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Towards biotracing in food chains
International Journal of Food Microbiology 145 (2011) S1–S4
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Food Microbiology j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i j f o o d m i c r o
Towards biotracing in food chains Jeffrey Hoorfar a,⁎, Martin Wagner b, Kieran Jordan c, Solveig Lind Bouquin a, Jeffrey Skiby a a b c
Division of Microbiology and Risk Assessment, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Søborg, Denmark Institute for Milk Hygiene, Technology and Food Science, Department of Farm Animal and Veterinary Public Health, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Keywords: Foodborne pathogens Modelling Detection Tracing Tracking Typing Food safety
a b s t r a c t Biotracing is tracing (backward)/tracking (forward) biological contamination in the food/feed chain. Advances in detection technologies, improvements in molecular marker identification, clearer understanding of pathogenicity markers, improved modelling methodologies and, more importantly, the integration of these disciplines will lead to better capability in full-chain tracing and tracking biological contaminations (biotracing). The advantages of improved biotraceability are faster intervention, limited recalls and more targeted remedial action. The project is not dealing with risk assessments but developing tools that can be used in “second-generation” risk assessments involving quantitative microbiology. This concept is the core activity of BIOTRACER, which is an Integrated Project (2007–2011) funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme. The research in biotracing is organised into five Research Areas, and 21 cross-disciplinary work packages that cover tracing and tracking of contamination in feed, meat and dairy chains, in addition to accidental and deliberate contamination of bottled water. The BIOTRACER Consortium consists of 46 partners, including Europe's largest food/feed industries, several SMEs, and relevant International Cooperation (INCO) countries. The Consortium includes experts in predictive microbiology, database developers, software companies, risk assessors, risk managers, system biologists, food and molecular microbiologists, legislative officers, standardization and validation members and food retailers. The outcomes will ensure a more reliable and rapid response to a microbial contamination event. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Traceability systems allow a product to be traced to its source of origin (Barker et al., 2009). This is facilitated by labelling information on the product, often in the form of a barcode. Biotracing has a similar approach, except that biological agents, such as microorganisms or their toxins, are traced (backward)/tracked (forward) (Fig. 1). In this case, however, the biological agent cannot be labelled with a unique marker, although this is the ultimate aim, making biotracing more challenging to implement. Advances in detection technologies, improvements in molecular marker identification, clearer understanding of pathogenicity markers, improved modelling methodologies and more importantly the integration of these disciplines will lead to better capability in biotracing. Biotracing involves a multidisciplinary approach from statistically based sampling methodologies (Andersson and Haggblom, 2009), to accurate detection methods (Josefsen et al., 2007), to understanding microbial physiology (Belessi et al., 2008), to formulating mathematical models, to software development to make such models user friendly
⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Hoorfar). 0168-1605/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2010.04.028
and useful decision support tools (Pouliot and Sumner, 2008) (Fig. 2). It is a whole-chain approach — information relating to the entire food chain is important. In addition, this has a potential impact on early tracing actions (Fig. 3). Biotracing is not the same as risk assessment or hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) system, but incorporates the benefits from those systems. Biotracing is based on a novel concept integrating traceability hardware and software with biological safety in a fullchain driven approach (such as dairy or feed). 2. Advantages of biotracing The main advantage of biotracing is the high degree of integration of laboratory data into different steps of the production chain. While HACCP focuses on the critical production points, biotracing deals with the entire chain, from the primary production at farms (Olsen et al., 2009), through transportation, storage, distribution, shelf-life issues and consumption by consumers. An example here is the biological information on the significance of strains that are isolated during routine quality control checks: does the strain have virulence traits, can it confer pathogenicity, is it recurrent, can it survive the environment of the food production in question? (Champion et al., 2005). As compared to risk assessment, biotracing provides tools for improved risk assessment, but does not stop there. Biotracing extends
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J. Hoorfar et al. / International Journal of Food Microbiology 145 (2011) S1–S4
Fig. 1. Any process or production chain has access points where contamination or unexpected influences can enter the process.
into risk management by providing risk managers with decisionmaking tools necessary for a science-based approach to regulation of food safety, product recall and design of traceability systems (Wein and Liu, 2005). Having an established biotracing system can contribute to: • • • • •
Immediate intervention Pre-emptive knowledge Targeted recalls as a result Limit downtime More specific remedial action.
3. Improvements necessary for better biotracing In order for biotracing to become an established feature of food safety programmes, certain advances beyond the current state-of-theart are necessary. These include: • Development and application of more scientific and statistically based sampling plans • Improved detection methods that can incorporate typing information • Improved understanding of microbial physiology in food and its relationship to pathogenesis in humans • Alternative modelling techniques that could include infectivity data from microbial physiology in food. 4. BIOTRACER project
Fig. 2. Illustration of biotracing concept: food chain contaminations are either inadvertent or deliberate events that need to be carefully modelled. The models must take into account development of pathogens in relevant matrices along the production chains. The information on growth and persistence of hazardous pathogens, linked with laboratory information systems and tracing tools will result into accurate models that can predict the level and impact of contamination on food safety. The outcome will support response models that support risk-based decision-making for industry and regulators.
BIOTRACER is a one of the world's largest food microbiology projects that is funded (2007–2011) by the European Union to support research in improved food safety (www.biotracer.org). It has an external funding of 11 million Euros, 46 project partners from 24 countries, including countries that supply feed to Europe such as Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. The main objective of BIOTRACER is to create tools and models that improve tracing, risk assessments and support decision-making in cases of both accidental
Fig. 3. The potential impact of biotracing on early tracing actions and rapid responses. The aim of biotracing is to shift the response time to the left by improving detection, increasing preparedness and communication, improving tracking and tracing and therefore avoiding casualties.
J. Hoorfar et al. / International Journal of Food Microbiology 145 (2011) S1–S4
S3
Fig. 4. Diagrammatic representation of BIOTRACER showing the developmental process of the project from method development, physiology and modelling concepts to decisionmaking tools based on the previous work.
and deliberate microbial contamination of feed and food (including bottled water). BIOTRACER is not dealing with risk assessments but develops tools that can be used in “second-generation” risk assessments involving quantitative microbiology. The work is focused on several pathogen-food/feed chain matrices (Fig. 4): 1. Quantitative chain modelling for Staphylococcus aureus in milk and Salmonella in pork 2. Traceability of mycotoxins and Salmonella in the feed chain 3. Traceability of Campylobacter jejuni in the chicken chain and Salmonella in the pork chain 4. Traceability of Listeria monocytogenes and S. aureus in the dairy chain 5. Virtual contamination scenarios (simulating bio-terror activity) for Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium botulinum and Norovirus.
6. Conclusions In this series of papers, we focus on major BIOTRACER outputs that contribute to improved biotracing: The advances in modelling/ detection technology, physiological mechanisms in relation to biotracing, cross-disciplinary collaborative work, and finally ideas on the incorporation of molecular data into modelling that will support biotracing. These advances should lead to improved biotracing capability with the inherent advantages mentioned previously. Acknowledgement BIOTRACER is funded by the EU 6th Framework, Contract #036272. References
5. BIOTRACER project outputs The outputs to date include: ▪ Development in detection technologies for Salmonella, Bacillus, Clostridium, Norovirus, and extraction technology for S. aureus (Josefsen et al., 2007; Fach et al., 2009) ▪ Sampling strategies and innovative sampling technology for Salmonella, Campylobacter, B. cereus and B. anthracis (Reiter et al., 2009; Andersson and Haggblom, 2009) ▪ Mathematical modelling approaches and models developed, such as modular process risk modelling for Salmonella and domain models for S. aureus in milk and Salmonella in pork (Barker et al., 2009) ▪ Incorporation of field sampling data into models (Manios et al., 2009) ▪ Improved understanding of pathogen physiology and immobilised cells (Belessi et al., 2008).
Andersson, G., Haggblom, P., 2009. Sampling for contaminants in feed — estimating the concentration of mycotoxins found in bulk batches of feed can be a complicated process. Feed Int. 30, 16–19. Barker, G.C., Gomez, N., Smid, J., 2009. An introduction to biotracing in food chain systems. Trends Food Sci. Tech. 20, 220–226. Belessi, C.I., Papanikolaou, S., Drosinos, E.H., Skandamis, P.N., 2008. Survival and acid resistance of Listeria innocua in Feta cheese and yoghurt, in the presence or absence of fungi. J. Food Prot. 71, 742–749. Champion, O.L., Gaunt, M.W., Gundogdu, O., Elmi, A., Witney, A.A., Hinds, J., Dorrell, N., Wren, B.W., 2005. Comparative phylogenomics of the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni reveals genetic markers predictive of infection source. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 102, 16043–16048. Fach, P., Micheau, P., Mazuet, C., Perelle, S., Popoff, M., 2009. Development of real-time PCR tests for detecting botulinum neurotoxins A, B, E, F producing Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium baratii and Clostridium butyricum. J. Appl. Microbiol. 107, 465–473. Josefsen, M.H., Krause, M., Hansen, F., Hoorfar, J., 2007. Optimization of a 12-hour TaqMan PCR-based method for detection of Salmonella in meat. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73, 3040–3048. Manios, S.G., Skiadaresis, A.G., Karavasilis, K., Drosinos, E.H., Skandamis, P.N., 2009. Field validation of predictive models for the growth of lactic acid bacteria in acidic cheese-based Greek appetizers. J. Food Prot. 71, 101–110.
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J. Hoorfar et al. / International Journal of Food Microbiology 145 (2011) S1–S4
Olsen, K.N., Lund, M., Skov, J., Christensen, L.S., Hoorfar, J., 2009. Towards real-time monitoring of broiler flocks: detection of Campylobacter in air samples for continuous monitoring of Campylobacter colonization in broiler flocks. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75, 2074–2078. Pouliot, S., Sumner, D.A., 2008. Traceability, liability, and incentives for food safety and quality. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 90, 15–27.
Reiter, E.V., Cichna-Markl, M., Chung, D.H., Zentek, J., Razzazi-Fazeli, E., 2009. Immunoultrafiltration as a new strategy in sample clean-up of aflatoxins. J. Sep. Sci. 32, 1729–1739. Wein, L.M., Liu, Y., 2005. Analysing a bioterror attack on the food supply: the case of botulinum toxin in milk. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 102, 9984–9989.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Food Microbiology j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i j f o o d m i c r o
Towards biotracing in food chains Jeffrey Hoorfar a,⁎, Martin Wagner b, Kieran Jordan c, Solveig Lind Bouquin a, Jeffrey Skiby a a b c
Division of Microbiology and Risk Assessment, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Søborg, Denmark Institute for Milk Hygiene, Technology and Food Science, Department of Farm Animal and Veterinary Public Health, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Keywords: Foodborne pathogens Modelling Detection Tracing Tracking Typing Food safety
a b s t r a c t Biotracing is tracing (backward)/tracking (forward) biological contamination in the food/feed chain. Advances in detection technologies, improvements in molecular marker identification, clearer understanding of pathogenicity markers, improved modelling methodologies and, more importantly, the integration of these disciplines will lead to better capability in full-chain tracing and tracking biological contaminations (biotracing). The advantages of improved biotraceability are faster intervention, limited recalls and more targeted remedial action. The project is not dealing with risk assessments but developing tools that can be used in “second-generation” risk assessments involving quantitative microbiology. This concept is the core activity of BIOTRACER, which is an Integrated Project (2007–2011) funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme. The research in biotracing is organised into five Research Areas, and 21 cross-disciplinary work packages that cover tracing and tracking of contamination in feed, meat and dairy chains, in addition to accidental and deliberate contamination of bottled water. The BIOTRACER Consortium consists of 46 partners, including Europe's largest food/feed industries, several SMEs, and relevant International Cooperation (INCO) countries. The Consortium includes experts in predictive microbiology, database developers, software companies, risk assessors, risk managers, system biologists, food and molecular microbiologists, legislative officers, standardization and validation members and food retailers. The outcomes will ensure a more reliable and rapid response to a microbial contamination event. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Traceability systems allow a product to be traced to its source of origin (Barker et al., 2009). This is facilitated by labelling information on the product, often in the form of a barcode. Biotracing has a similar approach, except that biological agents, such as microorganisms or their toxins, are traced (backward)/tracked (forward) (Fig. 1). In this case, however, the biological agent cannot be labelled with a unique marker, although this is the ultimate aim, making biotracing more challenging to implement. Advances in detection technologies, improvements in molecular marker identification, clearer understanding of pathogenicity markers, improved modelling methodologies and more importantly the integration of these disciplines will lead to better capability in biotracing. Biotracing involves a multidisciplinary approach from statistically based sampling methodologies (Andersson and Haggblom, 2009), to accurate detection methods (Josefsen et al., 2007), to understanding microbial physiology (Belessi et al., 2008), to formulating mathematical models, to software development to make such models user friendly
⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Hoorfar). 0168-1605/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2010.04.028
and useful decision support tools (Pouliot and Sumner, 2008) (Fig. 2). It is a whole-chain approach — information relating to the entire food chain is important. In addition, this has a potential impact on early tracing actions (Fig. 3). Biotracing is not the same as risk assessment or hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) system, but incorporates the benefits from those systems. Biotracing is based on a novel concept integrating traceability hardware and software with biological safety in a fullchain driven approach (such as dairy or feed). 2. Advantages of biotracing The main advantage of biotracing is the high degree of integration of laboratory data into different steps of the production chain. While HACCP focuses on the critical production points, biotracing deals with the entire chain, from the primary production at farms (Olsen et al., 2009), through transportation, storage, distribution, shelf-life issues and consumption by consumers. An example here is the biological information on the significance of strains that are isolated during routine quality control checks: does the strain have virulence traits, can it confer pathogenicity, is it recurrent, can it survive the environment of the food production in question? (Champion et al., 2005). As compared to risk assessment, biotracing provides tools for improved risk assessment, but does not stop there. Biotracing extends
S2
J. Hoorfar et al. / International Journal of Food Microbiology 145 (2011) S1–S4
Fig. 1. Any process or production chain has access points where contamination or unexpected influences can enter the process.
into risk management by providing risk managers with decisionmaking tools necessary for a science-based approach to regulation of food safety, product recall and design of traceability systems (Wein and Liu, 2005). Having an established biotracing system can contribute to: • • • • •
Immediate intervention Pre-emptive knowledge Targeted recalls as a result Limit downtime More specific remedial action.
3. Improvements necessary for better biotracing In order for biotracing to become an established feature of food safety programmes, certain advances beyond the current state-of-theart are necessary. These include: • Development and application of more scientific and statistically based sampling plans • Improved detection methods that can incorporate typing information • Improved understanding of microbial physiology in food and its relationship to pathogenesis in humans • Alternative modelling techniques that could include infectivity data from microbial physiology in food. 4. BIOTRACER project
Fig. 2. Illustration of biotracing concept: food chain contaminations are either inadvertent or deliberate events that need to be carefully modelled. The models must take into account development of pathogens in relevant matrices along the production chains. The information on growth and persistence of hazardous pathogens, linked with laboratory information systems and tracing tools will result into accurate models that can predict the level and impact of contamination on food safety. The outcome will support response models that support risk-based decision-making for industry and regulators.
BIOTRACER is a one of the world's largest food microbiology projects that is funded (2007–2011) by the European Union to support research in improved food safety (www.biotracer.org). It has an external funding of 11 million Euros, 46 project partners from 24 countries, including countries that supply feed to Europe such as Brazil, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa. The main objective of BIOTRACER is to create tools and models that improve tracing, risk assessments and support decision-making in cases of both accidental
Fig. 3. The potential impact of biotracing on early tracing actions and rapid responses. The aim of biotracing is to shift the response time to the left by improving detection, increasing preparedness and communication, improving tracking and tracing and therefore avoiding casualties.
J. Hoorfar et al. / International Journal of Food Microbiology 145 (2011) S1–S4
S3
Fig. 4. Diagrammatic representation of BIOTRACER showing the developmental process of the project from method development, physiology and modelling concepts to decisionmaking tools based on the previous work.
and deliberate microbial contamination of feed and food (including bottled water). BIOTRACER is not dealing with risk assessments but develops tools that can be used in “second-generation” risk assessments involving quantitative microbiology. The work is focused on several pathogen-food/feed chain matrices (Fig. 4): 1. Quantitative chain modelling for Staphylococcus aureus in milk and Salmonella in pork 2. Traceability of mycotoxins and Salmonella in the feed chain 3. Traceability of Campylobacter jejuni in the chicken chain and Salmonella in the pork chain 4. Traceability of Listeria monocytogenes and S. aureus in the dairy chain 5. Virtual contamination scenarios (simulating bio-terror activity) for Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium botulinum and Norovirus.
6. Conclusions In this series of papers, we focus on major BIOTRACER outputs that contribute to improved biotracing: The advances in modelling/ detection technology, physiological mechanisms in relation to biotracing, cross-disciplinary collaborative work, and finally ideas on the incorporation of molecular data into modelling that will support biotracing. These advances should lead to improved biotracing capability with the inherent advantages mentioned previously. Acknowledgement BIOTRACER is funded by the EU 6th Framework, Contract #036272. References
5. BIOTRACER project outputs The outputs to date include: ▪ Development in detection technologies for Salmonella, Bacillus, Clostridium, Norovirus, and extraction technology for S. aureus (Josefsen et al., 2007; Fach et al., 2009) ▪ Sampling strategies and innovative sampling technology for Salmonella, Campylobacter, B. cereus and B. anthracis (Reiter et al., 2009; Andersson and Haggblom, 2009) ▪ Mathematical modelling approaches and models developed, such as modular process risk modelling for Salmonella and domain models for S. aureus in milk and Salmonella in pork (Barker et al., 2009) ▪ Incorporation of field sampling data into models (Manios et al., 2009) ▪ Improved understanding of pathogen physiology and immobilised cells (Belessi et al., 2008).
Andersson, G., Haggblom, P., 2009. Sampling for contaminants in feed — estimating the concentration of mycotoxins found in bulk batches of feed can be a complicated process. Feed Int. 30, 16–19. Barker, G.C., Gomez, N., Smid, J., 2009. An introduction to biotracing in food chain systems. Trends Food Sci. Tech. 20, 220–226. Belessi, C.I., Papanikolaou, S., Drosinos, E.H., Skandamis, P.N., 2008. Survival and acid resistance of Listeria innocua in Feta cheese and yoghurt, in the presence or absence of fungi. J. Food Prot. 71, 742–749. Champion, O.L., Gaunt, M.W., Gundogdu, O., Elmi, A., Witney, A.A., Hinds, J., Dorrell, N., Wren, B.W., 2005. Comparative phylogenomics of the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni reveals genetic markers predictive of infection source. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 102, 16043–16048. Fach, P., Micheau, P., Mazuet, C., Perelle, S., Popoff, M., 2009. Development of real-time PCR tests for detecting botulinum neurotoxins A, B, E, F producing Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium baratii and Clostridium butyricum. J. Appl. Microbiol. 107, 465–473. Josefsen, M.H., Krause, M., Hansen, F., Hoorfar, J., 2007. Optimization of a 12-hour TaqMan PCR-based method for detection of Salmonella in meat. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73, 3040–3048. Manios, S.G., Skiadaresis, A.G., Karavasilis, K., Drosinos, E.H., Skandamis, P.N., 2009. Field validation of predictive models for the growth of lactic acid bacteria in acidic cheese-based Greek appetizers. J. Food Prot. 71, 101–110.
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J. Hoorfar et al. / International Journal of Food Microbiology 145 (2011) S1–S4
Olsen, K.N., Lund, M., Skov, J., Christensen, L.S., Hoorfar, J., 2009. Towards real-time monitoring of broiler flocks: detection of Campylobacter in air samples for continuous monitoring of Campylobacter colonization in broiler flocks. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75, 2074–2078. Pouliot, S., Sumner, D.A., 2008. Traceability, liability, and incentives for food safety and quality. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 90, 15–27.
Reiter, E.V., Cichna-Markl, M., Chung, D.H., Zentek, J., Razzazi-Fazeli, E., 2009. Immunoultrafiltration as a new strategy in sample clean-up of aflatoxins. J. Sep. Sci. 32, 1729–1739. Wein, L.M., Liu, Y., 2005. Analysing a bioterror attack on the food supply: the case of botulinum toxin in milk. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 102, 9984–9989.