Food Safety Measures In Australian Food Supply Chain – Regulations And Standards

Food Authority of Australia claims that every year over 4.1 million people gets affected by food poisoning which is a major concern (Food poisoning, 2018). Hence, to mitigate the threat posed by the food the food safety authorities has provided the commercial food entities (producers to food retailers) with certain guidelines to abide by and the discussed paper is aimed at gaining an insight into those guidelines.

The aim of the paper is to gain an insight into the food safety measures of Australia from the primary production level to the retailer level. The aim could widely be understood by the fact that the proposed paper aims at looking the measures to ensure safety at the production level from ingredients to packing and others. It further extends to the retailer’s level where the transportation, storing and other safety measures will be identified and discussed. Based on the aim the research questions of the paper are:

1. Why Food Safety and what is the perception of the food industry towards it?
2. What are the food safety measures for primary production?
3. What are the food safety measures in food processing?
4. What are the food safety measures in food supply chain?
5. What is regulatory requirement in process food industry in Australia?
6. What are the labelling requirement for package food?

Food Safety regulations in Australia need

Food safety could be stated as the scientific discipline that aims at preparation, handling and storage of the consumables in ways that no food borne illness is spread. According to Kadariya, Smith & Thapaliya, (2014), a food borne illness is defined as the outbreak of a similar disease that had been identified in two or more cases that on investigation reveals are because of consumption of certain food. However, the impact of food borne illness and need for food safety are far more prominent than just the health issues (Hoffman, Maculloch & Batz, 2015). Food safety is one of the prominent needs for a nation not just to keep its citizen safe but it further extends to the sustainability of a nation and hence should be cited with adequate attention. Swinnen, (2018), in his paper have stated that food, health and economy of a nation are directly linked with each other. While the food could contribute to the nation’s economy, the health issues may affect it adversely and hence it is of dire need that food safety regulations are kept in place to mitigate the threat that is posed by the poisonous or harmful food.

The review of the articles has enabled the author of the proposed paper to gain an insight into the needs of food safety and how it is capable of changing the scenario of a country. Furthermore, the understanding of the food safety and food borne illness that falls under the same umbrella has cited the need for food safety regulation by a country. The outcome of the reviewed article would enable the author to approach the research objective with a different perspective and will also assist in formulating the questionnaire that will be used for collection of the quantitative data.

Food industry of Australia is one of the major industry of Australia whose spread reaches across the Oceania. Along with offering food to the geographical domain, in the process contributes to the economy and generation of employment (Mialon et al., 2016). Hence, it becomes of crucial importance that the industry maintains its sustainability. To maintain the sustainability of the industry, it should start ensuring that the final offerings by the industry is satisfactory for the end-users (Sacks et al., 2015). The first step in doing so it to cited adequate attention to the production of the food. The production units should give adequate attention that the produced food are done according to the food safety regulations. Abiding by the food safety regulations will ensure that the produced consumables are free of bacteria, hygienic and is clear about with the labelling. The next step deems consideration of the transport and the wholesalers. The supply chain transports the food and if it is moved without appropriate concern than the food may get affected in the process and chances of toxicities may arise (Uyttendaele et al., 2015). Furthermore, if the delivered food is stored inadequately by the wholesaler the chances of detrition increase which may affect the final stage. The storage should take account of the moisture, temperature, hygiene and other crucial need according to the type of food (Veselovsky et al., 2015). Finally, the retailer should also adopt the measures that are discussed for the wholesaler however, the challenge of lack of storage facility by the retailer are challenging. The approaches such as Just-in-Time could be able to cope up with the storage challenge off the retailers.

Literature Review

The review of the articles above has enabled the author of the proposed paper to understand the steps that are involved in delivering a food to the end-user. The different steps of the food industry from production to retailing have been discussed and how they are capable of compromising the food safety has also been discussed. It has assisted in understanding that the food safety measure for all the processes should be process specific and not a generalised solution.

According to Martirosyan and Schneider, (2014), consumers are the most crucial factor that are capable of adequately implementing the impact of the food safety regulations. The customers are cited with the burden stated above is because they are the end-users and they will the ones who will be the most effected due to the violation of the food safety regulation (Lazpoulos Frieedman & Van Camp, 2016). Hence, to maintain a stable health the customers should be aware of the food safety rules and regulations that are in place. Furthermore, it should also be ensured that the customers are aware of the place or authority that they should reach in case of violation of food safety regulation (Arthur, 2016). However, it is not only the responsibility of the government to aware the customers about the food safety protocol but the latter should also support the regulations.

The discussion about the customer’s role in the food safety will enable the author to understand the challenges that are associated with the food safety. The challenges in discussion may be associated with the unawareness or ignorance for the food safety regulations by the consumers. Furthermore, the role that they are capable of playing in enabling the impact of the food safety regulation for their health has also been identified which will assist in development of the questionnaire for the survey.

Research Philosophy

Positivism and interpretivism are the most commonly used research philosophies and the proposed paper will adopt positivism because the it considers both the scientific and the social data (Saunders et al., 2015). The social data would be helpful in understanding the society of Australia and their perception towards food safety and hence has been selected.

The research design of the proposed paper is exploratory in nature. The selection of the design could be justified by the fact that the aim of the paper is to explore the scenario of food safety measures in Australia and it will be greatly supported by the selected design (Lewis, 2015).

The data for the discussed paper will be collected from the government website of the food authority. Furthermore, other secondary source such as the newspaper and other scholarly article will also be considered to understand the believe of the commoners towards food and its safety. A small online survey will also be conducted to collect quantitative data for the proposed research work that will assist in understanding the current scenario of food safety. Hence, mixed data collection methodology will be collected as part of the proposed work.

Food Industry of Australia

The collected data will be analysed using regression model that will account for Ordinary Least Square (OLSs) which will be implemented on a broad data set to identify patterns and test theories (Darlington & Hayes, 2016). Furthermore, the secondary statistical analysis that also pursues regression model will also be pursued to derive adequate outcome from the secondary set of data.

The sampling of the data will be done on the probable sampling method which considers all the collected data of same level.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors
Food Safety Measures of Australia from Production to Retail	58 days	Mon 16-07-18	Wed 03-10-18
Initial Phase	10 days	Mon 16-07-18	Fri 27-07-18
Research Topic	2 days	Mon 16-07-18	Tue 17-07-18
Project Plan	3 days	Wed 18-07-18	Fri 20-07-18	3
Submission	1 day	Mon 23-07-18	Mon 23-07-18	4
Submitted	0 days	Mon 23-07-18	Mon 23-07-18	5
Background development	3 days	Tue 24-07-18	Thu 26-07-18	5
Research Questions	1 day	Fri 27-07-18	Fri 27-07-18	7
Planning phase	8 days	Mon 30-07-18	Wed 08-08-18
Deciding Activities	2 days	Mon 30-07-18	Tue 31-07-18	8
Deciding Schedule	1 day	Wed 01-08-18	Wed 01-08-18	10
Proposal Drafting	4 days	Thu 02-08-18	Tue 07-08-18	11
Submission	1 day	Wed 08-08-18	Wed 08-08-18	12
Submitted	0 days	Wed 08-08-18	Wed 08-08-18	13
Execution Phase	12 days	Thu 09-08-18	Fri 24-08-18
Reviewing Literature	4 days	Thu 09-08-18	Tue 14-08-18	13
Summary of Literary Work	2 days	Wed 15-08-18	Thu 16-08-18	16
Data Gathering	4 days	Fri 17-08-18	Wed 22-08-18	17
Summary	2 days	Thu 23-08-18	Fri 24-08-18	18
Analysis Phase	17 days	Mon 27-08-18	Tue 18-09-18
Identification of Patterns	3 days	Mon 27-08-18	Wed 29-08-18	17,19
Data Analysis	4 days	Thu 30-08-18	Tue 04-09-18	21
Conclusion	6 days	Wed 05-09-18	Wed 12-09-18	22
Drafting of Report	4 days	Thu 13-09-18	Tue 18-09-18	23
Report Drafted	0 days	Tue 18-09-18	Tue 18-09-18	24
Closure Phase	11 days	Wed 19-09-18	Wed 03-10-18
Submission	1 day	Wed 19-09-18	Wed 19-09-18	25
Oral Presentation	10 days	Thu 20-09-18	Wed 03-10-18	27

Table: Time Schedule

(Source: Created by Author using MS PROJECT)

Figure: Gantt Chart

(Source: Created by Author using MS PROJECT)

Feasibility

The timeline proposed is in accordance with the needs of the project work and the guidelines as suggested by the guide for the proposed work. Furthermore, time has been provided to individual activities based on the effort and attention they deem. Hence, the provided timeframe is feasible in nature.

The discussed study will assist in understanding of the food safety measures and how it could be utilised with adequate efficiency by the firms.

The primary source of the data will be the internet which will assist in collection of data from different sources. However, most of the data are paid versions which will limit the author from collecting relevant data and will be a constraint for the proposed work.

The proposed work will take adequate attention that no data manipulation is conducted to maintain the ethical values of the paper (Ketefian, 2015). Furthermore, the participants of the survey will also be informed about the objective of the survey and how their privacy and ethical values will be maintained.

Conclusion    

The project proposal could be summarised to state that food safety measures are one of the prominent needs to ensure the safety of the commoners and hence should be provided with adequate attention. Hence, in conclusion it could be emphasised that food safety measures deems attention so that they could be further improved and its vitality could be understood.

References

Arthur, P. J. (2016). Consumer trust in different food provisioning schemes: evidence from Beijing, China. Journal of cleaner production.

Darlington, R. B., & Hayes, A. F. (2016). Regression analysis and linear models: Concepts, applications, and implementation. Guilford Publications.

Food poisoning. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/fp/food-poisoning

Hoffmann, S. A., Maculloch, B., & Batz, M. (2015). Economic burden of major foodborne illnesses acquired in the United States (No. 205081). United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

Kadariya, J., Smith, T. C., & Thapaliya, D. (2014). Staphylococcus aureus and staphylococcal food-borne disease: an ongoing challenge in public health. BioMed research international, 2014.

Ketefian, S. (2015). Ethical considerations in research. Focus on vulnerable groups. Investigación y Educación en Enfermería, 33(1), 164-172.

Lazpoulos Friedman, L., & Van Camp, W. (2016). Pitfalls of the Food Safety Modernization Act: Enhanced Regulation, Minimal Consumer Benefit, and Zero Tolerance Levels for Naturally-Occurring Trace Pathogens. U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev., 48, 13.

Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), 473-475.

Martirosyan, A., & Schneider, Y. J. (2014). Engineered nanomaterials in food: implications for food safety and consumer health. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(6), 5720-5750.

Mialon, M., Swinburn, B., Allender, S., & Sacks, G. (2016). Systematic examination of publicly-available information reveals the diverse and extensive corporate political activity of the food industry in Australia. BMC public health, 16(1), 283.

Sacks, G., Mialon, M., Vandevijvere, S., Trevena, H., Snowdon, W., Crino, M., & Swinburn, B. (2015). Comparison of food industry policies and commitments on marketing to children and product (re) formulation in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Critical Public Health, 25(3), 299-319.

Saunders, M. N., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A., & Bristow, A. (2015). Understanding research philosophy and approaches to theory development.

Swinnen, J. (2016). Economics and politics of food standards, trade, and development#. Agricultural Economics, 47(S1), 7-19.

Uyttendaele, M., Jacxsens, L., Van Boxstael, S., Kirezieva, K., & Luning, P. (2015). Food safety standards in the fresh produce supply chain: advantages and disadvantages. In Advances in Microbial Food Safety (pp. 379-405).

Veselovsky, M. Y., Nuraliev, S. U., Fedotov, A. V., Sandu, I. S., & Avarskiy, N. D. (2015). Role of Wholesale Market in Ensuring Russian Food Safety under Conditions of Innovative Economy. Journal of applied economic sciences, 10(3), 417.