Investigation of food and water microbiological conditions and foodborne disease outbreaks in the Federal District, Brazil

This is a retrospective study describing data on the microbiological conditions of food and water obtained from analysis reports issued by the Central Laboratory of the Federal District (LACEN-DF), and information on foodborne disease outbreaks investigated by the Office of Water and Food Borne Dise...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Food control 2013-11, Vol.34 (1), p.235-240
Main Authors:	Nunes, Márcia Menezes, Mota, Ana Lourdes Arrais de Alencar, Caldas, Eloisa Dutra
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Bacillus cereus Biological and medical sciences Brazil Cheese cheeses coagulase positive staphylococci coliform bacteria disease outbreaks Food Food industries Foodborne disease outbreak foodborne illness Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology General aspects heat tolerance Hygiene and safety ice cream laws and regulations Microbiology milk monitoring Pseudomonas aeruginosa ready-to-eat foods retrospective studies spices Water
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Summary:	This is a retrospective study describing data on the microbiological conditions of food and water obtained from analysis reports issued by the Central Laboratory of the Federal District (LACEN-DF), and information on foodborne disease outbreaks investigated by the Office of Water and Food Borne Diseases of the Federal District (NATHA), Brazil, between 2000 and 2010. A total of 4576 analysis reports were evaluated, from which 92.9% of monitoring samples and 7.1% of samples suspected to be involved in outbreaks. Of the total number of samples, 630 did not comply with Brazilian legislation (rejected). Ready-to-eat food, milk/dairy products, water, spices/seasonings, and ice cream/sorbets had the highest rejection rates among the monitoring samples (18.9–11%), with the first two groups having the highest rates among the outbreak samples (23.5 and 21.7%). Minas cheese showed to be the food with the highest rejection rate among the samples analyzed by the LACEN-DF. About 9% of the food samples were rejected due to thermotolerant coliforms and/or coagulase-positive staphylococci, and 10.5% of the water samples were rejected due to Pseudomona aeruginosa. Ready-to-eat food were the main foods involved in the foodborne disease outbreaks investigated by NATHA (51.3% of the 117 outbreaks with the food identified) and Bacillus cereus the most identified etiologic agent (41.2% of the 80 outbreaks with the agent identified). This study indicated that microbiological surveillance programs should focus on ready-to-eat food to prevent the occurrence of foodborne disease outbreaks in the region. •4576 food and water samples were analyzed, 13.8% were rejected.•About 20% ready-to-eat meals and 16% milk and dairy products samples were rejected.•Black pepper was the main food contaminated with Salmonella spp.•Ready-to-eat meals were the involved in 51% of the 117 outbreaks investigated.•Bacillus cereus was the agent most identified, 41.2% of 80 outbreaks with identified agent.
ISSN:	0956-7135 1873-7129