How to reduce effectively the risk of human salmonellosis from minced pork meat in Belgium

Introduction
Since the last ten years, quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRA) concerning food borne pathogens have been developed in different countries. To improve pork meat safety further, the Belgian authorities have asked to an interdisciplinary Belgian research consortium (METZOON-consortium) the development of a “farm to fork” QMRA concerning the consumption of fresh minced pork meat contaminated with Salmonella in Belgium. The final task of this QMRA is to give practical recommendations to improve the pork meat safety and to reduce the number of salmonellosis cases in Belgium. These recommendations are based on reduction scenario’s introduced in the model.

Materiel and methods
The METZOON model was carried out by building a modular risk model covering the pork meat production chain and developed into six consecutive modules: farm, transport and lairage, slaughterhouse, post processing, distribution and storage, preparation at home. The risk characterization is the dose response model developed by Bollaerts et al.; based on outbreak data (1). The scenario analysis helps to identify combinations of input values which lead to output target values (3). This is achieved by selecting various combinations of input values commonly know as “what if scenario”. The selected scenarios were based on the recent literature and on concrete management and technical options to improve the microbiological quality of the pork meat and to reduce effectively the risk of human salmonellosis. First, single interventions were assessed like reducing the seroprevalence at farm level, reducing the prevalence of contaminated carcasses and their contamination levels at slaughterhouse, decontamination of the carcasses with double singing at slaughterhouse, reduction of cross-contamination at home, etc. A second step was to assessed multiple interventions along the production chain, by example, joined efforts by farmers at primary production, by operators at slaughterhouse and consumers at home simultaneously.

Discussion and conclusions
The scenario analysis can provide new microbiological criteria to reach a food safety objective in order to reduce the risk of human salmonellosis. Most single intervention and control measures are not effective enough to reduce or remove a Salmonella infection or contamination from the pig production chain. It is therefore recommended that interventions and control strategy is formulated, based on a combination of measures which are both practically and economically feasible. Technical solutions, like systematic double singing or reduction of contamination at evisceration by enclosure of the rectum could improve the Belgian situation (2). The consumers must also be aware of good hygiene practices during preparation of the meat at home. Undercooking and cross contamination with raw food can be avoided by changing the habit and the behavior of the household cook. The results of these scenarios are useful for the actors involved in the pork meat chain and for public health officials.