Characteristics of aflatoxins

Aflatoxins are fungal metabolites found in feeds and foods. Aflatoxins (a type of Mycotoxins) are a group of approximately 20 related fungal metabolites produced in cereals, maize grains, peanuts and animal feeds mainly by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasitica.

Although it is well known that a hot and humid climate promotes diffusion of aflatoxin-producing moulds, representing a greater hazard in tropical areas of the world, the contamination is commonly due to the combination of meteorological conditions, environmental factors and improper agricultural practices, like incorrect harvesting and storage of crops.

Aflatoxins are colorless to pale yellow crystals, exhibiting fluorescence under UV light. They are slightly soluble in water (10-20μg/ml) and freely soluble in moderately polar solvents such as chloroform, menthol and dimethyl sulfoxide.

Ten-odd isomers of aflatoxin have been discovered. However, most of those detected in feed contaminated with molds are B1, B2, G1 and G2. M1 is a substance that is detected in the milk of cows which have taken feed contaminated with B1.

As for physicochemical properties, aflatoxin is a highly fluorescent substance, and B1, B2, M1 and M2 emit blue fluorescence, while G1 and G2 emit green fluorescence.

Among these toxins, Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is considered the most recurrent and also the most harmful. Its carcinogenicity and immunosuppression capacity have been extensively reported in all kind of animals, including poultry, trout, cattle and rats with different incidence across species, gender and age.

Aflatoxins were first identified in 1961 in United Kingdom in animal feed responsible for the deaths of 100 000 turkeys.

Characteristics of aflatoxins

Uniform for food personnel

Food workers are required to maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and wear suitable clean clothes, and, if necessary, protective clothing.

All personnel working in food processing or utensil-cleaning areas should be provided with clean outer uniform daily.

In the work place, all personnel must use protection clothing/uniform which must have the following characteristics:
- Light coloured
- Always clean and in good state
- Should not have exterior pockets
- Should be regularly changed
- Should cover the whole body
- Should be made of wash resistant material
- Should only be used in the work place

Uniforms, aprons and garments should be clean at the beginning of each shift and changed regularly when necessary. Uniforms or aprons should not be worn outside the food-preparation area.

Remember that the protective clothing particularly for “high care” work areas should never be worn outside the production area. The operatives must change out of it when leaving their work area even when visiting the canteen.

Hair must be protected with a cap, hat or hair net. Bobby pins should not be used to help keep the cap, hat or hair net in place, since these may fall into the food.
Uniform for food personnel

Characteristics of food safety programs

Providing safe and sanitary food and water to customers is vital in institutional food service establishments because the three largest group served (children, the elderly and the ill) are at high risk for foodborne illness.

Food safety is the extent to which those requirements relating specifically to characteristics or properties that have the potential to be harmful to health or to cause illness or injury are met. Food safety programs must:
*Identify all potential safety hazards of each ingredient, material, or service
*Identify where and how these hazards can be controlled
*Include systems for monitoring that the controls are working
*Steps to be taken when hazard is not under appropriate control
*Regular review of the Food Safety Programs to ensure it is adequate
*Include appropriate record keeping systems and written hazard analysis

Every institutional operation must develop measures to ensure or improve food and water safety and to protect food and water from physical, chemical and biological hazards that can cause food borne illness to the customer.

The practical success of a food safety programs will be dependent on the proper use of appropriate methods and tools. This comprises the use of elements of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Hygiene Practice (GHP), respectively.
Characteristics of food safety programs

Meat freshness

Among the quality attributes, freshness is a special significant and can eventually well be seen as sensory characteristics or a nutritional characteristic.

Basic characteristics of meat include color, water-holding capacity, aroma and texture. Consumers, consider color of fresh meat an important attribute and the major influencing retail purchase decisions since color is one of the most important indicators of freshness of raw meats.

Muscle pigment is myoglobin, a chromo-protein which together with other colored compounds such as hemoglobin – gives meat its normal red color.

In fact, the bright red color of fresh meat is an indicator of freshness and wholesomeness of the meat for the consumer.

Meat also has the ability to hold naturally contained or added water when exposed to some treatments such as heating, freezing or pressure.

Tenderness also important and has been described as the most important factor for high eating quality, especially in beef.

Ageing is a well-known way of increasing tenderness of meat. During ageing, proteolytic enzymes degrade the proteins and loosen up the structure of meat.

Fresh meat is vulnerable to microbiological deterioration from microorganisms. The major mechanisms, to retard fresh meat spoilage are temperature reduction, often couple with reduced oxygen during distribution, to retard normal spoilage microbial growth.
Meat freshness

Hazard Analysis Procedure

Hazard Analysis Procedure
Hazard analysis consists of a systematic evaluation of a specific food and its raw materials of ingredients to determine the risk from biological (primarily infectious or toxin producing food borne illness microorganisms), chemical and physical hazards.

The hazard analysis is a two steps procedure: hazard analysis and assignment of risk categories.

The first step is to rank the food and its raw materials or ingredients according to six hazard characteristics (A – F).

A food is scored by using a plus (+) of the food that has the characteristics and a zero (0) if it does not exhibit the characteristic. The six characteristics ranking system is applied for microbiological, chemical and physical hazard ranking, although the characteristics are somewhat different for microbiological and chemical/physical hazards.

The second step is to assign risk categories (VI – 0) to the food and its raw material and ingredients based on the results of ranking by hazard characteristics.

Potentially highest risk is denoted by the highest number in the hazard category (i.e., VI).

In addition, note that whatever there is a plus (+) for hazard characteristic A (a special class that applies to food designated for high risk populations), the resulting hazard category is always VI, even though other hazard characteristics (B- F) may or may not be a plus (+).

Several preliminary steps are needed before conducting the hazard analysis. These include developing a working description of the product, listing the raw materials and ingredients required for producing the product, and preparations of a diagram of the complete food production sequence.

The listing of raw materials and ingredients is the starting point for the hazard analysis.

If the specific mode of preservation for an ingredient is not known, (raw, frozen, canned etc) the ingredient may be assessed for each type of preservation technique that may be utilized in preserving the ingredient.
Hazard Analysis Procedure