Posts from the "Topics" category
US: Industry members, food safety veterans urge companies to invest in traceability
Produce Retailer: Panelists at the Center for Produce Safety Symposium described better traceback as essential to containing foodborne illness outbreaks and urged companies to invest in that infrastructure. The somber and frank discussion, moderated by Produce Marketing Association CEO Cathy Burns, started with a review of the recent spate of E. coli outbreaks linked to romaine lettuce. Burns asked each member of the group to share his biggest takeaway from the romaine debacle.
Read Article →DE: Carrefour says blockchain tracking boosting sales of some products
Reuters: French retailer Carrefour SA has seen sales boosted by the use of blockchain ledger technology to track meat, milk and fruit from farms to stores and will extend it to more products to increase shopper trust, an executive said on Monday.
Read Article →US: Recovering From A Pathogen-Related Recall
Global Food Safety Resource: More than half of the secret to recovering from a pathogen-related product recall lies in being prepared before it even happens, according to Keith Warriner, a professor of food science at Canada’s University of Guelph. “Have a recall team that includes someone with decision-making authority,” he says, noting that, depending on the company, the team should also have staff from quality assurance, production, marketing and distribution.
Read Article →NZ: Yersinia infection still a mystery after 2014 outbreak in NZ
Stuff.co.nz: New Zealanders were surprised to learn that those forces for good in human health – lettuce and carrots – were identified as a common link in the outbreak of Yersinia infections that made at least 220 people sick and sent 70 to hospital in 2014. [T]he source of the New Zealand outbreak was never proven, and this was mainly because of the difficulty of tracing all the ingredients of a mixed salad.
Read Article →AU: Dump the dumps to avoid listeria potential, rockmelon growers told
Queensland Country Life: Converting water-holding “dump tanks” to dry dumps has emerged as a common recommendation for rockmelon growers in order to prevent another listeria outbreak. Growers have also been advised on correct cleaning practices and encouraged to embrace automation to further avoid a repeat of the listeria outbreak which crippled the industry a year ago.
Read Article →AU: Allergen information concern: Half of all adverse reactions occur in products without warning labels
Foodnavigator-Asia: More than half of all cases of anaphylaxis or food allergy reactions featured in a new study occurred after the consumption of products that failed to contain any allergen warning labels, according to researchers at the University of Melbourne.
Read Article →UK: IBM launches blockchain platform in Melbourne, Australia
Software Testing News: IBM has successfully launched its blockchain platform in a data centre located in Melbourne, Australia, according to a ZDNet report published last Monday (Feb.11th). The platform will allow customers to run their applications on the cloud, provided that they abide by data sovereignty requirements. Colchester explained that the blockchain platform will be used to revolutionise the whole supply chain and food safety industry in Australia.
Read Article →AU: A barcoded apple is more important than you may realise
Food & Beverage Magazine: What is the significance of barcoding every single apple in a mountain of fruit at the supermarket? It seems a tedious process when an apple is surely just an apple. But, an apple is much more than what is seen at face value. It comes with a history – a place of origin, a past in which it was grown in specific soil and shipped in a certain container. This is valuable information, even for the humble apple, as a food recall could affect any product at any time.
Read Article →Understanding Good Food Safety Culture
A strong food safety culture will prevent further outbreaks, says Dr Pieternel Luning, visiting from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. However, it is unlikely we will ever reach zero.
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Food Safety Culture Top Tips
Take an assessment of your current food safety culture – what’s happening, what isn’t
Employee characteristics (food safety attitudes & values, food risk perceptions)
Organisational characteristics (leadership, commitment, communication style, food safety/hygiene procedures)
Food safety management system (design & operation)
Facilitative technological resources (protective clothing, food safety/hygiene tools)
Look at what you can actually see within an organisation
Values on display
Hygiene facilities
Understanding of procedures
People, process, purpose, practicality – think about these four areas when creating the right food safety culture in your organisation.
Read Article →US: FDA says poor records stalled outbreak work; feedlot likely source of E. coli
Food Safety News: Federal officials won’t say definitively that contaminated canal water was behind this year’s deadly E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, but they are saying they “found no evidence in support of alternative explanations.” Another point made clear in an outbreak investigation report released yesterday puts the FDA firmly on record when it comes to antiquated shipping and receiving recordkeeping used by many in the leafy greens industry.
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