Abstract
Not only in Germany, human salmonellosis due to consumption of contaminated food of animal origin is one of the most frequent gastrointestinal infections. Since the entry into force of the duty of notification in accordance with BSeuchG 1962, the incidence continuously in-creased with S. enteritidis and S. typhimurium as the most frequent serovars.
To protect the consumer from Salmonella infections, the law relating to food production and distribution has laid down minimum hygienic requirements for the handling of food and criteria to assess its presence in food.
As a prerequisite for the assessment of the efficiency of these legal requirements for user protection, the present paper first discusses the epidemiological context and legal regulations with respect to salmonellae.
Based on the compiled facts it was discussed and established whether the legal regulations are sufficient to deal with the presence of salmonellae on a reasonable safety level, whether the legal environment has weak points with respect to certain types of food or circumstances, or whether law includes inadequately serious responses to the presence of salmonellae.
Results
It is possible to reliably destroy the Gramnegative rod-like bacteria of the genus
Enterobacteriaceae by heating food to 70 °C for 1 minute. All other procedures (i.e. drying, salting, fermentation, nitrite addition and cooling) only inhibit growth without however killing the salmonellae.
Main sources of human salmonellosis are types of food of animal origin, including eggs and crude egg products that most frequently are suspected and identified as vehicles for salmo-nellae. However, salmonellae can be detected in nearly all types of food, in particular poultry meat that may be contaminated up to the half of the investigated lots (39 %). Average contamination rates are reported as follows: beef: 1 %, pork: 4 %, minced meat: 8 %, milk and milk products: < 1 %, eggs and egg-containing types of food: 0.4 %, bread, cakes and
pastries: 1.4 %.
Under consideration of the origin of the raw materials, the technology used for the production process, the final preparation of food for consumption under kitchen conditions and the
resulting classification for the risk that a specific food might be contaminated with salmonellae, it is possible to deduce a risk assessment for the consumer including a specific risk
tendency.
For the protection of consumers against substances that are dangerous to health and that are (contained in) commercially available types of food, the law relating to food production and distribution has laid down a number of regulations on various levels (general hygiene requirements, Salmonella treatment and assessment regulations) that apply to the presence of salmonellae.
A comparison of legal directives and their relation to the risk to the user by individual types of food demonstrates that in some cases the legal requirements for the handling of pork and poultry are not adequate. The legal limits of carcass and meat examination mainly apply to clinical diseases of the carcass. The principal origin of salmonellae, i.e. latently infected carcass, can be eliminated by control of the herds of origin. In addition to the examination of individual animals, the examination of herds should be kept out with even higher priority.
As far as the presence of salmonellae is concerned, legal requirements on (poultry and) meat products have insufficient microbiological standards. These types of food could be made safer via legally binding standards or other regulations (e.g. HACCP systems).
As discussed above, food containing crude egg products is the most frequent cause of
human salmonellosis, indicating that the regulations with respects to this type of food is insufficient. It would be possible to implement the use of pasteurized egg mass via an HACCP conception.
Legal requirements that refer to eggs to be used as food have loopholes with respect to cooling. Early cooling after laying will considerably contribute to risk minimization. Although sufficient consumer education would be required, the legal fixation of shorter periods before cooling would be more helpful.
With respect to the low contamination of raw materials and also finished products, the legal regulations on the handling of egg products are sufficient to guarantee healthy unrisky egg products.
Legal requirements on milk and milk products are high. However, the rule to heat farm milk demonstrates to be a weak point in milk hygiene legislation, because its implementation
appears to be impossible.
Despite the considerable risk to consumers, no particular hygiene regulations beyond the too general LMHV exist for bread, cakes and pastries. So far, particular requirements for the handling of this type of food are missing.
The comparison of individual types of food and production lines thereof demonstrates that the legal assessment of a salmonellae contamination risk is quite heterogeneous and does not refer to prevalence or risk originating from the individual food. The chicken salmonellae directive and the voluntary monitoring initiative in pig stock seem to be initial steps into a
direction that will help to establish the required far-reaching monitoring programs for all types of food.
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