Food Chain Integrity: A Holistic Approach to Food Traceability, Safety, Quality, and Authenticity

Issues related to food integrity are becoming increasingly important. Guaranteeing the authenticity, geographical origin, traceability and safety of foods requires new diagnostic tools and implementation of new information systems. This book provides an overview of research and practice in this fast-moving field. It will increase readers ability to predict and implement actions to prevent a breach in the integrity of food production. Different sections of the book are devoted to the key areas of food tracing and tracking, food authenticity and origin and food safety and quality. Key Features: reviews key research in this fast-moving area and how it can be applied to improve the provision of food to the consumer; examines developments in food traceability, such as food biotracing , and methods to prevent food bioterrorism; focuses on developments in food safety and quality management featuring advances in understanding pathogen behaviour and control of foodborne viruses. Contents: Part 1 Tracing and tracking in the food chain: The role of service orientation in future web-based food traceability systems; Biotracing: A new integrated concept in food safety; Using stochastic simulation to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of traceability systems: The case of quality control in a fresh produce supply chain; Preventing and mitigating food bioterrorism. Part 2 Food safety and quality: Understanding and monitoring pathogen behaviour in the food chain; Foodborne viruses: Understanding the risks and developing rapid surveillance and control measures; Ranking hazards in the food chain; Continuous temperature monitoring along the chilled food supply chain; Emerging safety and quality issues in compound feeds with implications for human foods; Improving microbial safety in the beef production chain; Animal welfare: An essential component in food safety and quality. Part 3 Authenticity and origin of food products: Detection and traceability of genetically modified organisms in food supply chains; The relevance of sampling for the control of genetically modified organisms in the agri-food chain; New approaches to determining the origin of food; Tracing fish and fish products from ocean to fork using advanced molecular technologies. Part 4 Consumer views and future trends: Communicating food and food chain integrity to consumers: lessons from European research; The role of traceability in restoring consumer trust in food chains; Future trends in food chain integrity. Part 5 Appendix: Project abstracts.