Milling & Baking News - May 8, 2018 - 24

I.A.O.M. Review

Food safety in the spotlight
at I.A.O.M. annual meeting

24 / May 8, 2018

Milling & Baking News

than 200 products and 30 brands, Dr.
Neil said.
As a result of the outbreak investigation, several steps were taken to reduce the risk of future illnesses.
"We identified that the risk of eating
raw dough is not limited to Salmonella
from raw eggs; it also includes flour,"
Dr. Neil said. "It highlighted behaviors of consumers and restaurants that

SOSLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY

ATLANTA - Investigating outbreaks of food borne illnesses can
play a key role in preventing future
outbreaks and identifying unsuspected gaps in the food safety system, an investigator with the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
told participants during a keynote
address on April 11 at the International Association of Operative Millers' (I.A.O.M.) Annual Conference &
Expo in Atlanta.
Investigations also help people
identify how and what went wrong,
how the contamination occurred,
and identify new pathogens and new
foods linked to outbreaks, said Karen
Neil, Ph.D., a C.D.C. epidemic intelligence service officer.
"The immediate aim of any food
borne outbreak investigation is to
identify the cause of the outbreak so
we can stop it," she said. "Overall, this
can help reduce food borne illness by
stimulating better practices, potentially better regulations and better consumer education and understanding."
Flour first hit the C.D.C.'s radar as
a possible source of a 2009 outbreak
with 77 illnesses across 30 states, Dr.
Neil said. While flour was suspected,
no root cause for contamination was
identified.
"This outbreak really put flour on
the map for us regarding STEC outbreaks," she said.
Flour was the suspect in two more
outbreaks in 2012-13 and 2015, but it
was first confirmed in a 2016 outbreak
that made 56 people ill in 24 states, Dr.
Neil said.
A General Mills facility in Kansas
City was identified as the likely source
of the outbreak. Overall, 45 million lbs
of flour were recalled.
There were additional downstream
recalls of products made using that
flour, for a recall that included more

Karen Neil of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delivers the keynote
address at the annual I.A.O.M. Conference and Expo in Atlanta.

could make it more likely to get sick."
It stimulated the food industry to
modify package labeling to make
warnings against consuming raw
dough even more prominent, and
some moved toward the use of heat
treated flour.
Food safety concerns were also on
the mind of several equipment suppliers exhibiting at the sold-out I.A.O.M.
expo, held April 11-12.
Food safety is the top request from
customers, said Ricardo Fontenelle,
technical sales adviser of Brazilbased Sangati Berga. The company is

addressing that concern with plansifter
sieves and frames made from polymer.
The frames stack on top of each other
without any connecting elements.
"Eliminating all those connecting
elements like wood and rubber gaskets, which can be harmful, is a huge
improvement for the industry," Mr.
Fontenelle said.
Along with the plansifter technology, Sangati Berga also was highlighting its new alliance with Kice Industries, Inc., based in Wichita, Kas.
The businesses complement each
other since Sangati Berga supplies
milling equipment while Kice specializes in pneumatic conveying, dust
control and filtration applications.
"The market needs someone local for anything related to support
and spare parts," Mr. Fontenelle said.
"Kice is a very high-quality company;
they have the contacts, and they have
the established markets."
Together, the companies can offer a competitive, high tech turnkey
mill, said Andy Forrester, director of
sales, Kice.
"Our local support and service
complements their manufacturing capabilities in Brazil," he said. "Culturally, the companies are the same, and
we have the same goals and values."
A significant opportunity exists to
modernize and update the grain and
milling industries' aging infrastructure, Mr. Forrester said.
"There are a lot of requirements
that are driving modernization in the
mills," he said. "It's a great time to be
starting a partnership like this."
Satake is seeing significant growth
in Africa and Asia, said Peter Marriott,
sales manager, Satake Europe.
Africa is experiencing dietary
changes, with a move toward flourbased products. There is also demand
from niche markets for products that
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Milling & Baking News - May 8, 2018

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