ABSTRACT
Regulation 2017/625 allows and encourages the use of rating schemes as a means to increase transparency in the agri-food chain. Since its implementation, a need for greater fairness, consistency, transparency, and objectivity in official controls has been reported by member states. The present study compares the results of inspection activities concerning food hygiene principles in ethnic and traditional butcheries. The sample consists of 50 food business activities randomly selected from traditional and ethnic butcheries subject to official control in Turin from January to June 2019. Our objectives were to evaluate the degree of awareness and training of food business operators (FBOs) and to compare the written records drawn up by the competent authorities (CAs) during official inspections to evaluate their completeness and uniformity. The presence of old equipment is a common finding in both traditional and ethnic butchers. This could lead to ineffective cleaning operations and inappropriate functioning, which in turn could lead to a dangerous loss of control over products' temperatures. Ethnic butchers showed a higher number of non-compliances for documentary examination, the presence/correctness of self-control plans, and management aspects such as by-product disposal and personnel hygiene. Training is the key point for both CAs and FBOs; inspectors must maintain their professionalism but also adhere to harmonized and intellectually supported criteria, and FBOs must prevent improper behavior. Eventually, we propose strategies to increase the efficacy and homogeneity of records, together with suggestions on how to implement training both for consultants and operators.
ABSTRACT
This work describes a new methodology used in large scale retail trades in official food safety auditing processes developed during COVID19 emergency. The aim is to evaluate Food Business Operators' (FBOs) Food Safety Management System and its dynamic implementation and to understand the FBO's level of cultural maturity about food safety according to EU Regulation 2021/382. The innovation mainly consists of: a) a pre-audit phase when auditors analyse food business operator's (FBO) selfchecked plan and further documents to identify "markers" and useful evidences (that would be collected in on-site inspections) to evaluate the application of plan by FBO's workers; b) an audit phase consisted of both a check of the company procedures and documents performed by the auditors via web conference and of contextually onsite inspections in a sample of company's supermarkets performed by inspectors teams. The audit methodology here described may be useful, even though it is expensive in terms of time and energy used, for both Competent Authority (CA) and FBOs, regardless of the period of the COVID emergency. The so-structured official control allows the auditors to collect both documentary and on-site evidence at the same time, reaching a broader vision of auditees (not limited to single supermarkets) and a compliant with reality FBOs risk classification. The new approach may give advantages to both audit actors, CA as well as FBO, who may collect "markers" and evidence of the self-checked plan useful to improve FBO's food safety system on the basis of the critical aspects detected during auditing process.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Intramural coronary arteriosclerosis has been reported in several species, but no systematic studies are currently available in bovine. The present study aimed to describe the arteriosclerotic changes in regularly slaughtered veal calves and beef cattle. ANIMALS: Twenty-five veal calves (6-9 months old) and 17 beef cattle (10-24 months old) housed in intensive livestock farming and regularly slaughtered were included in the present study. METHODS: Selected heart samples were submitted for histopathological and ultrastructural examination and the following parameters were evaluated: intimal hyperplasia, degenerative changes of the tunica media, medial hypertrophy/hyperplasia, myocardial fibrosis, and myocarditis. Pathological intramural coronary arteries with and without lumen narrowing were manually counted in every sample. RESULTS: Intramural coronary arteriosclerosis was observed in all the calves and cattle, with similar prevalence of fibromuscular/muscular intimal hyperplasia (92% vs 88%), degenerative changes of the tunica media (76% vs 71%), and medial hypertrophy/hyperplasia (44% vs 59%). The posterior papillary muscle of the left ventricle was the myocardial localization significantly more affected in both calves (p = 0.0007) and cattle (p = 0.0339). Anitschkow cells were detected in the coronary walls of both calves (60%) and cattle (76%). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that systematically describes spontaneously occurring intramural coronary arteriosclerosis in bovine species. Anitschkow cells, whose ultrastructural characteristics and localization suggest their potential origin from the smooth muscle cells of the tunica media of the arteriosclerotic coronary vessels, were also identified.
