Posts from the "Traceability" category
NZ: AsureQuality inSight and Authenticateit sign agreement to bring together traceability, food safety and quality a ssurance
Australian Food News: New Zealand government-owned food safety and quality assurance company AsureQuality has officially signed a strategic alliance with Australian product authenticity, protection and traceability technology firm, Authenticateit.
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Food Standards releases revised frozen berry risk statement, writes Richard Bennett
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has released its risk statement on ready-to-eat (RTE) frozen berries and hepatitis A virus (HAV) following an extensive review of the incident involving Patties Foods. Using an internationally recognised food safety risk assessment approach, FSANZ has concluded that “…hepatitis A virus in RTE berries produced and handled under Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) is not a medium to high risk to public health.â€
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Food Safety News: Traceability has become increasingly important. The global food supply chain today has evolved into a tangled web as companies seek to enhance their capabilities to feed the world’s growing population. While food safety problems remain rare, when they do occur, time is the enemy as public health and lives are at stake, as well as the livelihoods of industries, companies and employees. The Global Food Traceability Center is intended to assist companies to better understand and implement ways to track and trace the paths of products through the food chain, to improve food safety and security and to avoid or mitigate devastating public health and economic impacts.
Click here to read the full article from Food Safety News.
EU: Growers and industry hit by $1.3 bn in losses due to 2011 outbreak of E. Coli
Food Safety News: The World Health Organization (WHO) has totaled up some economic costs of the 2011 outbreak of the rare and deadly E. coli O104:H4 centered on Northern Europe. Farmers and industries lost $1.3 billion, and emergency aid provided to 22 European states cost another $236 million, according to WHO.
The novel E. coli strain was the cause of the May through June 2011 outbreak that saw 3,950 people infected, with 53 deaths blamed on the deadly pathogen. All but two of the deaths occurred in Germany.
Public health officials in Germany initially thought the source of the contamination was cucumbers imported from Spanish greenhouses, but that theory proved incorrect. It was a mistake that Spanish growers said cost them $200 million a week. Russia banned imports of all EU fresh produce in June 2011.
Click here to read the full story at Food Safety News
AU: Frozen berries scare propels focus on traceability
Food Magazine: Food safety today is taking centre stage with the spotlight clearly beaming down on the need for an unequivocal, standard practice across the entire food sector.The recent 2015 frozen berries case is not the first food safety incident of its kind and it won’t be the last. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Product Safety Recalls Australia website there were 75 recalls of food and grocery items in 2014 alone.
The latest incident was preceded by other high profile cases including the Hepatitis A outbreak allegedly linked to semi-dried tomatoes in Australia in 2009, and the contamination scare that triggered a recall of Fonterra products that may have contained whey protein in a number of countries around the world, including China and Australia, in 2013.
Click here to read the full article from Food Magazine.
NZ: Mandatory Traceability Proposed
Horticulture New Zealand: The [NZ] government is considering applying the Dairy Traceability Working Group’s recommendations around traceability to all food sectors and businesses. To view the reports visit http://foodsafety.govt.nz. The proposals relate to mandatory record keeping and the requirement to share information with regulators within 24 hours in a food safety emergency. HortNZ agrees traceability is important and most growers and horticulture exporters already have good systems in place to meet market requirements. HortNZ will be looking carefully at the proposed regulatory changes which will be fully consulted on in July 2015.
This article from the Horticulture New Zealand Newsletter 24th March 2015.
Food safety expert says frozen berries hepatitis crisis a ‘wake-up call’ for fresh produce supply chain
Melbourne, AU. — A food safety expert has urged companies across the fresh fruit, vegetable and nutsupply chain to redouble their food safety efforts in the face of an outbreak of foodborne illness attributed to hepatitis A virus (HAV), which has left at least 10 people infected in Australia.
Richard Bennett, Technology Manager at the Fresh Produce Safety Centre Australia-New Zealand (FPSC), has authored a fact sheet to help both industry and consumers to understand the food safety issues and dispel some of the myths associated with the current frozen berries hepatitis crisis.
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EU traceability requirements rank top in global table of food safety regulations
European Union countries rank highest when it comes to global food traceability regulations and requirements, according to a new report from The Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC). Australia and New Zealand come in as ‘Average’.
To read the full report, please click here.
Source: http://www.ift.org.
Image credit:
David Andersen / Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
GS1 Recallnet: Half-day Information & Training Sessions
19 November 2014
GS1 Australia is hosting free information and optional training sessions on product recall using GS1 Recallnet. GS1 Recallnet is a secure, online portal used to streamline the recall and notification process.
The Melbourne event will focus on the Primary Grower / Producer and the challenges that a recall event brings to this sector.
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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.
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