Blogger
1 commentupdate:Jul 28, 2006
EFSA on the wrong track
For the first time in history, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has
surveyed the layer sector in various countries of the European Union to
determine the extent of salmonella infection.
For the first time in history, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has
surveyed the layer sector in various countries of the European Union to
determine the extent of salmonella infection.
This is not to suggest that the EFSA has ignored the issue, on the
contrary; it is one of the first major projects completed by this young institution.
It monitored more than five thousand layer farms all over Europe and concluded
that 30.7 percent of the 460.8 million layers tested were infected with some type
of salmonella. 20.3 percent were infected with Salmonella typhimurium (St) and/or
Salmonella enteritidis (Se), the most dangerous types of salmonella for human
health.
The variation between countries is huge. Some of the new EU
member countries have a lot of work to do to get infection levels down. Poland
and the Czech Republic, for example, scored 77.2 percent and 65.6 percent
respectively for all salmonella species and 55.9 and 62.5 percent respectively
for Se and St. Spain showed 73.2 for all species and 51.6 percent for St and Se.
Luxemburg and Norway participated voluntarily in the survey and had the best
results seen with two zeros. The French, UK and Dutch farmers have spent a lot
of money and energy to get their figures down. Their efforts have been
successful, decreasing Se and St infection levels to eight
percent.
The results of the survey will be used by the EFSA to
develop a strategic plan to further reduce infection levels. Strangely enough,
the EFSA does not want to set a base level that must be met by all countries,
but wants a fixed percentage reduction in the number of farms infected. The EFSA
considers one set level as an impossible target, due to the high variation in
existing levels.
I have never understood the thought processes of
some decision makers - this approach amounts to pleasing the bad guys and
punishing the good ones. Clearly, a reduction of fifty percent of current
infection levels is a much easier job for those farms with a high infection
level than for those with a low level.
Especially since the advent of
freedom of international transport and trade within the EU, bacteria can be
easily transferred from infected to non-infected operations. If this is going to
be the policy of EFSA, the European producers and consumers will have to wait
much longer than necessary for transparency in food safety regulations - and
thus for safe food.
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