8. Residues and dioxins

activities. Additionally, the producers should, in the context of their business activities, take all measures appropriate to recognise potential hazards, befitting the properties of the products

Figure 3 illustrates the various process levels. Here, each participant bears equal responsibility for the safety of a certain product, from production to the final customer purchase. The parties involved should assure that the condition and labelling of the product adhere to all legal requirements along the entire chain. The requirements that apply at the various process levels are provided by the government, while nongovernmental organisations significantly influence the public opinion formation process during crises. A constructive dialogue with the supply

Crisis management above all entails crisis management in collaboration with the responsible authorities. Attempts by a company to cover up or ignore an issue are particularly problematic. The author of this article has faced numerous crises up front, providing the practical experience to manage these. In the following, practical crisis examples are used to illustrate and elucidate what measures can be used in what ways to guarantee a future-proof presentation of prevention.

Customer, authority, or consumer complaints cannot be left unanswered. They are a vital source of information about the safety of a company's products. In principle, it does not matter whether a customer complains that a product expired before the indicated expiry date, or that this is documented in an officially logged complaint. In all cases, the same concrete circumstance applies, namely, that the products expired before the expiry date. This might have various causes, some of which might not be attributable to the producer (for example, an

If the food business operator fails to follow up on this complaint and fails to process this complaint in an appropriate manner, the situation might develop into an actual crisis. This rings true particularly considering the fact that authorities, after repeat comparable violations,

Within a crisis management context, all procedures and work instructions relating to the handling process of complaints should be defined. An example of this is the development of forms for consumer complaints to help employees summarise complaints by phone or in writing, with an accompanying work instruction. Here, the development of a crisis plan is of the utmost importance, and this is a type of work instruction that prescribes how to act in crisis situations. This not only applies to the company itself; authorities are also obligated to develop crisis plans. This is fundamentally regulated by the Basic Regulation of the European Commission, which drafts a general crisis management strategy together with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the member states. This strategy is used if the preventive, curative,

no longer assume negligence but rather accuse the food business operator of intent.

and reductive risk measures defined in the Basic Regulation do not suffice.

they deliver, and to take precautions against potential consumer hazards.

chain should take place with the relevant stakeholders.

Some essential perspectives on crisis management:

interruption of the cooling chain at the retailer).

7. Crisis management

12 Food Safety - Some Global Trends

The so-called dioxin crisis at the end of 2011 led to an official warning about foodstuff that was not suitable for distribution. This crisis primarily affected eggs and poultry. Noteworthy about this crisis is not the circumstance that fatty acids in milk which might contain dioxins primarily intended for technical purposes—were potentially mixed in with compound feed for animal rearing in a feed plant. The actual cause was dioxins in this feed that stored themselves in the fatty acid, leading to egg and poultry meat contamination, among other animal product contaminations, later.

Dioxins have led to significant problems in the past. The first of these was a chemical accident in Seveso, Italy, in the middle of the 1970s, with approx. 2 kg of dioxins released into the environment, leading to serious diseases. Dioxin is considered a carcinogen with significant adverse health effects, which in turn explains the fears of consumers, as well as the potential effects of dioxin residues.

The Belgian dioxin crisis took place in 1999. The improper use of frying oils in animal feed led to dioxin findings in eggs. At the time, this had catastrophic effects on egg consumption, which was virtually reduced to zero out of fear for diseases. The emotional perception played an enormous role in this, even though only relatively minor dioxin traces were found. However, the actual problem was that the egg origins could not be traced, which led to all eggs being taken off of retailers' shelves.

As a consequence, the Association for Controlled Alternative Animal Husbandry (KAT), at the time headed by Caspar von der Crone, advocated a general ban on feed with animal protein. While this might increase production costs, it would allow the industry to regain consumer trust, capable of contributing significantly to food safety.

Another case occurred in 2002, the so-called Nitrofen scandal. Nitrofen is an herbicide that had been used in the agricultural industry. It turned out later that Nitrofen is a carcinogen that is not broken down by the body but rather stored in animal fatty tissue, which can in turn be found in the eggs of laying hens. These residuals were found in the summer of 2002. Nitrofen was one of many pesticides already forbidden in the EG but still allowed in the DDR up to 1999. This led to remaining stock with contaminated feed in a storage after the German reunification, which was in turn inspected and cleaned insufficiently before being fed to laying hens as organic feed, among others.

This gave rise to another scandal, in the area of organic production, with extensive recall actions as a result. The affected companies could be identified exactly in the beginning. The database system developed by KAT at the time, striving to safeguard traceability, as well as the newly introduced identification measures for individual eggs with origin labelling, proved to be an effective preventative measure. For the first time, it was possible to recall contaminated eggs in a targeted manner, avoiding any negative effects or harm to consumers.

Regional German authorities, in the meantime, considered this circumstance consumer deception following the EU Regulation on Organic Farming [17], as this stipulates that only

Food Safety: Food Crisis Management http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73687 15

The most recent incident took place in the Netherlands in 2017, where the banned insecticide (against mites) Fipronil was used. Again, contaminated eggs reached the market—almost exclusively eggs produced in the Netherlands—which resulted in a recall for eggs with the NL (the Netherlands) identification. Egg products were also affected, as were processed products such as cakes, noodles and other products containing egg. Here too, the individual egg identification system proved very effective, with targeted recall measures, allowing for the continued distribution of uncontaminated goods. However, processed products remained in a

Crisis situations can occur suddenly and unexpectedly, even in a carefully managed company. Internal business process problems as well as external, unforeseen difficulties might be the cause. Therefore, a preventative strategy should consider all potential measures that might

This includes general preventative measures (quality measures, self-controlling systems following the HACCP concept principles, traceability, claims and complaints, false management, and the like). Additionally, specific measures should be considered such as the development of

Therefore, any properly managed company requires a quality management book, in which the procedural instructions regarding quality politics, as well as the principles of quality assurance, are defined. By now, also in the light of increasing pressure of retailers, systems following the International Feature Standard (IFS) have established themselves. This includes the British Retail Consortium (BRC) [18] and Global Standard for Food Safety, with similar regulations. A vital component of a quality management system is the aforementioned HACCP concept, which is required following Art. 5 of the Regulation 852/2002 (EC) No. 852/2004 on Food Hygiene. This regulation prescribes that food business operators must develop, implement

Food safety is a very complex topic. Crises have repeatedly led to product recalls in the past and significantly contributed to consumer unrest. This not only influenced consumption, which collapsed in part, but also resulted in significant damage to the reputation of the product itself. The examples mentioned from the egg, poultry and game industries illustrate this very clearly. Minor triggers have shown time, and again that a critical light was cast on many food products, also clean food products. Dioxins on forbidden ingredients can be

uncontaminated organic feed can be used.

grey area.

10. Summary

9. Preventative measures

equip a company to deal with such situations.

a crisis plan and special measures for at-risk products.

and maintain one or more procedures based on the HACCP principles.

The affected companies suffered significant losses, even threatening their very existence, but managed to rebuild trust through consistent action-taking. There was an awareness that product traceability is one of the most important food safety criteria in crisis situations. This led to the EC decision to adopt individual egg labelling as a binding requirement for egg distributors across the EU.

The dioxin crisis of 2011 took place under similar circumstances. Affected companies were closed, and recall actions were initiated. Media pressure was enormous, and consumers were requested to either return or destroy food, primarily eggs and poultry. Thanks to KAT and the mandatory producer code printed on each egg [16], the eggs origins could be traced. The names of the affected companies—publicly traceable through the code—were disclosed by authorities with an accompanying warning. However, the eggs already reached consumers' refrigerators, as the dioxin was discovered in November, but the authorities did not inform consumers of dioxin residue hazards until January 2012. At this point, most eggs were already consumed. Similar recall actions were initiated for poultry; however, this proved to be significantly more difficult as poultry was not distributed using the same traceability system as the KAT individual egg labelling system. This led to immense reputation damage, as well as more critical consumer attitudes, and in turn reduced egg consumption. Interestingly, the organic food industry benefited from this, as consumers expected that the organic industry adhered to stronger regulations and was subject to more stringent controls, improving safety.

At the end of 2014, the organic food industry was rattled by several events. Residues of a corrosive agent and a fungal toxin were discovered, and the products of numerous companies were stripped of the right to be sold with an organic seal as a result. The contaminated feed, still labelled as 'organic' by a Dutch distributor, had been distributed to organic farmers in Germany.

A total of 2000 tonnes of affected feed, sunflower cake, was distributed by a Dutch distributor as organic feed. Organically producing laying hen companies, as well as pig, cattle and sheep farmers, were affected.

There are no special restrictions for pesticide in place in conventional farming, quite different from organic production, which uses stricter standards. The affected companies faced grave consequences. Goods that had already been delivered were recalled by regional authorities, and goods that were being produced currently could not be distributed for a certain period. It is interesting to note that these regulations were only implemented in individual German states, while the remaining lion's share of cakes contaminated with pesticides could still be processed for organic production in other EU countries. There was no health hazard, but rather a component in the feed that is not permitted in organic production.

Regional German authorities, in the meantime, considered this circumstance consumer deception following the EU Regulation on Organic Farming [17], as this stipulates that only uncontaminated organic feed can be used.

The most recent incident took place in the Netherlands in 2017, where the banned insecticide (against mites) Fipronil was used. Again, contaminated eggs reached the market—almost exclusively eggs produced in the Netherlands—which resulted in a recall for eggs with the NL (the Netherlands) identification. Egg products were also affected, as were processed products such as cakes, noodles and other products containing egg. Here too, the individual egg identification system proved very effective, with targeted recall measures, allowing for the continued distribution of uncontaminated goods. However, processed products remained in a grey area.
