Technologies For Food Defence: Final Conference Secufood Project

Final Conference SecuFood Project
With the support of the Prevention,

Consequence Management of Terr
Security-related Risks Pro
European Commission - Directorate
Freedom and Securi
Technologies for Food Defence
Marcella Trombetta PhD

Full Professor
Chairman of Chemistry & Biomaterials Labs
Email: m.trombetta@unicampus.it
http:// www.unicampus.it
Auditorium Biagio DAl

Italian Ministry of the He
Rome, 27th April 20
Food Chain

Consequence Management of Terro
Security-related Risks Prog
European Commission - DirectorateFreedom and Security
Schematic food chain of a simple hamburger ..

A COMPLEX SYSTEM !!!
Food Defence

The term to encompass activities associated with protecting t

Nations food supply from deliberate or intentional acts
contamination or tampering
U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2003:
the food and agriculture sector is one of the 17 critical national
infrastructures open to intentional attack
Everyone must eat!

To this foundational aspect of o

everyday life have the potential
cause a great deal of harm:
Physical: depending on the contaminant or where its used,
people or livestock could sicken or even die.
Economic: medical cost, quarantines, containment of food produ
decontamination and disposal of carcasses or product
Physiological: loss of Consumers confidence
Political: political unrest
Agro- terrorism

Intelligence: food sector is a terrorist target

Food and agriculture are critical assets (> 1 trillion
EURO in 2001
Source of major jobs (farm fast food chain)
Boundary around the food chain is porous
Terrorism
Contamination with CBRN agents
Chemical, Biological (Bioterrorism), Radiological, and
Nuclear
In Europe the food supply chain, although
identified as a critical sector, has received
comparatively less attention in terms of initiatives
to reduce potential consequences of deliberate
attacks.
Although excellence elements can be
identified, specific EU prevention mechanisms
are missing!

Terrorist attacks
Food Supply
Chain

Terrorist attacks
aiming to create lack of trust and
spread panic in developed countries
Multi-disciplinary topic

low enforcements,
food safety agencies,
health organisations,
food firms,
etc.
This limited problem-sharing capability at

EU level !
Food Defence Plan

Assess
your
vulnerabilities
to
contamination

operatio
intention
Write a food defence pl

detailing countermeasures
reduce the risk of intention
contamination
Prepare e response plan

fast, efficient containment of
emergency
Manage your food defence pl

for the long term
Food Defence Plan

What are the benefits of developing a food defense plan

Having a food defense plan for your operation can reduce the ri
of intentional contamination to your operation and may ultimate
benefit your bottom line.
Prevention
Response
Recovery

Who do Consumers believe?
Who do Consumers believe

is responsible for Food
Defence?
Consumers
11%
Retailers 10%
Government
31%
Transporters
and
Distributors
9%
Who do Consumers believ

is responsible for paying fo
Food Defence?
Consumers 8%
Retailers 12%
Government
30%
Transporters
and
Distributors
13%
Manufacturers
and
Processors
27%
Farmers 12%
Source: Stinsons et al. (2008)
Manufacturers
and
Processors
22%
Farmers
Food tampering

the intentional contamination of a food product,

with the intent to cause harm to the consumer or t
a private company
Refers to anything that may affect any part of the fo
product, such as the product itself, or it can affect t
packaging and the label
It is a punishable offence under the Criminal Code of almo
all the Member States of the European Commission
Reasons of Food Tampering

trying to draw attention to a "cause" revenge, by causing financial lo
by getting free publicity;
or ruining a company's reputatio
extortion for personal gain;
reasons known only to t
mischief or prank;
perpetrator.
terrorism;
Signs of tampering

packaging that has been opened and resealed;

products that have damaged or missing safety seals or tampe
evident seals;
products or packaging that is cut, torn, punctured
discoloured;
products that are dirty or damaged;
products with strange odour or flavour;
cans or jars with signs of leakage, spillage or corrosion;
vacuum-packed products with no vacuum seal;
packaging that has been altered, including labels, product l
codes, and other identifying information; and
the presence of a foreign object or non-food item in the product
Food tampering

Consequence of food tampering:

expenses linked to laboratorys analysis;

recall and stock expenses;
management costs linked to the merchandise cycle;
legal expenses;
compensations;
insurance costs;
communication costs;
possible expenses due to the final or temporary closure of commercial
markets and/or logistic or production structures;
selling off costs;
decreasing of purchases;
mid-term effect on the consumers trust;
costs connected to the relaunch of the product and/or of the industry;
decreasing of economic flow;
missed cash in.
Food Defence


1) Food traceability
ICT Systems for Food Traceability The Italian Case
RFID technology
2) Automatic Control Techniques for Food Supply Chain
Digital Image Processing Techniques to Improve Food Security
3) Nano-Biosensors for food defence
Polymeric nanowires-Ab sensors
Nano-BEAM-Ab sensors
Nano-BEAM-aptamer sensors
Nano-BEAM-DNA-sensors
Bio-barcode DNA sensors
Food Defence


RFID technology
Food Traceability

TRACEABILITY
refers to the completeness of the information abou
every step in a process chain
In food processing refers to the recording of all movement of product a
steps within the production process
Where traceability has been closely adhered to, it is possible to identify,
precise date/time and exact location which goods must be recalled, a
which are safe, potentially saving millions of dollars in the recall process
Traceability within the food processing industry is also utilized to iden
key high production & quality areas of a business, versus those of l
return, and where points in the production process may be improved
Food Traceability

Traceability systems imply the use of a unique piece of data which can
traced through the entire production flow, linking all sections of the busine
including suppliers and future sales through the supply chain
The use of a barcode / RFID

RFID: Radio-frequency identification is the use of an object - typically refer
to as an RFID tag - applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or per
for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags
be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader
A
barcode
is
an
optical
machine-readable
representation of data, which shows certain data on
certain products. Originally, barcodes represented
data in the widths (lines) and the spacings of parallel
lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1D (1
dimensional) barcodes or symbologies
Food Traceability

The European Union's General Food Law

It came into force in 2002, making traceability compulsory for food and fe
operators and requiring those businesses to implement traceability system
(http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/foodlaw/index_en.htm)
The EU introduced its Trade Control and Expert System, or TRACES,
April 2004. The system provides a central database to track movement
animals
within
the
EU
and
from
third
countri
(https://sanco.ec.europa.eu/traces/)
The new EC Regulation 178/2000 has a number of specific requirements f
enhanced traceability (EC, 2002)
Traceability facilitates trade or public recalls. Under the new EC regulatio
food business operators will have to have systems in place enabling them
identify immediate supplier(s) and immediate customer(s) of their products
Food Defence


RFID technology
Food Traceability


No standard computer at European level, for the
management of traceability
Companies operating in partnership trying to improve
traceability systems of their own devising:
Vegetal Production Research Centre (CRPV- www.cprv.it )
Net-Agree (www.net-agree.com )
Computer supports for :
a manual traceability;
GUA and GIAS-PCsoftware for managing field data;
software able to collect data that are generated in the business of product
manufacturing (TRACKING);
internet interface for the client: www.rintracciabilita.it
Food Defence


RFID technology
2)Automatic Control Techniques for Food Supply Chain

Food Traceability
RFID technology
Radio-Frequency IDentification is the use of a tag
applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or
person for the purpose of identification and tracking
using radio waves
FIRST PART
SECOND PART
integrated circuit for

storing and processing
information;
modulating and
demodulating a radiofrequency (RF) signal, and
other specialised
functions
antenna for receivin

and transmitting the
signal
Food Traceability

RFID technology: types of RFID Tags

Active RFID Tag: contains a battery and can transmit signals
autonomously
Passive RFID Tag: has no battery and require an

external source to provoke signal transmission
Semi-Passive RFID Tag (BAP): battery assisted

passive which require an external source to wake
up but have significant higher forward link
capability providing great read range
Food Traceability

RFID technology is used in enterprise supply chain management to

improve the efficiency of inventory tracking and management:
Product tracking
Transportation and logistics
Animal identification
Replacing barcodes
Food Defence


RFID technology
Automatic Control Techniques

Automatic Control Techniques for Food Supply Chain

Methods based on closed-loops control algorithms, where controllers have
the following roles:
To compare the value of the measured variable with the set-point value
To calculate the error and on the basis of this, providing the control action
The choice of product to be lead to the sales network in order to offer highe
quality and security. Advantages:
greater objectivity in the choice of the product
an improved control over possible counterfeits
Automatic Control Techniques

Digital Image Processing Techniques
to Improve Food Security
Image processing is divided into 5 phases:
Image Acquisition
Pre-processing
Segmentation
Measurements
Classification

Digital Image Processing

Sensors for images acquisition:
CCD, Ultrasound, MRI, CT, ET
Rules of discrimination of image objects:
shape, size, color, texture,
All such information collected is useful for the final
classification is done with algorithms specific logic
for each food industry
The advantages of using this technique are:
Improvement of product quality and security, as it
eliminates the subjectivity of the operator choice
and inattention
Ability to perform tasks that require high precision
The selection criteria can be easily changed by
software

Food Defence


RFID technology

Nano-Biosensors
Nanostructured Biosensors
Better Prevention
Stronger Protection
Faster Response
Min contamination
Min public exposure
Recovery quicly
Safe Secure Food
Protect the Public

Less illness
Reduce chance of successful attack
Biosensors

Biosensors are analytical devices which are capable of providing eith

qualitative or quantitative results
Biosensors combine the requisite selectivity of biology with the processi
power of modern microelectronics and optoelectronics to offer powerful n
analytical tools with major applications in medicine, environmen
diagnostics and the food and processing industries
Biosensors consist of bio-recognition systems, typically enzymes or bindi
proteins, such as antibodies, immobilised onto the surface of physic
chemical transducers
Specific interactions between the target analyte and the complementa
biorecognition layer produces a physico-chemical change which is detect
and may be measured by the transducer. The transducer can take ma
forms depending upon the parameters being measured - electrochemic
optical, mass and thermal changes are the most common
Principle of Biosensor

Biosensors Schematic

Advantages:
Rapid detection time
High sensitivity and specificity
Compatible with data
processing technologies
Source: Lazcka et al. (2007)
Detection Mechanism

Tested Samples
Milk
Fruits
Strawberries
Vegatables
Alfalfa sprouts
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Ground meat
Cooked food
Fried rice
Corn

Performance
Sensitivity and Selectivity

Nano-BEAM

Biologically enhanced electrically active magnetic nanoparticles

Bacillus Anthrac
100 l of
EAM
captured
spores!
Food Defence

Schematic food chain of a simple hamburger ..

Technologies for Food Defence in the whole steps of the
COMPLEX SYSTEM !!!

Thank you for

your attention!
m.trombetta@unicampus.it

Technologies For Food Defence: Final Conference Secufood Project

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Technologies For Food Defence: Final Conference Secufood Project

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Final Conference SecuFood Project

With the support of the Prevention,