COST ACTION 920

Inventory of QMRA Studies in Europe

Pathogen

Salmonella Enteritidis

Country or region

Belgium

Transmission route

 From

 Farm

To

 Consumption

Specific product(s)

Eggs and egg products

End-point(s)

Prevalence and concentration of S. Enteritidis in eggs and egg products. Identification of critical points and assessment of possible preventative actions.

Bibliographic reference

Grijspeerdt K., Herman L. & Billiet L. (1999). A microbiological safety consumer survey on the household use of eggs in Belgium. J. Food Safety. 19, 249-261.

Abstract

A survey of parents of higher education college students assessed the purchasing behavior, storage conditions and consumption of hen eggs in the household, to quantify microbiological unsafe handling. Analysis of the questionnaires indicates an average consumption of 6.4 eggs per month, which are kept at an average temperature of 9.7°C for 2 weeks. An additional spot check showed that the interviewees probably underestimate the keeping temperature. The questionnaire also listed a series of egg dishes, which were afterwards categorised according to risk. The distributions of storage temperature, keeping time and type of dish were combined using a Monte Carlo resampling technique, which resulted in a hazard distribution. This distribution showed that the majority of the samples (98.2%) fell into a low hazard category.

Status

Availability

Institute

Contact person

 K.Grijspeerdt@clo.fgov.be

Partners