Believing your food safety processes are of the highest standard isn't enough. Can you be certain every employee made the best food safety decisions every time they faced one? Can you support this with data? If not, ask another question: “Do you want to sit in front of a jury relying on a belief your company produced food at the highest possible standards?”
From time to time, we come across companies planning to incorporate a food microbiology lab for in-house testing. But, sometimes companies don’t understand the complexity associated with starting these labs. This article presents key questions companies should ask to help determine if an in-house food microbiology laboratory is appropriate.
Supply Chain Management is a constant struggle. Between giving consumers insights, meeting their demands, keeping real-time inventory, and ensuring all products meet quality specifications, there is a lot of data to manage. 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.
Back in January, Food Online’s editor, Sam Lewis, penned a column covering a few predictions for the food industry in 2017. One of these predictions was the impact President Trump would have on the FDA, FSMA, and other food safety policies and legislation. In this column, I will illustrate the influence the President’s Executive Orders have had on the industry over the last several months, as well as how the industry is responding.
Unfortunately, food recalls aren’t a matter of “if one happens,” they are a matter of “when one happens.” And when one happens to your company, will you be able to quickly and effectively communicate it with the FDA? This article will illustrate the recall process and offer suggestions to help you get through it.
When it comes to developing a new food product, there are two main categories: new-to-market concepts and new flavors of existing products. Of the two, new flavors often require less legwork to make the sale, but the innovative products (if done properly) may have the larger return on investment. Both categories of products are risky though, in their own ways. This column will weigh each approach and offer insights to help you bring new products to your portfolio.
Food fraud, or Economically Motivated Adulteration (EMA), costs the food industry billions of dollars annually. Fraudsters intentionally misrepresent the true identity of food ingredients, artificially enhancing them with illegal dyes, concealing the use of undeclared banned biocides, or palming off counterfeits while evading detection. But, you can fight food fraud with powerful proactive tools that can help you anticipate and reduce your company’s vulnerability to EMA.
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