Search results

1 – 10 of over 10000
Article
Publication date: 3 January 2017

Rebecca K. Davidson, Wilson Antunes, Elisabeth H. Madslien, José Belenguer, Marco Gerevini, Tomas Torroba Perez and Raffaello Prugger

Consumer confidence in the European food industry has been shaken by a number of recent scandals due to food fraud and accidental contamination, reminding the authors that…

2267

Abstract

Purpose

Consumer confidence in the European food industry has been shaken by a number of recent scandals due to food fraud and accidental contamination, reminding the authors that deliberate incidents can occur. Food defence methods aim to prevent or mitigate deliberate attacks on the food supply chain but are not a legal requirement. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how proactive and reactive food defence practices can help prevent or mitigate malicious attacks on the food chain and also food fraud, food crime and food safety. The authors look at how food defence differs from food safety and how it contributes to food supply chain integrity.

Design/methodology/approach

Food defence has been the focus of two different EU FP7 security projects, EDEN and SNIFFER. Food industry stakeholders participated in workshops and demonstrations on food defence and relevant technology was tested in different food production scenarios.

Findings

Food industry end-users reported a lack of knowledge regarding food defence practices. They wished for further guidelines and training on risk assessment as well as access to validated test methods. Novel detection tools and methods showed promise with authentication, identification, measurement, assessment and control at multiple levels of the food supply chain prior to distribution and retail.

Practical implications

The prevention of a contamination incident, prior to retail, costs less than dealing with a large foodborne disease outbreak. Food defence should therefore be integral to food supply chain integrity and not just an afterthought in the wake of an incident.

Originality/value

It is argued that food defence practices have a vital role to play across the board in unintentional and intentional food contamination incidents. The application of these methods can help ensure food supply chain integrity.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 119 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1959

The liability of a master for the acts of his servant or agent is a well‐established principle of many branches of English Law. It is in fact as old as the Common Law itself and…

Abstract

The liability of a master for the acts of his servant or agent is a well‐established principle of many branches of English Law. It is in fact as old as the Common Law itself and is considered to have originated in the responsibility of a master for hired menials who had no legal capacity and were part of the household for which the master had to answer in every way. In the law of tort, especially the tort of negligence, it is still firmly entrenched and the rule is that a master is liable for any tort which the servant commits in the course of his employment (Winfield). The servant is also liable and a servant, for the purpose of vicarious liability, is one whose work is under the control of another and “in the course of employment” includes any act committed as an incident to something the servant is employed to do. Apart from statutory modifications, the rule has been perceptibly changing in its applications through the years, even in both directions. Originally, hospital authorities held no responsibility for acts committed by their medical staff; the responsibility was entirely the doctor's, a legal relationship, however, which was always regarded as something of an anachronism as between employer and employed. Perhaps this conception was an error stemming from an early High Court decision, but gradually the position has changed, quite apart from the National Health Service Act, 1946, towards the hospital authority's responsibility to the injured patient just as much as that borne by the officer whose failure caused the injury.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 61 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1989

Stephen Ridge

Over the last six months we have seen an unprecedented number offood and contamination scares given wide media coverage. A result ofthis has been the launch of the Food Safety…

Abstract

Over the last six months we have seen an unprecedented number of food and contamination scares given wide media coverage. A result of this has been the launch of the Food Safety Advisory Centre and Foodline. Six of the major retailers in the UK, including Asda and J. Sainsbury, have joined together to provide an information service to customers, to fund a panel of experts and commission research into food matters, and to provide a forum for the exchange of technical information to supplement the existing technical expertise within each organisation. In the light of the recent proposed changes to existing food legislation in the UK, the author considers two specific aspects – the modification of the defences available under the Food Act and temperature control for chilled foods.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 91 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1951

Since the incident at Westminster Abbey last Christmas, Scottish nationalistic pride, or self‐consciousness, has been widely advertised. In many respects the existence of that…

Abstract

Since the incident at Westminster Abbey last Christmas, Scottish nationalistic pride, or self‐consciousness, has been widely advertised. In many respects the existence of that attitude of mind does no harm to His Majesty's subjects in England and Wales. But now a genuine grievance against the Scots—which has existed for some years, though few people have been aware of it—has at last received publicity. It arises from the fact that several of the provisions of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, do not apply to Scotland—doubtless because the Scots had represented that they would be unacceptable. Among those provisions was Section 101, which incorporated with the Act the whole body of regulations, including those relating to preservatives in food, which had been made in pursuance of the Public Health Acts. Similar Regulations, it is true, do apply in Scotland, but a breach of them is an offence, not under the Act of 1938, but under the Food and Drugs (Adulteration) Act of 1928, which is wholly repealed so far as England and Wales are concerned. Recently the Corporation of Blackburn persuaded the local justices to convict a company, registered and trading in Scotland, of an offence against the Act of 1938 on the ground that boric acid had been found in biscuits manufactured by the company in Scotland and sold to a Blackburn retailer. The Scottish company was not prosecuted by the Blackburn Corporation but was brought in under s. 83(1) by a previous defendant. Counsel for the defence took the points that a Scottish firm cannot be haled before an English Court in respect of an alleged offence which, if it was committed at all (which was disputed), was committed in Scotland, where the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, is not in force. Incidentally it may be observed that the presence of boric acid in the biscuits was due to the use of margarine containing not more than the permitted percentage of the preservative. The magistrates chose to convict the Scottish company as the person to whose act or default a contravention of the provisions of the English Act was due. On appeal to the Divisional Court, the conviction has now been annulled, primarily on the ground that the Blackburn bench had no jurisdiction to hear a summons against the Scottish company. Section 83, like many other sections of the Act of 1938, does not apply to Scotland, except with respect to prosecutions under the Orders made by the Minister of Food under. Defence Regulations—for example, the various Food Standards Orders and the Labelling of Food Order. (See particularly Regulation 7(3) of the Defence (Sale of Food) Regulations, 1943, and Article 15(c) of the Labelling of Food Order, 1946.) Still, if Scotsmen insist on not being subject to the English food laws as a whole, it would be unreasonable for them to expect that those who sell food in England and Wales should be willing to be deprived of the safeguards which the Act of 1938 confers on innocent dealers who have been let down by their suppliers. The Scots may find that English retailers of food will boycott Scottish products. Provided always that nothing in this Article shall be deemed to apply to the sale or purchase for human consumption in England or Wales of the article of food distilled in Scotland and commonly known as Scotch or Scottish Whisky, if the food is so described in an invoice or on a label bearing the name and address of the distiller. The point of which proviso is to show that I am not such a nitwit as to think that anything that I write will deter or discourage any Englishman from acquiring a bottle of Scotch if he knows where and how he can get it.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 53 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1945

On Tuesday, March 20th, 1945, A. C. Thaysen, Ph.D., M.Sc., delivered a paper on Food Yeast: Its Nutritive Value and its Production from Empire Sources. The name “Food Yeast”…

Abstract

On Tuesday, March 20th, 1945, A. C. Thaysen, Ph.D., M.Sc., delivered a paper on Food Yeast: Its Nutritive Value and its Production from Empire Sources. The name “Food Yeast” signifies a special type of yeast which conforms to a certain standard both in appearance, taste, vitamin content and protein content. It could be rapidly made if sufficient sugar were available for the purpose. A source of nitrogen is equally necessary: the supply of this does not offer the same difficulties, since inorganic nitrogen, either in the form of sulphate of ammonia, or ammonia gas, is abundantly available, and can be transported fairly easily. The main difficulty is providing large supplies of sugar. The planning for large‐scale production of food yeast requires the selection of a locality in which there would be comparatively easy access to a cheap supply of the required sugar. Such places were West Indies, Middle East, India, Canada and Newfoundland. The selection of a suitable and palatable yeast which gave high yields from sugar was fairly easily accomplished, for several such types were already known. Food yeast made at a pilot plant in Teddington consisted of a light straw coloured flaky powder with a pleasant nutty or meaty taste. It had a protein content of 40 and 45 per cent., and the whole range of B vitamins in balanced proportions. Food yeast was readily miscible with water and it could be incorporated into flour to make a loaf or biscuit. In human nutrition food yeast has been tried by a number of workers both as a source of protein and as a potent supply of B vitamins. Full reports of all this work are not yet available, but it is known that food yeast has been beneficial in many cases. Supplies have now been despatched to various Colonial countries, where such deficiencies are frequently met with. It has also been sent to two liberated European countries. Reports on its effect will no doubt in due course become available. With the experience gained at the Teddington pilot plant it was decided to draw up a scheme for the large‐scale manufacture of food yeast in a part of the Colonial Empire where raw materials in the form of sugar or molasses would be available throughout the year. Jamaica was chosen as a suitable place, and the local association of Sugar Growers was invited to select one of their members to carry out the scheme. This association chose the West Indies Sugar Company and to their engineers fell the arduous task of designing a plant. This work has now been completed and the machinery needed has been made and despatched. It is hoped that actual operations will start in the summer of this year with a daily output of 12 tons of food yeast. In addition to this scheme, sponsored by the Colonial Office, the Indian Central Government have decided to construct a food yeast plant in India. The South African Government have taken preliminary steps in the same direction within its domains, and both the Australian and the New Zealand Governments are similarly engaged.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 47 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1949

The Sale of Food (Weights and Measures) Act, 1926, and Defence Regulations. — Inspection under the last‐named Regulations has added very considerably to the duties of the officers…

Abstract

The Sale of Food (Weights and Measures) Act, 1926, and Defence Regulations. — Inspection under the last‐named Regulations has added very considerably to the duties of the officers conducting inspections. The inspection relates wholly to foodstuffs and mainly to pre‐packed foods of all kinds, increasingly large amounts of which are being put on the retail market. The amount of this extra work is suggested by the figures given. Over 1,300 visits of inspection were made and over 28,000 articles were inspected. Out of these, 485 were found to be deficient in either weight or measure, but in nearly every case—there were only six prosecutions—the deficiency was small and only merited a cautionary letter. Nevertheless, the activities of the Department in this respect should not be underrated, as the knowledge that such inspections are made serves to prevent offences that are for the most part due to want of care rather than to any desire to make an illegal profit. Under the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, 4,766 samples were taken: out of these, 624 were submitted to the Public Analyst, who reported against 54. In 15 cases proceedings were taken. Convictions and fines followed in each case. The greater number of cases, as usual, are concerned with milk. They call for no special comment. It may be mentioned that in one case the offence of obstructing an inspector by refusal to sell a sample of milk and attempting to pour the whole lot into the road resulted in a £10 fine.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 51 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1984

The earliest law of the adulteration of food imposed divisions among the local authorities of the day in functions and enforcements; most of the urban and rural sanitary…

Abstract

The earliest law of the adulteration of food imposed divisions among the local authorities of the day in functions and enforcements; most of the urban and rural sanitary authorities possessed no power under the law. Provisions dealing with unfit food — diseased, unsound, unwholesome or unfit for human food — were not in the first sale of food and drugs measure and there duties were wholly discharged by all local authorities. Rural sanitary authorities were excluded from food and drugs law and boroughs and urban authorities severly restricted. Enforcement in the rural areas was by the county council, although local officers were empowered to take samples of food and submit them for analysis to the public analyst. Power to appoint the public analyst for the area was the main criterion of a “food and drugs authority”. The Minister had power to direct an authority with a population of less than 40,000 but more than 20,000 to enforce the law of adulteration.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 86 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1948

The Public Analyst for the County of Lancaster in his report for 1946 to the County Council refers at some length to matters—analytical and administrative—relating to the milk…

Abstract

The Public Analyst for the County of Lancaster in his report for 1946 to the County Council refers at some length to matters—analytical and administrative—relating to the milk supply. Up to the year 1940 the work of taking samples for purposes of analysis under the Food and Drugs Act was done by the police, but in that year it was transferred to the County Sanitary Authority. Four assistant inspectors now “deal with the growing volume of work and to restore it to its pre‐war level.” The difficulties in obtaining adequate supplies of the necessary materials during the war were acute—and still exist though happily in a less acute form—and the shortage of help—both skilled and un‐skilled—are too well known to need more than passing reference. These led, in many cases, to products of the ersatz or “make‐do” variety being put on the market. The public health authorities were in much the same position with regard to help. Thus there was a serious drop in the number of samples submitted. In normal conditions the total number of all samples for the county is about five thousand per year. During the 1914 to 1918 period it fell to about 4,800. But in the altogether abnormal conditions that prevailed during the last war the number of samples dropped steadily from 5,157 in 1938 to 1,731 in 1945. In 1938, 3,304 formal samples were submitted and 1,853 informal samples. But the proportion of informal to formal samples increased and approximate equality was obtained in 1945—870 formal to 861 informal—and in the year 1946, 1,648 formal to 2,046 informal. The war years were marked by an increase in the percentage of adulteration though this increase was irregular. It was 3·6 per cent. in 1939. It rose to a maximum of 9·3 in 1941. It now stands— 1946—at 7·6. The figures for the 1914 to 1918 period tell the same tale. We may suppose that informal sampling followed by warning, if such need arose, exercised a useful check on the activities of those who sought to profit by the unusual conditions. The figures just quoted refer to samples of all kinds including milk, and milk is no exception to the rule that the fewer the samples submitted for analysis, or in other words the less strict the supervision of the milk supply, the greater the amount of adulteration. It is only within recent years that the importance to the nation of a plentiful supply of clean and unadulterated milk has been adequately recognized by public health authorities. It is within the writer's personal experience and no doubt of many of his contemporaries that the very modest standards—so called—of 3 per cent. fat and 8·5 solids‐not‐fat were not often exceeded, sometimes not attained, while the chances were even that some preservative would be found in any given sample. Cowsheds, buildings, and livestock were often in a state that would not favourably impress a present‐day inspector. Milk in fact was not “taken seriously.” The quality of the milk supply was a subject for perennial popular jests. Milk was a pleasant addition to a cup of tea; as an ingredient of an occasional milk pudding; mixed with water it was a beverage at the nursery tables of the well‐to‐do. But the children in the poorer quarters of the cities probably never had a fair drink of milk from one year's end to another. As milk was not then regarded, as it is now, a prime essential of a child's well being; such children were, at least as far as their milk ration was concerned, half starved. Now the importance of milk is fully recognized by all health authorities. Out of a total of 4,122 Food and Drug samples 2,669 were milk. 428 milk samples are called private samples. These were taken from consignments delivered to schools, county institutions, British Restaurants and so forth. 339 were taken at schools. The adulterated samples were only 4 per cent. as against 10·2 per cent. for the whole country. “The results cannot be regarded as unsatisfactory.”

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 50 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2017

Małgorzata Wiśniewska

The purpose of this paper is to present the practical implementation of the CARVER+Shock (CS) method and describe the following steps of vulnerability assessment on the basis of a…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the practical implementation of the CARVER+Shock (CS) method and describe the following steps of vulnerability assessment on the basis of a catering company, and to confirm that it can be successfully applied by the restaurant for better preparation regarding potential, intentional contamination.

Design/methodology/approach

The research method is a case study, including examining the company’s documentation and the interview with the company owner. The analysis refers to the following seven attributes: criticality, accessibility, recuperability, vulnerability, effect, recognizability and shock.

Findings

The practical application of CS method in company allows indicating the most vulnerable phases of the catering process. The values of “recuperability,” “effect” and “shock” are increasing along with the development of the catering process. The lowest risk of threat is observed at the first phases of the catering process, and the most risky were those connected with the preliminary consumption phase and with the final phase, which is arranged in the place of the event. The attributes “recognizability” and “effect” have the greatest influence on the outcome. The closer the food gets to the consumer, the higher is the risk of intentional contamination, and the harder it is to reverse its effects.

Originality/value

In the scientific literature, there is a gap observed in the subject of applying the CS method. This is the first case study presentation referring to its application in catering processes in Poland.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 119 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1951

Under the Defence (Sale of Food) Regulations, 1943, the Minister of Food has powers to regulate the composition of foods, to control the labelling of them, and, in some measure…

Abstract

Under the Defence (Sale of Food) Regulations, 1943, the Minister of Food has powers to regulate the composition of foods, to control the labelling of them, and, in some measure, the advertising matter, in order to protect the consumer against the sale of inferior products and against misleading claims. Enforcement is in the hands of local Food and Drugs Authorities.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 53 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

1 – 10 of over 10000