Background

Global food safety incidents are frequently reported and are on the rise. Although the increase in number of food safety incidents is impacted by improved surveillance and reporting systems and increased awareness from consumers, nevertheless the increase in food safety issues is a threat to public health and the economic costs of countries and businesses. Hence, identifying the root causes of contamination or recall is critically needed to understand the source of contamination in foodborne outbreaks and product recalls, thus helping food businesses to develop risk mitigating strategies.

Scope and approach

This study aims to identify common contributory factors in food manufacturing incidents leading to potential food safety incidents (e.g. product withdrawals and recalls, food poisoning incidents and legal offences), and to near misses. This study reviews published food safety incidents and recalls collated from official websites (e.g. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, Food Standards Australia New Zealand) and journal databases (e.g. Science Direct, PubMed). Ishikawa cause and effect analysis was used along with published information to identify possible root causes.

Key findings

The total specific food safety incidents and/or recalls with known or suspected causes found over the period 2008–2018 is 2932. Where possible, the contributory and root causes of incidents were identified, or literature evidence was used to determine the suspected cause. Undeclared allergens and cross contamination were identified as the top two recorded causes of food safety incidents/recalls. This review has further proposed the primary and secondary causes for undeclared allergens and cross contamination.

Conclusions

This study offers key insights into global food safety incidents according to food and drink categories, hazards and common contributory factors. Food manufacturers could use the identified primary and secondary causes as guidance for continuous improvement programmes to prevent food safety incidents.

中文翻译：

---

确定食品安全事件中的常见促成因素–回顾2008-2018年全球疫情和召回事件

背景

全球食品安全事件经常被报道并且正在上升。尽管食品安全事件数量的增加受到监视和报告系统的改进以及消费者意识的增强的影响，但是食品安全问题的增加对公共卫生以及国家和企业的经济成本构成威胁。因此，迫切需要确定污染或召回的根本原因，以了解食源性疾病暴发和产品召回的污染源，从而帮助食品企业制定降低风险的策略。

范围和方法

这项研究旨在确定导致食品安全事故（例如产品撤回和召回，食品中毒事件和法律犯罪）和近乎未遂的食品制造事件中的常见促成因素。这项研究回顾了已发布的食品安全事件，并回顾了官方网站（例如，疾病控制和预防中心，食品和饲料快速预警系统，澳大利亚食品标准局）和期刊数据库（例如，Science Direct，PubMed）整理的召回事件。使用石川因果分析和已发布的信息来识别可能的根本原因。

主要发现

在2008-2018年期间发现的已知或疑似原因的特定食品安全事件和/或召回总数为2932。在可能的情况下，确定了事件的成因和根本原因，或使用文献证据来确定可疑原因。未申报的过敏原和交叉污染被确定为记录的食品安全事件/召回的前两个原因。这项审查进一步提出了未申报的过敏原和交叉污染的主要原因和次要原因。

结论

这项研究根据食物和饮料的类别，危害和共同的成因，提供了对全球食品安全事件的关键见解。食品制造商可以将已识别的主要和次要原因用作持续改进计划的指南，以防止食品安全事件。