WOA October 2009 Newsletter

Included in this edition:
1. Integrated Food Safety
2. Traceability
3. Animal Feed
4. Laboratory Quality Assurance
5. Biosecurity
6. Managing Food Control Systems
7. Good Practices and Quality Assurance

AGNS, the Food Quality and Standards Service of the FAO, has the responsibility to ensure food safety and consumer protection against food fraud. Ensuring our production systems have met the required standards from farm to fork is an essential part of the marketing plan of any individual or company in the business of producing or marketing food.

Food control can be defined as the mandatory regulatory activity of the enforcement of food laws and regulations by national or local authorities to provide consumer protection and ensure that all foods during production, handling, storage, processing and distribution are safe, wholesome and fit for human consumption; conform to safety and quality requirements; and are honestly and accurately labelled as prescribed by law.

The food control system is thus the official institutional set up, at national and sub-national levels, responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of the food supply. At its core an integrated food control system includes:

As food production today has to have in place the procedures that meet the increasing demands of these organisations, this newsletter will focus on the guide lines and advice put forward by the FAO as they apply to ostrich production.

Long before traceability became such a key issue as it is today, when I was dairy farming in the early 1980s, I had good reason to experience firsthand the need for traceability and good biosecurity. We had some dairy cows die as they calved. The state veterinary authorities were mystified as the cows tested positive with a new strain of salmonella never before seen in the UK. A full scale investigation was instigated to find the source of the infection.

The problem was identified as introduced through an imported feed ingredient, not imported directly by ourselves, but our suppliers. The chain to find the answer was indirect. It transpired that a cow from another farm had died under mysterious circumstances 6 months earlier and taken to the rendering plant where our local casualty animals were processed. The state vet responsible had diagnosed Johne’s Disease as the cause of death, but was uncomfortable with the diagnosis and stored the sample. With the outbreak on our farm, he retested that sample and found the same strain of Salmonella.

A student working on our farm lived below this plant and we allowed her dog on our farm. Our dogs and horses were all tested for this salmonella strain. Several dogs tested positive and a couple of our horses, but none showed any symptoms at all. It was suggested that the dog had picked up the infection from a stream that ran through their farm and contaminated by the outflow from the rendering plant through lack of adequate management controls at that plant. As mentioned above, the origin of the infection was traced back to an imported animal feed ingredient.

This is a practical illustration of the importance of traceability of such things as:

Whilst the driver of integrated food control system and traceability measures are used in this way to improve management risks related to food safety and animal health for customers, these types of controls also benefit the farmers against disease risks. Outbreak of disease on any farm can be extremely costly in lost production and, in some cases, loss of markets. Outbreak of disease can also impact on other farms in the regions with diseases such as certain strains of Avian Influenza or Newcastle Disease. These become increasingly relevant as farms become more intensive.

The above example illustrates the need for traceability of sources of animal feed and all ingredients. Examples of other feed problems are:

The problems associated with foods of animal origin were highlighted due to the problems arising from BSE
Contamination as experienced with such things as Dioxins
Food-borne bacterial infections
Drug Residues

Good records of feed ingredients used in batches of feed can also assist in tracing any animal production issues that may arise and can be attributed to a particular batch of feed. This is especially critical with ostrich as they are less tolerant to feed manufacturing errors than other animals, due to the density of their rations. Cross contamination from a feed manufactured for specie containing ingredients toxic to ostrich is a major risk to ostrich production.

The introduction of Good Manufacturing Practices and careful handling of feedstuffs helps to minimise these risks.

In supporting food control systems, the role of food and feed testing laboratories is essential in ensuring compliance with national regulations and international requirements in all areas of food safety and quality.

Since the late 1990s, Codex and the European Union have recommended (or required) that laboratories responsible for controlling the export and import of foods comply with an internationally recognized standard such as ISO Standard 17025 (General Requirements for the Competence of Calibration and Testing Laboratories), and be accredited by a certified body.

The systematic application of laboratory quality assurance measures helps ensure that food control laboratories produce reliable analytical results. These measures include having an adequate laboratory infrastructure, up-to-date documentation, well-trained personnel, appropriate and calibrated instrumentation and using of internationally recognised and validated methods.

The reliability of feed ingredient sampling methods and analysis are also a critical management tool to ensure rations are accurate to ensure good health and production.

Biosecurity is emerging as one of the most pressing issues facing developed, developing and transition countries. The following are some of the factors driving the importance of adequate biosecurity at every level:

Globalization
Increased movement of people, agricultural and food products across international borders
Changing agricultural practices including increasing intensification of farming methods
Increased awareness of biodiversity and the environment
Uncertainties surrounding new technologies, as well as international legal obligations

The FAO have produced a booklet to set out guidance for the development and implementation of national biosecurity frame works. The document is available in English, French and Spanish. This link is to the English version - ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a1140e/a1140e.pdf.

On a more basic level, adequate biosecurity within the farm and processing procedures are essential to minimise disease within the livestock and bacteria contamination of the finished meat products.

Effective national food control systems are essential to ensure the safety of food and to protect consumers. They are also critical in enabling countries to assure the safety and quality of foods entering international trade and to ensure that imported foods conform to national requirements. Many new entrants to Ostrich production want to access international markets immediately as there are no developed markets for Ostrich meat in their own countries. These words explain why it is impossible for small farmers starting out in Ostrich to access international markets until there is a strong infrastructure in place to support the animal health and hygiene requirements demanded by importing countries.

The advice of the WOA board of directors for any starting out in ostrich production is to establish a business plan built on developing meat sales within your own country. That provides the opportunity to put in place your systems, prove those systems and establish a track record that can satisfy the various authorities whose approval is essential for supplying export markets. It also provides the opportunity to build the volumes required by export markets.

Active involvement of all stakeholders from farm to table involved in the production chain, working in collaboration, is essential to develop fully managed food control systems and export markets. Stakeholders include farmers, processors, academia, scientific institutions, government agents and retailers. Clearly a certain volume is required to provide sufficient funds to support all these stakeholders. To date this remains a major problem for our industry as small volumes cannot support the supply industries.

Good practice and quality assurance programs are developed in collaboration with all above mentioned stakeholders and based on experience supported by good records. The WOA provides a foundation to build these programs using the basic structures applied to other livestock production species and adapting them to be suitable for ostrich production. Active involvement and input from all stakeholders is welcomed by our fledgling industry to develop these good practice and quality assurance schemes.