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Why Is It So Difficult to Trace the Origins of Food Poisoning Outbreaks?

ScienceDaily (June 1, 2012)

As consumers we are used to seeing country of origin labels on certain foods, but what about on products with more than one ingredient? A recent study by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland showed that 53 countries contributed to the ingredients of an ordinary "Chicken Kiev" in a Dublin restaurant. This diversity of sources is partly to blame for the failure to identify the sources of food poisoning outbreaks, and has lead to calls for international health agencies to initiate a system to monitor this 'human food web.' But just how complex is the human food web? What is its structure, can we quantify it, and what can we learn from it?

In the first study of its kind, published in the journal PLoS ONE, the scientists studied databases of food import and export to understand how 'food fluxes' generate a complicated worldwide network. They were led by Professor József Baranyi of the Institute of Food Research, which is strategically funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Using agro-food import-export data from the UN and FAO databases, the authors chart out the worldwide food-transport network and show that it forms an amazingly complex transport web. With the help of network science methods they reveal that it has highly vulnerable hotspots and demonstrate that, without increased control, some of these are prime positions for making outbreak tracing difficult.

The research identifies a number of countries as being central to the network or holding particular influence due to the dynamics of the food traffic, and stricter regulation in monitoring food trade here could benefit the network globally. Countries that take in many ingredients, process these into products, and act as distribution hubs are of particular concern.

"We found that the current structure of international food trade effectively makes The Netherlands a combined melting pot and Lazy Susan, with the busiest link to Germany," said Professor Baranyi. "This could explain why the tracing of the source suffered long delays in these countries in two serious outbreaks in 2011. This could be observed in both the E. colioutbreak in sprouts and the dioxin contamination in eggs."

The findings are supported by two types of analyses: one is based on the graph theoretical analysis of the structure of the international food trade network that allows the identification of the network core using the well-established "betweenness centrality" measures of nodes and edges for this purpose; the other is a measure based on the dynamics of the food-flow on the network, expressing to what extent a country is a "source" or a "sink."

Given the demonstrated complexity of the human food web, this work also introduces and validates for the first time a rigorous, quantitative methodology to help with biotracing and identifying the sources of food poisoning outbreaks, a problem that is only expected to increase in its magnitude, complexity and impact, in the face of current globalization trends.

Module 6

Read and translate the text with the help of your own vocabulary which you are to write just the way it is done in practical modules, ex. 1.

The British Isles

The British Isles lie off the western shores of Europe and come nearest to the Continent where the white cliffs of Dover face the cliffs of north-east France. The Strait of Dover is so narrow that a tunnel was made to connect the railways of the two countries.

North and west of Dover the British coasts are farther away from the Continent, they are separated from it by the North Sea and the English Channel.

Great Britain is the largest island which includes England, Scotland and Wales. It is separated from Ireland by the Irish Sea.

Great Britain owes much to the seas. In the first place, the seas have acted as a guard and have often kept the island free from wars. In the second place, the seas have given Great Britain a great advantage through the tides. Far out in the Atlantic the tides are scarcely noticed, but in the shallow British seas the difference between high tide and low tide is often very considerable especially in funnel-shaped estuaries like those of the Severn and Humber. Thus in -coming deep water twice in every twenty-four hours up the lower channels and estuaries of the rivers has made it possible for large ports to be built many miles from the open sea. Besides the shallow waters around the British Isles arc the home of many fish.

England has an area of 50,874 square miles. Its coast line is very irregular. There are many good harbours. No part of the country is more than 70 miles from the sea.

In general, England slopes from west to east. The main mountain system – the Pennine Chain – runs from the Scottish border to the Midlands, a region of hills and fertile valleys.

The rivers flow east into the North Sea (the Tweed, the Tyne, the Thames and a group of streams which join to make the wide Humber) and west into the Irish Sea or the British Channel (the Mersey, the Avon and the longest river in England – the Severn).

England has no large lakes. But the Lake District in the north-western part of the country is known for its beauty. There are sixteen lakes there.

England has a mild climate. This is due to the winds which blow from the south-west, from the ocean and the Gulf Stream which warms its shores. Rainfall is plentiful during the whole year. The heavy fogs of England are famous.

The most important natural resources of England are iron and coal.

Most of the people work in the great industries of the large cities. The most important industrial products are wool and cotton goods, machinery, iron and steel goods. Coal, iron, copper, zinc, lead and building stone are the principal materials taken out of the ground.

The principal crops are wheat, barley, oats, corn, rye, vegetables, sugar beets and fruits. England imports about 40 per cent of its food supply.

COMPREHENSION EXERCISES