NEWS
Added value of Early Warning System (EWS) by Johan den Hartog, Managing Director, GMP+ International
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ost of the feed and food safety assurance systems are focussed on prevention of contamination of feed and food materials with undesirable substances or microbiological agents. A certification scheme has three main components: the normative references, the assurance and corrective action tools, and the rules of certification. The normative references determine what is considered as a safe product for consumption, or what is sustainable or responsible related to environment or society. The rules of certification are about the certification process of companies applying for a certificate against the involved certification scheme, which the certification bodies have to apply and comply with. The assurance and corrective action tools are the instruments and procedures, which the company obtaining a certificate have to apply in the daily business operations. The assurance tools are focused on preventive actions and measurements in order to avoid the occurrence of contamination. A starting point for the control of potential risk is the application of prerequisite programs in order to create a basic level of control. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) approach is important to identify in advance the remaining risks in the process and operations and to determine appropriate control measures, as well as a monitoring plan.
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Figure 1: Number of EWS notifications in 2011 – 2014 We realised that additional reasons are valuable to notify in any case of exceeding the maximum permitted level, also if other companies are not involved. Firstly, it is relevant to learn about the cause and source of contamination. That can be taken into account in risk assessments. Secondly, a complete overview enables to communicate about the effectiveness of feed safety assurance (risk communication) in daily practise.
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The purchased/supplied ingredients could be a risk. For feed or food safety, a full control of the supply chain is a relevant option, which is followed in the GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance certification. Application
Facts about 2013-2014
At this moment GMP+ International is preparing an evaluation of the EWS notifications of 2013 and 2014. In general the figures show that there have been more notifications in 2013 and 2014 than the years before. This increase in the number of notifications was related to mycotoxins. It is also good to realise that sometimes more than one EWS message has been related to the same case. Most of the reported issues are controlled in an early stage. Only a limited number were related to a more or less serious feed safety emergency. In 2013 this was aflatoxin in maize and in 2014 this was furazolidon in in soymix. Because of these two safety issues, the requirements to notify have become stricter. Before 2015, GMP+ FSA certified companies were only obliged to notify contamination levels above maximum permitted level, in case the situation was not fully under control of the involved company and could affect other companies too. End 2014, we introduced the obligation to notify every exceeding of the maximum permitted level of an undesirable substance to GMP+ International as well as the certification body. This notification as well as informing the customers is considered so crucial for the effectiveness of the control of a safety incident, that non-compliance is classified as a critical non-conformity with withdrawal of the GMP+ FSA certificate as a consequence. GMP+ International always tries to find out the source and cause of contamination, because that could be relevant for the risk assessments and could contribute to avoid occurrence in the future. The GMP+ FSA certified companies observe these EWS messages as worthwhile, because it increases their alertness regarding specific risks. It adds also value in comparison of the Rapid Alerts System Feed & Food (RASFF) of the European Union, due to more details and quick publication. The most important causes of contamination (figure 2) are natural exposure and genesis during processing. Process aids can also be a source, which need to be considered in the risk assessments.
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