RICERCA ITALIANA     

Tracking and traceability in beer production chain: innovative methods for the implementation of safety and quality

Università degli Studi di Perugia

Abstract

Processes involved with food production are continuously making progress, with the aim of assuring improvement in safety and quality. In order to carefully control food products and to better protect consumer, Reg. CE 178/2002 deals with general laws for setting up food traceability systems. Because of complexity of biotechnological transformation process, the fermented beverages field needs particular attention and control along all food chain, considering biotic and abiotic factors involved.
Food safety tightly depends on each food operator "from farm to fork", and it is therefore evident that also responsibility must be shared with everyone.
The present research work wants to give a scientific meaning to the improvement in safety and quality. Therefore, taking into consideration brewing industry, the main targets will be:

1. Studying efficient methods and systems of control and traceability in brewing industry and in brewing supply chain and its by-products;
2. Improving benefit/cost ratio about identification and quantification of GMO which are present in brewing supply chain as ingredients (in general in all food made with cereals)
3. Improving agronomic techniques about conservation and transformation, with the aim to obtain raw materials and final products without contaminations by fungi (Fusarium, Aspergillus, ecc.) mytoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals and pesticides;
4. Improving identification and quantification systems for mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals and pesticides
5. Defining management procedures and demonstrate the effectiveness of the management system;
6. Improving ways able to link such systems with documentation (tracking and traceability - T/R) and labelling;
7. Finding sinergies and integrations among the different systems: tracking and traceability, HACCP and quality certification.
It's clear the remarkable interest at national level for the present project, considering the possibility to transfer experiences, acquired in brewing supply chain, to other supply chains with similar characteristics, as cereal food products, others fermented beverages etc.. <<<

Principal Investigator

Paolo FANTOZZI Università degli Studi di PERUGIA

Research Objectives

The processes that concur in the production of food are in continuous evolution with the purpose of guarantee the implementation of their safety and quality.
In this optics the recent European regulation CE 178/2002, allowing a most accurate control of the alimentary products, fixes rules of traceability on food chain. The sector of the fermented beverages needs great attention, because of the complexity of the biotechnological transformation process. Accurate control along the whole productive chain (considering the numerous biotical and not biotical aspects involved) is also needed. In fact, food safety depends on all the operators of the productive chain "From the Farm to the fork" and it is therefore evident that the responsibility must be shared. It is necessary, therefore, that the norms, the systems and the procedures for the risk prevention (like HACCP) in the agri-food sector are activated as soon as possible in all the productive chain, in consideration of the specific interest and considering the complexity of the transformation process.

The present research project will scientifically answer to the implementation of the safety and the quality, using the brewing industry as an example.

The primary transformation is particularly important. In particular, all the preventive actions to undertake in the field in order to avoid the presence of mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals, pesticides in the barley and in the other not malted cereals (safety) will be evaluated. This in order to have a knowledge of the product in every moment of his life (tracking and traceability - T/R).
Other remarkable aspect will be the possibility to individualize, to set-up and to create applicative new systems for the identification and quantification of genetically modified organisms (GMO) along the whole brewing productive chain, in the optic of a larger information and protection of the consumer.

Therefore, the principal objectives of the present research project will be:
1. to study, with innovative techniques and technologies, effective methods and systems of control and traceability in the brewing industry and in the whole brewing productive chain and by-products;
2. to improve the relationship cost-benefit of the identification and quantification of GMO systems in ingredients for the brewing productive chain (in general, in cereal based foods);
3. to improve the techniques of production, transformation, and conservation in order to obtain raw materials and end products with low risk of contaminations (Fusarium, Aspergillum, etc.) mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals, pesticides;
4. to define management procedures and to validate the systems;
5. to improve the way which such systems can be linked to documentation (traceability and traceability) and labelling;
6. to find synergies and integrations between the different systems of: tracking, traceability, HACCP and certification of quality;
7. to improve the systems of identification and quantification of mycotoxins, nitrosamine, biogenic amines, heavy metals, pesticides.

Using the existing scientific and technological sources, the project will develop, therefore, specific systems of tracking, traceability and HACCP that satisfy the above mentioned criteria (Demonstrative Action) for all the operators of the chains.

Subsequently it will be of remarkable national interest to appraise the possibility "to export" the experience matured in the specific productive chain took under examination, as already says, also in others productive chains, with particular reference to those that involve: the food products based in cereals; other fermented drinks; etc.

Activities will involve 4 different Research Units (Unità Operative - UO), represented by university research groups, in connection with the food industries and the connected category associations.

Following is reported in the figure the general plan of the project with the involvement of the 4 UO's.



The lines of research will concern:

A. Safety (UO3 and UO4 in collaboration with UO1).
A.1 HACCP system in brewing supply chain (from the farm to the fork) (UO3).
A.2 HACCP system for the transformation industries (DL 155/1997) (UO4).
B. Analytical Control (UO2 in collaboration with UO1 and UO3).
B.1 Sampling method.
B.2 Analytical method.
B.3 Models for informatization and data processing.
C. Tracking and traceability (UO1 in collaboration with UO2 and UO3).
C.1 Acquisition and installation of a pilot plant for beer production.
C.2 Tracking and traceability (GMO).
C.3 Tracking and traceability (mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy Metals, pesticides).
C.4 Traceability system (art. 18 of the Rule CEE 178/2002).
D. Integration of the systems (UO3 and UO4 in collaboration with UO1)
D.1 Tracking and traceability systems (UO3).
D.2 Integration of the tracking - traceability - HACCP - quality systems (UO3).
D.3 Test of the tracking - traceability - HACCP-quality systems (UO4).
E. Management and validation of the tracking and traceability systems (UO1 in collaboration with UO2 and UO3).
E.1 Management of the tracking and traceability systems.
E.2 Validation of the tracking and traceability systems.

In the following table is reported the operating time of the project activities.



The obtained results and the achievement of the selected objectives will be spread by their publication on scientific journals and by the partecipations in national and international conferences. Specific demonstrative actions like manuals, methodologies and systems ready to be adopted in the productive chains of cereals, malt and beer are foreseen.
The utilization of part of the funds for fellowships for research (post doctoral, Doctorates, etc.) will guarantee the possibility to assure the training of excellence staff in the specific sectors of pertinence of the present project. These operators can guarantee the transfer of the results to agriculture, agri-food transformation industries, public and private, national and international organisms in charge of the control of safety and quality. <<<

First Results

Research line a.1: HACCP in brewing supply chain (from farm to fork)
The first results about the control critical points will be available along the brewing supply chain.

Research line b.1: Sampling methods.
The set-up of sampling methods will be available.

Research line b.2: Analytical Methods.
The set up of new analytical methods will be available.
Data from analyses of samples will be available too.

Research line c.1. Acquisition and installation of a plant pilot for beer production.

Research line c.2: The T/R (GMO).
Guidelines for the set-up of an GMO tracking system in each industries involved in the beer supply chain (mill, malt house, brewery).Research line a.1: HACCP in the brewing supply chain (from farm to fork).
Set-up of a draft of HACCP handbook.

Research line a.2: HACCP in the beer processing (DL 155/1997)
Guidelines for a HACCP manual of companies involved in beer production.
Specific HACCP manuals ready to be used (demonstrative action).

Research line b.2: Analitycal methods.
Set-up of additional analytical methods will be available.

Research line c.2: The T/R (GMO).
The attended results will be: Specific systems of traceability of the GMO ready to be used (DEMONSTRATIVE ACTION).

Research line c.3: The T/R (mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals and pesticides).
The attended results will be: Specific traceability systems for mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals and pesticides ready to be used (DEMONSTRATIVE ACTION).

Research line c.4: Traceability system (art. 18 - CE Reg. 178/2002).
Guidelines for the set-up of a traceability system in industries involved in beer production (mills, malt houses, brewing industries) and specific systems of traceability ready to be used (DEMONSTRATIVE ACTION).

Research line d.1: tracking and traceability (T/R) systems.
Guidelines for T/R sistem.

Intermediate results and relative check-point will be obtained at the end of the 12th month of activity. They are:
Research line a.1: set-up of an operative HACCP system for mills, malt houses, brewing industries.
Research line c.2: set-up of a GMO tracebility system (mainly for corn);
Research line c.4: first draft of a traceability guideline for the whole brewing chain (from farm to fork - art. 18, Reg. CE 178/2002)

The following intermediate results, for which it is not possible to preview a check-point, will be obtained to the end of 12th month:
Research line a.1: first draft of an "on field" and post harvest HACCP system;
Research line c.3: first draft for a traceability system for mycotoxins (from farm to fork);
Research line d.1: first guideline for an integrated system T/R.Research line a.1: HACCP in the brewing supply chain (from farm to fork).
Final version of the guidelines for the HACCP handbook.

Research line b.2: Analytical methods.
Analytical data will be available for evidence of the presence of GMO, mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals and pesticides.

Research line c.3: The T/R(mycotoxins, nitrosamine, biogenic amines, heavy metals and pesticides).
Specific traceability systems for mycotoxins, nitrosamines, biogenic amines, heavy metals and pesticides ready to be used (DEMONSTRATIVE ACTION).

Research line c.4: The traceability system (CE Reg. 178/2002).
Guidelines for a traceability system in the industries involved in beer production (mills, malt houses, brewing).

Research line d.1: The tracking and traceability systems.
An integrated system of tracking and traceability systems will be available.

Research line d.2: The integration of traceability-HACCP-quality.
An integrated system of traceability system, HACCP and quality will be available.

Research line d.3: Test of integrated traceability-HACCP-quality systems.
Results from the test will give information to the effectiveness of the integrated systems.Research line b.3: Models for informatization and data processing.
An electronic and hard copy data collection forms will be made.

Research line c.4: The traceability system (of CE Reg.178/2002).
Guidelines for the set-up of the traceability system in the beer industries (mills, malt houses, brewing) will be made.

Research line d.2: Integration of tracking - traceability - HACCP - quality systems.
Guidelines for the set-up of an integrated system: tracking - traceability - HACCP - quality will be made.

Research line d.3: Test of tracking-traceability-HACCP-quality systems.
Test on the integrated system: tracking - traceability - HACCP - quality will be made.

Research line e.1: Management of the tracking and traceability systems.
Document of management of the T/R system applied to the entire brewing productive chain will be made.

Research line e.2: Validation of the tracking and traceability systems.
Document that attests the validity of the T/R system applied to the entire brewing productive chain will be made. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

In the last ten years, the safety of food products has been object of rapid improvement regarding international scientific applications. This in order to assure human and animal public health by preventive controls.

Four are the main documents of reference: Legislative Decree n. 155 of May 26 th 1997 (related to the realization of 93/43/CEE Directive), White Paper on food safety, Reg CE 178/2002 (related to the content of White Paper) and the REG CE 1830/2003.

With the Legislative Decree n. 155 of 26 May 1997 relative to the performance of 93/43/CEE Directive concerning the hygiene of food products, a great improvement has been achieved for safety guarantee of food products. The Decree previews an obligatory implementation of a self-control system in food industry (HACCP). The industries have been entrusted of personal responsibility to assure basic principles of safety, hygiene, health and control of production processes. The competent authority must verify the effectiveness of the preventive measures and the validity of obtained results. This, according to valid scientific rules, based on verifiability, communicability and objectivity, and according to methods that allow the monitoring of these processes in their progressive and logical development (HACCP). Since the sixties, the acronym HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) individualizes a detail preventive methodology that allows the evaluation of dangers by individualization of critical control points along a food process. Moreover, it establishes the necessary indications for realization of procedures able to assure the control and the prevention of the risks. By controlling the critical phases in food process it is possible to minimize controls on final product. The target is to prevent, eliminate or to reduce all biological, chemical and physical risks, before they manifest and therefore contaminate the food product irremediably.

The White Paper on Food Safety, presented by the European Commission, has allowed making a further step to warrant food safety. One of the most important innovation present in this paper is the establishment of an independent European Food Authority (established with Reg. EU 178/2002.
The scope of the Authority is: to provide scientific advice and information on all matters having a direct or indirect impact on consumer health and safety arising from the consumption of food; to communicate directly and openly with consumers on food issues; to operate the Rapid Alert System, which allows the identification and rapid notification of urgent food safety problems; to realize networks with national scientific agencies and institutions.
The aim is to assure the highest standards of food safety; in fact, food safety is a key policy priority for the Commission, considering the EU is the world's largest importer/exporter of food products.

The food industry needs versatile tools of self-control, and certified tools according to rigorous scientific rules. The search of advanced tools and control measures offers advantages to the whole food industry because it assures consumer's health and helps operators involved in the production process of foods in the choice of raw materials and in the optimisation of their transformation process. This is also valid for low alcoholic beverages, as beer. Previous studies have demonstrated that combined analysis of some classes of mycotoxins (like indexes of contamination by different fungi), operated according to sampling methods and validated analysis, allow to pintpoin accurately the contamination sources and allow to introduce specific corrective measures.

The different components of biogenic amines group, originated by aminoacids decarboxilation by bacteria found in some foods like beer, represent an element of risk for health, because of their negative effects on cardiovascular and nervous systems. Other parameters for quality control in brewing industry are heavy metals (as lead, mercury, arsenic, zinc, etc.) and nitrosamines. Both classes of compounds have well known toxicity on man and they represent tumour risk factors.
Moreover, very important is index of biological risk of GMO's. In the last years GMO's have aroused notable interest in the biotechnologies food industry but also notable worry at political and social levels.
The main perplexities about GMO's are:
- ecological implications about genetically modified plants production that could change precarious ecological equilibrium;
- risks for public health that could derive from genetically modified plants to feed humans and animals.
The use of molecular biological methods such as real-time polymerise chain reaction (RT-PCR) allows the quantification of GMO in substrates for food production (maximum legal admitted is 1%). Another important aspect for the supply chain is to determine kind and the level that has been introduced a possible GMO.
In this aim, GMO analysis to sample on the products destined for sale could be an important measure of self-control system together with tests on raw materials.

In cereals the presence over the legal level or in dangerous concentration of mycotoxins, biogenic amines, nitrosamine, pesticides and heavy metals, can derive from an accidental contamination caused by negligence, wrong operations or technical unexpected event during production; instead the presence of GMO can be accidental or intentional. Is clear the seriousness of the problem for procedural and legal consequences and for the risk implications for consumer's health. The quantification of GMO's is now a very remarkable parameter about concept of self-audit required to the food industries.

Other aspects, less known but also important for tracking of some of these risk factors along brewing supply chain, are the presence at the same time of different classes of mycotoxins whose synergistic effect has been rarely investigated, even if it can represent a serious risk factor for health. At the same time the analysis of biogenic amines and nitrosamines, organic compounds originated by bacteria, represents an important parameter for qualitative verification in beer, considering implications on health written in literature.
In last years this kind of contamination isn't considered probably because of the high costs for industry, non accepted by consumer.

Probably the factor that in the last years has going against the containment of this typology of contamination resides probably in the fact that the sanitary quality of a tolerable level of mycotoxins and that a control for the absence of GMO's requires high costs that doesn't create a tangible return for the industry in increasing of the sales. This because still today the consumer is not informed around the danger and the risk that derives from the presence of the mycotoxins in food, while he is often confused about the presence of GMO's. The perception of the consumer is low and the problem still belong to the industries. However, it is important to distinguish between big and small industry; if for the first ones the problem is known and preventive actions have been inserted in their own protocols, for the small industries still remain to much to do.

Reg. CE 1830/2002, article 3, paragraph 3, defines GMO's tracking as "the ability to trace GMO and GMO products in each phases of trading, in production and distribution channels".
This Reg. imposes tracking and labelling of GMO and GMO-derived by means of transmission and conservation of information. Moreover, it establishes, in all the phases of production and distribution, responsibilities for transmission of information, as a duty for each supplier.

Reg. CE 178/2002, article 3, paragraph 15, defines the traceability as "the possibility to follow the food history (a feed or an animal destined to food production or a substance destined to enter in food as ingredient) through all phases of production, transformation and distribution".
This Reg. underlines that the impossibility to follow the whole food history can damage market systems. It is necessary to set-up a system for produducts traceability, with the aim to allow specific and selected recalls, if dangerous foods are present on market.
Therefore, it is necessary to assure that food industries, in each point of supply chain (production, transformation and distribution), are able to dentify the supplier of dangerous ingredients. To this aim food or feed on European Community market must adequately be labelled or identified for traceability.
By means of documented information, that characterize production batch and date of production, is possible to follow history of each food product; moreover, it is also important to identify responsibilities of all industries interested to the realization of a such product.

The main elements of a tracking and traceability systems can be identified essentially as:
· Identification of production batch
· Registration of each production batch in input and output
· Monitoring of the production flows (production, distribution)
· Interrelation between industries
· Information transmission

The following documented information are necessary for tracking and traceability system:
· Identification of products (products denominations trades)
· Supply chain
. Materials involved in the production
· Systems of identification, registration, or separation from other products
· Name and address of suppliers

Therefore, the introduction of a tracking and traceability systems is necessary to withdraw (recall procedures) a product, GMO or not GMO, if it is a risk for environment and human health.
Actually tools of tracking and traceability system are based on paper documentation.
A modern approach to guarantee food safety must be based on a real connection between agricultural and industrial fields; only in this case it is possible to restore "identity card" of productive process and therefore to quickly recall food product from the market.

Actually can not be considered sound systems of food safety (HACCP, tracking and traceability) without an effective integration among them and the other systems as Quality, environmental Certification, etc. <<<