Possibilities and prospects of food safety research in Estonia' Collaboration with VTT R'Vokk Tallin

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Possibilities and prospects of food safety
research in Estonia. Collaboration with
VTTR.Vokk Tallinn University of Technology
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Tallinn University of Technology

• Founded in 1918
• 9 faculties
• 1257 employees, incl.
• 965 acad.persons incl.
• 672 teaching personell
• Over 10 000 students, incl.
• 1215 Master students
• 296 Doctoral students

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Department of Food ProcessingFaculty of
Chemistry and Material TechnologyTallinn
University of Technology
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Department of Food ProcessingFaculty of
Chemistry and Material TechnologyTallinn
University of Technology
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Department of Food ProcessingFaculty of
Chemistry and Material TechnologyTallinn
University of Technology
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Research groups

• Quality and safety of bakery products
• Quality and safety issues in dairy industry
• Heavy metals and N-nitroso-compounds in food
  products
• Application of biotechnology in safety issues
• Bioactive compounds in flavourings
• Nutrition surveys

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Implementation of safety systems in the food area
in Estonia
Started from Know-How Funding -
collaboration with the University of
Humberside, UK, 1992-1997
.
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ASC

• What is to be done?
• How it is to be done?
• When it is to be done?
• Where it is to be done?
• Who is to do it?

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Safety systems in food area

• Catering facilities
• Warehouses
• Transportation
• Supermarkets, shops
• Households
• Food enterprises

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Related problems

• Contamination- in 2002.a. 26 (2571 items
  monitored, in 2001 21.3/4863)
• Pesticides - 0 in 2002 (2,1 were over allowed
  norms in 2000)
• Nitrates 10 in 2002 (9.2 in 2001) were over
  allowed norms - mainly in potatoes, vegetables.
• High price (compared to the energetic value) for
  low-income groups

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Related problems

• Food-borne deseases in Estonia
• Pathogens 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
• Salmonella 437 462 556 304 337
• Shigella 273 145 195 431 336
• Escherichia coli 75 84 59 34 28
• Campylobacter 100 150 127 113 114
• Yersinia enterocolitica 43 113 60 51 20
• Clostridium botulinum 1 0 1 1 4
• Rotavirus 896 617 858 436 1114
• Others, identified 181 260 364 295 267
• Others, not identified 1356 1731 1726 1592 2389
• Total 3362 3562 3946 3257 4611

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Consumption of food groups, kg/month
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Comparison of consumption(2000) with food- based
dietary guidelines(1998)
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FV habits into everyday life
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FV habits in schools and nurseries
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The continuous technological and
economical development of companies in the food
industry is based on the total management of the
whole production chainstarting from raw
materials, andending to consumer satisfaction.
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Food safety

• 2001 2002
• Labelling 37.4 35.9
• Microbial contam 19.0 12.2
• Impurities 4.8 8.5
• Pesticides 22.9 27.9
• Biological particles 1.4 no
• Food additives 7.4 4.5
• Other reasons 7.1 11.1

Finnish Customs Lab in 2001 - 2819 lots
investigated, not qualified 12.5, in 2002 -
3047 - 8,9
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The quality assurance of the raw
materials, sanitation and hygienic techniques for
handling foods after processing are of

• particular importance

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Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but not simpler

• A.Einstein

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Hygiene training

• Year Basic level Intermediate Advanced
• 1997 190 18 0
• 1998 650 342 0
• 1999 585 39 0
• 2000 998 104 0
• 2001 1234 392 0
• 2002 2735 412 0
• 6392 1307 0

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Additional activities

• HACCP training and consultancy
• Information through the membership in SoFHT, IFT
• Food Safety course for the Bachelor students
• Diploma thesis on food safety systems for local
  food premises.

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There is an increasing preferenceamong
consumers for foodstuffs with as few additives as
possible,

• or with natural aroma and flavour compounds like
  herb materials

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The best certificate is

• safe food
• itself

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VTT Biotechnology

• VTT Biotechnology is a pioneer in the development
  of bioscience applications to meet the
  requirements of the industry. Their core
  technological competences are
• Bioprocesses
• Functionalisation of foods
• System biology
• Metabolic engineering

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Sampling in dairies

• Samples were collected from process environment,
  equipment and packaging material.
• Liquid and solid samples were taken from raw
  material, product from the process, final
  product, wastewater and water.
• Samples for detecting Bacillus cereus, Listeria
  monocytogenes, mycobacteria, total bacterial
  count, Enterobacteriaceae spp., coliforms,
  ß-glucuronidase positive bacteria, yeast and
  mould were collected from all dairies and
  analyzed.

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• Dairies should pay more attention to control of
  mycobacteria.
• Half of all samples from all dairies were
  contaminated and very contaminated and amount
  of clean samples was low.
• Vehicles that can contaminate final product are
  food contact equipment, food additions, but also
  non-contact environment and employees, who can be
  carriers of pathogens.

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Dear colleagues

• Thank you very much!
• Our best wishes to start a collaboration with you!