Posts from the "Latest News" category
Top franchises and well-known restaurants among Brisbane eateries slapped with fines for dodgy hygiene and health practices
COCKROACHES in the kitchen, rat droppings in the deep fryer and salmonella are just a few of the nasties that Brisbane’s food safety inspectors are finding on the menu at some of the city’s most popular restaurants.
Top franchises and well-known restaurants were among the eateries slapped with a whopping total of $600,000 in fines for dodgy hygiene and health practices during the 2013-14 financial year.
The revelations follow the DM jazz cafe being fined $25,000 in the Brisbane Magistrates Court this week after a customer found a live cockroach in the chicken and mushroom risotto.
Food safety inspectors slapped more than 30 restaurants and cafes with fines as part of the city council’s EatSafe program in a bid to clean up the industry.
Franchises including Sumo Salad and Shingle Inn, as well as popular restaurants such as the Landmark Restaurant at Sunnybank and Beach House Bar and Grill in the CBD were among those punished for breaches.
To read the full article, please click here.
Source: http://www.couriermail.com.au Written by Matthew Killoran.
GFSI to require food fraud mitigation requirements
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) will include requirements specific to food fraud mitigation in its guidance document to be released in 2016.
To read the full article, please click here.
Source: http://www.foodqualitynews.com Written by Joe Whitworth.
See also this statement from the GFSI.
Salmonella Likes Bruised Blueberries
Salmonella can grow on bruised blueberries kept at shipping or retail display temperatures, according to a new study in the Journal of Food Protection. The study was conducted by researchers at the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Citrus Research and Education Center at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida.
Read the full article
Written by: Carla Gillespie, published on Food Poisoning Bulletin, 17 July 2014
Call for Expressions of Interest for Volunteer Technical Committee Members of the Fresh Produce Safety Centre
About Fresh Produce Safety Centre
The Call for Expressions of Interest
Required Experience and Skills
Role of the Technical Committee
How to Express Interest
About the Fresh Produce Safety Centre
The Fresh Produce Safety Centre is a new, industry-led, not-for-profit company established to enhance fresh produce food safety across Australia and New Zealand through research, outreach and education.
The Centre’s goals are to:
Call for and oversee food safety research projects that are highly relevant to industry
Provide food safety information, news, education and outreach to the industry
Engage with regulatory and other organisations for effective and efficient food safety management leading to enhanced food safety outcomes.
The Centre is funded and led by the fresh produce industries in Australia and New Zealand. It has been established by the Produce Marketing Association Australia-New Zealand (PMA A-NZ) through a Horticulture Australia Limited project with the University of Sydney. The project is funded with voluntary and in-kind contributions from industry, the University and PMA A-NZ, demonstrating widespread support for the Centre. The Centre has two part-time staff (an Executive Director and Administration Officer) and is hosted by the University of Sydney.
The Call for Expressions of Interest for Members of the FPSC Technical Committee
Individuals are being invited from across the fresh produce research community and industry to express interest in becoming members of the Technical Committee of the Fresh Produce Safety Centre Ltd. There will be seven volunteer Technical Committee members, including one to be drawn from the FPSC Board.
Appointment to the Technical Committee will be made by the FPSC Board.
Required Experience and Skills
The Technical Committee of the Fresh Produce Safety Centre will comprise of members with a wide range of expertise and experience in the fresh produce industries and fresh produce research in Australia and/or New Zealand. Technical Committee members are being sought with experience from the following areas:
Industry expertise from across the fresh produce supply chain: growers, input suppliers, processors, packers, transport, wholesalers/agents, retailers
Academic, regulatory and industry-based food and food safety academics and scientists.
We are seeking Technical Committee members with expertise across a range of priority research areas including:
microbial research
allergens in food
water quality and use, including field operations/irrigation, and wash water
pathogens in the supply chain
produce harvest and post-harvest practices, including cooling and transport
compost and organic fertiliser use
chemical residues
regulations and protocols
extension and outreach, and
other research specialities relating to fresh produce safety research.
Role of the Technical Committee
The roles of the members of the Technical Committee of the Fresh Produce Safety Centre are :
Advise the FPSC Board on suitability and selection of priority areas for research activities each year, including the specific priority areas for research to be included in any Calls for Research Proposals.
Review, select and rank submitted research proposals which meet the selection criteria for funding each year.
Recommend to the FPSC Board a short list of proposals suitable for funding each year.
Review both technical- and industry-focused research outputs from funded research projects and advise on suitability for outreach.
Provide ad hoc advice to the Board and staff of the FPSC on fresh produce food safety technical issues, as required.
Meet at least once per year face-to-face and at least one other time by teleconference.
The Technical Committee members will be volunteer and will not be remunerated. The Technical Committee members are encouraged to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.
How to Express Interest
Please supply a copy of your brief resume and a cover letter outlining your experience in the fresh produce industries and the skills that you would bring to the Fresh Produce Safety Centre, mapped against the criteria outlined above.
The closing time and date for nominations is 5pm Friday 1 August 2014. Please email your letter and brief resume to:
Emma Walters
Interim Executive Director
Fresh Produce Safety Centre
hosted by the University of Sydney
Faculty of Agriculture and Environment
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Room 412, Biomedical Building
1 Central Ave
Australian Technology Park
Eveleigh 2015 NSW
info@freshproducesafety-anz.com
A selection panel from the Fresh Produce Safety Centre Board, will review the applications, interview shortlisted applicants and select the members of the Technical Committee.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Fresh Produce Safety Centre’s interim Executive Director Emma Walters on +61 (2) 8627 1058 or e-mail us using the comment box below if you would like further information.
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This project has been funded by HAL using voluntary contributions from industry and matched funds from the Australian Government.
Oversight in private food safety auditing: addressing auditor conflict of interest
Timothy D. Lytton and Lesley K. McAllister write in the 2014 Wisconsin Law Review 289, that private auditing is a significant component of food safety regulation. Typically, manufacturers, retail sellers, and food-service operators require their suppliers to obtain food safety certification from a private third-party auditor paid by the supplier. Auditors’ financial interest in acquiring accounts from suppliers who want the cheapest certification that they can obtain gives auditors incentive to reduce the rigor of audits. This constitutes a conflict of interest between the auditor’s private financial interest and its professional obligation to protect the public from food safety risks. Audit industry insiders and outside observers are well aware of this problem, and various institutional actors — both public and private — have developed oversight mechanisms to address it.
To read the full article, please click here.
Source: http://barfblog.com Written by Doug Powell.
Court Gavel by Jonathunder 2008 Some rights reserved (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Wal-Mart triples spending on food safety in China
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Tuesday it will triple its spending on food safety in China by the end of 2015 after criticism of its operating procedures and a reported mislabeling of donkey meat.
The world’s largest retailer said it will shell out $48.2 million on food safety between 2013 and 2015. That’s nearly three times the $16.1 million it had previously earmarked.
The extra spending will go toward food testing, permits, DNA testing of meat sold in China and supplier audits, said Paul Gallemore, Wal-Mart’s chief compliance officer in China.
Wal-Mart is also adding mobile testing labs to check products more frequently, and is investing in iPads and other technology to improve food safety training for employees.
To read the full article, please click here.
Source: http://www.latimes.com Written by Brianna Sacks
FDA Irvine Lab photo by Michael J Ermath 2009. Some rights reserved, United States goverment work
High-tech greenhouse pesticide system planned in Chile
Chile’s Foundation for Agricultural Innovation (FIA) will undertake a new project to implement a safer and more efficient method of applying pesticides in greenhouses.
The initiative will benefit more than 100 tomato producers in the central Maule region, and will be supported by local governmental body INIA Raihuén and construction firm SAE.
The main issue at the moment is that temperature and humidity are too high in the greenhouses for workers to be able to wear personal safety equipment that would normally protect them from pesticides, so they end up breathing in the dangerous chemicals.
The current system is also inefficient and ineffective, often distributing far more pesticide to the crops than necessary, impacting negatively on end consumers’ health.
The solution will use a hydraulic sprayer on the exterior of the greenhouse that has a piping system running inside featuring special nozzles that only spray the plants.
To read the full article, please click here.
Source: http://www.freshfruitportal.com
Tomato Greenhouses image by Elias Gayles 2012. Some rights reserved (CC BY 2.0)
Reading food safety advice on labels
Consumer understanding of food safety on labels advice is improving but there is still room for improvement.
There has been a lot of interest in recent years about how consumers understand and use the nutrition information on food labels to assist them in making healthier food choices. However, the food safety components on food labels, such as ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates, as well as cooking and storage instructions, have received less attention. This is despite the fact that this labelling, if followed correctly, plays an important role in reducing the risk of foodborne illness.
Read Article →
Country-of-origin labelling laws under scrutiny
Breaches of country-of-origin food labelling laws “do not pose any food safety risks to consumers” and therefore enforcement is not “the primary objective” for the owners of Melbourne’s biggest fruit and vegetable market.
The statement was made the City of Melbourne, which controls Queen Victoria Market, one of Melbourne’s top tourist attractions.
A recent Weekly Times investigation found numerous stallholders at Melbourne’s major fruit and vegetable markets — Queen Victoria, South Melbourne and Prahran — and a number of smaller retail outlets continue to flout mandatory country of origin labelling laws eight years after they were introduced.
To read the full article, please click here.
Source: http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au Written by: James Wagstaff
China: Vice-premier calls for food-safety credit system
Vice-Premier Wang Yang urged food safety authorities to hasten the establishment of a credit system to better inform the public of both the good and bad producers.
He made the remarks on June 10 at a forum of the China Food Safety Publicity Week.
He also demanded strict monitoring of the entire process of food production, processing and sales to safeguard food safety and quality.
To read the full article, please click here.
Source: www.chinadaily.com.au