Centre for Research and Documentation in Food Safety


Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca e documentazione sulla Sicurezza Alimentare *Centre for Research and Documentation in Food Safety* Via Cara de Canonica, 6 - 10041 CARIGNANO (TORINO), ITALY Tel 0119690294 - Fax 0119690725 - info@ceirsa.org Italiano

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	Last news 13 November 2006 ZOONOSES AND RISK COMMUNICATION The Veterinary Public Health Association Scientific Meeting has been held in Bristol on 4 November. The meeting continues a theme identified at previous conference - the importance of the communication for vets working in, and with an interest in, public health. Communication of food chain information and the feed back of inspection results from the abattoir was considered by two veterinary practitioners with considerable practical knowledge of this in poultry and ruminants. Communication of public health issues to consumers was managed by a veterinary colleague from Italy and a speaker who works closely with the media on scientific matters. Two speakers of great renown in their specialist areas of zoonoses, and an expert on the use of zoonotic agents in biological warfare closed the meeting. *Italian Approach to Food Safety Communication* 31October 2006 POISONOUS MUSHROOMS SICKEN FAMILY; 4 PERSONS REQUIRED HOSPITALIZAZION AFTER DINNER ON WILD FUNGI 4 people suffered sever poisoning after eating wild mushrooms "Amanita phalloides” picked in a city park of Nichelino (Torino) last week. All 4 were hospitalized of whom 3 recovered and 1 woman died. A mycology information centre has been active for three years at the local Health Unit 8 (ASL8) of Piedmont to help prevent poisoning, but a lot of people think they know which mushrooms can be picked and eaten safely without consulting the experts. Other cases Source: www.ceirsa.org Ongoing Activities: Ceirsa's main project The Centre for Research and Documentation in Food Safety (CeIRSA) is a scientific working group based at the Veterinary Services of Local Health Unit nr. 8 (ASL8) of Piedmont. The Centre was born in February 2005 with the principal aim to deal from an institutional point of view with risk communication and food safety issues. Considering the importance of food for the improvement of the quality of life, valuable strategies of risk communication are essential to plan information campaigns addressed to consumers, health professionals or producers. Read more about the CeIRSA... http://www.ceirsa.org/eng_project.htm RISK PERCEPTION AND FOOD SAFETY DURING PREGNANCY As part of a multidisciplinary project on food safety and consumers in collaboration with the Regional Agency for Health Services of Piemonte (ARESS), we are planning a communication campaign for pregnant women about food safety risks . The stages of the project are: risk assessment through review of literature and epidemiological data from Piemonte, survey of the risk perception of pregnant women, consultation of a group of experts using the delphi method and finally the creation of a standard information protocol. Read more about this project... http://www.ceirsa.org/eng_pregnancy.htm FOOD ALERTS This section of the website is our way of letting the consumers know about problems associated with food and, in some cases, provide details of specific action to be taken. The food alerts that interest our territory (Local Health Unit nr.8 of Piedmont) are posted in a table periodically updated (in Italian). For some of this alerts, when more information is needed, we have created a page where we qualify the risk (physical, microbiological or chemical) and we quantify it. For this alerts we also post a description (in Italian) of what type of problems should be expected and what should be done to ensure safety. The description is also available in PDF for users to print at their convenience or to post in community health centres. Read more about our information system for food alerts... http://www.ceirsa.org/eng_alerts.HTM The English version of www.ceirsa.org is still under construction. More information about our ongoing projects (local consumer survey, alert informations for the consumers, surveillance of foodborne diseases...) will follow shortly.
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