FOOD SAFETY: FAO highlights ‘often neglected’ foodborne parasites.

 Officials have published a document highlighting ways to avoid the risks from foodborne parasites transmitted by pork, freshwater fish and crustaceans.

Foodborne parasitic diseases are often neglected in food safety control systems even though they can cause severe human health problems, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

One challenge is that affected animals might not show signs of disease, making it difficult for farmers and authorities to detect a problem. Also, if there are no production or financial losses associated with the parasite in animals, there is no incentive to control them.

The FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific publication reports different types of parasitic diseases can be transmitted to humans from pork, fish, freshwater crustaceans, vegetables, eggs of tapeworms, and protozoa.

Preventing human exposure to foodborne parasites can be the responsibility of a veterinary or food safety authority in some countries, while in others, there are no controls for parasites.

    Parasites from plants and meat

Fascioliasis is caused by two species of flatworms called Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica. It is acquired by eating raw plants such as watercress and other freshwater cultivated or wild plants, or by drinking contaminated water. It is mainly an animal disease but does occasionally affect people.

Young parasites can cause abdominal pain, fever and diarrhea. Once they reach the lungs, symptoms can include a chronic productive cough, chest pain, and sometimes fever. Signs can be similar to those of tuberculosis or lung cancer. Humans can be treated for adult flukes with triclabendazole.

Eating raw aquatic vegetable harvested from or near grazing lands should be avoided. Rinsing them is not enough and freezing is not recommended, according to the FAO. The parasite can be killed by cooking vegetables at 60 degrees C (140 degrees F) for several minutes. continue

FAO: Meat plant workflows must change to protect laborers.

Workplace dividers at meat and poultry plants may be an improvement as the industry seeks to protect its workers from COVID-19.


       The meat and poultry industry has taken a number of measures to protect its workers during the COVID-19 outbreak, more needs to be done, said Maximo Torero Cullen, assistant director-general and chief economist for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

 Cullen -- who is also a professor on leave at the University of Pacific, Peru -- noted that most processing plants are “labor-intensive” and were not laid out with a workflow that is conducive to social distancing guidelines.

 He showed a photo of a Tyson Foods plant where line workers were separated by plastic dividers, indicating that it is an improvement, but adding, “honestly, this doesn’t seem enough.”

 “A change needs to go deeper than  we are observing today, if we want to keep operating,” said Cullen.

FAO sets benchmark to guide Public, Private Partnership (PPP) .

FAO sets benchmark to guide Public, Private Partnership (PPP) .The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) says it would set benchmark that would serve as guidelines for the African agricultural sector to bridge the gap between the public and private sector. 

 FAO Agribusiness Officer, Stephanie Gallatova, made this known at an agribusiness workshop attended by eight African countries in Nairobi. Gallatova said the Public, Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives have the potential to help transform the production-oriented agricultural sector of African countries into a dynamic market-oriented Agri-Food sector.

 FAO sets benchmark to guide Public, Private Partnership (PPP).

Agribusiness: How the Internet of things is solving the issue of food waste.

According to UN FAO data, approximately $1 trillion in produced crops is annually lost post-harvest. This includes the various stages — from farm, to shelf, to fork. Even in technologically advanced regions such as the EU, post-harvest losses for grains and cereals are often more than 10%, with higher percentages seen in developing countries in Africa or in industrialized Asia. 

These losses are incurred during raw material storage, processing — milling, for example — and distribution in the logistics chain. One company that is responding to the challenge of food waste with IoT technology is Centaur Analytics, the first full stack IoT company that provides real-time stored agri-products monitoring and protection solutions. 

They develop and market end-to-end solutions for the Internet of Things, focused on the quality and safety of stored goods. Their mission is to dramatically increase post-harvest yields and eliminate waste from farm to shelf. Storing crops is a tricky process. 

Most farmed crops are stored in massive quantities in big metal containers like silos, an environment that is susceptible to a range of challenges like moisture, temperature and insect infestation. Traditionally methods of managing these challenges have involved farmers physically visiting their silo or storage container in person by testing each one individually — not an exact science — and provide treatments. Insect infestation is particularly problematic. 

 As well as eating crops, insects increase the moisture levels within the storage containers, which can further spoil the crops. Bantas explained that treatment typically involved a fumigants such as phosphine which is administered over a set number of days, typically up to a week. 

 Fumigation is used for all kinds of crops: tobacco leaves, flowers, grain, rice , feeds, fruit fresh, died and so on, people have been fighting this product with fumigating gases but it has been without monitoring,which is where the problem lies. 

 The problem is that while fumigation can eradicate the problem, if the temperature of the container is too low, the dosage is incorrect or the duration of treatment too short, it can harden they insects and they mutate and grow into something stronger, making treatment ineffective. continue

HOW TO GENERATE DATA FOR FOOD SECURITY USING APPS, PHOTOS AND FOOD PRICES.

A San Francisco-based startup has sent out data collectors armed with just an Android phone, to harvest real-time economic data as and where it happens. From the price of onions in Indian cities to delayed infrastructure projects in rural China,


Premise data is, for the first time, giving governments, investors and NGOs an accurate glimpse of what is happening on the ground.

 In the Butantã branch of Extra, the Brazilian supermarket chain, in the western suburbs of São Paulo, Sandra Morais, 37, is taking photos of bags of rice.

She's not some retail Instagrammer or an obsessive foodie, but one of 25,000 data collectors that a San Francisco-based startup called premise.

 The aim is to ascertain which products are available , at what price and quantities available and location available to facilitate proper planning .

 Premise was founded in 2012 by an American former investment analyst, David Soloff, now 46, who realized that a large amount of developing-world economic data, on which big institutions were basing their risk and funding decisions, was significantly out of date by the time it reached their desks.

FOOD SECURITY;INFO -GRAPHICS.

Where do you fit?

BIO CROP # BIOTECHNOLOGY.

Food crops derived from agricultural biotechnology are referred to as bio crops.Farmers all over the world are turning to bio technology to produce food,fruits and vegetables. The advantages of biotechnology over conventional farming are enormous ;these include production of more disease resistant strains of crops within a short time, the process is environmental friendly because pesticides are not used,this also ensures food safety as there is no pesticide residue on the products. Biotechnology also prevents health hazard in farmers as there is no exposure to chemicals used in conventional farming, the crops produced are of higher nutritional value,better flavor and most of all the productivity is high which makes it a tool for food security. Bio technology is safe and does not cause any ecological damaged.Crops that are developed are such that they breed out undesirable traits.Farmers are turning to biotechnology so that they can grow plants that yield more per acre and resistant to diseases and insect pest while reducing production cost. Agricultural biotechnology is a key to eradicate poverty and hunger/malnutrition in the world,according to UN food and agricultural organization there is an estimated world population of 9.1 billion in 2050,this will require enhanced production and productivity of food. The new methods of farming with innovative use of technology is the key to sustainable food production. Change is the only constant thing...........welcome to a new age of food production. BIO CROPS# BIOTECHNOLOGY.