Evaluating National Food Control System of Nepal: Part 4

Please read the information about FAO evaluation tool , part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the series before reading this third part.

In this post we will try to use the FAO tool to evaluate the National Food Control System of Nepal. The evaluation will be done in four dimensions:

Dimension A: Are system resources and inputs adequate?

Dimension B: How do the controls function?

Dimension C: How does the system interact with stakeholders?
Dimension D: Is the system evidence based ? Does it support continuous improvements?

In this part, we will only evaluate the fourth dimension D: “Is the system evidence based ? Does it support continuous improvements?”

Evaluating National Food Control System of Nepal: Part 3

Please read the information about FAO evaluation tool , part 1 and part 2 of the series before reading this third part.

In this post we will try to use the FAO tool to evaluate the National Food Control System of Nepal. The evaluation will be done in four dimensions:

Dimension A: Are system resources and inputs adequate?

Dimension B: How do the controls function?

Dimension C: How does the system interact with stakeholders?
Dimension D: Is the system evidence based ? Does it support continuous improvements?

In this part, we will only evaluate the third dimension C: “How does the system interact with stakeholders?”

Evaluating National Food Control System of Nepal: Part 2

Please read the information about FAO evaluation tool and part 1 of the series before reading this second post.

In this post we will try to use the FAO tool to evaluate the National Food Control System of Nepal. The evaluation will be done in four dimensions:

Dimension A: Are system resources and inputs adequate?

Dimension B: How do the controls function?

Dimension C: How does the system interact with stakeholders?
Dimension D: Is the system evidence based ? Does it support continuous improvements?

In this part, we will only evaluate the second dimension B: “How do the controls function?”

Evaluating National Food Control System of Nepal: Part 1

Please read the first post before reading this post.

In this post we will try to use the FAO tool to evaluate the National Food Control System of Nepal. The evaluation will be done in four dimensions:

Dimension A: Are system resources and inputs adequate?

Dimension B: How do the controls function?

Dimension C: How does the system interact with stakeholders?
Dimension D: Is the system evidence based ? Does it support continuous improvements?

In this first part, we will only evaluate the first dimension A: “Are system resources and inputs adequate?”

NATIONAL FOOD CONTROL SYSTEM ASSESSMENT TOOL

National food control systems are designed to protect the health of consumer and to ensure fair practices in the food trade. However, every country has flexibility in determining, designing and implementing the national food control system within the territory. Different countries have adopted different food control systems in the world. It is important to design a tool to measure the effectiveness of national food control system. 

Codex has formulated two relevant guidelines in this area: “Principles and Guidelines for National Food Control Systems (CAC/GL 82-2013)” and “Principles and Guidelines for Monitoring the Performance of national Food Control Systems (CAC/GL 91-2017)”. Based on these principles and guidelines, FAO and WHO (2019) has recently designed a very useful National Food Control System Assessment Tool.

The tool is divided into four dimensions as shown in the figure:

Dimension A: Are system resources and inputs adequate?

Dimension B: How do the controls function?

Dimension C: How does the system interact with stakeholders?
Dimension D: Is the system evidence based ? Does it support continuous improvements?

Challenges of Food Control Agency during COVID-19 Pandemic

“On the occasion of upcoming

World Food Safety Day 

on 7^th June 2020”

The world is facing the threats of COVID-19 pandemic, and Nepal is not an exception. The importance of food control system has increased during this pandemic situation. However, all the competent food control authorities in the world have been facing unprecedented challenges to maintain the routine activities during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, prioritization of the critically important services and temporary suspensions of low-risk control activities must be carried out.

Let’s try to pinpoint some of the major areas of actions:

1.  Cooperation and contingency planning

Competent authorities must have emergency response and contingency planning that includes information management, risk assessment, risk management, risk communication, food incident management, multi-agency collaboration and cooperation mechanism.

2.   Functioning national food safety inspection programme

As a consequence of restricted movement, physical presence of inspectors in the premises may not be feasible. At the same time, the capacity of the food testing laboratories is significantly reduced. Therefore, Food control authority might need to take a different approach than before.

Simulating an Epidemic with SIR Model

Check out this video to understand epidemic.

Source: https://www.3blue1brown.com/videos-blog/simulating-an-epidemic

The Impact of Photo-Induced Molecular Changes of Dairy Proteins on Their ACE-inhibitory Peptides and Activity

Barbara Kerkaert, Frédéric Mestdagh, Tatiana Cucu, Kshitij Shrestha, John Van Camp, Bruno De Meulenaer

NutriFOODchem unit, partner in Food2Know, Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

• PMID: 22116518
 
• DOI: 10.1007/s00726-011-1157-y

Abstract

Among all dietary proteins, dairy proteins are the most important source of bio-active peptides which can, however, be affected by modifications upon processing and storage. Since it is still unknown to which extent the biological activity of dairy proteins is altered by chemical reactions, this study focuses on the effect of photo-induced molecular changes on the angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity. Milk proteins were dissolved in phosphate buffer containing riboflavin and stored under light at 4 °C for one month during which the molecular changes and the ACE-inhibitory activity were analysed. An increase in the total protein carbonyls and the N-formylkynurenine content was observed, besides a decrease in the free thiol, tryptophan, tyrosine and histidine content. These changes were more severe in caseins compared with whey proteins and resulted moreover in the aggregation of caseins. Due to these photo-induced molecular changes, a significant loss of the ACE-inhibitory activity was observed for casein peptides. A peptide analysis moreover illustrated that the decreased activity was not attributed to a reduced digestibility but to losses of specific ACE-inhibitory peptides. The observed molecular changes, more specifically the degradation of specific amino acids and the casein aggregation, could be assigned as the cause of the altered peptide pattern and as such of the loss in ACE-inhibitory activity.
Amino Acids. 2012 Aug;43(2):951-62. doi: 10.1007/s00726-011-1157-y.Epub 2011 Nov 25.

Link to Publication
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00726-011-1157-y

COVID-19 control strategies: Part 3

This is continuation of the previous post related to the COVID-19 control strategies around the world.
Please read the Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.
For the comparison of COVID-19 cases and testing coverage, please follow this link.

In this post, we will compare the COVID-19 testing and contact tracing policy  around the world and will try to see where Nepal stands.

A. Comparison of testing policy around the world

This chart shows the government policies on testing for COVID-19. It includes PCR testing only and does not include non-PCR, antibody testing methods.
Countries have been grouped into four categories: 

• No testing policy
• Testing only for those who both (a) have symptoms AND (b) meet specific criteria (e.g. key workers, admitted to hospital, came into contact with a known case, returned from overseas)
• Testing of anyone showing COVID-19 symptoms
• Open public testing (e.g “drive through” testing available to asymptomatic people)

Nepal is mainly testing symptomatic and key groups only.

B. Comparison of contact tracing policy around the world

COVID-19 control strategies: Part 2

This is continuation of the previous post related to the control strategies around the world. Please read the Part 1 of the series. 

The second most applied strategy around the world is restriction on public events and gatherings. Let's compare the application of this strategy around the world.

A) CANCELLATION OF PUBLIC EVENTS

B) RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLIC GATHERINGS

COVID-19 control strategies: Part 1

Currently, Nepal government is adopting lockdown approach to control COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are supporting this approach. However, there are increasing number of people against this approach and are demanding for alternative options. Some people even believe the conspiracy theory about COVID-19.

Everyone has the right to make their own opinion.
Let's try to compile the different control strategies adopted around the world.

We can then evaluate where Nepal stands compared to other countries around the world. 

A) SCHOOL CLOSURE STRATEGY AROUND THE WORLD

B) WORKPLACES CLOSURE STRATEGY AROUND THE WORLD

COVID-19 Cases vs Testing Coverage

 Let's check out where Nepal stands in COVID-19 cases and the testing coverage.

  

Microbial Risk Assessment: Salmonella in Chicken

This is a reconstruction of paper from Oscar 2004. He used @Risk software to carry out the risk assessment. I am reconstructing his paper using R- software taking the same model input values. So for details, please refer to the paper of Oscar 2004. The following are the important model parameters described in that paper.

Model design

The following 5 nodes were considered during model development.

Node 1- Retail

"The incidence of Salmonella contamination of whole chickens ranged from 0% to 100% with a median value of 30%. The MPN of Salmonella on contaminated whole chickens is low, often below 10 MPN, whereas the maximum MPN per chicken ranges from >300 to >1100. A minimum value of 1 MPN (by definition, the minimum level of contamination that is possible), a median value of 10 MPN, and a maximum value of 450 MPN per chicken were used to define the input settings for the PERT distribution for the extent of Salmonella contamination of ready-to-cook whole chickens at retail."