Listeria monocytogenes can contaminate various foods via food processing environments and contamination of raw materials. There is a limited understanding of L. monocytogenes transmission in retail market and the role of insects in L. monocytogenes transmission in the retail environments. To better understand the risk factors of raw pork contamination, the prevalence of L. monocytogenes was examined in raw pork, retail environments and insects in a retail market over a six-month period from March to August in 2016 in Beijing, China.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01090/abstract
Swine welfare game-changers
The Pig Site speaks to Pork CRC CEO Roger Campbell about innovations in science within the swine welfare sector
Dr Roger Campbell is the CEO of CRC for High Integrity Australian Pork (Pork CRC). Pork CRC uses government and industry money, totalling around $40 million over eight years, to invest in research and training across the Australian pork industry. Pork CRC runs four research programmes: reduced confinement of sows and piglets; animal health management; improving the eating quality of Australian pork; and Carbon conscious nutrient inputs and outputs.
Public benefits of organic farming need formal recognition
The public benefits offered to the United Kingdom (UK) by organic agriculture need to be properly recognised and rewarded by government post-Brexit, according to leading organic certifier OF&G.
OF&G says the development of a new UK domestic agricultural policy (UK DAP) offers the chance to address systematic failures in the food system which have led to a decline in soils, biodiversity and water quality. And it says that by recognising those farming systems which provide clear and substantiated benefits to the public, the government has the opportunity to create a robust food system which offers long-term benefits.
To set out its suggestions for a new approach to UK agriculture, OF&G has written a policy paper which it hopes will help inform and shape the debate about the future of food and farming.
The paper, “An organic systems approach to the provision of public goods”, says that by combining modern techniques with traditional farming practices, organic farming simultaneously offers numerous benefits to the public. As well as maintaining the long-term fertility of soils, it protects biodiversity, preserves water quality and maintains high animal welfare alongside several other distinct benefits, all whilst producing high quality, safe and nutritious foods.
However by preserving public goods, organic farming systems have – to date – had to bear much of the cost, as seen by the premium shoppers have to pay for organic food, the paper says.
If organic production was properly rewarded for the multiple public goods it offers, then potentially organic food would be more accessible to all.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01090/abstractform
The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) coordinates industry interventions and collaboratively manages risks in the value chain to enable the sustainability and profitability of pork producers in South Africa.
