Risk assessment of parasites in Norwegian drinking water: opportunities and challenges.

Despite the relative prosperity of Scandinavian countries, contamination of the drinking water supply with parasites has occurred on various occasions in the last few decades. These events have resulted in outbreaks of disease involving several thousand cases and/or the necessity for implementation of boil-water advisories. Against this background, in 2008, and again in 2019, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority requested a risk assessment from an independent scientific body regarding parasites in Norwegian drinking water.

Managing evidence in food safety and nutrition.

Evidence ('data') is at the heart of EFSA's 2020 Strategy and is addressed in three of its operational objectives: (1) adopt an open data approach, (2) improve data interoperability to facilitate data exchange, and (3) migrate towards structured scientific data. As the generation and availability of data have increased exponentially in the last decade, potentially providing a much larger evidence base for risk assessments, it is envisaged that the acquisition and management of evidence to support future food safety risk assessments will be a dominant feature of EFSA's future strategy. During the breakout session on 'Managing evidence' of EFSA's third Scientific Conference 'Science, Food, Society', current challenges and future developments were discussed in evidence management applied to food safety risk assessment, accounting for the increased volume of evidence available as well as the increased IT capabilities to access and analyse it.

Human pathogens in marine mammal meat – a northern perspective.

Only a few countries worldwide hunt seals and whales commercially. In Norway, hooded and harp seals and minke whales are commercially harvested, and coastal seals (harbour and grey seals) are hunted as game. Marine mammal meat is sold to the public and thus included in general microbiological meat control regulations.

Cross-border investigation of a Shigella sonnei outbreak in a group of Norwegian tourists after a trip to Russia.

In early September 2006, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health was alerted to an outbreak of Shigella sonnei infections (shigellosis) among 23 Norwegian passengers who had taken a bus tour from Kirkenes, Norway to Murmansk, Russia. The trip lasted from 27 to 31 August, and the group stayed in various hotels and visited several restaurants in both Kirkenes and Murmansk during this period. Stool samples from three ill passengers yielded S.

Outbreak of Yersinia enterocolitica serogroup O:9 infection and processed pork, Norway.

An outbreak involving 11 persons infected with Yersinia enterocolitica O:9 was investigated in Norway in February 2006. A case-control study and microbiologic investigation indicated a ready-to-eat pork product as the probable source. Appropriate control measures are needed to address consumer risk associated with this product.