Effectiveness of official food safety control in Barcelona city : Digital and traditional inspections
Grau Noguer, Eduard (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments)
Rodríguez-Sanz, Maica (Institut de Recerca Sant Pau)
Suppi Boldrito, Remo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Arquitectura de Computadors i Sistemes Operatius)
Serratosa, Jordi (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment)
Lundén, Janne (University of Helsinki. Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health)
Bolao, Assun (Institut de Recerca Sant Pau)
Cedano, Desireé (Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona)
Portaña Tudela, Samuel (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	Analysing the effects of using a digital environment in official food safety control and understanding its benefits is crucial for competent authorities. The aim of this paper was to assess the effectiveness of official control carried out by the Barcelona Public Health Agency between 2015 and 2022 in Barcelona city (Spain) at retail outlets following the transition from a traditional to a digital inspection. Effectiveness is defined as the ability to detect non-compliance during inspections. This study assessed 2,188 inspection reports of risk-based planned inspections from 2015 to 2019 (traditional inspection) and 2022 (digital inspection) to compare the detection of non-compliances. The results show a significant increase in the detection of non-compliance when using the digital inspection. Compared to all inspection areas studied, the highest prevalence difference in the detection of non-compliance using a digital environment was found for the areas of food processing and handling procedures (34. 0%) and own controls (16. 7%). On the other hand, the areas of food labelling and general cleanliness of premises and equipment showed the lowest difference, 11. 1% and 7. 9%, respectively. The present case study shows that the use of a digital environment during inspections positively supports the control officers in structuring the compliance judgement and being more sensible to detect non-compliance. This fact results in a greater effectiveness of food control.
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB. Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona BEQU-2020-01
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Food safety ; Food control ; Official food safety control ; Effectiveness ; Digitalization
Published in:	Food control, Vol. 165 (november 2024) , p. 110655, ISSN 1873-7129

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2024.110655

10 p, 511.8 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut de Recerca Sant Pau
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles