Miller Magazine Issue: 119 November 2019

17 NEWS MILLER / NOVEMBER 2019 food chain. It is generally recognized to consist of four parts (FAO, 1999): HAZARD IDENTIFICATION The identification of biological, chemical, and physical agents capable of causing adverse health effects and which may be present in a particular food or group of foods. Hazard identi- fication is predominately a qualitative process. Information on hazards can be obtained from scientific literature, various da- tabases, and through expert elicitation. Pertinent information may be found in data from basic research and clinical studies, and from epidemiological studies and surveillance. EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT The qualitative and/or quantitative evaluation of the likely in- take of biological, chemical, and physical agents via food. HAZARD CHARACTERIZATION The qualitative and/or quantitative evaluation of the nature of the adverse health effects associated with the hazard. The primary component of the hazard characterization is the dose– response relationship, defined as the determination of the re- lationship between the magnitude of exposure to a chemical, biological, or physical agent and the severity and/or frequency of associated adverse health effects. RISK CHARACTERIZATION The integration of the hazard identification, hazard charac- terization, and exposure assessment determinations to pro- vide qualitative or quantitative estimates of the likelihood and severity of the adverse effects which could occur in a given population. The degree of confidence in the final estimation of risk will depend on the variability, uncertainty, and assumptions identified in the previous steps of RA. RISK ASSESSMENT IN A FLOUR MILL Low-moisture foods and ingredients, like flour, haven’t tradi- tionally entered the discussion in terms of food safety, primarily because these products don’t offer welcoming environments for microorganism growth. Yet flour and flour products have been implicated recently in several food safety incidents, in- cluding food borne outbreaks and recalls as this of 2016 con- cerning contaminated with peanut residue flour. Incidents related to flour products resulted in consumer mis- trusts and revealed that flour-related food safety risks are real and have to be addressed and analyzed. The first step in risk analysis is risk assessment, which helps the flour facility to de- cide on the level of risk for each hazard and provides complete information to allow the food safety team to make the best possible decisions. As part of it, three basic and simple ques- tions have to be answered: 1. What could go wrong? —Hazard identification 2. How likely is this hazard to emerge? —Exposure assessment 3. How severe are the adverse health effects if this hazard emerged? HAZARD CHARACTERIZATION A documented risk assessment must be done and these three questions must be answered for anything that could have a direct effect on safety of flour, including all ingredients, raw materials, packaging, finished products, processes and activi- ties that could result in an increase in a health risk. Hazards that form food safety risk in flour production are intertwined and can be basically classified as physical, biological and chemical. The FDA has recognized potential biological hazards associ- ated to flour in its document “Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food: Draft Guidance for In- dustry” (2014). Furthermore, biological risks of great impor- tance for flour safety that must be taken into account are fungi, pest and biological contaminated water supply. Growth of fun- gi results not only in quality deterioration of flour but also in the production of the toxic compounds mycotoxins which pose high heat resistance. For instance species such as Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. can produce aflatoxins as by-prod- ucts while Fusarium graminearum may result in the production of deoxynivalenol (DON, type of vomitoxin) and zearalenone. The fungi usually develop on the grain, in the field or in storage and the mycotoxin (when produced) may pass to the flour after milling. Vertebrate pests, rats and birds, on the other hand, threaten the flour safety seriously by contaminating the flour by microorganism and parasites. Rodents may be found in and around flourmills while birds are found almost in any mill and Fig.1: A schematic representation of the components of risk analysis according to Codex Alimentarius Commission defini- tions (FAO/WHO, 2009).