Advancing Food Integrity

Advancing Food Integrity

Author: Gabriela Steier

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2017-11-28

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1351395548

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Key features: Presents summaries of key points after each chapter and includes color graphs to visualize the big-picture concepts Demonstrates how urban rooftop farms (URFs) can contribute to city greening and climate change mitigation worldwide while providing fresh locally-sourced produce for growing urban populations Provides cutting-edge ideas from the the emerging field of food law and places international and comparative legal concepts into an accessible context for non-lawyers Examines major disputes surrounding food products that have been brought before the World Trade Organization (WTO) to illustrate how trade trends have pushed toward GMO proliferation Uses examples of food labeling, pollinator protection, pesticide permitting, invasive species control, and GMO regulatory policy in the US and the EU to illustrate various methods of bringing public law to the forefront in the struggle toward achieving food integrity The proliferation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in our increasingly globalized food system is trivializing the inherent risks to a sustainable world. Responding to the realities of climate change, urbanization, and a GMO-dominated industrialized food system, Gabriela Steier's seminal work addresses the interrelationship of these cutting-edge topics within a scholarly, legal context. In Advancing Food Integrity: GMO Regulation, Agroecology, and Urban Agriculture, Steier defines food integrity as the optimal measure of environmental sustainability and climate change resilience combined with food safety, security, and sovereignty for the farm-to-fork production and distribution of any food product. The book starts with a discussion of the food system and explores whether private law has sufficiently protected food or whether public law control is needed to safeguard food integrity. It proceeds to show how the proliferation of GMOs creates food insecurity by denying people’s access to food through food system centralization. Steier discusses how current industrial agricultural policy downplays the dangers of GMO monocultures to crop diversity and biodiversity, thereby weakening food production systems. Striving to promote agroecology by providing a fresh and compelling narrative of interdisciplinary questions, Steier explores how farming can be geared toward more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices worldwide in the future. This book belongs in the libraries of all those interested in food law, environmental law, agroecology, sustainable agriculture, and urban living practices.


Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness

Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness

Author: International Association for Food Protection

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2011-07-08

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1441983961

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Procedures to Investigate Foodborne Illness is designed to guide public health personnel or teams in any country that investigates reports of alleged foodborne illnesses. The manual is based on epidemiologic principles and investigative techniques that have been found effective in determining causal factors of disease incidence. The guidelines are presented in the sequence usually followed during investigations and are organized so that an investigator can easily find the information needed in any phase of an investigation. Included are descriptions of the following procedures: Plan, prepare, investigate and respond to intentional contamination of food Handle illness alerts and food-related complaints that may be related to illness Interview ill persons, those at risk, and controls Develop a case definition Collect and ship specimens and food samples Conduct hazard analysis (environmental assessments) at sites where foods responsible for outbreaks were produced, processed, or prepared Trace sources of contamination Identify factors responsible for contamination, survival of pathogenic microorganisms or toxic substances, and/or propagation of pathogens Collate and interpret collected data Report information about the outbreak This edition also contains extensively updated and more user-friendly keys to assist investigators in identifying the contributing factors that may lead to the contamination, proliferation or survival of agents of foodborne disease.


Advances in Food Authenticity Testing

Advances in Food Authenticity Testing

Author: Gerard Downey

Publisher: Woodhead Publishing

Published: 2016-08-22

Total Pages: 798

ISBN-13: 9780081002209

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Advances in Food Authenticity Testing" covers a topic that is of great importance to both the food industry whose responsibility it is to provide clear and accurate labeling of their products and maintain food safety and the government agencies and organizations that are tasked with the verification of claims of food authenticity. The adulteration of foods with cheaper alternatives has a long history, but the analytical techniques which can be implemented to test for these are ever advancing. The book covers the wide range of methods and techniques utilized in the testing of food authenticity, including new implementations and processes. The first part of the book examines, in detail, the scientific basis and the process of how these techniques are used, while other sections highlight specific examples of the use of these techniques in the testing of various foods. Written by experts in both academia and industry, the book provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of this important and rapidly progressing field. Covers a topic that is of great importance to both the food industry and the governmental agencies tasked with verifying the safety and authenticity of food productsPresents a wide range of methods and techniques utilized in the testing of food authenticity, including new implementations and processesHighlights specific examples of the use of the emerging techniques and testing strategies for various foods


Advanced Mass Spectrometry for Food Safety and Quality

Advanced Mass Spectrometry for Food Safety and Quality

Author:

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2015-05-08

Total Pages: 733

ISBN-13: 0444633928

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Advanced Mass Spectrometry for Food Safety and Quality provides information on recent advancements made in mass spectrometry-based techniques and their applications in food safety and quality, also covering the major challenges associated with implementing these technologies for more effective identification of unknown compounds, food profiling, or candidate biomarker discovery. Recent advances in mass spectrometry technologies have uncovered tremendous opportunities for a range of food-related applications. However, the distinctive characteristics of food, such as the wide range of the different components and their extreme complexity present enormous challenges. This text brings together the most recent data on the topic, providing an important resource towards greater food safety and quality. - Presents critical applications for a sustainable, affordable and safe food supply - Covers emerging problems in food safety and quality with many specific examples. - Encompasses the characteristics, advantages, and limitations of mass spectrometry, and the current strategies in method development and validation - Provides the most recent data on the important topic of food safety and quality


Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030

Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-04-21

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 0309473926

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For nearly a century, scientific advances have fueled progress in U.S. agriculture to enable American producers to deliver safe and abundant food domestically and provide a trade surplus in bulk and high-value agricultural commodities and foods. Today, the U.S. food and agricultural enterprise faces formidable challenges that will test its long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience. On its current path, future productivity in the U.S. agricultural system is likely to come with trade-offs. The success of agriculture is tied to natural systems, and these systems are showing signs of stress, even more so with the change in climate. More than a third of the food produced is unconsumed, an unacceptable loss of food and nutrients at a time of heightened global food demand. Increased food animal production to meet greater demand will generate more greenhouse gas emissions and excess animal waste. The U.S. food supply is generally secure, but is not immune to the costly and deadly shocks of continuing outbreaks of food-borne illness or to the constant threat of pests and pathogens to crops, livestock, and poultry. U.S. farmers and producers are at the front lines and will need more tools to manage the pressures they face. Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030 identifies innovative, emerging scientific advances for making the U.S. food and agricultural system more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. This report explores the availability of relatively new scientific developments across all disciplines that could accelerate progress toward these goals. It identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that could have the greatest positive impact on food and agriculture, and that are possible to achieve in the next decade (by 2030).


Food Safety Culture

Food Safety Culture

Author: Frank Yiannas

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-12-10

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 0387728678

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Food safety awareness is at an all time high, new and emerging threats to the food supply are being recognized, and consumers are eating more and more meals prepared outside of the home. Accordingly, retail and foodservice establishments, as well as food producers at all levels of the food production chain, have a growing responsibility to ensure that proper food safety and sanitation practices are followed, thereby, safeguarding the health of their guests and customers. Achieving food safety success in this changing environment requires going beyond traditional training, testing, and inspectional approaches to managing risks. It requires a better understanding of organizational culture and the human dimensions of food safety. To improve the food safety performance of a retail or foodservice establishment, an organization with thousands of employees, or a local community, you must change the way people do things. You must change their behavior. In fact, simply put, food safety equals behavior. When viewed from these lenses, one of the most common contributing causes of food borne disease is unsafe behavior (such as improper hand washing, cross-contamination, or undercooking food). Thus, to improve food safety, we need to better integrate food science with behavioral science and use a systems-based approach to managing food safety risk. The importance of organizational culture, human behavior, and systems thinking is well documented in the occupational safety and health fields. However, significant contributions to the scientific literature on these topics are noticeably absent in the field of food safety.


Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach

Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-09-10

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0309259363

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Globalization of the food supply has created conditions favorable for the emergence, reemergence, and spread of food-borne pathogens-compounding the challenge of anticipating, detecting, and effectively responding to food-borne threats to health. In the United States, food-borne agents affect 1 out of 6 individuals and cause approximately 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths each year. This figure likely represents just the tip of the iceberg, because it fails to account for the broad array of food-borne illnesses or for their wide-ranging repercussions for consumers, government, and the food industry-both domestically and internationally. A One Health approach to food safety may hold the promise of harnessing and integrating the expertise and resources from across the spectrum of multiple health domains including the human and veterinary medical and plant pathology communities with those of the wildlife and aquatic health and ecology communities. The IOM's Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop on December 13 and 14, 2011 that examined issues critical to the protection of the nation's food supply. The workshop explored existing knowledge and unanswered questions on the nature and extent of food-borne threats to health. Participants discussed the globalization of the U.S. food supply and the burden of illness associated with foodborne threats to health; considered the spectrum of food-borne threats as well as illustrative case studies; reviewed existing research, policies, and practices to prevent and mitigate foodborne threats; and, identified opportunities to reduce future threats to the nation's food supply through the use of a "One Health" approach to food safety. Improving Food Safety Through a One Health Approach: Workshop Summary covers the events of the workshop and explains the recommendations for future related workshops.


Measurement, Modeling and Automation in Advanced Food Processing

Measurement, Modeling and Automation in Advanced Food Processing

Author: Bernd Hitzmann

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-08-11

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 3319601113

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book review series presents current trends in modern biotechnology. The aim is to cover all aspects of this interdisciplinary technology where knowledge, methods and expertise are required from chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, chemical engineering and computer science. Volumes are organized topically and provide a comprehensive discussion of developments in the respective field over the past 3-5 years. The series also discusses new discoveries and applications. Special volumes are dedicated to selected topics which focus on new biotechnological products and new processes for their synthesis and purification. In general, special volumes are edited by well-known guest editors. The series editor and publisher will however always be pleased to receive suggestions and supplementary information. Manuscripts are accepted in English.


Food Safety = Behavior

Food Safety = Behavior

Author: Frank Yiannas

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-03-28

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 1493924893

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book helps in Achieving food safety success which requires going beyond traditional training, testing, and inspectional approaches to managing risks. It requires a better understanding of the human dimensions of food safety. In the field of food safety today, much is documented about specific microbes, time/temperature processes, post-process contamination, and HACCP–things often called the hard sciences. There is not much published or discussed related to human behavior–often referred to as the “soft stuff.” However, looking at foodborne disease trends over the past few decades and published regulatory out-of-compliance rates of food safety risk factors, it’s clear that the soft stuff is still the hard stuff. Despite the fact that thousands of employees have been trained in food safety around the world, millions have been spent globally on food safety research, and countless inspections and tests have been performed at home and abroad, food safety remains a significant public health challenge. Why is that? Because to improve food safety, we must realize that it’s more than just food science; it’s the behavioral sciences, too. In fact, simply put, food safety equals behavior. This is the fundamental principle of this book. If you are trying to improve the food safety performance of a retail or food service establishment, an organization with thousands of employees, or a local community, what you are really trying to do is change people’s behavior. The ability to influence human behavior is well documented in the behavioral and social sciences. However, significant contributions to the scientific literature in the field of food safety are noticeably absent. This book will help advance the science by being the first significant collection of 50 proven behavioral science techniques, and be the first to show how these techniques can be applied to enhance employee compliance with desired food safety behaviors and make food safety the social norm in any organization.


Enhancing Food Safety

Enhancing Food Safety

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2010-11-04

Total Pages: 589

ISBN-13: 0309163587

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Recent outbreaks of illnesses traced to contaminated sprouts and lettuce illustrate the holes that exist in the system for monitoring problems and preventing foodborne diseases. Although it is not solely responsible for ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees monitoring and intervention for 80 percent of the food supply. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's abilities to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks. Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration, a new book from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, responds to a congressional request for recommendations on how to close gaps in FDA's food safety systems. Enhancing Food Safety begins with a brief review of the Food Protection Plan (FPP), FDA's food safety philosophy developed in 2007. The lack of sufficient detail and specific strategies in the FPP renders it ineffectual. The book stresses the need for FPP to evolve and be supported by the type of strategic planning described in these pages. It also explores the development and implementation of a stronger, more effective food safety system built on a risk-based approach to food safety management. Conclusions and recommendations include adopting a risk-based decision-making approach to food safety; creating a data surveillance and research infrastructure; integrating federal, state, and local government food safety programs; enhancing efficiency of inspections; and more. Although food safety is the responsibility of everyone, from producers to consumers, the FDA and other regulatory agencies have an essential role. In many instances, the FDA must carry out this responsibility against a backdrop of multiple stakeholder interests, inadequate resources, and competing priorities. Of interest to the food production industry, consumer advocacy groups, health care professionals, and others, Enhancing Food Safety provides the FDA and Congress with a course of action that will enable the agency to become more efficient and effective in carrying out its food safety mission in a rapidly changing world.