Similarity matching of food safety incidents in China: Aspects of rapid emergency response and food safety

Abstract Because food safety risks are becoming increasingly complex, food regulators and public health professionals should improve their ability in food safety management process. This study used the Carrado food poisoning incident in China as a case study to assist related managers in food safety assurance. The indicator system was established by extracting the descriptive information about food safety incidents, including ex-ante and ex-post information. In total, 295 food safety incident cases based on the characteristic attributes since 2000 were collected to establish a case database. We applied the algorithms of information entropy and cosine similarity to build the similarity matching model, and determined the degree of similarity between historical cases and the target case using MATLAB. By referring to the experiences of similar historical cases and the food safety accident emergency response plan, the emergency response was made. After the attribute difference analysis between similar historical cases and the target case was performed, the root causes of the target case were found. Finally, preventive measures were suggested. These results may provide a reference for food regulators to make rapid emergency response in the food safety incident and avoid the recurrence of similar incidents.

[1]  Shunlong Gong,et al.  Government regulations and voluntary certifications in food safety in China: A review , 2019, Trends in Food Science & Technology.

[2]  Jianhong Xue,et al.  Understanding China's food safety problem: An analysis of 2387 incidents of acute foodborne illness , 2013 .

[3]  Neal D. Fortin,et al.  Navigating the U.S. Food Additive Regulatory Program , 2011 .

[4]  Jun‐shi Chen,et al.  Food safety risk assessment in China: Past, present and future , 2018, Food Control.

[5]  Justin Remais,et al.  Food supply and food safety issues in China , 2013, The Lancet.

[6]  Jianguo Wen,et al.  Melamine and food safety: a 10-year review , 2019 .

[7]  Ha Won Kim,et al.  The analysis of food safety incidents in South Korea, 1998–2016 , 2017 .

[8]  Y. Chang,et al.  Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives , 2014 .

[9]  L. Manning,et al.  The role of media reporting in food safety governance in China: A dairy case study , 2019, Food Control.

[10]  Jianhong Xue,et al.  Economically motivated food fraud and adulteration in China: An analysis based on 1553 media reports , 2016 .

[11]  B. Almanza,et al.  The impact of food safety events on the value of food-related firms: An event study approach , 2012, International Journal of Hospitality Management.

[12]  Ye Zheng-wang.  The Research of Intrusion Detection Algorithms Based on the Clustering of Information Entropy , 2012 .

[13]  Xuan Weng,et al.  Ensuring food safety: Quality monitoring using microfluidics , 2017, Trends in Food Science & Technology.

[14]  Thomson W. L. Wong,et al.  Examining motor learning in older adults using analogy instruction , 2017 .

[15]  William H. McGuire,et al.  Regional patterns of food safety in China: What can we learn from media data? , 2014 .

[16]  Wenyan Nong,et al.  Development of a food safety information database for Greater China , 2016 .

[17]  Yu Liu,et al.  Information entropy based sample reduction for support vector data description , 2018, Appl. Soft Comput..

[18]  W. Lv,et al.  Risk analysis of dairy safety incidents in China , 2018, Food Control.

[19]  Linden J. Ball,et al.  Analogical Reasoning and Mental Simulation in Design: Two Strategies Linked to Uncertainty Resolution , 2009 .

[20]  Lijun Wu,et al.  Similarity measure method based on spectra subspace and locally linear embedding algorithm , 2019, Infrared Physics & Technology.

[21]  C. Wallace,et al.  Determining common contributory factors in food safety incidents – A review of global outbreaks and recalls 2008–2018 , 2020, Trends in Food Science & Technology.

[22]  Carol A. Wallace,et al.  Incident Management and Root Cause Analysis , 2014 .

[23]  Y. Motarjemi,et al.  Food Safety Assurance Systems: Root Cause Analysis of Incidents , 2014 .

[24]  Dean Bertolatti,et al.  Food Safety and Risk Analysis , 2011 .