Campylobacter & Process Hygiene Criteria

Microbiological criteria and testing in food safety management5 April 2017

Craig Shadbolt

Manager, Food Incident Response & Complaints

Overview• Campylobacter

Epidemiology

Understanding the sources and reservoirs

• Control measures

Development of process hygiene guidelines

• Using the guidelines

Regulatory perspective

Campylobacter

• Most common form of bacterial gastroenteritis

• > 24,000 notifications nationally in 2016

• Two main serotypes, C. jejuni, C. coli

• Symptoms occur within 2-5 days after infection

• Diarrhoea (bloody), abdominal pain

• Lasts for 2-10 days

• Can also cause nerve damage to spinal cord and brain

Profile

Outbreaks

• Chicken liver dishes

• Small number of outbreaks and few affected

• Unpasteurised milk, untreated drinking water, therapeutic pet contact

• Sale of raw milk banned in Australia

• Majority of illness is considered ‘sporadic’

• Have been ‘community’ level increases linked to abattoirs

• Estimated 13% increase in foodborne campylobacteriosis, 2000-2010

Outbreaks are rare in Australia

Campylobacteriosis notifications, State & Territory health authorities2007 and year-to-date notifications for 2017

Year ACT NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA AustAust

Rate/100,000

2007 423 NN 289 4434 2695 717 6349 2092 16999 120

2008 382 NN 257 4818 2003 487 5779 1836 15562 107.5

2009 472 NN 205 4601 1761 650 5839 2577 16105 110

2010 555 NN 165 4788 1778 738 6647 2325 16996 114.2

2011 496 NN 160 5130 2126 864 6771 2177 17724 117.2

2012 477 NN 175 4182 2161 881 5891 1906 15673 101.7

2013 375 NN 198 3832 1721 696 5940 1926 14688 93.5

2014 505 NN 294 6226 1806 938 7213 2963 19945 125.1

2015 608 NN 371 7547 1818 1035 8293 2891 22563 139.6

2016 581 NN 444 7314 3191 1059 8232 3412 24233 149.9

2017 147 NN 82 1991 834 204 1831 798 5887 36.4

Increasing notifications

• Adoption of PCR-based testing by pathology labs

• 30% increase in notifications

• Changing climate

• NSW notification to occur ~ May/June 2017

• Additional ~ 10,000 notifications per year

• Enable more accurate monitoring of pathogen reduction targets (30% by 2021)

Why the increase since 2014?

Campylobacter reservoirs

• ANU led, ~ $1.5m over 3 years

• Study & quantify attribution of Campylobacter in Australia

• WGS of isolates

• Humans, poultry, pork, beef, lamb, pets

• Isolates obtained from Qld, NSW, Vic

• Project partners

• ANU, NSW DPI, Massey University, Qld Health, Vic Health, ACMF

NHMRC project

CONTROL MEASURES

Control measures

• Guidelines for cooking of chicken liver

• http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/safety/poultryliver/Pages/default.aspx

• Food Safety Supervisor training

• Skills and knowledge requirements for safe handling

• Regular inspections

• Audits of retail meat butchers

Risk management at retail, consumer level

Process hygiene criteria

• Designed to support compliance with Standard 4.2.2 Primary Production & Processing of Poultry (outcome based standard)

• Consistent with international approach (Codex)

• Mix of microbiological and physical food safety indicators

• No single measure of good performance

Raw poultry at abattoir level

• Supports a national approach with a local focus on compliance

• Market forces dictate product distribution (e.g. RSPCA, logistics costs, customer requirements etc.)

• Variations to distribution patterns are common

• Potential to have far-reaching public health effects

• National companies have responsibility to ensure safe production

• meets regulatory expectations

Purpose of process hygiene criteria

FSANZ Compendium• Based on existing food safety indicator work

adopted by SafeFood Production Queensland, & NSW Food Authority

• Developed in collaboration with PIRSA, FSANZ, NZ, Primesafe Victoria

• Industry consultation

• Not intended to be an extra resource burden for industry

• Reporting requirements within existing monitoring activities (e.g. 5 birds/fortnight)

Process hygiene basis

• Developed initially by SafeFood Queensland

• Each process hygiene measure based around key production points

• Bird delivery to product leaving the abattoir

SOP 1 – Live Bird Receival

•Ante-mortem inspection

•Vendor declaration

•Time “off-feed”

OUTCOME: Only healthy, acceptable poultry presented for slaughter.

Standard operating procedures during production

Standard Operating Procedures

SOP 2 – Evisceration

•Monitor evisceration efficiency

•Online carcase inspection/rework procedures

•In-process cleaning, maintenance and servicing

OUTCOME: Only acceptable carcases proceed to the carcasewash.

Standard Operating ProceduresSOP 3/4 – Spin Wash/Chill Operation

•Target 3-5 ppm free available chlorine (FAC)

•Target pH 5-7

•Minimum ORP >650mV

•Water temperature <4°C

OUTCOME: 4-5 log microbiological reduction on carcases

SOP 5 – Carcase Chilling•Carcases chilled to ≤7°C within 6 hours of stun

•Frozen ≤ -15°C within 96 hours of stun

•Temperature maintenance during storage and further processing

OUTCOME: Limit microbiological growth and maintain product safety/quality.

Parameter Food safety indicators Where measured

Process monitoring - Bird receivalVendor declaration

All birds admitted for slaughter are accompanied by a declaration from the grower that the birds are fit for purpose and produced in accordance with the Farm food safety management statement

Feed withdrawal

Minimum 8 to 12 hours prior to slaughter At slaughter

Process monitoring - Spin chiller waterFree active chlorine levels

Target 3-5ppm At the outflow of the spin chiller

pH Between 5 - 7 At the outflow of the spin chiller

Temperature < 4°C At the outflow of the spin chiller

Microbiological targetsCampylobacter Less than 10,000 cfu/carcase Prior to packing

Salmonella Salmonella monitoring for key strains (e.g. Typhimurium)

Prior to packing

Process hygiene criteria at a glance

Campylobacter testing

• Australian Standard (AS 5013 series)

• Limited to accuracy of <5,000 cfu/carcase

• Modified methodology (based on NZ testing)

• Accuracy 100 cfu/carcase

• Gives better accuracy for well performing plants

Methodology use

Using the Process Hygiene Criteria

Source: ABC news

Use of the Guidance by Regulators• Commenced in NSW as a pilot program in August 2014

• Limited to poultry plants producing > 1 million birds/year

• Supports assessment of a food safety system within a plant

• Used as a regular monitoring tool and to support existing traditional auditing framework.

• Analysis of business performance and trends

• Companies must respond to information indicating that verification targets are not being met.

• Failure to respond appropriately may result in further action.

What will the future look like?Performance improvements

• National benchmarking between companies now possible

• NSW & elsewhere – Campylobacter Carcase counts improving

Target of 10,000 cfu/carcase lowered to 6,000 cfu/carcase?

• Expect to see a further reduction in human cases over time

Complicated by pathology advances, climate

• Impact on poultry companies Customer assurances, scrutiny that targets are being met

What will the future look like?

• How much Campylobacter is out there, and where it comes from

• Better evaluation of interventions on human disease rates

• Development of food safety objectives for Campylobacter at retail level?

• Development of performance monitoring targets further up the supply chain?

• E.g. process hygiene criteria for boning operations

Greater knowledge of sources and profiles

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• SafeFood Production Queensland

• Australian Chicken Meat Federation

• Margaret Mackenzie

THANK YOUAIFST Toolbox Presentation5 April 2017

Craig Shadbolt; Manager, Food Incident Response & ComplaintsCraig.Shadbolt@foodauthority.nsw.gov.au

QUESTIONS?

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