Abstract
FoodChain-Lab is modular open-source software for trace-back and trace-forward analysis in food-borne disease outbreak investigations. Development of FoodChain-Lab has been driven by a need for appropriate software in several food-related outbreaks in Germany since 2011. The software allows integrated data management, data linkage, enrichment and visualization as well as interactive supply chain analyses. Identification of possible outbreak sources or vehicles is facilitated by calculation of tracing scores for food-handling stations (companies or persons) and food products under investigation. The software also supports consideration of station-specific cross-contamination, analysis of geographical relationships, and topological clustering of the tracing network structure. FoodChain-Lab has been applied successfully in previous outbreak investigations, for example during the 2011 EHEC outbreak and the 2013/14 European hepatitis A outbreak. The software is most useful in complex, multi-area outbreak investigations where epidemiological evidence may be insufficient to discriminate between multiple implicated food products. The automated analysis and visualization components would be of greater value if trading information on food ingredients and compound products was more easily available.
Highlights
Worldwide, foodborne illness causes billions of dollars in healthcare related costs each year [1], and more in economic losses to farmers, distributors and food retailers [2,3]
Simple food chain structures may be delineated manually, but in outbreaks with complex food chain network structures, a manual network reconstruction approach relying on the “one step back, one step forward” principle specified in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 [6] may not be applicable
We here summarize the key findings of applying the software FoodChain-Lab during two real world outbreak investigations
Summary
Foodborne illness causes billions of dollars in healthcare related costs each year [1], and more in economic losses to farmers, distributors and food retailers [2,3]. Outbreak investigations often begin with interviews of cases about consumption of food products and may proceed to an analytical study such as a case-control study [4]. These epidemiological analyses are paralleled by microbiological investigations of implicated food. Authorities may need to reconstruct relevant food distribution networks to identify a causative food product. Distribution network reconstruction may be time-consuming and labor-intensive as information has to be collected from each company involved in the affected product chain. Simple food chain structures may be delineated manually, but in outbreaks with complex food chain network structures, a manual network reconstruction approach relying on the “one step back, one step forward” principle specified in Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 [6] may not be applicable. Delineating separate network structures for each supply chain pathway in a complex distribution network may not be feasible and the technical infrastructure to handle large volumes of data may not be available
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