Posts from the "Traceability" category


Sponsorship Prospectus for the Fresh Produce Safety Conference 2021 – available now

The Sponsorship Prospectus for the 2021 Fresh Produce Safety Conference is available now.
The Fresh Produce Safety Conference will be held in Sydney and online on 18 August 2021. Themed Future Directions for Produce Safety, the conference brings together key industry professionals to explore issues and research around fresh produce food safety.
Click to view the Sponsorship Prospectus

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Foodbank streamlines food relief efforts

AU – Produce Plus Magazine: Seattle-based iFoodDS teamed up with Foodbank to implement its Disposition feature, which allows retail distribution centres and suppliers to collaborate and donate products to Foodbank.
The technology speeds up the donation process, resulting in extended shelf life, reduced operational costs for suppliers and increased donations. More
 

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Draft Traceability Guidelines for New Zealand

Guest industry blog:
United Fresh New Zealand

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SEA: WHO framework targets improved food safety in South East Asia

Food Safety News: The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified key priorities to improve food safety in the next five years in South East Asia.

The Framework for Action on Food Safety in the WHO South-East Asia Region covers 2020 to 2025 and has guidance for authorities across the food chain and those involved in food safety emergencies, preparedness and response. Several countries are included. More here.

 

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AU: New traceability program to build trust in Australia’s food supply chains

Deakin University: Australia’s food safety systems will be strengthened by the delivery of a new national implementation program to help track and trace food products from farm to fork in domestic and export markets.

The industry-led program, co-designed by Deakin University’s Centre for Supply Chain and Logistics (CSCL), includes an Australian-first Implementing Food Traceability Guide, plus product specific guides and industry demonstrations that will enable greater visibility along the entire food supply chain. More here.

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AU: $4M for agricultural traceability grants

Sixteen projects will share $4 million in funding under round 1 of the Traceability Grants Program.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud says the projects are sharing in the funding under the first round of the Australian Government’s $7 million Traceability Grants Program.

One of the projects involves the trial of technology to trace fresh produce through export supply chains, with the melon industry used as a pilot.

Read the Minister’s media release here, and more about the Traceability Grants Program here.

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Webinar – Innovation Agenda: Opportunities to Improve the Audit Process

Date and Time: 10-11am (AEDT), Tuesday 10 March 2020

Webinar – Innovation Agenda: Opportunities to Improve the Audit Process – a view from Lucy MacLennan from Red Tractor

Presented by the FPSC A&NZ and Freshcare.

Register here.

This webinar will be in two parts: the first part will be an overview of the UK’s Red Tractor and its assurance scheme for fresh produce. The second part will be Lucy’s personal views about the opportunities to improve the audit process, as part of a project she is undertaking for a Nuffield Scholarship.

About the Speaker: Lucy MacLennan is a specialist consultant to the food industry having worked as a food technologist for more than 20 years. Her work has taken her around the world improving the quality and safety of fresh produce as well as ambient grocery products and high care chilled prepared foods.She is currently a 2020 Nuffield Scholar, having previously obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Agrifood from the University of Nottingham, an MBA from Cranfield University and her undergraduate degree BSc (Hons) in Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Surrey.Lucy’s career has seen her work for leading UK retailers such as Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, as well as working extensively throughout their supply bases. Her consultancy work has led to the development of the Marks & Spencer Select Grower standard which has step changed food safety standards within the fresh produce industry.As well as her consultancy work, Lucy is Chief Executive of The Organic Research Centre, an organisation which seeks to redesign and deliver better farming practices based on organic and agroecological principles. She is also Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Fresh Produce Board Committee at Red Tractor Assurance.

This webinar will be in two parts:

Part A – Red Tractor Assurance is the leading farm assurance scheme in the UK.  It is one of the biggest brands in the UK, with its logo appearing on almost £15bn food sold.  The scheme covers 6 industry sectors: beef and lamb, poultry, dairy, crops, pigs and fresh produce.  Lucy is Chairman of the Fresh Produce Sector Board and Non Executive Director for Red Tractor and will provide an overview of the state of the fresh produce sector in the UK and how Red Tractor has responded and shaped its strategy accordingly.  In addition she will provide an overview of how the fresh produce standard is managed and implemented.

Part B – Lucy has built a wealth of experience developing GAP standards for UK retailers and has seen first hand where they work well but also the issues associated with audit and assurance schemes.  Her perception is that food safety audits are currently viewed as something of a necessary evil within supply chains – certification is a market entry requirement so the process is tolerated rather than really used by anyone to improve standards on farm.  But auditing on one day of the year can provide a false sense of year round compliance particularly regarding food safety.  She believes that there is an opportunity farm businesses to take more responsibility for their own continuous improvement of agricultural practices and that with improved attitudes, ownership of the challenge and building knowledge, ultimately the need for external audit could be reduced – or even eliminated and instead more emphasis should be placed on internal audit and leadership culture.  It is this opportunity that Lucy is exploring as part of her studies for her Nuffield Farming Scholarship.  In the course of her studies she will explore different fresh produce food safety standards around the world but in addition she will explore how audit has developed in other industries such as medicine, finance and the military in order to see whether there are opportunities to learn from their experience.

Register here.

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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