The landmark Centre’s goals are to oversee food safety research projects that are highly relevant to industry; provide food safety information, news, education, and outreach to the industry; and engage with regulatory and other organizations for effective and efficient food safety management leading to enhanced food safety outcomes.
“The Centre is currently looking to review the Guidelines for On-Farm Food Safety for Fresh Produce and maintain it, unpinned by current research, as a reference tool for industry, supporting the implementation of Freshcare and other food safety programs,” Hamilton-Bate says.
Hamilton-Bate is quick to point out that the Australian produce industry is not immune to foodborne illness and has had its share of close calls in recent years.
“We’ve had a few scares in the last decade, but nothing that translated to the wide scale food safety incidents we have seen in the U.S. and Europe,” she says, referring to the Listeria monocytogenes contamination of Colorado cantaloupe in 2011 and the European Union’s tragedy with Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli O104:H4 that same year.
The former resulted in 147 persons being infected in 28 states. In total, 33 deaths from outbreak-associated cases of listeriosis occurred, according to the U.S. CDC. In addition, one woman pregnant at the time of illness had a miscarriage.
The latter was ultimately traced to contaminated fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt to Germany that were used to grow salad sprouts for both retail and food service supply. The outcome was 4,075 cases of foodborne illness (including 908 cases complicated by hemolytic uremic syndrome) and 50 deaths in 16 countries, according to the World Health Organization.
Why has Australia dodged these types of bullets? “I’d like to hope it’s related to having Freshcare or an equivalent system in place,” Hamilton-Bate purports. “But in reality it is more than that, it is having the system and embracing food safety as part of day to day business.”
Leake is a food safety consultant, auditor, and award-winning journalist based in Wilmington, N.C. Reach her at [email protected].
For more information on food safety in Australia, click on additional content:
Food Safety in Australia
Australia: Focus Dairy
Australia: Focus Red Meat
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