58194 - Inspection, Control and Certification of Food Products

Learning outcomes

During the course the student acquires theoretical knowledge and the practical skills forthe official control of food. He will learn the inspection procedures, will learn the rules of law that will guide in the inspection, control and certification of food of animal origin. The student at the end of the course will be able to judge if the food business operators fulfil the food safety regulations and their products are suitable for human consumption

Course contents

The course consists of 2 modules:

Module 1 (meat and eggs) has as a lecturer Prof. Trevisani and includes 20 hours of lectures and 4 practical lessons

A. Lectures
1. Introduction to the course. Origins, evolution and field inspection of meat (1 hour)
2. Minimum standards for the protection of farm animals during transport, the stop before slaughter and stunning (1 hour)
3. Lesions and damages connected with the transport of animals (2 hours)
4. Stunning of animals: restraint systems, methods of stunning, signs of proper stunning and management of anomalies (1 hour)
5. ante-mortem inspection: Purpose and scope; methodology; Typical signs of diseases classified in the OIE list; zoonoses detected at ante-mortem (2 hours)
6. ante-mortem inspection: cleanliness of animals; health checks of animals; criteria to order a slaughter with special precautions, delay slaughter, separate slaughter or Killing (2 hours)
7. Chemical risk assessment to the slaughter: Monitoring levels of residues and contaminants; risk factors related to the sanitary management of farms; inspection findings (ante and post mortem) and pharmacosurveillance to target your searches for residues of antibiotics; of fraudulent use methods with anabolic and veterinary drugs and control procedures (2 hours)
8. post-mortem inspection: procedures for post-mortem inspection of domestic hoofed mammals; Documentation of the main parasitic diseases and microbial origin detectable at post-mortem and criteria to be adopted for decisions concerning the destiny of the meat; Transmissible Spongiform (2 hours)
9. Encephalopathies and management of specified risk material (1 hour). Supplementary Examinations meat inspection: trichinosis; multi-residual methods for detecting residues of drugs; bacteriological examination of the meat; boar taint in pork; Histological examination of the accessory sex glands (1 hour)
10. Modernisation of meat inspection based on risk analysis. Official inspections at manufacturing plants of meat and criteria for the authorisation of manufacturing sites: general organisational structure of official controls in slaughterhouses (the Competent Authority; controls planning, methods and techniques of control (audit, inspection, monitoring , checks, interviews, sampling) (2 hours)
11. health and quality controls of eggs and egg products: the regulatory provisions; quality defects and abnormalities inside the eggs (visible on candling) and external (shell); use of artificial colouring in the diet of hens; hygiene and health problems affecting the production and placing on the market of egg products

B. Practical lessons

 Documentation with movies and images of the inspection procedures and the main and most common of the ante-mortem findings (1 hour) and post mortem (2 hours) and discussion of cases

 

The module has 2 as a lecturer Dr. Giacometti and includes 20 hours of lectures and 4 practical lessons

The programme of the course includes specific vertical aspects applicable to fishery products:

• Introduction to the course. Actors and activities in the fishery chain (1 hour);
• Systematics for identification of fish, molluscs and crustaceans species of commercial interest (4 hours);
• Labeling of fishery products, aquaculture and molluscs: provision of food information to consumers (2 hours);
• Judge on suitability of fishery products for human consumption: fulfillments of Food Business Operators and competent authority (4 hours);
• Requirements and health standards for live bivalve molluscs (4 hours);
• Zoonoses associated with fishery products consumption (2 hours);
• Parasites and chemical contaminants on fishery products (3 hours).

PRACTICAL DRILL-LESSONS

Practical drill-lessons, in small groups (a, b, c, d), for the identification of fish, molluscs and crustaceans species of commercial interest, fresshness of fish and visual examination for detecting visible parasites.

 

 

 

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

The course material consists of the recommended textbooks, and materials made available to students in the appropriate web site https://iol.unibo.it

The recommended books are:

AAVV (edited by Giampaolo Colavita). Hygiene and technology of food of animal origin. Point Veterinaire Italie. 2012

M. Trevinsani, G. Fedrizzi, G. Diegoli. Chemical hazards in meat and associated monitoring activities. In: Chemical hazards in foods of animal origin
ECVPH Food safety assurance, Volume 7
F.J.M. Smulders, I.M.C.M. Rietjens and M. Rose, free access https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-877-3_13

Meat Inspection and Control In The Slaughterhouse. Thimjos Ninios, Janne Lunden, Hannu Korkeala, Maria Fredriksson-Ahomaa (Editors). August 2014, Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-118-52586-9

Simone Stella, Eugenio Scanziani, Gabriele GhisleniManuale di ispezione e controllo delle carni. asa Editrice Ambrosiana - Zanichelli, Seconda edizione, 2018

Controlli ufficiali dei prodotti ittici freschi e legislazione. Leone Francesco. 2009. Ed. Caramanica.

Grande Enciclopedia Illustrata dei Pesci. Paolo Manzoni e Valentina Tepedino. 2008. Ed. EuroFishMarket

Grande Enciclopedia Illustrata dei Crostacei, dei Molluschi e dei Ricci di Mare. 2010. Paolo Manzoni. Ed. EuroFishMarket

Pesci dei mari italiani. Paolo Manzoni. 2015. Ed. gcDeAgostini

I grandi crostacei. Sistematica, benessere, allevamento, sanità ed igiene. A. Mengoli, R. Ballestrazzi, G. Comi, E. D’Agaro, S.R. Gelder, V. Giaccone, L. Iacumin, L. Iseppi, M. Manzano, A. Perolo, F. Quaglio, F. Rosa, V. Sabbioni, T. Scovacricchi, G. Sigovini. Ed. EuroFishMarket

Teaching methods

The course consists of 2 modules:

Module 1 (meat and eggs) has as a lecturer Prof. Trevisani and includes 20 hours of lectures and 4 practical lessons

The module has 2 as a lecturer Dr. Giacometti and includes 20 hours of lectures and 4 practical lessons

For the practical activities the students will be gathered in small groups in didactic laboratories or in classroom for exemplifications of real cases.

In the module 1 interactive software and movies will be used to illustrate the inspection procedures. Pictures will be used to discuss the main and most common ante-mortem and post-mortem findings and the criteria to decide on the suitability for human consumption.

Practical (hand-on) training in meat inspection will be done during the external training periodo in Food Inspection at the V academic year.

In  the module 2, students are divided in small groups for the practical drill-lessons in didactic laboratories or in classroom for exemplifications of real cases.

Assessment methods

Students can book for the oral exam only using the procedures provided by the online system Alma Exams. For any information on how to book, go to: (https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm ).

During the exam periods (jannuary-february) and june-september) 3-4 exam sessions will be scheduled. Outside of the he examination windows, but excluding the month of August, other 4 exam session will be available for the students who ar at 5th year have not the duty of following lectures.

The list open after the previous examination list are closed, so each student cannot enroll in more than one list at any time.

The final grade of the integrated course "INSPECTION, CONTROL AND CERTIFICATION OF FOOD" consists of the synthesis of the final evaluations of the various component modules (4 CFU) and internal training (2 CFU). To pass the exam students must achieve at least a pass in each module and training.

The student who does not pass the oral exam is eligible to reseat for exam in subsequent sessions.

The evaluation is expressed with a mark out of thirty for the exams. The test is passed with a score of at least 18/30. In the case of maximum marks (30/30), honors can be attributed. The student has the right to refuse the verbalization of the proposed positive grade. Students with DISABILITIES or SLDs must contact the teacher to have adaptations to teaching during the lesson phase or in the final evaluation phase. They will do it by email, by entering the reference staff they are followed by the faculty in the C / C.

For the module 1 the examination is written at the end of the course and aims to assess the achievement of the main learning objectives:

• Knowledge of control methods and inspection procedures

• Ability to target controls and implement measures to manage risk situations in case of violations.

Then orally there will be a discussion on clinical or anatomo-pathological findings that was illustrated in the practical lessons or in the lectures on the procedures and methodologies used for the official controls.

For the module 2 the final test is aimed to verify the achievement of the following goals:

• Systematics for identification of the main species of commercial interest;
• Deepened knowledge of the regulations in force and of the main risks and public health issues within the fishery chain;
• Ability to use these tools to control and operate in the fishery environment.

Two options are available for the final grade of module 2, namely written or oral examinations. Both these evaluations are aimed to verify the achievement of the following goals:

Systematics for identification of the main species of commercial interest;

Deepened knowledge of the regulations in force and of the main risks and public health issues within the fishery chain;

Ability to use these tools to control and operate in the fishery environment.

The written examination is carried out exclusively at the end of the course; it is voluntary (not mandatory) and aims to facilitate those students which have followed the course assiduously, dedicating themselves from the beginning to its learning. The oral examination addresses all students which have not participated (or have not achieved a sufficient score) in the written test. For both the evaluations modalities, failure in the identification of the main species of commercial interest precludes the following of the examination.

Written examination: test is composed with multiple choice and short answer questions; the student has 60 minutes for the test and during the test the use of support material such as textbooks, notes, computer supports is not allowed. Validity of written test is 1 year. Further details will be assigned at the beginning of the course.

Oral examination: the oral examination is compulsory for students which have not performed the written test. It is a detailed oral exam on several different subjects of the course, with at least 3 questions, of which the first one is always an initial systematic part (its failure precludes the following of the examination) and other two questions to verify the student's knowledges and competence as well as the ability to apply logico-deductive and problem solving skills.

The examination (written or oral) is passed with a minimum score of 18/30. Each student that intends to refuse the score of the written test must notify it to the teacher via e-mail and will be able to perform the oral exam at the next session.

In detail, here is the score grid for oral examinations:

- in-depth knowledge of the topics and regulation addressed in the course, together with high skills of critical analysis, connection and a sure command of specific terminology, will be evaluated with the maximum score (30-30L);

- good knowledge of the topics and regulation addressed in the course, together with good analytical and critical skills and the possession of a sure command of specific terminology, will be evaluated with good marks (27-29);

- technically adequate preparation (at least to regulation) and a sufficient analytical capacity, even if not particularly articulated, expressed in a correct language, will produce fair evaluations (23-26);

- sufficient preparation (at least to regulation) and capacity for analysis, expressed in a barely formally correct language, will determine the sufficiency (18-22).

Teaching tools

Interactive software, educational films. 

Teaching material comprises legislation in force, didactic material and scientific documents available on websites and useful for practical sessions and for a detailed study.

Office hours

See the website of Marcello Trevisani

See the website of Federica Giacometti