Posts from the "Events" category
Busting Food Furphies – Solving Food Safety Myths in National Food Science Week
18 August 2014
NSW Food Authority: The scientists of the NSW Food Authority are throwing on their lab coats [this] week in celebration of National Science Week 2014 (16 – 24 August), a time to focus the microscope on the important role that science plays in food safety and protecting people from food poisoning.
Fresh Produce Safety Centre Limited launched
27 May 2014
The Fresh Produce Safety Centre Limited officially opened its doors for business today.
The first meeting of the Fresh Produce Safety Centre’s Board of Directors occurred this morning, following registration of the new company limited by guarantee with ASIC yesterday.
The Centre is being hosted by the University of Sydney under a project with the Produce Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand (PMA A-NZ).
Read Article →Moving forward with Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) and GS1 DataBar
2 May 2014
Significant changes to how fresh produce businesses manage product identification and traceability are just around the corner. PMA A-NZ will be co-hosting a Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) Databar Workshop with GS1 Australia, with the objective of furthering the adoption of GTIN and GS1 Databar in Australia.
GS1 Workshop Outcomes, November 2013
Thirty-five delegates representing retailers, grower-packers, wholesalers and service providers attended the recent PMA A-NZ/GS1 DataBar Workshop in Sydney on the 25th November 2013.
Titled “Moving forward with Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) and GS1 DataBarâ€, the purpose of the Workshop was to develop a roadmap for the implementation of a more effective product identification and traceability system for fresh produce sold as loose or in bulk (i.e. unpackaged).
Read Article →
REGISTER NOW: GS1 Workshop – 25 November 2013, Sydney Markets
PMA A-NZ will be co-hosting this workshop with GS1 Australia, with the objective of furthering the adoption of GTIN and GS1 Databar in Australia. This is a must-attend event for retailers, suppliers and supply chain companies.
Read Article →
Australian Food Safety Week,11 – 17th November 2013
It is the second week of November and the Food Safety Information Council (FSIC) is holding its annual Australian Food Safety Week!
The Food Safety Information Council provides information to consumers, aiming to reduce the incidence of food poisoning, and to protect people from what is often a nasty experience involving diarrhoea, vomiting, cramps and fever.
This years theme is Shopping Food Safety focusing on ‘Clean, Choose, Chill and Separate‘ when selecting food and transporting it home safely. A national Newspoll Survey, commissioned by the Food Safety Information Council for Australian Food Safety Week, shows that too few Australian consumers are taking notice of vital food safety advice on food labels and are taking risks by not using insulated bags or coolers to transport refrigerated food.
Strict food safety standards apply to food retailers in Australia to ensure that the food you buy is safe. But there are some signs you can look for to ensure you buy a safe product. Once you buy the food, it’s up to you to make sure that it stays safe including not leaving shopping in a hot car. To read more about this topic, click here.
Resources available from over the years in various topics concerning consumer food safety. To view them, click here.
Source: Food Safety Information Council [13.11.2013]
While the food safety tips apply to all agricultural produce, fresh produce features as a significant risk to consumers due to the raw eaten nature of the product. Education on food safety is vital to ensure the integrity of fruit and vegetables to be healthy, nutritious and safe.
New Research in Food safety at the 13th ASEAN Food Conference, Singapore 2013
The biennial ASEAN Food Conference is the leading forum for the food industry and research community in the region. The theme of the 13th ASEAN Food Conference held on the 9th-11th September 2013 in Singapore was “Meeting Future Food Demands: Security and Sustainability”.
Issues of malnutrition, undernutrition, and sustainable production were certainly important topics. However the themes were interpreted quite broadly to encompass, for example, how improvement in nutritional quality and food safety could benefit consumer health and community livelihoods, and help to address the alarming worldwide escalation in diet-related and lifestyle diseases. Sustainability was discussed less in terms of environmental impact, and more in terms of innovations in food processing, quality and safety to sustain long-term food industries.
The program included sessions on: managing innovation, nutrition & health, food chemistry & biochemistry, sensory science & consumer studies, food microbiology, food engineering, food processing, food product development, protein and weight management, food safety, food science and technology education, functional foods, nanotechnology of food, food analysis and quality assurance, and management of allergens in the food chain. The full program is available online, click here.
The conference was about food generally, but some interesting topics relevant to produce safety included:
Development of a fermentation process to produce a natural preservative called phenyllactic acid (PLA) from Lactobacillus plantarum bacteria. The PLA was shown to have antimicrobial activity against a variety of pathogens and extended the shelf-life of fresh-cut pineapple and bottled pineapple juice (Bui Kim Thuy, Nguyen Duy Lam, and Nguyen Thi Hoai Tram).
Development of a Surface Plasmon Resonance biosensor and sensor chips with antibodies specific to Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Enteritidis, and Listeria monocytogenes. The biosensor is an experimental format that, if successful, would allow convenient simultaneous detection of target bacteria (Zhang Xiaoguang, Sachiko Tsuji, Ken-ichi Honjoh, and Takahisa Miyamoto).
Direct irradiation with LED has bactericidal effects on E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes dependent on the pH of the medium and LED wavelength – blue is better than green! (Vinayak Ghate, Leong Ai Ling, and Yuk Hyun-Gyun).
Chitosan is a natural antimicrobial and antilisterial agent. Electron microscopy suggested that chitosan kills the bacteria by interfering with cell membrane permeability and causing leakage of cell contents (Juthamas Tantala, Titima Sukmark, Masubon Thongngam, Kanjana Thumanu, Pornchai Rachtanapun, Chitsiri Rachtanapun).
Establishment of a microbial risk assessment and food safety system for the Singapore retail sector by the National Environment Agency (NEA). The NEA is a government agency that has brought together regulatory activity and research to develop and deliver a risk-based inspection and education service. A unique feature of this relates to the cultural popularity of ready-to-eat food bought from stalls, which have special hygiene challenges (Ramona A Gutierrez and Ng Lee Ching).
Site visit to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore, which is the national food safety agency. Singapore imports 90% of its food from all over the world and has extremely well-resourced labs to test for chemical contaminants, additives and preservatives, drug residues, pesticide residues, food pathogens, foodborne parasites, physical quality, GMO, and other toxins. It also provides export certification, accreditation of food businesses, and food safety education; implements labelling and advertisement regulations and food recalls; and has a variety of roles relating to the animals and pet sector.
Report summarising the outcomes of 2012/13 of the FPS A&NZ
The FPS A&NZ have made available the final report summarising the outcomes from the project “A New Collaborative Paradigm for Fresh Produce Safety”. This project was funding by the University of Sydney and the Produce Marketing Association Australia and New Zealand (PMA A-NZ) with matched funding from the Australian Government, accessed through Horticulture Australia Limited.
You can download the report here and read about the outcomes of the many activities conducted in the year.
August 30 “Ask the FDA” webinar on proposed FSMA rules
On July 26, 2013, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced the publication of two additional proposed rules under the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA):
Foreign Supplier Verification Programs for Importers of Food for Humans and Animals: In this proposed rule, importers would be required to perform certain risk-based activities to verify that food imported into the U.S. has been produced with the same food safety standards that are required of U.S. producers.
Accreditation of Third-Party Auditors: This proposed rule aims to establish a comprehensive, credible and reliable program of oversight based on third-party audits and certification of foreign food facilities to help the FDA make decisions regarding the admissibility of imported foods.
Who do the proposed rules impact?
If you export produce to the U.S. you are likely covered under one or both of the proposals and you need to know how these rules could impact your business and your supply chain partners.
On Friday, 30 August 2013 at 5:00 AM AEST (Thursday, August 29 at 3:00 pm US Eastern Time), PMA Global will be broadcasting a free webinar from the US with the FDA focusing on the two latest proposed rules: Foreign Supplier Verification Program and Accreditation of Third Party Auditors. The FDA will review the key points of each proposed rule. Joining FDA officials on the call to answer your questions will be PMA’s Chief Science & Technology Officer, Dr. Bob Whitaker, Dr. Jim Gorny, Vice President of Food Safety & Technology and Tom O’Brien, PMA’s representative in Washington D.C.
Just how will these rules impact your business? And how can you make your voice heard during the FDA comment period? Here are 3 simple ways you can gain more information and be prepared:
Register here for next week’s free webinar to learn more about the proposed rules and to get answers to your questions from the FDA and PMA’s food safety experts.
Visit PMA’s FSMA resource page for full details on the Food Safety Modernization Act and other useful resources, including how you will be able to provide comments on the proposed rules once they are published.
Join PMA’s FSMA community on PMA Xchange to post questions and engage with PMA staff experts and members on this important topic. We’ll also be posting updates on PMA’s Facebook page and through Twitter using hashtags: #FSMA and #freshproduce
10 Lessons Learned at the 2013 CPS Symposium
The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) held its fourth annual research symposium in Rochester, NY at the Wegmans Conference Center on June 25-26, 2013. The symposium featured sixteen CPS-funded research programs and discussions on what the research means. While the full technical reports for these research programs can be found on the CPS website, PMA’s Dr. Bob Whitaker, chief science and technology officer, and Dr. Jim Gorny, vice president food safety and technology, translated the research to identify ten key lessons learned from the symposium.
2013 CPS Symposium: 10 Lessons Learned