Issue #50 2022-08-08
Food safety hazards from cultured meat, food fraud in additives, feta cheese rules, Cyclospora warning, outbreak updates and microbes in action
Welcome to The Rotten Apple, an inside view of food integrity for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends in food safety, food authenticity and sustainable supply chains.
Hazards from cultured meat and dairy
Food fraud in food additives
Other things to know this week (feta cheese rules, Cyclospora warning, outbreak updates)
Just for fun: microbes in action
Food fraud incidents and horizon scanning updates from the past week
🎧 On the go? Listen to me read out today’s email. Find a link at the bottom of this email 🎧
Hi,
Welcome to Issue #50, which was only emailed to paying subscribers (you’re the best!) [this post was later unlocked for viewing].
For those of you who generously helped by completing the reader survey I sent last week, thank you. If you haven’t done the survey yet, please consider doing it. It’s short and anonymous and it will help me improve what I do for you, my most important readers. I will share the results next week.
📝 Feedback Survey 📝
This issue has a summary of potential hazards in cultured meat. As well as food safety hazards, there are possible ethical issues from the production techniques, that I was surprised to learn about. Interesting times ahead for this food category…
Also this week, I attempt to explain why there are hardly any food fraud records for food additives in our Trello database. Is fraud occurring but not being revealed, or are food additives simply less vulnerable to food fraud in the first place? Read on to find out. Plus news about feta cheese, Cyclospora and updates on the two mystery food poisoning outbreaks we’ve been following.
This issue ends with food fraud incidents and horizon scanning updates that have been added to the Trello database in the past week. And a mesmerising microbe video (totally safe for work).
Thanks for being here,
Cover image: FLY:D on Unsplash
Food Safety
Hazards From Cultured Meat
“Cultured meat is a meat produced by in vitro cell cultures of animal cells. It is a form of cellular agriculture, with such agricultural methods being explored in the context of increased consumer demand for protein.
Cultured meat is produced using tissue engineering techniques traditionally used in regenerative medicines…
The production process is constantly evolving, driven by multiple companies and research institutions… Currently cultured meat is served at special events and few high-end restaurants, mass production of cultured meat has not started yet.” Wikipedia
Cultured meat cells can be grown on “scaffolding” to provide structure to the finished product. These scaffolds can be made from synthetic materials which are removed after the growing process, or can be made from biological materials and remain in the finished meat.
Potential food safety hazards from cultured meats
Transmission of zoonotic diseases to humans. These could be present as viruses, bacteria, parasites and prions.
Chemical or microbiological hazards from novel inputs (components), such as scaffolds or growth mediums. Some growth mediums are animal products and these could pose microbiological risks.
Biological hazards from the unintended consequences of modifying the properties of the cells, or from genetic or epigenetic drift which could occur over many generations of culturing.
Antibiotic residues, if antibiotics are added during production.
Allergen hazards from scaffolds, which could, for example, be made from chitin or chitosan. These may cause an allergic reaction in people who are allergic to crustaceans.
Chemical contamination from cell storage media such as cryoprotectant liquids.
The usual physical, chemical and microbiological hazards from meat, which could arise from cross-contamination, unhygienic handling and temperature abuse.
Regulatory and compliance hazards in cultured meat
Because cultured meat is an animal food but also a novel food, the regulatory status is unclear in many countries. The USA regulatory landscape is particularly confusing because the USDA regulates meat while the FDA regulates manufactured food, and cultured meat is both of those things.
Global trade is likely to be complicated as regulations will vary from country to country.
Ethical hazards
Some cell-growth methods require the use of extracts from animals in the growing medium. This is different to the actual cell lines that form the meat. The animal extracts promote efficient cell proliferation because they contain growth factors, hormones and other components that mimic the environment in a developing animal foetus.
Animal extracts that are used in cell culturing processes include foetal bovine serum and chick embryo extracts, which are extracted from dead animal foetuses.
It’s hard to know how many cultured meat companies may ultimately end up using foetal extracts for commercial-scale production. Any that do are likely to face backlash from consumers. However, companies may not have to disclose their use to consumers under food labelling laws, due to their likely status as a “processing aid” rather than an “ingredient” of the meat.
Cells harvested from cows’ udders are used to produce cultured milk products. Again, this might raise ethical concerns among consumers who want to purchase cultured milk for its “cruelty-free”, “animal-free” status.
Takeaways
The cultured animal food sector has interesting times ahead, particularly with regard to food regulations. The manufacturers will also need to deal with potential new food safety hazards as well as possible ethical concerns about growth mediums and production processes.
Sources:
Food safety hazards: https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cb8667en
Growth mediums: https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/deep-dive-cultivated-meat-cell-culture-media/
Udder cells for cultured meat: https://www.foodengineeringmag.com/articles/100288-milk-without-the-cow
🍏 Recommended Reading on The Science of Growing Cultured Meat 🍏
Food Fraud
Food Fraud in Food Additives
Food additives such as flavour-enhancers, gums, enzymes, emulsifiers, stabilizers, anti-caking agents, anti-oxidants and non-nutritive sweeteners are a bit of a “black box” when it comes to food fraud. There are few records of food fraud in food additives in our Food Fraud Risk Information (Trello) Database, with the exception of vanilla extract flavouring. However, just because we don’t have many public records for food fraud does not mean that it does not sometimes occur in food additives.
Food fraud problems with food additives might be less likely to become public knowledge because they are less likely to cause serious food safety issues compared to other food components, due to the tiny concentrations at which additives are present in finished products. In the absence of a food safety incident or food recall, it is less likely that a food fraud will become public knowledge.
Food fraud in food additives might be easier to detect than food fraud in other ingredients. For example, if a food additive was fraudulently diluted with a cheap filler, it would not perform as expected in a recipe, which would alert the food manufacturer to a problem.
Many food additives (excluding flavours) have short(ish) supply chains compared to other food types, which reduces the chances of fraudulent tampering with the product.
Fraud in food colourings
During the last month, there were two border rejections for food colouring additives that contained unauthorised colouring agents. The border rejections occurred in Europe. The food colours originated in India. It is not known whether the unauthorised components were present as a deliberate deception - that is food fraud - or if the importer was unaware of their regulatory status in the European Union. Links can be found in the food fraud incidents section.
Other things to know this week
Feta Cheese Rules
Feta is not to be called feta unless it comes from Greece, according to the European Union’s highest court. This is not a new rule in Europe, but Danish “feta” producers have long been exporting the white cheese to non-European countries. They were recently in court arguing that they should be allowed to use the name Feta when they export it to countries outside the EU. The court disagreed, and Danish dairies are no longer allowed to call their cheese “Feta” in export markets.
https://news.gtp.gr/2022/07/27/eu-court-rules-feta-is-greek-in-denmark-cheese-violation/
Cyclospora Warning
There has been a large increase in Cyclospora-linked illnesses in the USA, with an extra 323 domestically-acquired illnesses in the past month. The cause is unknown. Cyclosporiasis cases typically rise in the summer months. Cyclospora cayetanensis is a parasite (not a bacterium), that causes diarrhoea after consuming contaminated food or water. Fresh leafy greens and berries have been sources of cyclosporiasis in past outbreaks.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cyclosporiasis/outbreaks/2022/seasonal/index.html
Mystery Outbreaks Updates
Lucky Charms and Cheerios
They still don’t know how dry cereal in the USA made people sick (588 victims). It’s been months now! We covered the story in Issue #43 and Issue #42.
https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investigations-foodborne-illness-outbreaks
Daily Harvest Lentil Crumbles and (Now) Other Products Too
Now that it has been revealed that it was the tara flour/tara powder ingredient that sickened Daily Harvest consumers (see Issue #48), commentators are demanding that another food, belonging to a different brand, also be recalled. The other food contains the same ingredient and is allegedly causing the same serious illnesses. The other food is Revive Mango and Pineapple Smoothies and food lawyer Marler Clark is representing 30 people who they say suffered acute liver failure after consuming the smoothies.
What was it about the tara flour/powder that made people sick? We still don’t know.
https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/fda-cfia-what-the-hell-are-you-doing/
Just for Fun
Mesmerising Microbes
There are just so many packed in together 😍! These are micro-fauna swimming around inside the gut of a termite.
To see the video, don’t click the image, instead, go here: https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2021-small-world-in-motion-competition/microfauna-in-a-termite-gut
What you missed in last week’s email
· TikTok Pink Sauce - “Natural” or Not?
· New Food Safety Standards - What You Need to Know
· Recycle PPE? Yes you can!
· Food Fraud Corner - The Difference Between Food Fraud and Food Defense
Below for paying subscribers: Food fraud incident reports; horizon scanning updates (= emerging food fraud risks you should know about); plus an exclusive easy-listen audio version
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Rotten Apple to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.