Food Safety Issues Prompt ChangeGlobalization, accelerated manufacturing, and intentional adulteration are just a few of the issues food suppliers and regulators face in curbing contamination.by Tim Studt
Thermo Fisher Scientific’s new Global Food Safety Response Center was created to aid governments and businesses facing unknown food safety threats. | The recent opening of a Global Food Safety Response Center by Thermo Fisher Scientific in its Dreieich, Germany office (near Frankfurt) is the company’s effort to support the analysis and identification of suspect contaminants for the next food safety crisis. This Center features state-of-the-art equipment and is staffed by world-class chemists who will quickly mobilize to aid governments and businesses facing an unknown food safety threat involving chemical contaminants. Thermo Fisher Scientific has a similar Center for the testing of non-chemical, microbiological contaminates in food (e.g., the various strains of Escherichia coli) at its Microbiological Division in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK.
Common sources of chemical contamination in foods include pesticides, veterinary drugs, banned food dyes, industrial chemicals (e.g., acrylamide and benzene), heavy metals (e.g., arsenic, cadmium and lead), organic pollutants (e.g., dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), and naturally occurring toxins, such as mycotoxins, which can affect peanuts, corn, pistachios and walnuts.
“We set up this lab to develop the sample preparation and analytical methods for testing for contaminants in food,” says Vincent Paez, Food Safety Business Development for Thermo Fisher Scientific. “We plan to work with universities, regulation agencies, and industry to quickly develop these methodologies. The biggest issue in contaminated foods is the sample preparation procedures—how to extract the analyte in a food matrix.”
The purpose of this Center is to have a fully functional lab that’s focused on food safety, available immediately and be able to work on a variety of contaminants until the job is done. Other analytical labs generally are not set up to respond this quickly, nor do they always have the necessary analytical instruments or the experienced staff. “It’s rare to find a lab that specializes in all the various food testing methodologies,” says Paez. The Center was located in Germany to take advantage of its centralized global location.
It’s important to have a rapid response capability, since the threat to human health and global commerce is magnified with each passing day,” says Marc Casper, President/CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific.
The Dreieich lab also has access to a Thermo Fisher Exactive high-performance, benchtop LC-MS system, which was designed for high-throughput and high-performance screening and compound identification applications, just like those in food contamination.
Once activated, the Dreieich lab will develop the analysis methods, provide the workflow instructions, and recommend the instrumentation, equipment, and supplies necessary to give food safety professionals the capability to detect the contaminant rapidly. While this process currently takes about two months to complete a full food contaminant testing protocol, Thermo’s intensity, high-performance analysis techniques and expertise are expected to cut this time in half. Once developed, Thermo also plans to make this information freely available to all interested parties.
The comprehensive commercial Thermo Scientific food safety offering includes a wide range of sample collection, sample preparation, instrumentation and data management products. Furthermore, a broad portfolio of chemicals, consumables, equipment and supply chain services are available through Fisher Scientific. From research to testing and monitoring, Thermo Fisher provides methods-based consulting and applications support in addition to a comprehensive line of products.
One of the most publicized recent food threats was the melamine crisis in China where melamine was added to food products (i.e., dairy products) to “trick” testing procedures into thinking that there was more protein in the products than there actually was.
The intentional adulteration claimed the lives of six children, sickened nearly 300,000 and cost companies world-wide billions of dollars before it was contained.
The more recent problem in the U.S. (2009) of peanut salmonella found in products manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America caused the recall of most peanut products and cost the companies involved hundreds of millions of dollars.
A recent Food Testing webinar created by Laboratory Equipment examined how ion chromatography can be used to test for melamine in food products. Jay Gandhi, a product manager with Metrohm USA, discusses how vegetable products can be examined for perchlorate contaminants with ion chromatography systems, along with other analyses of beer, wine, orange juice, mineral water, soft drinks and milk products.
In the same webinar, George Porter, titration product manager for Metrohm USA, discusses the details of testing for sodium in food products using titration techniques. The webinar is archived through September 2010 and is available for immediate download at www.LaboratoryEquipment.com.
New procedures
Earlier this year, U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Margaret Hamburg announced the launch of a new risk-assessment tool to ensure the safety of imported food and drugs. The web-based PREDICT system will rank the risk hazards of food and drugs as they enter the country and allow inspectors to focus on the most likely threats to public health. PREDICT will replace the admissibility screening function of OASIS, the FDA’s legacy system. PREDICT will assist entry reviewers in targeting higher-risk shipments for examination. It will also expedite the clearance of lower-risk cargo, but only if accurate and complete data are provided by importers and entry filers.
PerkinElmer, Shelton, Conn., also recently announce that the company’s inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) technology can help ensure that traditional Chinese herbal medicines comply with safety guidelines. This capability is demonstrated by a recent collaboration with a food and drug institute in China.
Amid concerns that traditional herbal ingredients might contain potentially toxic contaminants, PerkinElmer’s broad portfolio of high-performance analytical solutions are well suited for the safety and quality testing of these traditional medicines. PerkinElmer’s ICP-MS systems, such as the ELAN 9000 and the new NexION 300 ICP-MS, offer exceptional analytical sensitivity and accuracy and feature superior detection capacity.
A popular choice for alternative therapy or health care, traditional Chinese herbal medicines are generally perceived by consumers as being natural and having few side-effects. Because of the complexity of the medicinal plants, their inherent biological variation, and environmental influences—e.g., water sources, soil conditions, fertilizers, and manufacturing processes—evaluating the safety, efficacy and quality of these herbal ingredients is essential in order to ensure consumer safety.
Awareness of the potential for contamination has led to the increased demand for quantitative evaluation of inorganic impurities. The Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2010 guidelines, due to take effect later this year, will set legal limitations on the levels of certain critical elements, including lead and arsenic, in medicinal products intended for frequent use by infants and the elderly.
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