6 replies to this topic

[Cici2018]

Hi, I would like to ask how to conduct radiological hazard analysis for raw meat process? I think for all incoming materials, we need to  include radiological hazard, such as water, packaging material, seasoning ingredients for seasoned product. If there is no chance for water to be contaminated with radiological chemicals, is it still necessary to include the radiological hazard in the HACCP plan? 

[Evans X.]

Greetings Cici,

 

The question is why do you want to do a radiological hazard analysis. Are you or any of your suppliers close to any area that has radiological readings above normal?? I guess the water is of potable quality as it should be through legislation, unless you use some other source of water in your facilities than your provider (in which case i think you must test it at least once). And if you supposedly go through with this, how will you verify it, cause if you take it into account it will be scored at the very least as a PrP.

To my knowledge if you want to test it you will have to do it at a laboratory that is accredited and also certified by the National Radiological Commitee (that's how it's called in my country, don't know your equivalent) for the said analyses, which usually also comes with a quite high cost.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm all-in when it comes to food safety, but some things are just too much. So IMO it would be best if you included it in your Emergency Situations (possible nuclear factory accident or leakage of radioactive waste etc near you or the location of one of your suppliers) and describe the measures you will take for such an event.

If you still want to go through with this though, you can search for the monitoring reports of your local authorities and do the same for your suppliers, since they should do regular checks when near nuclear factories. Also if you have ingredients that are being treated with radiation, you should also make sure your provider is controlling this effectively.

 

Regards.

Edited by Evans X., 12 April 2021 - 08:40 AM.

[Scampi]

Cici

 

Do NOT include this. Just add a statement that the ONLY items that may be treated by radiation are spices, potatoes, flour and onion (in Canada-that's is all that is allowed) and in Canada, the irradiatoin facilities are heavily audited by Health Canada

 

There is no radiological hazard, unless your processing plant is right beside Darlington or the Bruce (and i"m just kidding---no processing is allowed within a fairly large perimeter)

[Cici2018]

Greetings Cici,

 

The question is why do you want to do a radiological hazard analysis. Are you or any of your suppliers close to any area that has radiological readings above normal?? I guess the water is of potable quality as it should be through legislation, unless you use some other source of water in your facilities than your provider (in which case i think you must test it at least once). And if you supposedly go through with this, how will you verify it, cause if you take it into account it will be scored at the very least as a PrP.

To my knowledge if you want to test it you will have to do it at a laboratory that is accredited and also certified by the National Radiological Commitee (that's how it's called in my country, don't know your equivalent) for the said analyses, which usually also comes with a quite high cost.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm all-in when it comes to food safety, but some things are just too much. So IMO it would be best if you included it in your Emergency Situations (possible nuclear factory accident or leakage of radioactive waste etc near you or the location of one of your suppliers) and describe the measures you will take for such an event.

If you still want to go through with this though, you can search for the monitoring reports of your local authorities and do the same for your suppliers, since they should do regular checks when near nuclear factories. Also if you have ingredients that are being treated with radiation, you should also make sure your provider is controlling this effectively.

 

Regards.

Hi Evans, thank you for your comment and ideas. The radiological hazard analysis is required by BRC. So I am doing the hazard analysis. 

[Cici2018]

Cici

 

Do NOT include this. Just add a statement that the ONLY items that may be treated by radiation are spices, potatoes, flour and onion (in Canada-that's is all that is allowed) and in Canada, the irradiatoin facilities are heavily audited by Health Canada

 

There is no radiological hazard, unless your processing plant is right beside Darlington or the Bruce (and i"m just kidding---no processing is allowed within a fairly large perimeter)

Hi Scampi, thank you for your comment! Irradiation process cannot cause food to be radioactive. I just search this from Google. It it said that radioactive contamination is from soil, air, or water. 

[Charles.C]

Hi Scampi, thank you for your comment! Irradiation process cannot cause food to be radioactive. I just search this from Google. It it said that radioactive contamination is from soil, air, or water. 

 

The hazard is contamination. So no validatable hazard = negligible likelihood of occurrence  > no significant risk. .......QED.

 

https://techni-k.co....ogical-hazards/

 

https://www.ifsqn.co...rs/#entry144027

 

https://www.ifsqn.co...on/#entry140267

[pHruit]

Hi Scampi, thank you for your comment! Irradiation process cannot cause food to be radioactive. I just search this from Google. It it said that radioactive contamination is from soil, air, or water. 

Agreed - this is a common misconception, but the processes used to irradiate food / sterilise some type of packaging use isotopes whose photon energies are not sufficient to induce e.g. photodisintegration that would cause the irradiated product to become radioactive. 

I tackled this element of the standard by doing a stand-alone review of the potential risk of our ingredients being contaminated, demonstrating that this was very clearly negligible, and referencing this in my HACCP plan. For the raw material intake step, I dutifully listed "radiological contamination of raw materials" as a potential hazard, gave it the lowest possible risk, and noted the review as the reference for this.

Obviously if you're actually buying beef from e.g. Fukushima or exotic seasoning from some part of the Marshall Islands then your risk level will require a bit more thought, but otherwise you can probably document your raw material sources to demonstrate that they're not in areas that are affected by any of these risks. From Scampi's comments it sounds like there is virtually no chance of food coming from near nuclear power facilities in Canada, but if it's anything like the UK then you'll be able to find lots of published monitoring data that shows these facilities are (hopefully) very safe anyway.