Food Safety, Coronavirus and Risk Prevention: Future Perspectives in Four Proposals

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Dario BEVILACQUA
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Risk Prevention ◽  
Future Perspectives ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
Codex Alimentarius Commission ◽  
The Precautionary Principle

COVID-19 is a zoonosis, a disease transmitted by an animal to humans. The diffusion of the outbreak is therefore born of an unsuitable, insufficient, excessively permissive food safety system. Hence, the regulation of food safety plays a central role in the protection of health and has done so on a global scale. The overall regulation of food safety therefore requires an increase in the level of health protection, even at the expense of commercial prerogatives. For these purposes, four reform measures are suggested: to transform the Codex Alimentarius Commission into an organisation that adopts international standards with the sole purpose of protecting health; to apply the precautionary principle on a global scale and in international organisations; to strengthen the mandatory labelling tool; and to create a worldwide system of controls.

The Administrative Ordering of Nature and Society – Precaution and Food Safety at the Molecular and Global Levels

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaap C. Hanekamp ◽  
Jan Kwakman ◽  
Roel Pieterman ◽  
Paolo F. Ricci
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Safety Regulation ◽  
Risk Regulation ◽  
Safety Testing ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Food Safety Regulation

Responding to public fears and the loss of confidence in the aftermath of several food safety crises in the 1990s and 2000s, more and more regulatory laws have increasingly been affected by the precautionary principle. To clarify how those developments can have adverse consequences, we discuss two very different cases. First, at the molecular level we discuss the problems the system encounters by strictly applying the linear no-threshold (LNT) at low doses model, which was adopted in response to fears about the effects of ionizing radiations. Second, at a global scale, we discuss the problems associated with the precautionary regulation on Illegal, Unreported and Unregistered Fisheries that came into effect January 1, 2010. The technical aspects of food safety testing and their impacts are perhaps unknown to policy makers but they do dominate safety decisions. Both examples show that strict application of the precautionary principle produce deleterious side effects, which go against the very policy values that the precautionary regulation should protect. We show, in particular, that overly precautionary food safety regulation may harm food security. We conclude in the EU and other Western nations, problems of food security are much more relevant to human health and life expectancy than food safety. We recommend that current food safety regulation based on the precautionary risk-regulation reflex should normatively be re-evaluated with a complete regard for the values of food security – both within and outside the EU.

scholarly journals Coxiella burnetii and milk pasteurization: an early application of the precautionary principle?

2006 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 946-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. CERF ◽  
R. CONDRON
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Heat Resistance ◽  
Coxiella Burnetii ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Foodborne Pathogen ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Clinical Disease ◽  
Early Application ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Milk Pasteurization

Stringency of milk pasteurization has been established on requirements for Coxiella burnetii as being the most heat-resistant organisms of public heath significance. This paper discusses the estimation of the efficiency of pasteurization time/temperature combinations as required in regulations for food safety. Epidemiological studies have been interpreted as C. burnetii being a significant pathogen causing clinical disease through ingestion of milk. The paper examines the evidence and challenges the designation of C. burnetii as a foodborne pathogen. Consequently it questions the need for pasteurization parameters to be established on its heat resistance characteristics.

Organismos Genèticamente Modificados y Riesgos Sanitarios y Medioambientales (Genetically Modified Organisms and Sanitary and Environmental Risks) by Justo Corti Varela. Madrid: Editorial Reus, 2010, 406 pp., € 41.50, Softcover.

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 624-625
Author(s):  
Marcos A. Orellana
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
The Precautionary Principle

Biotechnology is one of the great innovations of our time. While Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) present an advance in food safety and other fields, GMOs also pose risks to human health and biodiversity that are still subject to scientific uncertainty. Given the scientific uncertainty about the risks to people and the environment, the precautionary principle acquires a central role in the debate on these organisms. At the same time, the existence of an adequate regulatory framework that allows the management of those risks becomes critical.

scholarly journals “Five Keys to Safer Food” and COVID-19

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 4491
Author(s):  
Nadia San Onofre ◽  
Carla Soler ◽  
J. Francisco Merino-Torres ◽  
Jose M. Soriano
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
World Health ◽  
Shortness Of Breath ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

On 11 March 2020, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) and, up to 18:37 am on 9 December 2021, it has produced 268,440,530 cases and 5,299,511 deaths. This disease, in some patients, included pneumonia and shortness of breath, being transmitted through droplets and aerosols. To date, there is no scientific literature to justify transmission directly from foods. In this review, we applied the precautionary principle for the home and the food industry using the known “Five Keys to Safer Food” manual developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and extended punctually in its core information from five keys, in the light of new COVID-19 evidence, to guarantee a possible food safety tool.

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