Comparison of Microbiological Food Safety Issues in New Zealand and Australia.
Microbiological foodborne outbreaks have become a major challenge in food safety, in general, and for safer food supply chains, in particular. In order to prevent foodborne diseases, many countries systematically monitor outbreaks. This paper investigated microbial food safety issues in Australia and New Zealand by collecting and analysing data published in annual or quarterly reports about foodborne outbreaks by ESR (New Zealand) and OzFoodNet (Australia), between 2007 and 2011.
The high numbers of foodborne outbreaks occurred in Australian food service businesses probably suggested more tourists or visitors came to this country than to New Zealand. It also suggested that more numbers of Australian dined outside than New Zealanders did. One way to improve this situation in Australia is to implement food safety programmes in food service industry (restaurants, cafes and bars) and to monitor them more closely. Standard operating procedures (SOP) should also need to be developed for entire food service sector. In order to improve food safety at private
homes, one of the highest risk food preparation places in New Zealand.
Considering the vehicle or source implicated in foodborne outbreaks during the period
from 2007 to 2011, there were 720 and 510 foodborne outbreaks associated with an identified vehicle or source in Australia and New Zealand, respectively (Figure 4). The top five foods or
sources associated with foodborne outbreaks in New Zealand were shellfish, meat, poultry, fish and dairy, while consumption of contaminated eggs or egg-based dishes, fish/seafood, mixed
dishes, poultry and meat or meat-based dishes were the top five food vehicles in Australia.
Adv Food Technol Nutr Sci Open J. 2014; 1(1): 17-24. doi: 10.17140/AFTNSOJ-1-104
