Episode 2 - Unwelcome gifts: food poisoning unwrapped

Intro (00:10): 

Science on the menu, a podcast by the European Food Safety Authority. 
 
Barbara (00:20): 

Can you believe how time flies? The end of the year festivities are just around the corner. And for many of us across Europe, we know what this means, right? That we are ready to prepare and savor the finest traditional dishes with our fans and loved ones. I hope our listener will bring home joyful memories, maybe a slice or even two of dessert, but definitely not food poisoning as an unwanted present. And that is why in this episode, we will discuss the risks linked to food contamination and how to make sure that the delicious dishes that you share with your family and friends are also safe. Hi everyone! Welcome to Science on the Menu, the podcast discussing the science behind safe food. I am Barbara, head of the digital publishing team at EFSA, and I'm your host for today. In this episode, we will discuss some of the most common is that we can unfortunately get from food and how to stay safe. With me today is Valentina Rizzi, head of EFSA’s Biological Monitoring team.  

Valentina (01:32): 

Thank you very much for inviting me. 

Barbara (01:34): 

We're happy to have you. I really wanted to ask you as a first question, uh, slightly more personal one. What is the favorite part of your job? 
 
Valentina (01:43): 

My favorite part is to deal with science first, <laugh>, to do the scientific part and not the administrative one. But what I really like is to have the opportunity to speak to many, many experts, from countries all around Europe and also outside, because this an occasion to learn from other people, not only (about) scientific subject, but also different points of view and different and experiences. 

Barbara (02:12): 

Thank you Valentina. We said your team is EFSA’s biological monitoring team. Can you help us understand a little bit more in practice what it does? 

Valentina (02:24): 

The team is focused on biological monitoring activities. This means in principle collection analysis of data regarding biological hazards, but in principle zoonosis agents. There are a lot of microbiologic agents that can cause infections and diseases in humans. And the transmission between humans, animal and humans, these diseases are called zoonosis, because there is the possibility of exchange between animal and humans. And we are collecting data from all Member States. We analyse this data and we publish every year an annual report together with the ECDC. So including data from humans, animal and food, to give an overview at European Union level about the presence of this zoonotic agents along the entire food chain. 

Barbara (03:18): 

Wow. It's quite an important and impressive job. So congratulations. And just for our listeners, can you tell them what ECDC is? 

Valentina (03:27): 

ECDC is the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. (It’s) the agency, the European agency, working on the public side, collecting human data. Together with EFSA, the agencies collaborate and support the European Commission in many activities. 

Barbara (03:47): 

Thank you. Because you know, we have all of this jargon we are used to and then, not everybody knows about it… EFSA indeed collaborates with many other agencies, which is a great part of our job.  
And do you have any particular example of one disease that spreads from an animal to human, that is really important? 
 
Valentina (04:10): 

I think that probably the most known is salmonella. Many people are aware of salmonellosis, which is the disease in humans, that can co be caused by many food. For example eggs -probably the most relevant- if cooked, if consumed raw or undercooked. But it could be caused also by the consumption of poultry, chicken and turkey meat. But there is also other disease important, not in term of numbers, but in term of severities: listeriosis. The number of cases are much lower in the European Union, but this disease’s fatal rate much higher than salmonellosis and other diseases. 

Barbara (04:54): 

Okay. And where can you get it from? 

Valentina (04:57): 

This you can get it mainly from fish and fish products, and also from meat products. So products that are ready to eat, ready to be consumed. I’m speaking about “prosciutto”, smoked salmon, etc. It is really important, also because this pathogen listeria has the ability to grow at the refrigerator’s temperature, at a temperature close to the five Celsius degree, which is not the case for other pathogens. So it's very important in this case to avoid consuming the food beyond the expiry date, for example. 

Barbara (05:36): 

Okay, even if it was in the fridge? 

Valentina (05:38): 

Yeah, because the more time they stay in the fridge, the more possibility has the pathogen to grow. 

Barbara (05:43): 

Okay. And you mentioned salmon and meat, but are there other foods that could cause foodborne diseases? 

Valentina (05:54): 

There are some that are more frequently involved, but, for example, until some years ago we didn't consider much the food of non-animal origin. Recently there were many examples (showing) that vegetables and fruits can be responsible of foodborne diseases. One was in 2018, when there was a big outbreak in European Union caused by frozen corn and other vegetables (linked) in this case to listeria. There were not many cases in five countries, but the proportion of dead was quite high. 
 
Barbara (06:32): 

Oh, wow. Frozen corn. 

Valentina (06:33): 

Frozen corn. And also there are fruits, for example. Berries are very frequently involved. 
 
Barbara (06:41): 

I remember that because I often do smoothies with fruits and frozen berries and I remember there were quite a few occasions where there were alerts about that. So okay, we need to be careful also fruits and vegetables. And what about raw food or raw vegetables and raw fruits? 

Valentina (07:00): 

In general, when you decide to eat raw or undercook food is very important, first, to buy fresh products and to keep the temperature right, which is in general in the refrigerator. And then to avoid the parts, the areas that are damaged. In case of vegetables is very important to wash them with running and clean water. 

Barbara (07:26): 

And someone that I know told me that it's important to wash them even if you don't eat the peel, right? 

Valentina (07:33): 

Right. <laugh>, when you cut, for example the fruit with the knife, you can bring the contamination from the external part of the fruit to the internal part. So it's better to clean the whole fruit to avoid this contamination. 

Barbara (07:50): 

And what does EFSA do? What, what is the role of EFSA in ensuring food safety, especially in the case of foodborne diseases? 

Valentina (08:01): 

In this case, we have been requested by the commission to intervene when there are, there are foodborne outbreaks involving more than two countries, it should be a multi-country event. If it is a national event, it is the country and the competent authority in that country to take care of the event. In case it is a multi-country (event), both the European Commission or the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention can request EFSA to intervene. And in this case, our role in principle is to evaluate all information regarding the food, the suspected food to try to identify if there are analytical results, so positive result for the specific pathogen, and also to understand where the food is coming from or when was distributed. This is in order to try to identify where was the point of contamination, for example, in the processing plant, and try to implement counter measure to avoid contamination of further additional batches, products. 

Barbara (09:07): 

Okay. And, can you make an example? What was one of the most recent cases that you had to deal with as EFSA? 

Valentina (09:15): 

The most recent was this year during the Easter period, unfortunately, because it was a salmonella event linked to chocolate. The event started at the end of the previous year in December, but it was not clear the source of the infection. And only later in April, we were requested to contribute to this assessment together with the ECDC. Unfortunately it was linked to chocolate products. Once the company, the producer, was identified, there was the intervention of the different competent authorities in the involved countries to stop the distribution of the product and recall the product from the market, from consumers. And our role was really to identify the contaminated food, that was linked to the human cases, the patients. 

Barbara (10:14): 

Okay. It's really unfortunate that it happened over Easter, but it's great though that EFSA intervened and that we have this system in place - that many people don't know about. So it's good that we spread the word about what we do! And on a more personal side, we are approaching Christmas and, uh, everybody has their favorite family traditions. What is the dish that you're especially looking for Christmas? 

Valentina (10:46): 

I'm looking for tortellini in broth, made by my mother, which is a fresh pasta filled with a mix of meat and also with eggs. I don't remember what else! 

Barbara (11:03): 

Parmigiano. 

Valentina (11:04): 

Parmigiano. 

Barbara (11:05): 

<laugh>.  

Valentina (11:06): 

But also I look for another dish prepared by my mother-in-law: torta fritta 

Barbara (11:11): 

I have to intervene, in Reggio Emilia where I am from, we call it gnocco fritto and we have a big fight! <laugh> 

Valentina (11:17): 

No, but my husband is coming from Bologna, and they call it crescentine. 

Barbara (11:22): 

Crescentine! So three ways of naming the same thing, but I know what you mean. It's very yummy. We are unfortunately now the end of our episode, Valentina. But thank you so much for your time with us. It has been a real pleasure chatting with you. 

Valentina (11:38): 

Goodbye. 

Barbara (11:39): 

We hope our listeners have received some useful information that would allow them to spend joyful, but especially safe holidays, no matter how they are going to celebrate.  

Thank you for listening to our podcast, Science on the Menu. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe.  

Next time we will discuss insect foods together with our colleague Ermaolaos, who is part of EFSA's Novel foods team. Happy holiday season filled with joy and safe food to all of you.