Food Safety and Quality Systems in Developing Countries: Volume One: Export Challenges and Implementation Strategies

Food Safety and Quality Systems in Developing Countries

Volume One: Export Challenges and Implementation Strategies

André Gordon

Technological Solutions Limited, Kingston, Jamaica

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright

List of Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Exporting Traditional Fruits and Vegetables to the United States: Trade, Food Science, and Sanitary and Phytosanitary/Technical Barriers to Trade Considerations

Abstract

1.1. Introduction

1.2. Imports of Fruits and Vegetables into the United States: Composition and Selected Trends

1.3. Nontraditional Tropical Fruit Imports to the United States: Specific Examples

1.4. Nontraditional Vegetable Imports to the United States: Specific Examples

1.5. Sanitary and Phytosanitary/Technical Barriers to Trade Issues

1.6. Summary

Chapter 2: Natural Toxins in Fruits and Vegetables: Blighia sapida and Hypoglycin

Abstract

2.1. Natural Toxins in Fruits and Vegetables

2.2. The Ackee Fruit

2.3. Hypoglycin (HGA), the Natural Toxin in Ackee

2.4. Dietary Exposure to the Natural Toxin Hypoglycin

2.5. Acute and Chronic Toxicity

2.6. Conclusions

Chapter 3: The Life Cycle of Ackee (Blighia sapida): Environmental and Other Influences on Toxicity

Abstract

3.1. The Agronomy of Ackee

3.2. HGA in Ackee: Location in the Fruit and the Effect of Maturation

3.3. Impact of Geographical Location and Variety on HGA Content in Ackee

3.4. Impact of Growing Season and Reaping and Handling Practices on HGA Levels in Ackee

3.5. The Role of the Seeds and Hypoglycin B in Detoxification of the Fruit

3.6. Conclusions

Chapter 4: Biochemistry of Hypoglycin and Toxic Hypoglycemic Syndrome

Abstract

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Biochemistry of Hypoglycin

4.3. The Illness Associated with Hypoglycin

4.4. Etiology and Clinical Presentation

4.5. Recent Reports of Toxic Hypoglycemic Syndrome

4.6. Suspected Cases in Export Markets

4.7. Treating Ackee Poisoning

Chapter 5: Effective Science-Based Approaches to Establishing Safe Food Handling Practices for Traditional Foods: The Ackee Example

Abstract

5.1. Introduction: Background to the Safe Production and Handling of Ackee (Blighia sapida)

5.2. The Market, Consumers, and Exports

5.3. Raw Material Handling and Processing

5.4. The Science Behind the Industry: The Importance of Research, Regulatory Oversight, and Scientific and Technological Support for the Export of Traditional Foods

5.5. Quantification of Hypoglycin A (HGA)

5.6. Safety of Ackee as a Food

Chapter 6: Re-entering the US Market with Jamaican Ackees: A Case Study

Abstract

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Background to the Market-Access Challenge: The Import Alert

6.3. Agreeing an Approach to Addressing the Import Alert

6.4. Implementation

6.5. Accomplishments

6.6. Cost/Benefit Analysis

6.7. Summary

Chapter 7: Dealing with Trade Challenges: Science-Based Solutions to Market-Access Interruption

Abstract

7.1. Introduction

7.2. Canned Ackees Exported to Canada: Mitigating Market-Access Prohibition

7.3. Preventing Market-Access Interruption for Canned Ackee Exports to the United Kingdom

7.4. Reimposition of the US Import Alert: Lifting the Ban, Again

7.5. Synopsis of the Approach Taken After the Market-Access Interruption in 2005/2006

7.6. Accomplishments and Subsequent Actions to Maintain the Gains

Chapter 8: The Food Safety Modernization Act and Its Impact on the Caribbean’s Approach to Export Market Access

Abstract

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Market-Access Issues for Caribbean Exports to the United States

8.3. Background to the Food Safety Modernization Act

8.4. Major Provisions of the Preventive Controls for Human Food Final Regulation

8.5. Major Provisions of the Standards for Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption (Produce Safety Rule)

8.6. Major Provisions of the Foreign Supplier Verification Programs for Importers of Food for Humans or Animals

8.7. FDA Inspections in the Caribbean and the FSMA

8.8. Impact of the FSMA on the Caribbean and the Approach to Export Market Access

8.9. Conclusions

Appendix I

Appendix II

References

Subject Index

Copyright

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List of Contributors

Orane Blake,     A. T. Kearney Inc, Dallas, Texas, USA

André Gordon,     Technological Solutions Limited, Kingston, Jamaica

Jose Jackson-Malete,     Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI), Gaborone, Botswana

James Kerr,     Retired from the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica

Joyce Saltsman,     Retired from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), US Food and Drug Administration, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

George Ware,     Retired from the Southeast Regional Laboratory (SRL), US Food and Drug Administration, Atlanta, USA

Preface

The importance of developing countries as providers of an increasing percentage of the food being consumed globally is receiving growing recognition. This is because these countries remain an undeniably important source of key food items for developed-country consumers, including increasingly sophisticated food product offerings. Consequently, the status of the food safety and quality systems in these countries is no longer a matter of local interest only; a food safety challenge in Asia or Africa can have repercussions as far away as Paris, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, or Vancouver. Recognizing this, we felt it was timely to provide a different perspective on food safety and quality systems with a focus on exports from developing countries, and with important lessons for many stakeholders in the global food supply chain, regardless of origin.

The approach we have taken is to focus on practical trade and market access-related considerations and to underpin the analysis and proposed solutions by sound science. This we have presented using a case-study approach, providing historically accurate details of how very difficult export challenges with a fruit have been successfully addressed using food-science-based approaches, including research, where appropriate. This is augmented by several other examples of specific food safety concerns for a range of nontraditional fruit and vegetable products of increasing economic importance that are being imported into developed-country markets. While we have largely focused on the United States in this volume, we do also discuss general principles and look at examples involving the United Kingdom and Canada.

We start the book by examining the food science and trade-related technical considerations in exporting traditional fruits and vegetables to the United States and end it with a comprehensive look at the US Food Safety Modernization Act, 2011. In between this, we develop the concept of applying food science and technology – including risk analysis, research and, where appropriate, the adaptation and implementation of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP)-based food safety systems – to addressing export challenges. We present detailed descriptions of very specific market access challenges of a technical or scientific nature for selected products and examine the use of science and research to mitigate these. Also, for the first time, we provide a detailed scientific treatment for the production, commercial handling and processing, culinary and consumption information, biochemistry, and export of the fruit Blighia sapida from multiple countries. The use of this information in solving multiple market access challenges in three markets is one of the highlights of this book.

This volume is targeted at practitioners of food safety and quality in regulatory bodies, food handling and exporting firms, other exporters, policy makers in governments and their international development agency partners, market access specialists, and food science and technology students and academia. It is expected that people within the target audience in both developing and developed countries will gain valuable insights into the nature of export challenges and potential implementation strategies. The editor has been at pains to ensure that, while dealing with foods from developing countries and the associated challenges, the information presented gives a holistic picture from both the importing and exporting country/firm perspectives. This is reflected in the composition of our authors, who are associated with firms and organizations in both developed and developing countries and are from the private sector, academia, and regulatory institutions. Their backgrounds include strong analytical, applied research, regulatory, and market access and trade expertise, a unique mix for this unique treatment of the subject at hand. As a group, our authors have over 160 years of experience in research, academia, industry, export, trade, and regulatory affairs in North America, Africa, the European Union, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Collectively, they have dealt with fruit and vegetable products from all parts of the world.

This book has arisen from a fortuitous meeting with Ms. Patricia Osborn, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Food Science & Technology, at Elsevier at the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Meeting in 2013, where I was an invited speaker. We hope that readers will find in this volume a treasure trove of information, approaches to assessing export market access challenges, and effective collaborative ways to meet them. We also hope that scientists and trade practitioners will get a clear understanding of how food science and technology are playing, and will continue to play, a role in expanding food choices globally while assisting emerging markets to transition into prosperity.

André Gordon

February 20, 2015

Acknowledgments

This book has been created through the collaboration of many people who have worked together to make it happen. It would perhaps never have been written at all if Ms. Patricia Osborn, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Food Science & Technology, at Elsevier Books Division had not had the confidence to give me an opportunity to create what we hope is an important contribution to the literature on food safety and quality systems. It certainly would not have been completed without the support, guidance, and encouragement first of Patricia, then Carrie Bolger, Editorial Project Manager, Life Sciences, and finally of Marisa LaFleur, Editorial Project Manager, Elsevier. Marisa added the element of focused time management to ensure that all of the contributors and, critically, the editor, stayed on track.

This volume has been blessed to have the contributions of some very special people, my coauthors on various chapters, who bring to it their significant practical and academic knowledge, as well as their unique perspectives. I have worked with each of them individually and collectively on a range of important projects, including research, systems implementation, and training, and particularly on aspects of the transformational work used as a case study in this book. I am deeply honored that they accepted my invitation to participate in this project. I am highly appreciative of the collaboration and contributions of Drs. Jose Jackson, Orane Blake, and Joyce Saltsman, and Messrs. James Kerr and George Ware, who have helped to make this work the unique and informative volume that it is.

Thanks to the people that proofread the book to ensure the identification of areas needing attention. Thanks also to my support team at Technological Solutions Limited (TSL), my company, who took some of the pressure off me, allowing me the time to complete this volume. Finally, I must express my deep gratitude to my immediate and extended family who supported and encouraged me throughout this process, particularly my mother Cynthia Gordon, and my wife Dianne Gordon, both of whom reviewed aspects of the manuscript and gave invaluable feedback. This work would not have been possible without the support provided by all concerned.

Thank you all.

André Gordon PhD, CFS

February 18, 2015

Chapter 1

Exporting Traditional Fruits and Vegetables to the United States: Trade, Food Science, and Sanitary and Phytosanitary/Technical Barriers to Trade Considerations

André Gordon    Technological Solutions Limited, Kingston, Jamaica

Abstract

Despite the challenges that have to be overcome by exporters from developing countries seeking to send traditional foods into developed-country markets, current world trends provide significant opportunities for growth in this area. This chapter shows that the demand in developed countries for traditional fruits and vegetables from developing countries is very favorable and is expected to continue to be strong, including in the United States, the market of major focus. This chapter examines the growing trade in fruits such as soursop (Annona muricata), scotch bonnet peppers (Capsicum frutescens), and June plum (Spondias dulcis) and vegetables such as Amaranthus sp. and the reasons for this growth. The increasing demand has been very positive for the growth of the food industry in developing countries and this has widened and deepened the options for food industry professionals who have, in turn, further accelerated the development of the sector. The importance of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBT) to exporters and the need to comply with them is discussed, as is the role of industry specialists in enhancing the ability of emerging economies to actively and successfully participate in trade with their developed- country partners.

Keywords

developing countries

SPS and TBT

fruits and vegetables

Spondias dulcis

Amaranthus sp.

Annona muricata

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Imports of Fruits and Vegetables into the United States: Composition and Selected Trends

1.3 Nontraditional Tropical Fruit Imports to the United States: Specific Examples

1.4 Nontraditional Vegetable Imports to the United States: Specific Examples

1.5 Sanitary and Phytosanitary/Technical Barriers to Trade Issues

1.6 Summary

1.1. Introduction

Globally, the demand for fruits and vegetables has increased significantly, with developed-country staples such as grapes, melons, citrus fruits, apples and other tree fruits, and fresh tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, and cucumbers being among the many items now being routinely imported, a growing percentage of these from developing countries. This greater focus on exports by developing countries, the opening up of developed-country markets, and the better positioning of many developing countries to supply the increasingly diverse dietary and culinary needs of their more developed trading partners have become the driver for economic growth and development in many emerging economies globally. This has also provided opportunities for many in the areas of agriculture, exports, and trade, as well as for a wide range of food-industry professionals in both developed and developing countries to work to further enrich the diet of the more developed countries while contributing toward enhanced diversity and security in the global food supply. This trade has also opened the door for the export of what are now being called nontraditional agricultural exports (NTAEs) from