Supply Chain Management is a constant struggle for food and beverage companies. Consumers want more insights about where their food is coming from, and on top of meeting consumer demands, manufacturers have two additional concerns: first, turning around inventory quickly at competitive prices while maintaining stock and supplier relations. Then, manufacturers must keep a close eye on quality, ensuring all products in the supply chain meet industry and consumer specifications. Obviously, there’s a lot to track in the data-driven supply chain. That’s where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can provide F&B companies with new supply chain insights to stay ahead of the curve.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association Science and Education Foundation (GMA SEF) and Cultivate Food Safety partnered with Food Online for a live web chat, Food For Thought: Establishing, Maintaining, And Improving Food Safety Culture. Here, Lone Jespersen, principal at Cultivate and former director of food safety and operations learning at Maple Leaf Foods; and Brian Bedard, executive director of the GMA SEF, discuss some of the common barriers manufacturers face in food safety culture and how to overcome them.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is currently updating regulations and updating its inspection model to keep pace with a constantly-changing, global environment. At the 13th Annual North American Summit On Food Safety, Nicole Bouchard-Steeves, executive director for the Operations Modernization Project Office with CFIA, shared her insights on how Canada is improving its food safety efforts with five different initiatives.
What was most important to our readers in June? Take a look back at the first month of summer by reviewing the 10 most-popular articles that appeared on Food Online in June.
Food Online hosted a live web chat, Food For Thought: FSMA’s Food Defense Rule featuring, Clay Detlefsen, VP of regulatory affairs and counsel at the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF); and Warren Stone, senior director of science policy, compliance, and inspection at the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). In this 45-minute live Q&A, Detlefsen and Stone answered the audience’s questions about FSMA’s Food Defense Rule. While the session was educational and informative, there wasn’t enough time to answer every question. Here, Detlefsen and Stone address the unanswered questions from the live web chat.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association Science and Education Foundation (GMA SEF) and Cultivate Food Safety partnered with Food Online for a live web chat, Food For Thought: Establishing, Maintaining, And Improving Food Safety Culture. Here, Lone Jespersen, principal at Cultivate and former director of food safety and operations learning at Maple Leaf Foods; and Brian Bedard, executive director of the GMA SEF, discuss senior leadership’s role in food safety culture, how food safety culture can be evaluated and/or measured, and how it can be incorporated into food safety management systems.
Supply Chain Management is a constant struggle for food and beverage companies. Consumers want more insights about where their food is coming from, and on top of meeting consumer demands, manufacturers have two additional concerns: first, turning around inventory quickly at competitive prices while maintaining stock and supplier relations. Then, manufacturers must keep a close eye on quality, ensuring all products in the supply chain meet industry and consumer specifications. Obviously, there’s a lot to track in the data-driven supply chain. That’s where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can provide F&B companies with new supply chain insights to stay ahead of the curve.
Preventing physical hazards in food continues to be challenging, and frequently, the reason for companies and/or regulatory agencies issuing recall notices. A brief review of the recalls viewable online at Recall.gov indicates that the number of recalls for physical hazards per month ranges from zero to eight involving USDA and FDA amenable products. This article will provide steps to help food companies keep physical contaminants out of food, as well detail the latest technologies helping to reduce physical contamination-related recalls.
For years, there has been a buzz about how genome sequencing is revolutionizing food safety. It is definitely an incredible tool giving an immediate understanding of the genetic composition of microbial pathogens, including bacteria and viruses. However, there are still gaps needing filled regarding how pathogens produce disease and survive in foods. Genome sequencing brings us more tools to further characterize pathogens, but do not expect any other parts of food safety to be forgotten soon because of WGS.
There are many aspects of resource allocation to consider when developing a food safety management system (FSMS) for a business and there are efficiencies to be gained in almost every area of an FSMS. Technology and software can provide your team with the tools to monitor production targets and deviations in real-time and more efficiently than visual inspection.
Modern X-Ray systems are very specialized, efficient, advanced, and are commonly used in a range of industries for inspection purposes, including medical diagnostics; food and pharmaceutical product inspection; construction (structural, mining and engineering); and security.
This white paper presents some basic best practices for efficient processing in a Ribbon Blender. The ideas discussed here are recommendations based on practical and technical experience gained by Ross over several decades as a leading supplier of Ribbon Blenders to the process industries worldwide.
The virtually infinite number of combinations of emulsion systems necessitates the continuing effort to study them and the processes by which they can be prepared efficiently.
Food production is highly automated, and food manufacturers rely on high-speed vision systems for packaging processes. A barcode scanner can be part of the logistics system created by a company’s in-house machine builders to help save time.
Relative mass is the value which the difference of density between x-ray images of the reference master product and the inspected product is converted into mass. This application note explains the principles of the relative virtual weight measurement, usage, and cautions.
The Thermo Scientific™ Versa Flex and Versa Flex GP checkweighers are designed to improve accuracy and reliability, decreasing maintenance and product giveaway. Our global manufacturing and service teams enable a high level of solutions and service support wherever you do business.
Ross V-Blenders are most often used for the intimate dry blending of free flowing solids. The solids being blended in these units can vary in bulk density and in percentage of the total mixture. Materials being blended are constantly being split and intermixed as the shell rotates. Normal cycle times are typically in the range of 15 minutes, however can be less depending on the difficulty of blending.
Ross Double Cone Blenders design is most often used for the intimate dry blending of free flowing solids. The solids being blended in these units can vary in bulk density and in percentage of the total mixture. Materials being blended are constantly being intermixed as the Double Cone rotates. Normal cycle times are typically in the range of 10 minutes, however they can be less depending on the difficulty of blending.
Ross is the leading supplier of Ribbon, Tumble and Vertical Blenders for dry powder blending and drying for the process industries. Many products including pharmaceuticals, foods, chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, pigments, and cosmetics are manufactured in Ross dry blending equipment.
Food manufacturers rely on Ross for a wide range of processing objectives including dry blending, emulsification, high-speed powder induction, dissolution, dispersion, high-viscosity mixing and many more. Our well-proven mixer and blender designs contribute to the growing success of food companies, meeting their requirements for consistency, quality and freshness, helping them develop new innovative products, while lowering production costs and simplifying maintenance.
Dymond Bulk guarantees precise X-ray inspection of bulk materials in the food industry. Foreign bodies such as stones or metal are consistently detected and removed from the material flow to protect both products and machines.
Protect your product and your reputation in today’s competitive marketplace with Thermo Scientific™ Metal Detectors. Our customized metal detection systems provide reliable, cost-effective protection from even the smallest metal contaminants found in food production anywhere in a process. The Food Safety Modernization Act plays a large factor in how metal detection systems will be viewed in the future for food manufacturers and their suppliers.
A fully automated molecular pathogen detection system dedicated to the food safety industry.
Alchemy’s food and workplace safety training solutions help millions of frontline workers keep food safe, avoid recalls, stay alert to hazards, and reduce injuries and associated costs. Alchemy solutions keep clients audit ready 24/7 and maximize production potential.
Alchemy consultants help clients build a sustainable food safety culture with risk mitigation assessments, consistent and audit-defensible practices for GFSI certification, customer/audit requirements, and food safety and quality management systems.
The majority of electro-mechanical axis utilise extruded aluminium profile in a range of sizes with a single guide rail and bearing arrangement driven by an electric motor through a belt or ball screw arrangement. There are physical limitations to the forces such a system can accurately and reliably guide. This paper explores some alternative design arrangements to cope with higher load applications and identifies design considerations observed during the development of a Festo high load, twin rail system.
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:
Over the past decade, 3-phase, low-voltage, dry-type transformer efficiency has become a hot topic for owners and specifying engineers seeking to save money on the long-term operational costs within a facility. Understand how to implement them into facilities, taking into consideration all of the parameters of the transformer designs, to make a safe and effective electrical distribution system.
Regular monitoring of biogas plants is crucial to ensure efficient operation. The Hach® AT1000 Biogas gives you immediate information about the status of your plant to anticipate any possible malfunctions and to constantly maintain optimal performance.
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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