Posts from the "Latest News" category
Managing food recalls: a manufacturer’s guide
Michael Lincoln and Martin Stone write: “A product recall is a high impact event for any food business. It can be extremely costly and the reputational damage to a food business can be serious and long lasting if not managed correctly, report Michael Lincoln and Martin Stone.
What are the main causes for product recalls in Australia? According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) there are approximately five recalls per month in Australia and this figure has been steady over a number of years.
Approximately one-third of recalls are due to microbiological issues, one-third from labelling issues and one-third caused by physical and chemical contamination.”
Read the full article at the foodmag website.
Dung Beetles: Future Heroes of Organic Food Safety?
James Andrews writes: “In 2011, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Oregon killed one person and sickened more than a dozen people. The outbreak was eventually traced back to organic strawberries grown at an Oregon farm, but how E. coli had managed to contaminate the strawberries remained a mystery for some time afterward.
Eventually, state health officials traced the outbreak to deer that had been rummaging through the fields and leaving behind droppings that contaminated some of the strawberries. And animal feces on the farm have been implicated or strongly suspected in a number of other outbreaks.
But what if organic farmers had a natural, unobtrusive way to help reduce the risk of contamination from animal feces on the farm? Enter the dung beetle.”
Read the full article at the Food Safety News website
Image credit: Steve Slater / Flickr, CC BY 2.0
Containers Used to Ship Produce Fall Short of Safety Standards for Two Consecutive Years
Smithcom: “A new study demonstrates that Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) used to ship fruits and vegetables in Canada are not properly sanitized and show traces of E coli.
The report, developed by a University of Guelph professor and researcher, Keith Warriner, indicates that sanitation standards of RPCs are inadequate for a second consecutive year. ”We saw alarming levels of sanitization and significant risk for food contamination,” said Warriner.
In fact, using UK food safety standards for food surfaces as a pass/fail baseline, 43% of RPCs failed sanitary standards due to high ATP (adenosine triphosphate) readings (equivalent standards do not exist in North America). Specifically, the fecal indicators were more prevalent in the current sampling trials compared to the study performed in 2013. Rates in the province of Quebec are especially alarming. RPCs sampled in Quebec recorded the highest indicator counts and ATP readings.”
Read the full article at newswire.ca, via barfblog.com
Australia shouldn’t sacrifice food safety standards for free trade
David Adamson writes: Ten years on from the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, Australia is entering another round of negotiations towards the new and controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. A combination of dumb luck, geographical isolation and a zealous stance on quarantine has kept Australia relatively free of the many pests and diseases that can be spread by international agricultural trade. As a result, it has been spared many of the health threats and extra farming costs – not to mention irreversible damage to native wildlife – that come with the arrival of these pests, or with changes to food safety.
Read the full article at the Food Magazine website.
Image credit: David Hilowitz / Flickr, CC BY 2.0
Microbial Testing of Fresh Produce: Where is the Value?
Devon Zagory writes: “Product testing is an inefficient tool for enhancing the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. The probability of finding a contaminant is very low at the bacterial population densities likely to be found. Product testing is wasteful of resources because of the time and expense of the testing itself, but also because all tested products must be put on hold to await the test results in order to avoid a costly recall should a test return a positive result.”
Read the full article at the Food Safety News website.
Back up the food safety training with a good book, writes Richard Bennett
There’s a lot of people responsible for grower, packer or processor quality assurance and food safety who are not technically trained in QA and food safety. That’s just a fact of life that reflects the size, structure and necessities of many fresh produce businesses – small, family and tight. It’s also the reason why some QA standards and customers insist on a minimum level of training for the person(s) responsible for managing food safety in the business, with some now also providing the required training.
Read Article →Two weeks left to secure FPSC sponsorship opportunities
The FPSC is calling for sponsorship of two research projects identified by industry as high priority.
(PDF, 507 KB)
(PDF, 857 KB)
Sponsors will receive industry-leader recognition for their business commitment to food safety through their investment in fresh produce food safety research.
Applications close 7 November 2014. Please share this notice with a colleague or direct them to the relevant page on our website.
Image credit: Oakely Originals / Flickr, CC BY 2.0
It’s a shame to let a China food scandal go to waste
Jeffrey Towson and Jonathan Woetzel write: Every month there’s another food scandal in China. Sewer oil. Lamb seasoned with rat. Exploding melons. And now tainted Western hamburgers and fast food is the latest. In our view, this is all to be expected. If you are in the food or restaurant business in China, you are almost certainly going to have a scandal. It’s practically inevitable. And it’s an opportunity you shouldn’t miss.
Read the full article at The South China Morning Post website.
Help keep Australia and NZ safe from terrorism
A national code of practice was launched in July 2013 to help business prevent potentially dangerous chemicals finding their way into the hands of terrorists. See a video showing the danger some common chemicals can pose if in the wrong hands or download a copy of the code.
The smallest piece of information could help defuse a lethal situation. If you suspect something, report your concerns to the National Security Hotline on 1800 1234 00 or hotline.
Source: http://www.chemicalsecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
An A-Z of common types of food poisoning
Dr Jocelyn Lowinger writes: Do you know which foods are more likely to cause campylobacter? Or how many hours it takes to develop symptoms of salmonella after eating a contaminated egg? Get the low-down on some of our most common causes of food poisoning.
Read the full article at the ABC Health & Wellbeing website