles Ricey Bites Cheese flavour from supermarkets nationally due to foreign matter (glass). Products containing glass may cause injury if consumed.
Date notified to FSANZ – 2 March 2012
Food type
Mixed and/or processed food
Product name
- Healtheries Kidscare Rice Wheels Roast Chicken
- Healtheries Kidscare Rice Wheels Burger
- Healtheries Kidscare Rice Wheels Cheese
- Healtheries Wiggles Ricey Bites Cheese
Package description & size
The products are a bite-sized seasoned puffed rice cake in flo-wrap packaging.
The Rice Wheels are available in 180g multipacks (10 x 18g individual packets).
The Wiggles Ricey Bites are available in 120g multipacks (8 x 15g individual packets)
Date marking –All best before dates up to and including 4/01/13
Country of origin – Indonesia
Reason for recall– Foreign matter contamination (glass)
Distribution
The product has been available nationally at Coles, Woolworths, Safeway, The Reject Shop, IGA and other independent supermarkets. The product has also been sold online.
Consumer advice
Consumers should not eat these products and should return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.
Contact – Vitaco Health Australia – 1800 028 808
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NSW Food Authority focuses on pests
The Name and Shame List from the NSW Food Authority has more than 100 food businesses that have been non compliant in pest control.
This has prompted the Authority to a concentrated focus on pest control and infestation in it’s current inspections. It is also requesting that local councils adopt the same focus to reduce the amount of pest infestations and non compliances.
NSW Food Authority Acting Chief Executive Officer Craig Sahlin said; “NSW consumers rightly expect high standards from businesses where they are purchasing or eating food. Eradicating pests is particularly important at this time of year when the weather is generally warmer. Common pests such as cockroaches, rats and mice are attracted to food debris. They also can carry bacteria and viruses, and can contaminate food and food contact surfaces. So I urge businesses to keep things clean and control pests. Pest sightings and food contamination due to pests can also result in a large number of food complaints.”
Pest should be build out, blocked out and prevented as part of a business’s pest control program with sprays and baits / traps as the last lines of defence.
In NSW the fine for pest issues can be more than $880 plus the business name and non-compliance details included in the Authority’s Name and Shame List.
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The 2012 Positive Image Awards
The 2012 Positive Image Awards will be presented later this year. These awards will recognise organisations that foster positive body image in youth. It is aimed at people aimed 15 – 25.
It is well recognised that images in the media, and on products, has an impact on how young people see themselves and what they do about that. Images of super skinny people who do not look like the majority of the population do not generally help the youth of our country and these Awards are a way that can encourage people and businesses to portray positive and real images on products and in advertising.
The Awards were announced recently by Mr Peter Garrett, the Federal Minister for Early Childhood and Youth, and are being sponsored by the Federal Government.
Whilst announcing the Awards, Mr Garrett said; “The Government has endorsed and released a Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image, which outlines principles and goals to guide industries to adopt more body image friendly practices. Those organisations that have adopted the principles outlined in the code and provide incentive for others to follow their lead will now be recognised through the Positive Body Image Awards.
There will be two categories for entry;
- Recognition of organisations demonstrating a real and ongoing commitment to body image friendly practices within their business; and
- Recognition of specific body image friendly initiatives or products, this could include a campaign to increase young people’s awareness about digital retouching, a magazine edition or a special body image event.
Nominations can be by the businesses themselves or their customers, but youth are being encouraged to get involved in the process and nominate organisations through the website and social media.
The winning organisations will be able to use the winner symbol on products and in promotional material. This is a great sustainability practice and opportunity.
Nominations can be made through the website, www.youth.gov.au/bodyimageawards, and are open until 23 March 2012. The finalists will be announced in May.
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Review of Micobiological Standards
The following information is from the Food Standards Australia New Zealand website and is included here with permission.
Standard 1.6.1 – Microbiological Limits for Food became part of the Food Standards Code in December 2000. Developments since that time mean there is a need to review the standard’s current requirements.
These include more recent scientific evidence about specific food safety concerns, development of preventative food safety standards; food safety programs for high risk businesses and primary production and processing standards.
Work has also progressed internationally on using different risk management tools in a food safety control system. Microbiological criteria have also been established for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods and Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella spp in powdered infant formula.
FSANZ has prepared a background paper outlining issues to be covered in the review and the principles and guidelines that will underpin this work.
What is being considered in the review?
Criteria for Listeria monocytogenes
- Consistency with associated guidance material (e.g. the Recall Guidelines for Packaged Ready-to-Eat Foods Found to Contain Listeria monocytogenes at Point of Sale).
- Alignment with recently finalised international (Codex) standards (e.g. Listeria monocytogenes in RTE foods).
Microbiological limits for indicator/index organisms
- Suitability for regulatory purposes.
- Use as process hygiene criteria (application at various points in production).
Reference to prescribed methods of analysis
- Current reference to Australian/New Zealand Standard Methods for Food Microbiology 1766.
Limits for infant formula
- Alignment with recently finalised international (Codex) standards (e.g. Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella in infant formula).
Relevance of some microbiological limits in the context of recently finalised food safety standards.
How will the review work?
The review will be broken up into stages. In 2012 FSANZ will be working on:
- developing microbiological criteria for L. monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods in line with international approaches
- updating microbiological reference/guidance criteria (taking into account existing guideline documents)
- reviewing microbiological criteria for powdered infant formula
- reviewing criteria for raw milk products.
Would you like to be kept informed of progress?
Transparency and public consultation are an important part of the standards development process. If you wish to be placed on a mailing list for future advice on changes to Standard 1.6.1, contact the Standards Management Officer at standards.management@foodstandards.gov.au
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So is imported food safe?
From December 2009 to December 2010, more than 100 tonnes of food was illegally imported into Australia. The food, including; dim sims, ice cream and raw meat, was imported into Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne from South Korea.
The major fear in this case is that Foot and Mouth Disease is widespread in South Korea, and would decimate our livestock industry if it takes root here.
The event was identified and presented to the current Australian Senate Estimates Committee.
Senator Colbeck,, a member of the Committee, released the report and said; “This problem was discovered as part of an audit but how much longer could it have gone on before the illegal importations were uncovered? The Biosecurity Services Group is starting to come clean about the scale of a biosecurity risk to Australian agriculture. Products had been widely distributed and were retrieved from about 300 retail premises, but we cannot be sure it was all found or how much was consumed. I’m concerned at how much product slipped through the net. The best I could get from the Department was that they “think they have got most of it”,”
With the sheer volume of imported goods, and especially food, coming into Australia, it is physically impossible for the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service to inspect every container.
This means there is a lot of food coming in that has not been inspected and although it is a requirement that imported food must meet the Food Standards Code, this audit result raises some very important and scary questions.
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Is Vitamin D deficiency a cause of language difficulty?
Australia is recognised as having the highest level of skin cancers in the world. It is not a first place we can be proud of. It would tend to indicate that, as a nation, we spend a lot of time in the sun.
However there is strong evidence now emerging that Australians are becoming more and more deficient in Vitamin D.
A new study at Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, in Perth Western Australia has found that this deficiency is also likely to be affecting the language skills of children born from women with it.
The study involved the checking of Vitamin D concentrations in more than 740 pregnant women and then up to 17 years monitoring of the children’s behaviour and development. It found that those mothers with lower Vitamin D levels have a higher likelihood of having children with language difficulties.
“The developing baby is completely reliant on the mother for its Vitamin D levels and what we have shown is that this might have an impact on the child’s brain development,” said Lead author, Associate Professor Andrew Whitehouse.
The next level of the study is the addition of Vitamin D supplements to the diets of pregnant women to determine if there is an improvement in language skills from the original study results.
http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au/media/1346
Whitehouse, A.J.O., Holt, B.J., Serralha, M., Holt, P.G., Kusel, M.M.H., Hart P.H. (in press). “Maternal serum vitamin D levels during pregnancy and offspring neurocognitive development.” Pediatrics.
For more information on the impacts and symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency http://www.racgp.org.au/afp/200403/20040311pasco.pdf
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Funding submission in Federal Budget for Food Industry
The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), is the body which represents the major food companies in this country, and has just made a submission to the Federal Treasury for consideration in the 2012 Budget.
The AFGC has long been trying to encourage the Federal Government to implement a Supermarket Ombudsman as a major way of starting to reduce the pressure that currently exists on manufacturers due to the lack of competition in the supermarket sector. With Coles and Woolworths controlling around 80 percent of the supermarket sector, there is currently little opportunity for manufacturers to negotiate prices or products. It is believed that a specific Ombudsman will help make trading fair.
This is only part of the submission, there is also a call to develop and then implement a Fair Trading Code of Conduct for the retail sector. The submissions proposes that the Ombudsman be given the jurisdiction of this Code and be able to enforce it with significant fines and penalties. It is suggested that all those retailers with 20 percent of more of their market should implement the Code.
A “Name and Shame” list, like that used by the New South Wales Food Authority for Food Standards Code non compliances, is also suggested for the Ombudsman.
The National Food Plan is being developed currently to provide security to our food supply into the future, and the AFGC submission suggests that this Plan be managed by a Federal Parliamentary Secretary based in the Prime Minister’s Department, to recognise it’s importance. This submission also calls for specific positions and groups to support the ongoing development and maintenance of the National Food Plan.
Another part of the submission is requesting that all changes to regulations at both federal and state / territory level have stakeholder consultation before they are released. Some changes have happened at a State level in recent months that had little consultation with business and this is not giving everyone involved some say. Food Standards Australia New Zealand has a strong consultation process and something similar should be in place for all proposals and submissions to all food law nationally.
With the politics involved in this specific Budget, and the next, there will be a close examination by the Treasury by all submissions, including this by the AFGC.
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New draft for health and related claims
The following is from a media release from Food Standards Australia New Zealand and is included with permission.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) today called for submissions on a draft nutrition, health and related claims Standard.
FSANZ Chief Executive Officer Steve McCutcheon said the proposed new standard would regulate voluntary statements made by manufacturers on labels about the nutrition content of a food, or a relationship between a food and health.
“There are two principal types of claims; nutrition content claims such as ‘low in fat’ or ‘source of calcium’, and health claims, which refer to a relationship between a food and health, such as calcium and bone health,” Mr McCutcheon said.
FSANZ is also seeking comment on the part of the proposal considering regulation of ‘fat free’ and ‘percentage fat free’ claims.
The proposal includes refinements to a previous draft standard, which was subject to public consultation in 2009. FSANZ has also considered issues arising from a Review of the draft Standard requested by the Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation.
FSANZ acknowledges there have been diverse stakeholder opinions about this complex proposal, but believes the draft standard strikes a balance between disparate views.
“FSANZ welcomes comments from government agencies, public health professionals, industry and the community on this draft of the proposed new standard,” Mr McCutcheon said.
Submissions close on 16 March 2012.
Media contact: 0401 714 265 (Australia) or email media@foodstandards.gov.au
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