“More of a maze than a straight line”

Academic from Dublin describes food chain as a complex entity

Saying that the food chain is complex and more of a maze than a straight line, Dr Patrick Wall of the University College Dublin’s School of Public Health and Population Sciences said that no country could afford to be complacent.

Dr Wall was speaking on Day 2 of DIFSC, during the session titled ‘Food-borne Illnesses: Investigation and Disease Surveillance’, in Al Mutaqa Hall.

In his presentation, Dr Wall said regulations were useless unless they were enforced.

In his presentation, he also spoke on the role of the forensic microbiologist, which he said, was to ‘barcode’ the bacteria from the outbreak back to where it came from.

In several key outbreaks, he said, bacteria were found in low risk areas, and action was not taken.

Forensic microbiology, he said, was recommended in industry.

In his presentation, Dr Wall said that it was essential to adopt a broad and more comprehensive approach to investigating FBDs.

Major causes that led to food poisoning outbreaks, he said, included contaminated ingredients, inadequate refrigeration, insufficient cooking, cross contamination (raw to cooked), untrained/unsupervised staff and problems with premises.