Food Safety And Inspection Articles

11. Third-Party Audits: Trials, Tribulations, And How To Exceed Requirements 12/6/2017

    GFSI schemes are used as the base requirement for many supply chain verification and supplier approval programs, but are customers using them independently? In many incidences, I've noted customers are taking only the GFSI certificate as a verification step without fully understanding the challenges the schemes are having. Here, I review those challenges.

12. Tackling Food Fraud: Inside The EU-China-Safe Partnership 11/28/2017

    Over the past decade, scandals related to adulterated and fake food have made international headlines and generated waves of consumer backlash. This column will explore a new partnership between China and The EU that aims to take down food fraud.

13. Germicidal LEDs: A Viable Light Source For Food Safety 11/21/2017

    In addition to their use for Point-of-Use Water Disinfection, UV-C LED-based solutions have now been demonstrated to offer novel and unique approaches to food production sanitation.

14. FSMA's Produce Safety Rule: Dissecting Recent Announcements 11/14/2017

    A recent Food Online article provided tips for compliance with the Produce Safety Rule, but some provisions in the rule are clearer than others. Over the past several months, the FDA has announced various reconsiderations related to the rule that can be difficult to interpret. This article will review and explain a few of them.

15. Modernized cGMP: The Nuts And Bolts Of A Preventive Controls Food Safety Plan 11/7/2017

    Many HACCP plans are not well-integrated with prerequisite programs. Because of this, the food safety system isn't robust. In the first article of a two-part series, I will show that focusing on prerequisite programs, starting with cGMPs, is the best starting point for converting a HACCP plan into a Preventive Controls Food Safety Plan.

16. FSMA's Produce Safety Rule: A Practical Guide For Compliance 10/24/2017

    For the first time, a set of guidelines has been defined for safe agricultural practices, with rules in motion for farming, harvesting, packing, and storing fruits and vegetables. This article outlines FSMA’s Produce Safety Rule, showing the specifics of each part of the rule, and will help guide you toward compliance.

17. Hand Washing: The Foundation Of Reduced Microbial Contamination 10/17/2017

    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.

18. Food Fraud: How You Can Ensure Product Integrity 10/5/2017

    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?

19. 3 Food Industry Headaches And What You Can Do About Them 9/26/2017

    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.

20. Food Defense: A U.S. Army Perspective 9/20/2017

    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.