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Globally, foodborne illness is a significant public health challenge. Food safety inspection plays a crucial role in the regulation of food businesses to prevent foodborne illnesses. To be an effective health protection measure, however, food safety inspections must facilitate the thorough evaluation of food safety risks. Our research examined how food safety inspectors from Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the U.S. assessed food contamination control during food premise inspections. Data were collected via an online survey of environmental health practitioners who routinely conduct food safety inspections. The findings indicated that inspectors are generally aware of food safety hazards that can be present at food businesses and have deployed a variety of relevant data-gathering methods to inform their examination of the extent of contamination control. The findings also indicated a prevailing methodological incongruence stemming from the absence of a robust inspection methodology. We propose that these shortcomings be addressed by solutions that are formulated based on established hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) principles and qualitative field research. The development of a clear and appropriate methodology will support food safety inspections to provide a robust and reliable means for evaluating food safety risk and ultimately reduce the incidence and burden of foodborne illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, New Zealand enacted the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Act in response to ongoing labour abuses on board South Korean vessels in New Zealand's foreign charter vessel sector. Importantly, the legislation expresses the universality of the International Labour Organization's Decent Work Agenda: all member countries must pursue policies based on the strategic objectives of equality, dignity, safe working conditions and that workers are protected from exploitation. The Act was in response to the identification of widespread labour abuses in this sector. In June 2011, the extent of the abuses came to light when 32 Indonesian crewmen of the Oyang 75 walked off their vessel. In this paper, we explore how a range of stakeholders worked organically to bring about change. We do this qualitatively by combining semi-structured interview (with over 160 Indonesian migrant crewmen between 2011 and 2017), observation and document analysis. We analyse our data through the lens of participatory action research which provides a framework to document the processes of who was involved, the cycles of change, what was achieved in each cycle, and importantly the platform for change. Specifically, we look at how stakeholders – the crew themselves, their advocates, academics, non-governmental organisations, journalists, activists, among others – all played a part in achieving legislated protections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical scholarship has shown that neoliberalism has reinforced Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism and projections of Muslims as undesirable in many contexts, particularly in 'the West'. Little is said about other impacts neoliberal ideology has had on the ways Muslim (immigrant) communities are viewed and (dis)integrated into Muslim-minority contexts. Against this backdrop, this paper argues that Muslims can also be desired and systematically mobilized in predominantly non-Muslim countries where neoliberalized economies capitalize on their identities. The argument is illustrated through case studies in contexts of halal food production and trade in New Zealand and Brazil. Drawing on conceptualizations of neoliberal utility/necessity perspectives on immigrants as well as on assemblage thinking, this paper shows, first, that neoliberal restructuring has played a major role in the development of trade relations with the Islamic world and thus in the emergence of demands for Muslim expertise, service providers and workers in both countries. It demonstrates, second, how Muslim identities have been systematically assembled to meet these demands, and third, that the assemblages are at the same time limited by largely (though not exclusively) neoliberal logics. Finally, the paper shows that many of the assembling practices and logics are similar in both contexts and likely to be found elsewhere. Their effects, however, diverge due to different local conditions. The findings imply that relations between neoliberal ideology and the ways Muslims are viewed and (dis)integrated in Muslim-minority contexts are complex and unfold differently across space, and that this complexity deserves greater academic scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]