Foodborne illnesses place a burden on the entire society. One strategy to lower the costs of foodborne illnesses is to reduce the prevalence of foodborne pathogens through interventions along the food supply chain. There is an ongoing trend that food safety systems are moving towards performance-based regimes, which rely on the implementation of food safety standards. However, the implementation of food safety standards has not garnered much interest in the Canadian policy environment. The assessment of food safety interventions to achieve a standard is challenging as the underlying biological processes are complex, the costs of administering such interventions are not abundantly clear and the set of available interventions is changing.
This thesis investigates the cost-effectiveness of food safety interventions and specifically the applicability of a food safety standard. First, a theoretical model is developed to investigate how; in theory cost-minimization can be used to identify the most cost-effective way to reduce foodborne pathogens with the utilization of a food safety standard. Then, a specific framework is developed for Campylobacter in chicken that consists of interrelated simulation models that represent the level and flow of pathogens through a commodity supply chain, the impact of alternative interventions on pathogen load and their costs. The case study focus is Ontario, Canada. Different interventions are compared and evaluated based on their compliance with a food safety standard. The applicability of different cost-effectiveness measures is assessed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OGU.10214/2984 |
| Date | 13 September 2011 |
| Creators | Schmidt, Claudia |
| Contributors | Spencer, Henson, John, Cranfield |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/ |
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