Posts from the "Topics" category
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.
Institute of Food Technologists Launches Global Food Traceability Center
The Global Food Traceability Center will serve all aspects of the food system by generating knowledge that addresses research gaps, and delivering applied research, objective advice, and practical expertise about food product traceability and data collaboration for private benefit and public good.
Through its work, the Center will provide the means to accelerate the adoption and implementation of practical traceability solutions across the global food system. It will also deliver support services that help to increase understanding of food traceability across the following business platforms:
Research
Protocols and Standards
Education and Training
Technology Transfer
To find out more, click here.
Read Article →
Changes to the MRLS for Blueberries and Raspberries – FSANZ
The Australian Food and Grocery Council has submitted an application to request consideration of maximum residue limits (MRLs) for agricultural chemicals concerned with individually quick frozen (IQF) blueberries and raspberries imported from Chile.
The request is made to address a need for sourcing competitively priced ingredients in a convenient format for consumers wishing to incorporate blueberries and raspberries into their diets.
The chemicals for which the MRLs are requested are Azoxystrobin (blueberry); Fenhexamid (blueberry); Fludioxonil (blueberry) and Bifenthrin (raspberry).
These chemicals are already permitted to be used in Australia for other commodities.
Read the executive summary here.
Read about the submission in more detail.
Foreign Supplier Verification Programs summary released, new FSMA webinars announced
Produce Marketing Association (PMA) is releasing new resources to help the global fresh produce industry understand the U.S. government’s latest proposed rules to implement the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The association announces plans for bilingual produce-specific webinars explaining the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposals for Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) and Accreditation of Third-Party Auditors, released by the agency on July 26. PMA also announces release of English and Spanish summaries of the FSVP proposed rule.
The FSVP proposed rule summaries are tailored for the global fresh produce industry, as the proposed rule would extend U.S. food safety standards to imported foods. English and Spanish summaries of the Accreditation of Third-Party Auditors proposed rule will follow soon.
PMA will partner with Canadian Produce Marketing Association, Fresh Produce Association of the Americas and Western Growers to host an English-language webinar covering the two newly proposed rules on Thursday, Aug. 29, from 3-4:30 p.m. EST.
That webinar will feature FDA experts Brian Pendleton, J.D., and Charlotte Christin, J.D., both FDA senior policy advisors who will explain the proposed rules and then answer participants’ questions. PMA will also host a Spanish-language webinar covering the proposed rules on Tuesday, Sept. 10, from 3-4 p.m. EST. Both webinars are free; registration is now open for the English webinar, and will open soon for the Spanish webinar.
“The global reality of today’s fresh produce supply chain is reflected in these latest proposed rules,” said PMA Chief Science & Technology Officer Bob Whitaker. “PMA is here to help all of our members, inside and outside the U.S., understand FSMA’s implications on our global industry.”
PMA’s latest summaries and webinars are designed for:
U.S.-based fresh produce importers, who would be responsible for implementing the FSVP rule;
non-U.S. fresh produce suppliers to U.S. importers, who would be responsible for working with importers to meet FSVP requirements;
fresh produce buyers and sellers who utilize or participate in third-party audits; and
auditors or certifiers, who would be subject to the third-party audit rule
Access FSVP proposed rule summaries and additional PMA resources, by visiting the “What’s New” section of PMA’s online FSMA Resource Center.
Read Article →Food Safety Guidance Documents now available online at pma.com
The Produce Marketing Association (PMA) now offers a new resource for food safety guidance documents to help producers and buyers develop food safety programs for their specific operations. Both country and commodity-specific resources are available. If you or your organisation is aware of applicable produce safety best practices/guidance documents that are not listed and would like to have them included, please contact Cynthia Neal at cneal@pma.com
Access the full list of resources, here.
Check out PMA’s full range of global food safety resources, here.
Researchers create rapid E.coli detector
A group of researchers at Canada’s University of Alberta have created a gadget they say can quickly detect the presence of E.coli bacteria in food. The test, which can be used at food-processing facilities, makes millions of copies of the genes in the meat being tested and provides results in under an hour. See the full article at Food Business Review (7/17)
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Brief Report: CPS Research Symposium Key Messages, part 1.
Brief Report, CPS Research Symposium 26 and 27th June 2013 ,Wegman’s Conference Centre Rochester, NY State.
The CPS at the University of Davis has been very supportive of the initiatives in Australia to establish an affiliated Fresh Produce Safety Centre. Over the past year they have very generously shared their research outcomes, they have given presentations to our industry, and this year invited Australian researchers to apply for research grants to work collaboratively with US scientists on issues important for the Australian fruit and vegetable industry.
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‘What it takes to instill a food safety culture in your business’ new presentation
Food Safety in our industry is a consumer-right, requiring a collaborative effort from all sectors of the industry. Dr Douglas Powell, Professor of food safety at Kansas State University was at PMA Fresh Connections 2013 Conference last week to challenge businesses not to rely on regulation, but to rely on their staff to deliver safe food.
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“Whats new in food safety for you?” presentation now available.
At the recent Freshcare Workshop 11-12 April 2013, Associate Professor Robyn McConchie (USyd) delivered a presentation on “Whats new in Food Safety for you?”
The presentation was based on information provided by Dr Bob Whitaker (PMA) and Ms Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli (CPS) and summarises some of the food safety research made available at the Center for Produce Safety 2012 Research Symposium.
Read Article →
Traceability set to improve with the GS1 DataBar
GS1 have launched the new GS1 DataBar, to be implemented globally from January 2014.
This in an important development and will impact retailers both locally and internationally.
The GS1 DataBar is a family of seven barcodes, four of which can be read by omnidirectional scanners at Point-of-Sale. The smaller size will provide several advantages to anyone working in the supply chain and specifically for the fresh produce industry, allowing products that have not been previously barcoded to be quickly and accurately scanned at Point-of-Sale. The benefits of the new GS1 DataBar include:
• Improved Traceability – with more information input into the barcodes
• Enhanced and wider category management
• Product authentication
• Global variable measure product identification
• Increased shrink control through more effective markdown management
As an example, the GS1 DataBar provides for the automated markdown of products approaching expiry date. This saves time and resources in manual markdown and gives retailers the scope to improve product rotation and eliminate non-sales from expired products.
This will increase the level of confidence in the safety of fresh produce and aligns with goals of the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI).
Furthermore, the long-anticipated report produced for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) (report), was recently released and fits also with the PTI and the developments GS1 are making for traceability of fresh Produce. The recommendations in the IFT report including: encouraging current industry-led initiatives, not excluding commodities; accepting electronic traceability data/records during product tracing investigations; and requiring all organizations that handle food in the supply chain to identify and maintain records of traceability related information.
It is recommended that anyone working in the supply chain, no matter what size, understand the GS1 DataBar.
For more information on the GS1 DataBar, download the brochure.