OIE Collaborating Centre for Food Safety

Dr Chua Tze HoongEmail: Chua_Tze_Hoong@ava.gov.sg

Welcome to the Veterinary Public Health Centre

Ms Tan Poh Hong

Chief Executive Officer

Mr Lee Kwong Weng

Deputy CEO

Corporate and Technology

Corporate Resource ManagementGroup

Communications &Corporate Relations Group

Planning & Organisational Excellence Group

Technology & Industry Group

Food Supply Resilience Group

Dr Chew Siang Thai

Director-General / Deputy CEO

Regulatory Programmes & Operations

OIE Delegate

Dr Astrid Yeo

Regulatory Administration

Group

(OIE NationalFocal

Point for wildlife)

Dr Astrid Yeo

Food Establishment Regulation Group

Dr Wong Hon Mun

Agri-Establishment Regulation Group

(OIE National Focal Point for Animal

Welfare)

Dr Paul Chiew

Laboratories Group

(OIE National Focal Point for Animal Production Food Safety)

Veterinary Public Health Centre

(OIE Collaborating Centre for Food Safety)

Dr Chua Tze Hoong

MicrobiologyDepartment

Microbiology Section

Molecular Biology Section

Food Quality and

AuthenticationSection

Toxins Section

Dr Ch'ng Ai Lee

ChemistryDepartment

Contaminants Section

Food Nutrition & Chemistry

Section

Pesticide Residues Section

Drug ResiduesSection

Animal and Plant Health

Centre

Dr Chua Tze Hoong

Planning and Coordination Department

(OIE National Focal Point for Laboratories)

Dr Yap Him Hoo

Quarantine & Inspection

Group

(OIE National Focal Point for Animal Disease

Notification)

Introduction

• VPHC - cornerstone of AVA’s integrated food safety programmes through provision of scientific expertise, & comprehensive laboratory testing services and programmes.

– To ensure the safety of the food that we consume through stringent testing and monitoring of fresh and processed food in Singapore.

Testing functions

Provides comprehensive testing capabilities in support of AVA’s food safety mission

Import control e.g. meat, eggs, seafood, infant formula & cereals, dairy

products, fruits & vegetables, bottled water, sauce, coconut products

Monitoring and surveillance programmes e.g. supermarket retail

food items, local farms (eggs, feed), local factories (sauces, cakes, processed meat)

Export health certification to overseas countries

Also provides testing services to other govt agencies e.g. NEA, MOH and PUB) and commercial companies (food processors, exporters and traders)

Scientific expertise and research

Provides scientific expertise in areas of food safety and veterinary public health

(a) Support AVA in review of food inspection and surveillance & in review of national food standards

(b) Research in developing new testing methods for current and emerging foodborne hazards

(c) Collaboration with overseas & local agencies & diagnostics company on studies & trials

(d) Capacity building/training - organising food safety conferences and seminars

- Teritary student attachments- Training programmes for ASEAN member countries

(e) Research publications

Our scientists

Multi-disciplinary

• Agriculture, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, biomedical science, biotechnology, food science and technology, molecular biology, pharmacy, and veterinary science

• Doctorates and Masters

• Technical Training & Development – Attachment training to both local and overseas diagnostic labs– Participation in international & regional Conferences, Seminars,

Workshops

Collaborating Centre for Food Safety

• Collaboration with external institutes e.g tertiary institutes, One Health (MOH, NEA), overseas agencies, diagnostics companies

• Provision of training at various platforms e.g.- ASEAN / EC-ASEAN (Biotoxins Workshop, Pesticide Residue Testing Workshop)- Overseas participants G-G arrangement (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam,

Myanmar, Philippines, etc)- 19th SEACFMD conference , OIE workshops & Jilin Disease-Free Zone training course

Regional (ASEAN) Training Workshop on Biotoxins

EC-ASEAN workshop on Pesticide Residues analysis

Disease-Free Zone training for Jilin City, PRC participants

19th OIE SEACFMD subcommision meeting

Multi Disciplinary Analytical Capabilities VPHC houses state-of-the-art facilities that conduct a comprehensive range of analytical services for microbiological, chemical, pesticide and drug contamination.

Drug Residues

Pesticide Residues

Chemical Contaminants

Food & Nutrition Chemistry

Food-borne Toxins

Food Microbiology

GM food

Food Authentication & Quality

Multi Disciplinary Analytical Capabilities

Test Areas No of parameters /

analytes test capabilities

Analytes under accredited

methods

Total no. of methods Accredited Methods

Chemical contaminants 100 81 19 11

Drug residues 213 155 35 7

Food and nutritional components 117 49 51 27

Pesticide residues 250 200+ 39 15

Food quality and authenticaton 88 40 47 20

Microbiology 29 29 29 29

Genetically modified organisms 51 51 69 66

Foodborne toxins 33 21 35 12

TOTAL 881 ~630 324 187

2. Pesticide Residues:

Pesticides, Fungicides, Insecticides e.g. OCs, OPs, Dithiocarbamates, Pyrethroids, N-methylcarbamates, melamine

Herbicides and Growth regulators

Chemical Hazard Analyses 1. Drug Residues:

Banned drugs e.g. nitrofurans, amphenicols, triphenylmethanedyes

Antibiotics (Fluoroquinolones, penicillins, macrolides, aminoglycosides, tetracycline)

Growth promoters e.g. beta-agonists , hormones, stillbenes

Reference laboratory for pesticide residues analysis for the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 2004

Pesticide residues sample extraction and analysis

LC-MS/MS for residues analysis Sample preparation and extraction for residues testing

GC-MS/MS for residues analysis

3. Food & Nutrition Chemistry:

Illegal colours e.g. sudan red

Food additives & preservatives e.g. sweeteners, formaldehyde, boric acid, maleic acid

Freshness indicators

Nutritional components (vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids)

Chemical Hazard Analyses

4. Contaminants:

Toxic metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium)

Environmental contaminants e.g. dioxin, radioactive nuclides

By-products of food processing e.g. 3-MCPD, acrylamide

Migratory substances from food packaging e.g. Plasticisers/ phlalates

VPHC is one of few labs in region testing for dioxins in food. It is working towards ASEAN Food Testing Reference Laboratory for Environmental Contaminants.

GC High-Resolution MS for Dioxin testing

Automated sample clean-up for dioxin analysis

Gamma spectrometer for radionuclide testing

Fat extraction process for dioxin testing

Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer and Direct Mercury Analyser

Biological Hazard Analyses

6. Food Microbiology:

Foodborne pathogens e.g. Salmonella, E coli 157:H7, Listeriasp, Vibrio sp

Hygiene indicators e.g. Total Bacterial count

5. Food-borne Toxins:

Mycotoxins

Seafood toxins

Bacterial toxins

Natural allergens

Mycotoxin analysis with immunoaffinity column for sample purification prior to HPLC

Colony Counter for automated enumeration of Total Bacterial Count

BAX PCR for fast screening of major bacterial pathogens

VITEK 2 for rapid biochemical confirmation of bacterial identification

Riboprinter for Genetic Fingerprinting to establish epidemiological linkages

Whole genome mapping with the Argus Optical Mapping System

A genetic analyzer used for 16S rDNA Bacterial Sequencing for Bacterial Identification

7. Food Authenticity & Quality:

Food authenticity tests e.g. meat speciation, honey, sharks fin, bird’s nest, carbon monoxide treated tuna, fresh & thawed frozen meat, nut & gluten allergens

Commercial sterility of canned food

Physical quality tests

Biological & Physical Hazard Analyses

8. GM Food:

Starlink Corn

Bt Rice

RR Soya

Can seam test

Photostimulated luminescence technique for testing of irradiated food

Authenticity of honey based on isotopic profile using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS)

Iso-electric focusing (IEF) for species identification tests

Post-PCR room with Real-Time PCR Machines

Past food-related incidents

Year Food contamination

2013 Maleic acid in starch tapioca products

2013 horse-meat adulterated beef products

2011 phthalate plasticisers in fruit drinks

2011 Nuclear crisis and radionuclides in food products

2011 Dioxins & PCBs in pork; E coli 0104:H4

2009 Salmonella in pistachio nuts

2008 Dioxins & PCBs in pork

2008 Dioxins & PCBs in buffalo mozarella cheese

2008 Melamine in milk and milk-based products

2007 - 2009 Salmonella in peanut butter

2006 Dioxins in pork and chicken meat

2006 Malachite green / leucomalachite green found in processed eel and canned dace

2003Discovery of acrylamide in baked/ fried starch- containing food such as potatoes &

cereals

1999 Some soy sauces contain chloropropanols

1999 Dioxins in pork and beef

Non-target testing capabilities

LC-High Resolution MS & MSMS

GC-TOF & GC MSMS

Next Generation Sequencing & Bioinformatics

BSL-3 biosafety laboratory

Developing new capabilities

Interior of BSL3 facilityLC-MS-high resolution MS for identification of unknown chemical contaminants

Non-target testing facility showing LC-high resolution MS for screening of chemical contaminants

Developing new capabilities

Stable isotope and trace element analyses for provenancing and traceability

Nanomaterialdetection

Ion chromatograph coupled to Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS)

IRMS employed in food authentication and traceability analysis

CERTIFICATION & RECOGNITION

All labs are accredited to ISO / IEC 17025

• Under the Singapore Accreditation Council-Singapore Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (SAC-SINGLAS)

• For the category “Chemical and Biological Testing”

• http://www.sac-accreditation.gov.sg/directory.asp

International Bench Marking

Participation in overseas Inter-Laboratory Proficiency

Schemes

Thank You