FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Foodborne Parasites – Multicriteria based ranking for risk management
This meeting was convened to respond to the request of the 42nd session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene to “review the current status of knowledge on parasites in food and their public health and trade impact in order to provide CCFH with advice and guidance on the parasite-commodity combinations of particular concern, issues that need to be addressed by risk managers and the options available to them.” To support their future risk management work in this area. FAO and WHO convened an Expert Meeting on Foodborne Parasites on 3 – 7 September 2012 at FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy to respond to this request. The objectives of the meeting were:
To develop a ranked list of foodborne parasites of global importance
To identify the foods of greatest concern for the most important foodborne parasites
To provide an overview of the risk management options and approaches available for the control of the most highly ranked foodborne parasites
The report of the meeting is now available at:
www.fao.org/3/a-i3649e.pdf
FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Risk-based examples for Control of Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata in meat. Geneva, Switzerland.
This expert meeting was implemented following the request of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) which has been developing the Proposed Draft Guidelines for Control of Specific Zoonotic Parasites in Meat: Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata. In November 2012, the 44th Session of the CCFH re-iterated the request of its 43rd session to FAO and WHO to develop risk-based examples for Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata to illustrate the level of consumer protection likely to be achieved with different pre- and/or post-harvest risk management options, based on evaluation of slaughterhouse information and other data sources such as human illness. To facilitate the response, the CCFH requested the collection and review of existing information on risk-based examples for Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata.
The proposed objectives of the meeting were:
To reach a common understanding of the risk management options that might be used for risk-based control of Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata in meat.
To analyse available data and information that contributes to establishing a risk-based approach to the control of these two zoonotic parasites.
To develop risk-based examples for Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata describing the likely levels of residual risk for consumers with different pre- and/or post- harvest risk management options.
To provide an information resource for risk managers as an input to their risk management decisions.
The experts were presented with two different spreadsheet models, one for Trichinella spp. and the other for Taenia saginata, to respond to the requests from the Codex Committee.
The report: “Risk based examples for control of Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata in meat” (in English) is now available here:
Risk-based Control Trichinella and Taenia in English
Risk-based Control Trichinella and Taenia in Spanish
This meeting report represents a first step taken to address ongoing discussions in this area. As such, it can only be considered as an interim or progress report, to be superseded as the work progresses to the next stage. This report is primarily to inform Codex of progress and to publicly recognise the efforts of the meeting and other contributors. Further considerations on this subject will be forthcoming in due course. The ultimate goal is to provide the scientific advice requested by Codex for the development of the Proposed Draft Guidelines for Control of Specific Zoonotic Parasites in Meat: Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata.
Summary Risk Profiles on Trichinella spp. and Taenia saginata/Cysticercus bovis
The work on the proposed Draft Guidelines for Control of Trichinella spiralis and Cysticercus bovis in meat (CX/FH11/43/6) required the preparation of two risk profiles to assist the Committee members. The Codex Committee for Food Hygiene (CCFH), during its 43rd Session, requested that FAO and WHO conduct a peer review of two summary risk profile documents, one for Trichinella spp. and a second one for Cysticercus bovis. The Committee considered that the information presented in the risk profiles was useful for other stakeholders, and had to be peer reviewed before making the risk profiles available to the public.
These peer reviewed risk profiles are presented here:
Summary Risk Profile on Trichinella spp.
Summary Risk Profile on Taenia saginata
Acknowledgements
