Food Online's Top 10 Of October

By Sam Lewis

What was most important to our readers in October? Take a look back at last month by reviewing the 10 most-popular articles that appeared on Food Online in October.

1. FSMA Inspections: What To Expect When The FDA Knocks On Your Door
   In this segment of Food For Thought: FSMA Inspections: What To Expect When The FDA Knocks On Your Door, Elizabeth Fawell, food industry counsel at Hogan Lovells, and Samantha Cooper, senior manager of food safety and quality assurance at GMA, discuss differences between current and past FDA inspections, as well as what goes into an FSVP inspection.
    
2. Food Defense: A U.S. Army Perspective
   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.
    
3. 3 Food Industry Headaches And What You Can Do About Them
   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 more reasons for food manufacturers to reach for Tylenol.
    
4. The ABCs Of Building A Food Safety Plan From HACCP To HARPC
   The FDA required hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) for juice and seafood, and the USDA for meat and poultry. The Food Safety Modernization Act’s (FSMA) proposed Preventive Controls rule for Human Food requires a written Food Safety Plan (FSP) be developed using the hazard analysis risk-based preventive control (HARPC) approach. A preventive approach to food safety is nothing new. But the HARPC approach is a new paradigm shift in thinking. This article will explain this new thinking, define, what HARPC approach is, explain how HARPC is different than HACCP, and how employing this thinking helps you arrive at developing a Food Safety Plan.
    
5. FDA Swab-A-Thons: What To Expect In The Search For Pathogens
   The FDA and food manufacturers are both on the same mission: make food safer. But, 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 process of microbiological sampling, how the agency is incorporating Whole Genome Sequencing into its sampling processes, and what food companies can do to alleviate regulatory worries.
    
6. Will Your Traceability Initiatives Reach Regulatory Compliance?
   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.
    
7. Food Fraud: How You Can Ensure Product Integrity
   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?
    
8. Keeping Food Safe With Light-Based Technologies
   In addition to improvement of food preservation operations, creating new functional properties, and dry sanitation, light technologies have much to offer for the sustainable development of the food industry. This article will briefly review the basics and sources of light technologies and present the pros and cons of the potential applications and available equipment.
    
9. Hand Washing In Food Facilities: The Foundation Of Reduced Microbial Contamination
   Everyone knows hand washing is a basic requirement that leads to significant reductions in food safety risk. But, this basic action is often overlooked and left out of internal audits and inspections. This article describes what proper hand washing is, how to design a hand washing station, and offers advice on establishing a culture of hand washing.
    
10. Overcoming The Obstacles Of Food Safety Culture
    In this segment of the Food Online and GMA web chat, Food For Thought: Establishing, Maintaining, And Improving Food Safety Culture, 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.