May 04
0

The Secret of the question. Behind a risk analysis.

By | Sin categoría | No Comments

El secreto de las preguntas

El secreto para la creación de un buen sistema calidad o de seguridad alimentaria es sencillamente ponerse buenas preguntas y proceder con este método de “hacerse buenas preguntas” a lo largo de su implementación.

 

Según el libro de Escritor Italiano –  Umberto Galimberti  – en el libro : “El secreto de las preguntas”:

Preguntas mal formuladas determinan  una visión equivocada de la realidad, una visión del mundo que no está adecuada para analizar y entender la realidad, y las empresas están en la realidad, no están fuera de la realidad.

¿Por qué es importante la capacidad de hacer preguntas correctas en el contexto de los sistemas de gestión?

En la aplicación de normas de calidad, sobre todo en la nueva norma ISO 9001: 2015 pero también otras normas, debemos analizar críticamente fases y procesos. Al fin y al cabo, tenemos que hacernos preguntas y contestarlas correctamente. En el caso de la aplicación de normas voluntarias, los requisitos nos vienen de las mismas normas. Y los estándares, normalmente, nos ponen buenas preguntas.

Esto nos pasa cuando hacemos un análisis de la Cadena de Valor de Porter , cuando hacemos un análisis de riesgo con el método APPCC o cuando preparamos un análisis DAFO.

Pero tanto más bajamos a nivel concreto, a nuestro especifico contexto, cuanto más necesitamos ponernos buenas preguntas, porque todos los métodos de análisis están dibujados a un nivel general y tanto el Responsable de Calidad como el Consultor, tienen que abordar los sistemas de gestión a un nivel de análisis peculiar, típico de la empresa objeto de razonamiento.

Creo que los consultores tienen esta tarea. No debemos simplemente cumplir con las normas escribiendo procedimientos, manuales, (que está bien,) sobre todos hay que responder a las preguntas y a las exigencias de nuestro cliente.  El objeto de un sistema de gestión es lograr la conformidad y la satisfacción del cliente.

Entonces la respuesta a estas exigencias debe ser en primer lugar una correcta formulación de la pregunta, para construir unos cimientos sólidos de conocimientos propios.

Una buena pregunta tiene que cumplir 3 condiciones indispensables:

  • Concisa: lenguaje sencillo y claro. Cualquier persona, incluso sin formación en nuestro campo debe entender la pregunta. Frases cortas y directas, nada de lenguaje pomposo y pretencioso. Eliminar los adjetivos.
  • Alcanzable: la pregunta debe tener respuesta posible y la recogida de datos para responderla debe ser viable,
  • Relevante: se debe responder a dicha pregunta argumentando los beneficios e impactos que produciría responderla: a nivel teórico, empírico y económico.

Por ejemplo, ¿como se aborda una pregunta en el contexto de un análisis de riesgo?

Un análisis de riesgo consta de 4 pasos.

  • Identificación del problema. ¿Cuál es el problema? ¿Que sustancia genera el riesgo, la intoxicación? ¿Como puedo medirla?  – por ejemplo Salmonela spp ..ausencia en 25 gramos.
  • Evaluación de la exposición – que es estimar la frecuencia o la cantidad de la sustancia a la que un determinado proceso está expuesto. O evaluar cuál es la frecuencia con la cual se manifiesta ese problema. ¿Cuantos casos de Salmonella por año o toneladas?
  • Evaluación del daño o de la toxicidad– Estimar la cantidad de la sustancia que genera daños o defectos y que tipo de daño o defecto. La simple presencia de Salmonela es inaceptable.
  • Caracterización del Riesgo. ¿Cuál es el riesgo que se puede presentar en el uso previsto? – En el ejemplo Riesgo de muerte o de grave daño para el consumidor.

Entonces la correcta pregunta es ¿como puedo eliminar el riesgo de salmonela identificado en producto de cuarta gama?

La pregunta no puede ser, como puedo reducir a un nivel aceptable el riesgo de salmonela. No existe un nivel aceptable, hemos dicho.

Bueno, esto es un ejemplo de cómo una buena pregunta puede influir en nuestra manera de lleva a cabo un análisis de riesgos. Un pequeño detalle que puede ser fundamental para la seguridad alimentaria.

Apr 11
1

What is the resilience in the agri-food sector?

By | Food Safety | One Comment
What is the resilience in the agri-food sector?
T

his article is about the Resilience concept and the fresh vegetable business.

Resilience is in vogue at the moment as a conceptual frame for the development community. There are lots of new initiatives and new projects designed to improve resilience—mostly in the context of the recent and ongoing food crises in the Horn of Africa and the Sahelian region.

Resilience has many sense:

“the power or ability of a System to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched”; this is a generic definition.

What this the relation between the Resilience and the Food Safety System in the fresh food business?

Industrialized agriculture increasingly emulates the production, processing, and distribution characteristics of large-scale manufacturing. Agriculture has become more uniform and mechanized, while post-harvest processing offers more ‘‘value added’’ and packaged goods. We are packing everything: Lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, etc.

In this way the Food Industry wants to increase the illusion of control over the agrifood system propagandizing their imagine..like..”we have everything under control”. Food companies need consumers to believe that their products are safe. When outbreaks occur, the companies often deny responsibility place blame on others, and resist changes in their production or processing procedures. This seems to be the agrifood resilience: do not understand the need to change to avoid the same problem.

Outbreaks of food-borne illness from fresh produce are significantly more prevalent in recent decades. This could be related to four factors, as reported by University of Arizona

  • 1) changes in farming or processing practices
  • 2) the overall increase in consumption of raw fruits and vegetables or minimally processed
  • 3) the increase in trade and international distribution
  • 4) the increase in immunosuppressed consumers.

In addition, the general lack of efficacy of disinfectants in the elimination of pathogens in raw fruits and vegetables has been attributed, in part, to their difficulty in penetrating the leaf surface and the foliar tissue that may harbour pathogens.

When firms are found at fault, in the Food Safety System, or in the disinfectant inefficiency as well they often advertise new technological fixes, increasing the complexity of the production system as well as its reliance on synthetic substances and controversial measures (e.g. irradiation).

It is unclear if those technologies increase actually the food safety but industry may succeed in temporarily perpetuating the image that food is now safer.

A clear example of resilience has been the outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 from raw ‘ready to eat’ bagged spinach during autumn 2006.

This incident resulted in over 200 illnesses and at least three deaths in 26 US states and Canada.

In this case, the leafy greens industry was unable to control a strain of bacteria that spread though the pre-packaged salad production system

In an attempt to regain control, or the appearance of control the industry is actively fighting back against nature in an attempt to sterilize production sites, segregating the open field with net and fencing, controlling the wildlife activity exploring possible vaccines for humans and for cattle to treat E. coli O157:H7. Many of these control- measures do not seem to make sense.

One day I will make a video on this topic:”The craziest control measures” (as title).

Well, what have been the results of these measures?

In the 2011 a food borne infection of E. coli caused about 50 deaths in Germany and France, 3000 infected people and millionaire losses in the agricultural sector.

And without having a clear explanation of the cause.

First were the Spanish cucumbers, then the German soya, then the Egyptian seeds. In 2016, last year, the same toxiinfection caused 2 deaths and 151 people in UK affected by E. coli. Resilience? Yep! I return to the definition..

“

The power or ability of a System to return to the original form, position, after being bent, compressed, or stretched.

Dictionary by Googling
“

Apr 04
0

3 consequences about the Maximum Residue Levels after Brexit.

By | Agronomy, Food for thought, Food Safety | No Comments

T he departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, will impact the agriculture of all European horticultural companies and in particular the export of the Mediterranean Countries.You can hear several rumours about what will happen, some of these with a catastrophic perspective.

On the other hand, we need to don’t think that everything will remain the same. There will be changes and I will tell you the two scenarios that could occur and the three consequences from the point of view of the relationship between the  Food Safety and the fruit and vegetable market, especially with regard to maximum residue levels of the pesticides.

Hypothesis #1. Probably the trade relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union will follow the same course of the countries as Iceland and Norway: outside the Union, but with a foot within the European economic area.

Therefore, majorities of European laws and regulations will remain unchanged and the UK will continue to respect the same European standards like today.

The second hypothesis is that the United Kingdom will completely withdraw from the European market so that it can be supplied by other world markets, such as the United States, North Africa and developing countries.

Both scenarios are a bit extremes. It is true that the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU does not imply that the exports are terminated, but that they will be carried out under different conditions.

The most evident consequence is the fall in the price of the pound against the euro.

From a technical point of view we can speculate that one of the most important changes will be the relationship between EFSA, European Food Safety Authority, and the UK. EFSA’s main objective is to provide scientific methods for alerting and detecting all problems affecting food safety. EFSA, for example, establishes the residue limits of plant protection products. Currently in force is the Regulation 396/2005 on maximum residue levels of pesticides in or on food and feed of plant and animal origin.

Accordingly, in the interest of free movement of goods, equal competition conditions among the Member States, as well as a high level of consumer protection, it has been considered appropriate that maximum residue levels (MRLs) for products of plant and animal origin be set at Community level, taking into account good agricultural practice.

These maximum residue limits (MRLs), which are set by the European Commission, include:

Specific MRLs for certain foodstuffs intended for humans or animals and an overall limit applicable where no MRLs have been established (a ‘default limit’ of 0,01 mg / kg).

 

What will happen after Brexit?

Hypothesis # 1: Britain will continue to collaborate with the EU and EFSA on common food safety issues. This also involves collaboration from a financial point of view. In this case, nothing change. .

Hypothesis #2: The United Kingdom does not collaborate with Europe on this issue, using the proper Food Safety Agency (FSA). This is quite likely. Of course, there are things the British want to change: not surprisingly, there was a clear desire to move from Hazard-based regulation to a Risk-based approach, strongly science-based and proportionate, whilst maintaining or improving current human and environmental safety standards and taking account of socio-economic benefits.

Hypothesis #3. United Kingdom is homologated to the United States. The British wants to stop unnecessary expiry of authorisations and routine reviews and introduce a US EPA-style data ‘call in’ system. They  should simplify or remove efficacy requirements, and onerous assessments for minor uses and low risk products including bio-pesticides – and have an emergency approvals/essential uses system for unforeseen problems, that we do not have in Europe now.

What will happen on the subject of MRLs could also change the viewpoint of Europeans and bring the European Union closer to the American market

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Apr 01
1

The Agronomy Field Walking will be assisted by the radar

By | Food for thought, Sin categoría | No Comments

Click here
The Interview

This is an interview to Alessio Cantone, an international expert about radar application in agricolture. It seems that we should not wait for the future to have the technology that can help farmers and agronomists in the field walking: the monitoring operation to control the crop health . The radar technology is able to produce a specific risk maps so that you can also monitor the production into the greenhouses or tunnels.

Nov 19
366

Fresh salad. Leaf chopping increases the Salmonella risk

By | Food for thought, Food Safety | No Comments

University of Leicester team show leached juices from leafy vegetables enhance growth and virulence of food poisoning bug.

Here is another article highlighting the risk of fresh cut salad. The aim here is to underline those aspects of the food industry which must be improved rather than making consumers diffident or afraid when buying a salad bag.

Issued by University of Leicester Press Office on 18 November 2016

  • Lab study shows juices from damaged leaves in bagged salad increase Salmonella pathogen growth 2400-fold over a control group
  • Leached juices also increased the pathogen’s capacity to form a strong and wash-resistant attachment to salad leaves
  • Research highlights need for growers to maintain high food safety standards

The research is led by Dr Primrose Freestone of the University’s Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation and PhD student Giannis Koukkidis, who has been funded by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) i-case Studentship.

Here below the link showing the results of the University investigation.

According to my experience the risk of pathogens bacterial growth is high when the hygiene conditions during the cultivation process are not met by the producer. If salad will be produced according to the standard and hygiene parameters there will not be risk of Salmonella or E.coli O157 for example.

For this reason Casaqa is deeply involved in the study of the ideal environment for the cultivation of salad with the aim to prevent any kind of contamination. An excellent result has been already achieved thanks to the cultivation in specific designed green houses which are different from the green houses used until today.  Clearly the cultivation in an open field cannot be easily under control since it is subject to external contaminations such as wild and domestic animals, pollution etc., on the other side the method and green houses are giving great results.

Even if the fact is well known in the industry it is difficult to convince them of the use of these specific green houses especially in Spain which is one of the biggest salad producer in Europe.

Casaqa is working in this direction to innovate the fresh salad sector. Even if these changes are not often accepted, Casaqa continues to promote the methods and techniques to improve the food safety in the baby leaf production.

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