Chemical and physical hazards in the Dutch poultry meat chain

Abstract

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) watches over the safety of food and feed products. For this purpose, the NVWA monitors the presence of possible hazards for human and animal health in food and feed. In order to prioritize its monitoring activities, in accordance with Regulation (EC) 882/2004, the NVWA aims to apply risk-based control focusing on the most important food safety hazards. The aim of the current study was to provide an overview of possible chemical and physical hazards in the poultry supply chain (from farm to retail) and identify the most important chemical and physical hazards for human health. For these most important hazards, the possible human health effects were also evaluated. Furthermore, intervention measures for reducing the presence of these hazards were studied as well as trends that may affect food safety in the poultry chain in the future. A scientific literature review was performed, datasets (from the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed and Dutch monitoring data) were analyzed, and experts were consulted. The focus was on broiler meat, but also the meat of other poultry, such as turkey and ducks, was considered if literature and/or data were available. Results showed that various groups of chemical and physical hazards might occur in the poultry meat production chain. Most information was available for broilers and broiler meat, though occurrence data for several contaminants that are possibly relevant in poultry and poultry meat, specifically brominated flame retardants, were scarce. Occurrence data for other poultry types, like turkey and duck, were also scarce. Therefore, it is recommended to allocate research to obtain more information on the presence of specific chemical hazards in broilers, as well as other poultry types (although volumes for these meat sources are only a fraction of the total volumes of broiler meat produced in the Netherlands). Most chemical hazards are introduced at the farm level, where poultry can become contaminated due to the intake of contaminated feed, the outdoor and indoor environment, and equipment. Furthermore, due to the administration of veterinary drugs, residues of pharmacologically active substances could be present in poultry products. During further processing, contamination may occur due to the use of biocides, such as residues from agents used for cleaning the slaughtering and processing lines. In processed poultry products, food additives may be used. In addition, substances migrating from packaging materials and/or formed during processing (like heat-generated contaminants) may be introduced at later stages of the chain. For the latter hazards, arising from poultry processing, monitoring data is lacking and should continue to be collected so as to monitor their future presence. Based on the literature review, alerting and monitoring data, and expert opinion, the following chemical hazards were considered most important for the Dutch poultry meat production chain: dioxins and dioxin-like polychlorinated bip...

Identification of potential vulnerable points and paths of contamination in the Dutch broiler meat trade network

“…The two main breeding companies providing most of the broiler parent chickens (also called breeders) are: Aviagen and Cobb-Vantress Inc. The third breeding company is Hubbard, which provides slow-growing chickens [17]. Broiler parents, which produce hatching eggs, are stocked in broiler breeder farms.…”

“…directly. Half of the broilers chicks were intended for Dutch broiler farms and the other half were exported to other countries [17].…”

“…After the chicks are hatched, the day-old chicks are transported to broiler farms, where the chicks are kept for different time periods depending on the target market. Five to seven weeksold broilers are sold as conventional produce; eight weeks-old broilers are sold as animalfriendly produce; and organic broilers are sold at the age of ten weeks [17]. The number of the Dutch broiler farms has decreased significantly, from 2329 in 2007 to 480 in 2013 [19,24].…”

“…Some of the broilers are slaughtered in Germany and Belgium and the semifinished products are transported to Dutch processors. After cutting, the broiler meat is delivered to processors for packaging and labelling [17]. In 2016, there were 55 processors in the Netherlands, a slight increase from 50 in 2008 [22].…”

“…The third are importers and exporters of slaughtered chicken and meat. The Netherlands imported 405,000 tons of frozen broiler meat from Thailand, Brazil, Belgium and Germany and exported 943,000 tons of frozen broiler meat to other countries [17]. The main export markets for Dutch broiler meat are Germany and the U.K., where 30.6% and 19.1%, respectively, of broiler meat is exported to [19].…”