Aspects of food inspection and hygiene in the Netherlands.
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Food of animal origin is an important factor in protecting the consumer from health risks emanating from the environment. This is why chemical and drug residues in food animals have been included in the Meat Inspection Act in the Federal Republic of Germany. The following substances are subject to regulation: Drugs; Feed additives; Pesticides; Toxic substances from the environment. While drugs may give rise to resistance of infective agents to them, feed additives may accumulate in the organism and have a toxic effect. Pesticides themselves may not be harmful in the amounts, which accumulate in meat, however, their metabolic products in the human body may be toxic. Radioactive substances and radioactive fall-out as well as cadmium and mercury are dangerous when accumulating in meat. Therefor, fixation of tolerance levels for defined residues has been started to be set according to the new Foods Act, including their toxicological evaluation. Condemnation of organs of slaughter animals in which these chemicals accumulate is obligatory.
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Two hundred bulk milk samples drawn from milk collected in cans, which came from cows at stable at 40 farms in the Food Inspection District Utrecht, were examined for Staphylococcus aureus, by means of Baird-Parker's medium. Cultures obtained were phage typed with international, bovine, and additional Dutch phage series. About 60% of the isolated strains were found to be of human origin and about 20% of bovine origin. Isolated strains appeared to be farm specific. Approximately 70% of the farms supplied bulk milk containing 0.08-1.3X10(4) coagulase and DNAse positive staphylococci/ml. The conclusion is inescapable that this type of bulk milk still represents a latent hazard for human health.
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Several contracdictory results in the literature lead us to the conclusion, that the influence of raw milk processing on aflatoxin content should be tested under as close as possible practical conditions. Even though storage at 5 degrees C for 1-3 days does not greatly influence aflatoxin content (11-25% reduction), this might still be important for food inspection. Although experiments on exposure to light resp. oxygen were repeated ten times, the results could not be definitely be shown as due to oxidation. Part of the contradictory literature references also in the case of freeze drying in our opinion caused by the way in which aflatoxins was added. The loss was less pronounced when milk was contaminated naturally than when it was added artificially. Heating of milk, depending on the conditions, caused a decrease of the aflatoxin-content of between 12 and 35% when making butter from naturally contaminated cream 23% (18-28%) of the aflatoxin M1 appeared in the butter, whereas the buttermilk contained the major amount of aflatoxin.
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Under special conditions the "subjective gustometry and olfactometry" (SGO) allows to combine the concentration with the intensity of flavour components by theoretical means. In this way it can be used for quantitative determination of flavour concentrations as well as for kinetic measurements of sensorical changes. Thus the equations of chemical reaction kinetics (reactionorder, speed and temperature dependancy) can be used for calculation of sensorical changes as theoretically demonstrated for the formation and decomposition of different flavour components. The requirements for indicators, aroma indices, technological processes and storage conditions for a special quality criterium can also be calculated. By using the formation of cooked flavour in apple juice as a practical example the correctness of the theoretical calculations is demonstrated.
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Because of the paucity of quantitative data on numbers of other enteric pathogens in food, the reliability of the examination of processed foods for Enterobacteriaceae was estimated taking Salmonella as a model. For this purpose an assessment was carried out of the risk of accepting Salmonella contaminated consignments of foods, despite a negative outcome of (i) examination of 1.5 kg samples for Salmonella; (ii) examination of one or two 1 g samples for Enterobacteriaceae; (iii) simultaneous application of both tests. The computations were based on the results of the examination of 6830 samples of dried foods, processed for safety, out of a total of 18170 samples.Only 69 samples permitted the exact calculation of the epsilon-factor, defined as c.f.u./g of Enterobacteriaceae/c.f.u./g of Salmonella; 4642 were positive for the former group but ;free' from Salmonella, and the rest were negative in both tests. Numbers of c.f.u./g for both groups, and hence the epsilon-factors, varied widely between commodities and also between different consignments of the same food product. The average for epsilon amounted to 5.8 x 10(3), far from the base-line value of 0.75 x 10(3) assessed earlier. In only 0.1% of samples did the Enterobacteriaceae test fail to achieve the required consumer protection.This investigation therefore substantiates that testing foods processed for safety by examining accurately chosen quantities for ecologically well selected and taxonomically thoroughly defined index organisms is a most effective procedure in terms both of consumer protection and simplicity of examination without compelling the food industry to achieve hardly attainable microbiological quality standards.
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Natural water suitable for direct bottling must be clear, colourless, and free from objectionable taste and odour. The mineral content must be limited in amount, otherwise the water would come within the medicinal water category. There should be no detectable organic matter present and the water must be of the highest bacteriological quality -- virtually sterile - and should remain in this condition during the collection and bottling processes. In order to achieve and maintain this high quality, the gathering grounds of the source must be protected from pollution; the construction of the well or spring must be such as to prevent external contamination, as also should be the collecting and bottling apparatus. Personnel employed in the factory should wear protective clothing and be regularly checked as to their freedom from waterborne infectious diseases. Control of the water as to its hygienic quality should be by regular and frequent analysis of samples of the water and the air at various points in the process and in the factory. A new problem that has arisen and has to be faced in this situation is the risk of contamination by certain materials in contact with the water that may contain substances that encourage the growth of saprophytic bacteria which would contaminate by the production of taste, odour, discolouration, cloudiness and definite evidence of microbial growth. It is emphasized that the extent of this new problem is not yet delineated and that methods of laboratory control and safeguards against such happenings are still evolving.
A process of dead market carp deterioration was studied in relation to conditions of the environment and the fish treatment by organoleptic and microbiological methods. A scheme is presented for fish assessment according to the symptoms of deterioration and the limits of carp storability under the given conditions of storing are determined. The results of the microbiological examination were not in keeping with the degree of deterioration of the fish.
For the assessment of the degree of meat freshness of stored unbleeded carp some simple chemical methods were tested to be used as auxiliary criteria for veterinary decisions regarding the edibility. Under the experimental conditions where the suffocated carp were stored at cooling and room temperatures in water or in the air, differences were determined in the followed criteria between fresh and deteriorating fish which were statistically insignificant for most indicators. In view of requirements regarding chemical indicators only the determination of ribose content was found to be expedient. Changes in the levels of ribose were significantly correlated with the sense-detected changes in meat freshness of the stored carp.
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