Abstract
BackgroundFood control is defined as a mandatory regulatory activity of enforcement aimed at ensuring that all foods during production, handling, storage, processing, and distribution are safe, wholesome, and fit for human consumption; conform to safety and quality requirements; and are honestly and accurately labeled as prescribed by law. This applies to food served by the conventional food supply chain as well as the charitable food assistance programs (CFAPs). This review sought to map the available evidence on the food control in the CFAPs globally.MethodsIn order to identify the literature, we developed a series of search terms, as well as parameters for including articles to review the literature using African Index Medicus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and EBSCOhost (MEDLINE with full text, Academic search complete, MEDLINE) search engines. Articles were also searched through the “Cited by” search as well as citations included in the reference lists of included articles. We included studies reported in all languages and published from inception to 2018. We included studies if they presented evidence of the CFAPs, namely food banks, food charitable organizations (FCOs), pantries, community soup kitchens, and emergency shelters. We presented the results of our search using thematic analysis in order to reveal the emerging themes.ResultsBeyond inconsistencies with the classification of the CFAPs, our study found significant knowledge gaps in crucial areas, namely food vulnerability, food traceability, vulnerability of beneficiary populations, and lack of food control. Our search yielded a total of 23 articles, which we included in the analysis. Results show that while food is the critical commodity to saving lives, if not controlled properly, it can have an adverse effect, especially on people it is meant to benefit (the vulnerable).ConclusionWith no previous comprehensive review to assess what is known about food control in the CFAPs, we undertook a scoping review, focusing on mapping the key concepts, including the main sources and types of evidence available. By drawing conclusions about the overall state of research activity and identifying research gaps and priorities in the existing literature, this study provides a baseline assessment of the CFAP research published in peer-reviewed journals from inception to 2018.
Highlights
The practice of recovering and redistributing food by the charitable food assistance programs (CFAPs) has been performed for many years in many countries across the globe [1–3], little is known about food control in this sector
Collating and reporting We presented the results of our search using thematic analysis in order to reveal evidence of food control in the CFAPs from the included studies
Analysis of the full-article screening results showed that there was 89.47% agreement versus 56.79% expected by chance which constitutes moderate to the substantial agreement
Summary
The practice of recovering and redistributing food by the charitable food assistance programs (CFAPs) has been performed for many years in many countries across the globe [1–3], little is known about food control in this sector. Lack of food control may result in improper handling of food and the disregard for general hygiene measures [14–19] This can result in microbiological contamination of food [15, 20– 23]. Food control is defined as a mandatory regulatory activity of enforcement aimed at ensuring that all foods during production, handling, storage, processing, and distribution are safe, wholesome, and fit for human consumption; conform to safety and quality requirements; and are honestly and accurately labeled as prescribed by law. This applies to food served by the conventional food supply chain as well as the charitable food assistance programs (CFAPs). This review sought to map the available evidence on the food control in the CFAPs globally
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