The phrase, “FDA inspection” often sends a shiver down the spines of food manufacturers. But, a routine visit from the agency doesn’t have to be a scary thing. Here, Miriam Maxwell, senior principal regulatory scientist, corporate scientific and regulatory affairs at Ocean Spray, reviews how her company prepares for and executes FSMA inspections, as well as explains what the FDA looks for when it arrives at your door.
Green Valley Pecan Company has grown to encompass 10,000 acres with year-round processing facilities. The company was faced with the challenge of preventing the natural knowledge loss that occurs between trainings while simultaneously boosting knowledge retention without increasing training time. This case study details the solution, systems, and tools the company implemented to achieve its goals, as well as their corresponding improvement metrics.
A contract testing laboratory was experiencing rapid growth in pathogen testing volume. This case study shows how the lab was able to expand, with no additional resources, and provide higher quality results.
Bigelow Tea has been making specialty teas for over seventy years. The company grows, blends, and packages hundreds of varieties of tea for distribution across the nation. Today, the company boasts the only U.S.-based industrial tea plantation, as well as three packaging sites that employ hundreds of workers. Because of the company’s size, it needed a consistent training program across all its location. This case study examines how interactive classroom training, course customization, and multilingual content helped Bigelow Tea create a companywide, consistent training program.
Bonduelle’s 500 vegetable varieties are processed at 58 facilities by over 10,000 workers. Safety is top of mind for the company, and with so many facilities and employees, creating a companywide culture of food safety is essential. This case study shows how Bonduelle used front-line workforce training, verification training, and automated recordkeeping and reporting to achieve its desired food safety goals.
Kisko Products, Canada's largest producer of freeze pops, needed a way to ensure safe and productive operations to maintain customer satisfaction. This case study shows how the company implemented standardized training and real-time reporting to improve it production efficiency and maintain customer satisfaction.
Since 1946, WW Johnson Meat Company has produced premium, quality ground beef distributed to retail and food service operations across the Midwest and beyond. As the company’s workforce continued to diversify, it needed a way to break the language barrier between employees and trainers and verify that employees understood training concepts. This case study shows how WW Johnson Meat implemented consistent, multilingual content and automated recordkeeping to overcome barriers of learning.
The global organic food and beverage market is expected to reach $320.5 billion by 2025, according to a recently published report. This is driving manufacturers to make more informed decisions about how to package these products to transport and ensure they remain safe and fresh. As some of these products have no preservatives, they are susceptible to mold, yeast, spores, and other natural bioburdens that can result in spoilage. Continue reading to learn what options are available to these manufacturers.
From time to time, we come across companies planning to incorporate a food microbiology lab for in-house testing. Many times, management foresees the benefit of “faster turn-around time,” thus allowing programs to be adjusted more rapidly. Industry has seen more and more “rapid tests” on the commercial market promoting closer scrutiny of laboratory testing programs. In most cases, companies have done an excellent job evaluating the basic finances of doing in-house testing versus outsourcing to third-party labs. But, sometimes companies don’t understand the complexity associated with starting an in-house microbiology testing laboratory. In many cases, they don’t want to call their facilities a “laboratory” and want a “place” to test only for indicator microorganisms. Yet, after a couple of years, they start testing for pathogens. Such a transition creates a completely different scenario. In this article, we summarize key questions companies should address to help determine if starting an in-house food microbiology laboratory is appropriate.
SafetyChain Software’s VP of Marketing, Jill Bender is joined by The Acheson Group’s (TAG) founder and CEO Dr. David Acheson to discuss top risks in relation to environmental monitoring, as well as a review of FSMA requirements for it.
Food production operations generally devote an entire shift plus fully dedicated teams to painstakingly clean and sanitize their plants. It’s a critical element of each company’s food safety system. Cleaning and sanitation crews must know how to disassemble complex processing equipment, which cleaning solutions to apply, and how to apply them effectively. But how can team members—or their managers—really be certain that a line is sufficiently cleaned and sanitized?
If one low-quality food item makes it to a first-time customer, it could completely jeopardize your relationship with that customer forever. Quality audits are a great way to fight against compromised product quality. But, what "quality audits" should be completed and how are they done?
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.
A rapid, accurate, and reliable molecular assay for detecting the pathogen that causes listeriosis.
The Atlas Listeria LSP Detection Assay is a rapid, highly accurate molecular assay test designed for food and environmental samples.
A rapid and highly accurate molecular assay for detecting Salmonella bacteria in food and environmental samples.
The Atlas System is a fully automated instrument that enhances the accuracy, speed, and efficiency of food safety testing through detection of molecular pathogens, including Listeria, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, and other organisms commonly implicated in food contamination episodes. The system is easy to use and incorporates many innovative features that minimize the complexity of testing processes. It is powered by technologies that provide unparalleled scalability and reliability, allowing your laboratory to meet the increasing demands of today’s testing environment, as well as those of the future.
The UV-VIS spectrophotometer DR 6000 delivers top performance for both routine laboratory tasks and demanding photometry applications. This system is designed for the effective work in professional laboratories. Intelligent software supports the lab manager in the calibration routine, quality assurance and development of customized application.
Food Safety in the Ready to Eat Market has become more complex. Not only is it more important than ever to control the processing environment, controlling the ingredient supply chain is paramount to ensuring your brand and more importantly ensuring your customers and brand are protected.
A rapid, accurate, and reliable molecular test for STEC detection from a variety of food samples.
In this web chat, Jennifer McEntire, VP food safety & technology at United Fresh Produce Association joins Kristen Spotz, senior manager of food safety & quality assurance at GMA to talk all things traceability related to the food industry. In addition to providing leading traceability practices, the 45-minute session focuses heavily on McEntire and Spotz answering questions from the web chat’s audience.
The Atlas System is a fully automated molecular instrument that enhances the accuracy, speed, and efficiency of food safety testing through detection of molecular pathogens, including Listeria, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, and other organisms commonly implicated in food contamination episodes.
Pathogen testing is often outsourced to third-party lab providers. When choosing the best lab for your company, it is important to ask the right questions to ensure the test method aligns with the quality goals of the organization. This video provides guidance and offers suggestions to help you determine the best lab for you company’s pathogen detection needs.
