Everyone knows hand washing is a basic requirement in the food industry. If executed correctly, it can lead to a significant reduction in food safety risk. This is such a basic action though it is often overlooked and left out of internal audits and general inspections — the quality team is focused on product contact surfaces and processing areas. This article will describe what proper hand washing is, how to design a proper hand washing station, as well as offer advice on how to establish a culture of hand washing.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and Hogan Lovells partnered with Food Online for a live web chat, Food For Thought: How To Always Be FSMA Inspection Ready. Here, Elizabeth Fawell, food industry counsel at Hogan Lovells; and Samantha Cooper, senior manager of food safety and quality assurance at GMA discuss some of the difference between current and past FDA inspections, as well as what goes into a Foreign Supplier Verification Program inspection.
FSMA and the Safe Food for Canadians Act are taking traceability regulations to new heights. Is your company prepared to keep up and comply with them? Here, Saqib Javaid, director of quality management systems at NutraBlend Foods, answers my questions about the future of traceability regulations and how to prepare for and comply with them.
What was most important to our readers in the first month of autumn? Take a look back at last month by reviewing the 10 most-popular articles that appeared on Food Online in September.
In this segment of the Food Online web chat, Food For Thought: How To Always Be FSMA Inspection Ready, Elizabeth Fawell, food industry counsel at Hogan Lovells; and Samantha Cooper, senior manager of food safety and quality assurance at the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), begin answering the industry's questions on FSMA inspections.
Increased scrutiny during FDA inspections has left many food industry professionals with increased anxiety. Here, food industry attorney Shawn Stevens answers my questions about the FDA’s microbiological sampling, how the agency is incorporating Whole Genome Sequencing into it, and what food companies can do to alleviate regulatory worries.
Everyone knows hand washing is a basic requirement in the food industry. If executed correctly, it can lead to a significant reduction in food safety risk. This is such a basic action though it is often overlooked and left out of internal audits and general inspections — the quality team is focused on product contact surfaces and processing areas. This article will describe what proper hand washing is, how to design a proper hand washing station, as well as offer advice on how to establish a culture of hand washing.
Most food companies concentrate on the intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product with verification activities, including testing, organoleptic or other on receipt testing. But, the real challenge is identifying the misrepresentation of products. What can you do to decrease your risks and boost the chances of receiving genuine, certified products?
With the emergence of new FSMA rules and a bioengineering labeling rule in the works, the industry is going to have even more headaches to deal with. Environmental monitoring, the threat of intentional contamination of the food supply, and yet another labeling change are emerging and could be another reason for food manufacturers to reach for Tylenol.
Back in 1997, a Veterinarian, Leslie Huck, showed me a checklist he was developing. It focused on intentional contamination and it made me think about how the military is always a target for acts of violence. This article illustrates the evolution of Food Defense and provides insight into what food manufacturers can do to build and improve their Food Defense plans.
Consumer safety has always been a primary concern for food processors. However, the recent enactment of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has turned the intensity up even higher. (FSMA shifts federal regulator focus from responding to food contamination issues to preventing them.)
You could be losing money and not even know it. Between labor, waiting time, and freight charges, margins could be significantly whittled below the cost of capital. This white paper offers food manufacturers solutions to take control of their costs and how to employ them in their operations.
Balanced coil metal detectors have always been negatively influenced by conductive or dense products. This has forced users to accept detection thresholds that are unacceptable or switch to costly unreliable alternative technologies. That is to say, up to now. A breakthrough method used for the toughest metal detector applications is improving sensitivities as much as 300 percent.
Planning and implementing good investments requires well-planned strategies, decision-makers who know their goals, and carrying out the implementation according to plan. Meaningful information forms the basis of a good investment decision and it helps to protect the future prosperity of your company. This white paper will help you answer several question regarding the total cost of ownership (TCO) of production line equipment including, "have you clarified the foundations of your investment decisions?" and "how do you determine and calculate the return on investment (ROI) time of an investment?"
The Eagle RMI 400 x-ray inspection machine is specifically built for the meat and poultry industries for superior bone and contaminant detection, where daily sanitation and hygiene requirements are stringent.
Designed with ease of operation, low maintenance and cost of ownership in mind.
Recognizing the short-and-long-term requirements of today’s processors and manufacturers, our engineers designed the XR75 x-ray inspection / Advanced Long Life Technology to provide heightened sensitivity at reduced energy levels. Because of this, cost of ownership is significantly lowered and life cycles are extended.
The E-Scan 635 is a revolutionary online micro leak test instrument that utilizes a new class of HVLD technology for 100% online inspection of cups and pouches for container closure integrity. The E-Scan 635 technology is a MicroCurrent conductivity voltage test method, HVLD , that is completely non-destructive to the container and product; exposing the package and product to lower voltage than other conductivity based solutions.
The Xtreme® rectangular aperture industrial metal detector raises the bar in terms of superior sensitivity, ease of use and reliability.
The Thermo Scientific™ Sentinel™ Multiscan Metal Detector utilizes an innovative new technology to overcome the limitation of fixed single or dual frequency metal detectors that can miss metal contaminants hidden in product signals.
Schneider Electric Software addresses compliance and cyber security challenges from analysis to implementation and management.
Technology, enabled by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is empowering organizations to shift to a holistic and operations-centric view where proactive and predictive maintenance (PdM) enables front line personnel to act before costly failures occur.
What influencing factors affect overall equipment effectiveness and how to get started on the path to optimization?
Engineered with precision and high-sensitivity detection, our HD systems are the superior choice for food safety inspection but, with so many models to choose from, distinguishing between each can be overwhelming. Are you debating which top x-ray inspection system is right for your processing needs? Here is a digestible overview comparing our new, XR75 advanced long life technology models:
Metal detectors and X-ray inspection systems are widely used for finding foreign body contamination. Let's see how these two systems can work together to improve contaminant detection.
Food poisoning has played a role in a number of films throughout the years. Leslie Neilson’s character in Airplane investigates what’s making everyone on the plane sick (Did you eat the steak or the fish?). And who can forget the food poisoning scene in Bridesmaids. Even in the animated fairytale world of Disney, Snow White eats a poison apple.
When machine builders partner with subsystem specialists to simplify and streamline their equipment design, engineering, production, and support, they can save large amounts of time and, in many cases, up to 50 percent of costs — helping to boost profitability and customer satisfaction.
Welcome to Food Online, the premiere Internet resource, helping build a community to advance the production of safe and healthy food and beverages. We provide best practices and solutions in food safety, food processing, automation, packaging and the supply chain.
The site is designed for plant engineers, production managers, manufacturing engineers, processing technicians, operations supervisors, and business managers, it provides daily news updates, reports, and solutions on business and technology trends vital to the industry. We provide plant managers, quality control/quality assurance technologists, and research and development experts with up-to-date information and industry solutions in the areas of food safety and regulatory issues, metal contamination, x-ray inspection, check weighing, and bacterial detection.
Both process and production engineers and technicians, along with marketing and business managers will find, case studies, white papers, and other technical solutions and product information on mixers, blenders, filling equipment, homogenizers, conveyors, sorters, graders, flow meters, pumps, tanks, valves, freezers, chillers, heat exchangers, moisture controls, pH meters, and sensors.
Food Online also covers quality control and quality assurance systems, information management systems, process control systems and equipment, as well as clean-in-place systems, measurement systems, sanitation systems, end-of-line packaging, packaging equipment, primary packaging, secondary packaging, and contract packaging. Transportation and logistics professionals will find valuable information concerning the supply chain, cold chain, traceability, and, sustainability.
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