3 replies to this topic

[GMO]

Reasonably foreseeable consumer misuse needs to be part of your HACCP plan.

 

But to not try and be really condescending, consumers can be really bloody stupid.  Ok that is a bit condescending.  And honestly it's not really stupidity that drives it, it's cultural norms, it's practicality and sometimes just lack of knowledge.

 

This recent survey from the FSA has some worrying stats:  FSA consumer survey highlights risky kitchen behaviours | Food Standards Agency

 

Over a third are still washing raw chicken.  

More than half would eat cooked, sliced meats after the use by.  

This is on top of other research showing 1 in 9 eat frozen vegetables without cooking 

Survey Says Nine Percent of Consumers Do Not Cook Frozen Vegetables Before Eating | Food Safety

 

Then there's the research about parents not following infant formula guidance.

Exploring the safety of at home powdered formula preparation | Food Standards Agency  

 

I think I've read comments on here before along the lines of caveat emptor, i.e. let the buyer beware.  If the consumer is so stupid to not follow what's written on the packet, then we shouldn't worry.  Right?  RIGHT?

 

Well that's not what HACCP / Codex says.  And things like that have led to serious illness like in the case of the cookie dough in the US, if it had been cooked, it wouldn't have been an issue.

 

Flour Prime Suspect in 2009 Cookie Dough Outbreak | Food Safety News

Or risk of illness with onion soup (when if eaten as a soup not as a dip ingredient, it would have been fine) Salmonella fears prompt onion soup, mix recall

 

So ethically I am down with thinking about it.  But not to get too far into politics, there are people out there who famously said during the Brexit campaign "we've had enough of experts" and when I see videos of influencers doing unsafe food acts, I comment but often get shot down by people who simply don't believe me.  The comments often along the lines of "I've washed chicken all of my life and it's never hurt me."    

 

If I follow HACCP to its inevitable conclusion with a consumer base that appears to not be following instructions on an increasing basis, will I end up having to not sell raw meat?  The extensive work that the FSA has done in the UK mapping and derisking for campylobacter in raw chicken when cooking the damn stuff would work without spraying chicken guts around your kitchen first...  Well it feels like we're increasingly having to adapt our workplaces to compensate for consumer stupidity or defiant attitudes (take your pick.)

 

But we all know how hard it is to change behaviours in people employed by our organisations.  So do I just have to suck it up that consumers are getting really really... dumb?

[jfrey123]

All we can do is provide the info, clearly and plainly stated, and let the chips fall where they may.  Regulators and auditors will always decide to blame the manufacturer, because their attitude is that everything is preventable, meaning they'll say there should've been a control in place for any problem that surfaces after the fact.

 

But properly documenting the processes, properly instructing the consumers, this is the best we can do.

[GMO]

All we can do is provide the info, clearly and plainly stated, and let the chips fall where they may.  Regulators and auditors will always decide to blame the manufacturer, because their attitude is that everything is preventable, meaning they'll say there should've been a control in place for any problem that surfaces after the fact.

 

But properly documenting the processes, properly instructing the consumers, this is the best we can do.

 

I suppose I think there's probably a third way in derisking as much as I can.  Especially with more migratory movements across the world, there's a good chance that people will not understand pack instructions.  I can't remove every ounce of stupidity and the "it never hurt me" idiots but I can reduce it I suppose.

But there are some odd ones which come up.  Apparently there was a retailer who merchandised daffodils near fruit and vegetables and there were cases of poisoning from some Chinese nationals confusing them with a popular vegetable in China.

[Madam A. D-tor]

 

From the FSA Survey:
The Wave 9 report, conducted between April and July last year, shows that more than three-quarters of respondents (76%) would rely on the ‘sniff test’ to assess whether raw meat is safe to eat or cook with. A further 73% of respondents said they would rely on the sniff test for milk and yoghurt, and 65% of respondents said they would do so with fish. 

The report also found that many respondents would eat bagged salad (72%) or cheese (70%) after the use-by date, while around six-in-ten respondents would eat yoghurt (63%), milk (60%), or cooked meats (58%) after the use-by date.

 

 

I need to admit that, I too, use foods after their BBD and even that I am fully aware pathogens can not be seen, smelled or taste, base my decision on sensory aspects.
The 'problem' is that we (the food industry) have changed food in our goals to make it safer, extend the shelflife, improve logistic activities and improve availability of products.

30 years ago the sniff test was good enough in most cases. I am not saying that there were no issues with pathogens, but majority of the food got bad by spoilage, which is visible, smelly, etc.
Example: inthe past I would buy my sliced cooked meat at a butcher shop. The butcher or his employee, would slice the product for me on that moment, using a slicing machine, which was in use for the whole day, without inbetween cleaning and used for all kind of sliced mat (raw, cooked, fermented). The person handling it, might just have touched raw meat. The product would only be loosely wrapped or packed in a plastic bag. After 3 days this product was ineadible. It became green, a bit slimely and smelly. No one would think of eating this, unless in a time of real hunger/war/etc.
Now a days I buy sliced meat in the supermarket. This product is sliced in a hygienic environement, with separate slicing machines for different kind of meat products (fermented, cooked, raw, salted), the slicing machines are disinfected every 50 or 100 kgs, a robot packs the products (no touching by hands), the product is MAP packed, to remain colour and extend the shelf life. Products are labeled with 14 to 21 days of shelf life (fermented or salted meat products even longer).

The product today is a real different product than the similar product, bought in the past at a butchery shop. There is no/ much less contamination with relatively harmless moulds and lactobacillus. These were both competitive flora to pathogens and were faster growing/ developing (probably because the products were contaminated with these during handling), resulting in spoilage before food safety issues coccurs.

All persons over 40 years old, were taught to judge the food by sensoric parameters.

As the food still looks the same, has the same name and is in fact the same product, the people will judge the food as they have always done, relying on their sensory observations.
As said, even I, who knows about invisibility of pathogens, stil base my judgement on smell and visual defects.

 

 As industry we can handle this with 2 things:
1) Add a harmless spoilage bacteria to the food, so it will be spoiled before it get dangerous;

2) just wait 30 years more. The persons living than will inderstand the food safety risk on another way and will have more respect for the BBD.

 

By the way, I am also convinced that a lot of consumers expecty that produers have build in a safety guarantee in their BBD. Meaning "if the BBD is 31-MAR-2025, it will sure last another 3 days, otherwise this company gets too much complaints".