Food safety
Food safety research and development is part of SAFEMEAT, the food safety partnership between the meat industry and government with the primary role of ensuring delivery of safe and hygienic red meat products to the marketplace.
MLA has in place a major co-ordinated program to improve understanding of foodborne hazards, evaluate and validate control procedures and safety practices, as well as assist industry with adoption of new technologies and processes.
This Food Safety Program is designed to develop a sound scientific basis for food safety management, emphasising microbiological risk management. Identifying knowledge gaps in food safety risks along the farm-to-fork supply chain and then conducting research is vital in improving understanding of foodborne hazards and maintaining the industry’s reputation for safe, healthy products.
The approaches taken by the program are based on sound science, risk assessment and new management strategies. Better scientific understanding provides a basis for the development of cost effective new technologies and processes to boost product integrity and reduce production costs.
By helping the industry build its expertise in relation to red meat food safety issues, MLA can help ensure the sustainability of the industry and assist companies right along the supply chain to profit from implementing new, scientifically proven technologies.
PhD student wins first prize
MLA is currently funding a project 'Effects of chilling on the survival of Escherichia coli on carcases.' (MLA Project A.MFS.0127).
As part of this project, undertaken through collaboration with the University of Tasmania, PhD student Chawalit (Jay) Kocharunchitt of the University's Food Safety Centre within the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research has been considering how Escherichia coli responds to cold and water stress.
While most strains of Escherichia coli are harmless, some, such as the 0157:H7 strain that Jay is studying, can cause severe food poisoning and kidney failure in humans.
Previous MLA-funded projects suggested that E. coli may be injured by simultaneously decreasing temperature and water activity. Under conditions of chill and osmotic stress (such as found on a carcase during chilling) a loss of culturability was observed suggesting that the cells were highly stressed or metabolically "confused".
Jay's PhD work and other members of the project team are building on this strategic research.
At Food Micro 2010*, held in Copenhagen, Jay was awarded first prize for his poster presentation at the conference's inaugural student poster competition judged by a number of international experts at the conference.
Jay's achievement was highlighted in the University of Tasmania's Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology newsletter.
MLA hopes that understanding how E. coli responds to conditions in the chiller may lead to simple and effective interventions that will lead to death of E. coli, and therefore, safer meat products.
* "Food Micro 2010" was the 22nd Congress of the International Committee for Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH) and was attended by ~600 food microbiologist from around the world.