Research supporting quantitative risk assessments for complex food borne hazards
Lead Research Organisation:
QUADRAM INSTITUTE BIOSCIENCE
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Technical Summary
Research supporting quantitative risk assessments for complex food borne hazards centres on improved quantification of uncertainties, improved representation of variability, improved understanding of complexities and stronger support for communication and management of food safety information. It concerns the development of strong mathematical descriptions, and improved quantitative understanding, for the hazards and risks that are associated with food consumption. Quantitative microbial risk assessments aim to support decision making leading to improved public health and food security. This project concerns, primarily, food borne botulism and centres on incorporation of additional microscopic variables for germination times, lag time and toxin production kinetics into a hazard domain model. In turn this will lead to additional opportunities for intervention and control. The research employs a model expressed as a well defined partition of the full joint probability and implemented as a Bayesian belief network. The project will address crucial issues relating to the homogeneity of spore populations. The project will also quantify the impact of mobile genetic elements in the development of food borne hazards and will explore optimum strategies for the engagement of stakeholder groups in quantitative risk assessment.
Planned Impact
unavailable
People |
ORCID iD |
| Gary Barker (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Barker G
(2013)
Complexity in food safety and gut health - not the sum of the parts.
in Food Science & Technology
Barker G. C.
(2013)
Complexity in food safety and gut health - not the sum of the parts
in Food Science and Technology
Barker GC
(2016)
Quantification of Nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum Spore Loads in Food Materials.
in Applied and environmental microbiology
Cao Y
(2013)
Bridges in three-dimensional granular packings: Experiments and simulations
in EPL (Europhysics Letters)
Dong QL
(2015)
Status and future of Quantitative Microbiological Risk Assessment in China.
in Trends in food science & technology
Hu M
(2013)
The Potential of Double K -Means Clustering for Banana Image Segmentation
in Journal of Food Process Engineering
Ihekwaba A
(2011)
Communicating oscillatory networks: frequency domain analysis
in BMC Systems Biology
Ihekwaba AE
(2016)
New Elements To Consider When Modeling the Hazards Associated with Botulinum Neurotoxin in Food.
in Journal of bacteriology
Ihekwaba AE
(2014)
Computational modelling and analysis of the molecular network regulating sporulation initiation in Bacillus subtilis.
in BMC systems biology
Ihekwaba AE
(2016)
An Integrative Approach to Computational Modelling of the Gene Regulatory Network Controlling Clostridium botulinum Type A1 Toxin Production.
in PLoS computational biology
| Description | An initial systems biology model, describing the regulation of sporulation as part of the sporulation-germination cycle, has been developed Microfluidic devices, designed and constructed in partnership with a commercial partner, have been installed at IFR and initial experiments indicate their ability to trap spores for observation The systems biology approaches have been extended to include toxin production by C. botulinum The development of methods to include molecular information within the established methodology for food risk assessments was initiated as part of this project (an important step to bring together research efforts in molecular sciences with research delivery into policy and regulation etc.). |
| Exploitation Route | The science of risk assessment developed as part of this project is continually used as input to commercial risk assessments performed by IFR as uplift activities This work has contributed to the development of actual risk assessments applied to hazards associated with food borne botulism in foods The methodologies and findings from this research have developed a particular significance over the past two years since risk assessment forms a major component in all international agreements on trade. The PI of this project has worked very closely with the Food Standards Agency (GCB is a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Foods and was a member of the FSA Cross SAC working party on the Risky Food Framework etc.). This link between BBSRC and the FSA will terminate following redundancy. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink |
| Description | The science supporting QMRA project is part of a wider, ongoing, Institute Strategic Programme concerning Gut Health and Food Safety. The overall objective for the QMRA research element is to harness new data supplies (particularly molecular information) to support risk assessments. It is quite early to assess societal impact but it is clear that the forward looking QMRA strategy at IFR is attractive because it has stimulated increased collaboration and commercial applications (e.g. IFR/GCB has entered as a partner in international projects such as ZELS and AgriTT and in national initiatives such as NIHR). G.C. Barker has become a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Food and has contributed to several national working parties concerned with food safety policy IFR is recognised in China as a centre for high quality research in risk assessment and has developed a strong relationship with Chinese partners such as the Chinese Food Safety Authority (who have supported visiting scientists at IFR) and the UK FCO in Shanghai (who have supported dissemination workshops in China). The initiation of the Quadram project has been detrimental to the impact of this research. The subject of this research was not chosen to go forward into the Quadram project and subsequent impacts (and efforts) have been marginalised. Sequentially everyone involved with this project has been made redundant (initially Mark Fernandes then Pradeep Malakar and Adaoha Ihekwaba and finally myself). This means that the resource available (integrated over the lifetime of the project) was considerably short of that initially proposed. Although it was relatively easy to communicate findings with a wider audience (external events including FSA, CIEH, PHE, SfAM, CFA, U3A and the general public) the management of Quadram did not engage with QMRA research and sadly the initiative - and the wider impact - have been lost |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | Member of FSA working group on Eggs |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | As a result of this review the FSA changed its advice to consumers on the use of Lion Brand eggs - the change in advice received substantial press coverage and very large consumer interest |
| URL | https://www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/help-shape-our-policies/review-of-advice-to-consumers-on-eggs |
| Description | Member of the UK Advisory Committee on Microbiological Safety of Food (FSA) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Membership of the FSA Cross SAC working group for the "Risky Food Framework" |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | The framework is applied to emerging risks by the FSA - Rare Burgers, Raw Milk etc are recent examples |
| URL | https://www.food.gov.uk/science/ouradvisors/risky-foods |