Rick Holley Dept Food Science BC Food Protection Assoc’n Oct 1, 2012, Burnaby, BC

 Canadian Food Safety  Causes of illness -Changing pathogens -The setting contribution  Regulatory/Consumer priorities -Inspection and product testing -Recalls  Canadian system - Limitations  Prevention

 Cost each year: $3 to 13 billion  Illnesses:11 to 13 million people per year  Mortality ?  Agents responsible?*  Source: Food animals, directly or indirectly  Carry zoonotic bacteria that rarely make animals sick, but cause human illness * Bosilevac, 2006, USDA, ARS : data are percent Agent *IllnessHospitalizationDeaths Bacteria Parasites Viruses

Change in incidence of typhoid and non-typhoid salmonellosis in the US

Canada US 2010 S. Enteritidis 22% S. Newport 14% S. Typhimurium 13%

Year Country Pathogen Illnesses Source 1985*USAS.Typhimurium 170,000pasteurized milk 1991*ChinaHepatitis A 300,000clams 1994*USAS. Enteritidis 224,000ice cream premix 1996JapanE. coli O157:H7 9,000radish sprouts 2006USAE. coli O157:H7 205baby spinach 2007USAS. Tennessee 628peanut butter 2008USAS. Saintpaul 1438jalapeno peppers 2008CanadaL. monocytogenes 57cured meats 2009USAS. Typhimurium 683peanut butter 2010USAS. Montevideo 272fermented sausage 2010USAS. Enteritidis 1938table eggs 2011GermanyE. coli O104:H4 4400vegetable sprouts 2011USAS. Heidelberg 100frozen ground turkey 2011USAL. monocytogenes 146cantaloupe 2012USAS. Typhimurium 178cantaloupe 2012USA/CanS. Braenderup 124mangoes * WHO (2008)

 Canadian Food Safety System Issues  Rapid reaction to illness outbreaks evident  National foodborne enteric disease surveillance system? -Active surveillance foodborne illness needed -Capture complete clinical/food incident data -Use data to plan interventions  Two-tiered inspection, co-ordinated by 3 gov’t levels -Inspection uniformity/relevance = goals -Make inspection more risk/science- based -Emphasis on industry operation of food safety systems -Domestic and foreign  Inter-government interface is a reactionary barrier -Seamless operation, better resource/data sharing

 Consolidates Food Trade Acts  MIA, FIA, CAPA, CPLA  Inspection focus, “modernization”  Last step in response to Weatherill Report  Shortcomings:  No modification of FDA & R  Bill is mislabelled  Major Food Safety Gaps Remain  Not comparable to US Food Safety & Modernization Act

 Food safety is important when an outbreak occurs  Other things more important when outbreak over  Doing things right vs. doing the right things  Properly build, operate and interrogate food safety systems  Canadian system wholly reactive  Food safety agencies act autonomously- fragmentation  Old and US outbreak data guide Canadian policy  But regional, national, and temporal differences  FBI data needed (baseline, planning, evaluating)  Government should test and inspect more?  But can’t inspect or test safety into food  Need to better separate plant/animal agriculture  Interrupt transmission of pathogens to produce

NESP 2009 Annual Report PHAC, 2011 Relative rates of lab-confirmed cases of Salmonella, Shigella and VTEC E. coli compared to Salmonella ShigellaVTEC E. coli “... a subset of laboratory isolations within each province and may not reflect the incidence of disease either provincially or nationally”

Relative rates of laboratory-confirmed infections with Campylobacter, STEC * O157, Listeria, Salmonella, Vibrio, and Yersinia, and overall measure of change, compared with 1996–1998 rates, by year, FoodNet 1996–2011 †

Percent change in incidence * of laboratory-confirmed bacterial and parasitic infections in 2011 † compared with average annual incidence during 2006–2008, by pathogen, FoodNet

Pathogen CA CO GA NM Overall means National Health Objectives Campylobacter L. monocytogenes Salmonella Shigella _ _ STEC O STEC non- O _ _ Vibrio _ 0.2 Yersinia _ Cryptosporidium _ _ Cyclospora _ _ * Lab confirmed infections/100,000 persons in 4/10 states and overall mean for 10 states, CDC (2010, 2011).

Wegener (2009) Sources of human salmonellosis in Denmark -maintaining the focus on the most important sources

S. Enteritidis in eggs sickened 1938 people in the US in 2010 Salmonellosis case frequencies Weeks Jan-Sep 2010 Normal case number DeCoster, Galt, Iowa recall

Listeriosis from US cantaloupe Jensen Farms, Granada, CO 146 ill, 31 deaths, 28 states recall

PCA peanut butter 683 people Peppers 1438 people recall

German Sprout Outbreak 2011 recall 4075 cases 50 deaths

 Water Supply Safety  Proper kitchen hygiene  Food plant sanitation  Control Listeria  Poultry pasteurization by irradiation  Control Campylobacter  Reduce pathogen accumulation in animals  Control Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7

 Need to manage greatest risks  Determine what they are  Ensure food safety programs continuously work  Operate pro-active programs for prevention  Insightful inspection, verification  Education  Recall and standardized traceability Importance reduced when safety systems work

SAFE FOOD