• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.68-76
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• 2021

Foodborne outbreaks frequently occur worldwide and result in huge economic losses. It is the therefore important to estimate the costs associated with foodborne diseases to minimize the economic damage. At the same time, it is difficult to accurately estimate the economic loss from foodborne disease due to a wide variety of cost components. In Korea, there are a limited number of analytical studies attempting to estimate such costs. In this study we investigated the components of economic cost used in foreign countries to better estimate the cost of foodborne disease in Korea. Seven recent studies investigated the cost components used to estimate the cost of foodborne disease in humans. This study categorized the economic loss into four types of cost: direct costs, indirect costs, food business costs, and government administration costs. The healthcare costs most often included were medical (outpatient) and hospital costs (inpatient). However, these cost components should be selected according to the systems and budgets of medical services by country. For non-healthcare costs, several other studies considered transportation costs to the hospital as an exception to the cost of inpatient care. So, further discussion is needed on whether to consider inpatient care costs. Among the indirect costs, premature mortality, lost productivity, lost leisure time, and lost quality of life/pain, grief and suffering costs were considered, but the opportunity costs for hospital visits were not considered in any of the above studies. As with healthcare costs, government administration costs should also be considered appropriate cost components due to the difference in government budget systems, for example. Our findings will provide fundamental information for economic analysis associated with foodborne diseases to improve food safety policy in Korea.

• BMB Reports
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2015

Norovirus is a major cause of viral gastroenteritis and a common cause of foodborne and waterborne outbreaks. Norovirus outbreaks are responsible for economic losses, most notably to the public health and food industry field. Norovirus has characteristics such as low infectious dose, prolonged shedding period, strong stability, great diversity, and frequent genome mutations. Besides these characteristics, they are known for rapid and extensive spread in closed settings such as hospitals, hotels, and schools. Norovirus is well known as a major agent of food-poisoning in diverse settings in South Korea. For these reasons, nationwide surveillance for norovirus is active in both clinical and environmental settings in South Korea. Recent studies have reported the emergence of variants and novel recombinants of norovirus. In this review, we summarized studies on the molecular epidemiology and nationwide surveillance of norovirus in South Korea. This review will provide information for vaccine development and prediction of new emerging variants of norovirus in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.941-949
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• 2011

In this paper, 72 weather stations in Korea are clustered by the hierarchical agglomerative procedure based on the average linkage method. We compare our clusters and stations divided by mountain chains which are applied to study on the impact analysis of foodborne disease outbreak due to climate change.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.232-244
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• 2000

Domestic market of mass catering establishments has been increased greatly since early 90's with the emergence of professional mass catering business and the expansion of school food service. Because of the characteristics of mass catering establishment, feeding many people at a time, there is always a high potential of foodborne outbreak which requires special sanitary management to prevent. Large-scale outbreaks occurred last few years in Korea revealed the necessity of establishing strong safety measures for the sanitary management of mass catering establishments. Currently, many catering businesses are interested in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points(HACCP), a new sanitary management system, and are trying to implement HACCP for their food services. Korean government is also undertaking model projects for mass catering establishments. Accordingly, numerous efforts are being given to dove op HACCP plans by the academia and industry, however, there has been no report on generic HACCP model which can be used directly for mass catering establishments dealing with numerous menus. Therefore, this study suggested a methodology to develop HACCP plans for domestic mass catering establishments and a generic HACCP model which can be applied to most Korean mass catering establishments hoping to implement HACCP system.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.373-376
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to present the proper probability distribution model based on the data obtained from surveys on domestic refrigerator food storage temperatures in home. Domestic refrigerator temperatures were determined as risk factors in foodborne disease outbreaks for microbial risk assessment (MRA). The temperature was measured by directly visiting 139 homes using a data logger from May to September of 2009. The overall mean temperature for all the refrigerators in the survey was $3.53{\pm}2.96^{\circ}C$, with 23.6% of the refrigerators measuring above $5^{\circ}C$. Probability distributions were also created using @RISK program based on the measured temperature data. Statistical ranking was determined by the goodness of fit (GOF, i.e., the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) or Anderson-Darling (AD) test) to determine the proper probability distribution model. This result showed that the LogLogistic (-10.407, 13.616, 8.6107) distribution was found to be the most appropriate for the MRA model. The results of this study might be directly used as input variables in exposure evaluation for conducting MRA.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1059-1070
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• 2007

Prion diseases, often called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), are infectious diseases that accompany neurological dysfunctions in many mammalian hosts. Prion diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, "mad cow disease") in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elks. The cause of these fatal diseases is a proteinaceous pathogen termed prion that lacks functional nucleic acids. As demonstrated in the BSE outbreak and its transmission to humans, the onset of disease is not limited to a certain species but can be transmissible from one host species to another. Such a striking nature of prions has generated huge concerns in public health and attracted serious attention in the scientific communities. To date, the potential transmission of prions to humans via foodborne infection and iatrogenic routes has not been alleviated. Rather, the possible transmission of human to human or cervids to human aggravates the terrifying situation across the globe. In this review, basic features about prion diseases including clinical and pathological characteristics, etiology, and transmission of diseases are described. Based on recently accumulated evidences, the molecular and biochemical aspects of prions, with an emphasis on the molecular interactions involved in prion conversion that is critical during prion replication and pathogenesis, are also addressed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.170-174
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• 2008

The strains of Salmonella othmarschen and Norovirus isolated from outbreak A, the funeral ceremonies incidents in Ouri-shi of Oyeonggido in, 2007, were subjected to genotyping by using PFGE and extraction of RNA by using RT-PCR. 24 Salmonella othmarschen were isolated from 37 cases (patients 12 cases, cookers 4 cases, foods 7cases, knife, kitchen board, dish towel 4 cases, etc) and PFGE patterns showed that 22 strains isolated from the same incident were almost of the same pattern and 2 strains exhibited 50% of the pattern. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were such that there were 22 case susceptibility patterns and 2 case resistance patterns (strain 4: AM, CF, CIP, NA, TE TIC and strain 13: CF, CZ). Norovirus G1 (1case), Norovirus G2 (7cases), Norovirus G1,G2 (1case) were detected by using RT-PCR. The fine typing ability and reliability of PFGE and BioNumerics are helpful for establishing out the foodborne pathogens of outbreaks.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.123-137
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• 2000

Korea market of food service industry has been increased greatly since early 90's with the emergence of professional catering business and the expansion of school food service. Because of the characteristics of food service establishment, feeding many people at a time, there is always a high potential of foodborne outbreak which requires special sanitary management to prevent. Currently, many catering businesses are interested in HACCP(Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points), a new sanitary management system, and are trying to develop HACCP Plans for their food service establishment. Microbiological hazard analysis, a most important step for developing HACCP Plan, provides also basic information for evaluating sanitary aspect of prepared foods and their materials. There are not extensive data of microbiological hazard analysis for food service operations, especially for prepared foods and raw materials, which are helpful for developing a HACCP Plan. The extensive microbiological hazard analyses for 65 prepared foods and 51 raw materials selected from a couple of food service establishment were performed in this research. These results will provide useful information to determine hazards for developing a HACCP plan, and also to understand sanitary status for prepared foods and raw materials in food service establishment.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2019

Scombroid fish poisoning (SFP) is a form of histamine food poisoning caused by the ingestion of improperly stored fish. The term "scombroid" derives from the family name of the fish family first implicated, such as tuna and mackerel. On the other hand, non-scombroid fish species, such as sardine and herring, can also cause histamine poisoning. The histamine is converted from histidine by a bacterial enzyme in the causative fish. Because the symptoms of SFP can easily be confused with food allergies, it is believed to have been significantly under-reported. In 2016, an outbreak of SFP occurred among primary school students who had eaten yellowtail steak in Korea. The most common findings consisted of a rapid onset of flushing of the face and trunk, erythematous and urticarial rash, diarrhea, and headache occurring soon after consuming the spoiled fish. Usually, the course is self-limiting and antihistamines can be used successfully to relieve symptoms, but several life-threatening SFP cases have been reported. Clinical toxicologists should be familiar with SFP and have competency to make a differential diagnosis between fish allergy and histamine poisoning. SFP is a histamine-induced reaction caused by the ingestion of histamine-contaminated fish, whereas a fish allergy is an IgE-mediated reaction. This review discusses the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and preventive measures of SFP.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.102-108
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• 2024

This study was performed to establish the epidemiological features of a food poisoning outbreak that occurred in the cafeteria of a company in Chungcheongnam-do Province, Korea, in October 2020, and to recommend measures to prevent similar outbreaks. Twenty-one patients with acute gastroenteritis, three food handlers, seven cooking utensils, and 12 preserved food samples were subjected to viral and bacterial analyses based on procedures described in the "Manual for Detection of Foodborne Pathogens at Outbreaks". Among 135 individuals who had been served the meals, 21 (15.6%) showed symptoms of nausea and vomiting within an hour of consuming the food. Bacillus cereus were isolated from 11 (52.4%) of the 21 patients, one food service employee, one item of cooking ware, and 12 preserved food samples. In addition, we confirmed the toxin genes CER, nheA, and entFM from the isolated B. cereus strains. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis results indicated that all of the isolated B. cereus strains were closely related, with the exception of strains obtained from one patient and one sample of preserved food. These findings provide evidence to indicate that the isolated B. cereus originated from preserved foods and an unhygienic eating environment. This outbreak highlights that the provision of food in non-commercial food systems must be thoroughly managed. In addition, it emphasizes the necessity for the correct and timely identification of causal pathogens for tracing the cause of food poisoning outbreaks, and the need to preserve food under appropriate conditions. To prevent similar cases of food poisoning, it is necessary to investigate cases based on an epidemiological approach and share the findings.