Journal of Food Safety and Hygiene
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Winter - Spring 2016

General and specific hygiene requirements of the food facilities were published in compliance with the European Union regulations in 2010 in issue No. 29 under the section headlined “hygiene” within the frame of Law No. 5996 on Veterinary Services, Plant Health, Food and Feed. Accordingly, the manufacturer has to follow the rules mentioned in “Regulation on Food Hygiene” and “Regulation of Special Hygiene Rules for Animal Food” to provide food hygiene in all phases of production, processing and distribution, including the primary phase. The criteria mentioned in the regulation appendices are in key position in the control and prevention of microbiological hazards. No provision exists regarding any microbiological detection out of legal criteria. Pathogens resulted in foodborne outbreaks or cases have an important role in legal sanctions. The legal application for official controls based on hygiene rules, legal regulations in microbiological criteria and scientific research data have been reviewed.

Frozen food industry must be concerned with food safety. Food safety of most of frozen food industry can be accrued by hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP). HACCP is prerequisite program for transactions of food products. This study aimed to set up a specific HACCP plan for frozen vegetable processing plant in Bangladesh. A specific HACCP model has been developed for this plant for improvement of safety, sanitation and quality issue for frozen vegetables processing plant. HACCP model was set up based on the actual conditions in the plant. HACCP plan, verification procedures and recordkeeping system were initiated by three-member HACCP team. Three critical control point (CCPs) were identified with one operational prerequisite program (OPRP) in the processing plant. The most important identified CCPs were blanching, individually quick frozen (IQF freezing), and metal detector. Cold storage was identified as OPRP in this process. Based on this research and findings, the authors recommend for imple entation of HACCP system in frozen food processing industries.

Milk and various value-added dairy products are popular throughout Afghanistan. Over the past 10 years, several aid and governmental agencies have made concerted efforts to increase Afghan dairy production. At the same time, there has been visible growth in small milk shops in urban and peri-urban areas. These shops provide fluid milk and dairy products to consumers in the local economy. The quality and consistency of value-added dairy products are dependent on the quality of milk used as raw material. Here, we conducted a quality assessment of raw milk sold in open markets (bazars) as well as through small milk shops. Each sample (n = 100) was analyzed for fat, protein, and carbohydrate percentages, total bacterial concentrations, coliform concentrations, and various adulterations including added water, starch, and antibiotic residues. Only 34.4% of all samples contained 100 CFU coliforms/ml. Milk purchased from milk shops was statistically more expensive, but milk samples from bazars more frequently contained irregularities such as added starch, low-fat percentages, or high water percentages. Many of the quality issues, we found were likely related to hygiene and sanitation practices at different points along the entire production chain. Decreasing overall bacterial concentrations could extend shelf life, improve consistency of fermented products and reduce waste due to unmarketable and unusable fluid milk.

The present study was conducted to assess the extent of contamination with human intestinal parasites and to determine the bacterial quality in commonly vegetables in Gaza Governorate. A total of 320 vegetable samples which included dill, Jew’s mallow, lettuce, parsley, peppermint, rocket, and spring onion were collected from the local markets in Gaza and examined for their contamination with human intestinal parasites and bacteria. These vegetables were processed by parasitological and microbial standard methods. The present study showed that 118 samples out of 320 were contaminated with human parasites with a prevalence rate of 36.9%. The lowest contaminated vegetable was spring onion at 3.43% and the highest contaminated one was Jew’s mallow (6.87%). The most recovered parasite was the nematode Strongyloides stercoralis, which has a percent rate 17.2%. Coliform, fecal coliform, and Escherichia coli were detected in high percentage of the tested vegetables. Six vegetable samples were contaminated with Cryp osporidium sp. It is concluded that the fresh commonly used vegetables in Gaza governorate were contaminated with intestinal parasites and bacteria. Measures and inspection of the commonly used fresh vegetables by health authorities should be regular in Gaza community.

With increased student population and health consciousness in and around Egerton University, Kenya, there has been an upsurge in the vending of fruits and vegetable salad (Kachumbari). However, there have been safety concerns, and increased infections have been reported. This study evaluated the microbiological quality of salads served around Egerton University, particularly targeting Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. contamination. Thirty salad samples, five each from different sampling zones (Egerton University gate, Nakuru bus stage, Nakuru town hawkers, food kiosks around Egerton University, Njokerio vendors, and Njoro town vendors), were collected randomly. The E. coli was determined on MacConkey Agar and Brilliant Green Bile Broth, while its confirmation was done on Eosin Methylene Blue agar. Salmonella spp. was determined on Salmonella Shigella Agar and confirmed using Triple Sugar Agar slants. Approximately 80% of the samples tested positive for E. coli with a mean value of log10 of 3.047 colony forming units (CFU)/g. On the other hand, 70% of the samples tested positive for Salmonella with a mean of log10 2.067 CFU/g. These values were above the Kenya Bureau of Standards of 10 CFU/g for E. coli and absence of Salmonella in fruits and vegetable salads. The present study revealed the potential hazards of street-vended salad and the illnesses affecting consumers may be attributed to these street-vended foods. Therefore, a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points Principles study is essential to identify the source of microbial contamination in the salads to guide the implementation of food safety measures by the public health officials.

The present study was conducted in five subdistrict (Singra, Atrai, Chatmohar, Vangura, and Tarash) under four districts of Chalan Beel area of Bangladesh from January 2015 toMarch 2016 to evaluate the status of awareness among dried fish processors with respect to hygiene and sanitation issues enrolling 60 processors who were subjected to the questionnaire interviews. Among the respondents, 49%, 20%, and 3% of the respondents belonged to the primary, secondary, and above SSC level, respectively, and others were illiterate. Most of the processors (65%) adopted fish drying as primary occupation. Monthly income of majority of the processors (55%) varied between 5001 and 10000 BDT. About 60% processors received training. Among the drying sites, 55% were lacking toilet facility and 62% processors were habituated to practice partial washing and dressing whereas 35% were not in practice. In addition, 32% and 28% of the respondents used Beel (deeper areas of floodplain similar to lake) and river water, respectively, while only 7% of respondents used tube well water and 68.3% were not used to washing hand with soap or ash. Moreover, though 65% of processors made knowledgeable response regarding harmful effect of insecticide application, however, in contrast to their perception, 51.7% of processors used insecticide. Only 21.7% of processors were likely to maintain government office linkage and 61.7% of respondents expressed positive attitude regarding cooperative formation. Such study has implications for evaluating status of awareness in terms of prevailing knowledge, attitude, and practices of dried fish processors.

Food safety concern related to intensively processed foods in terms of unadorned processing needs consideration for process-induced compounds. Recently, food processing has accompanied safety concerns inclusive process induced contaminants like 3-monochloropropane 1, 2-diol (3-MCPD). The study was intensive to quantify 3-MCPD in selected food products. Various food samples from two different manufacturers were selected in this study including bread, cornflakes, sausages, nuggets, milk powder, canola, sunflowers, and hydrogenated oil. The gas chromatography equipped with flame ionization detector analysis was performed to quantify the 3-MCPD in extracted oil with standard compound. The analysis revealed the presence of high amount of 3-MCPD in most of the processed foods in the range of 0.98-155 μg/kg. Brands of Canola oil had the maximum 3-MCPD while the first brand for cornflakes and sunflower oil had minimum 3-MCPD. Detected concentrations were directly proportional to lipid contents for most of the products. The study revealed the presence of 3-MCPD in analyzed commercial food products. Toxicity and food safety concern of chloropropanols has been established. At present, a matter of concern is the presence of substantial amount of 3-MCPD among foods which needs future monitoring regarding exposure and risk assessment estimation.

Drug residues and its side effects are one of the major problems in global concerning for food contamination. Veterinary drugs in food-producing animals have potential to generate residues in animal-derived products and pose a health hazard to the customers. Sulfadiazine (SDZ) is a group of synthetic antibiotics with broad-spectrum effects. The present study was conducted to assess SDZ hepatotoxicity in chicken embryo models. SDZ was injected on the day 4 of chicken’s incubation. Afterward, the livers and serum samples were collected after hatching. In addition, oxidative stress and biochemical parameters in organs and blood were measured, respectively. We found that there was a significant change in the liver’s enzyme activities. Histopathological findings and liver enzyme activity indicated that SDZ is a hepatotoxic agent. There was a significant increase in lipid peroxidation, and also the same decrease was observed in glutathione level. Furthermore, a small reduction in ferric reducing/antioxidant power and total carotenoids were seen. Overall, the results of this study suggested the presence of oxidative stress in SDZ hepatotoxicity. These data might be useful in applying antioxidant components for protection of hepatotoxicity associated with SDZ therapy.