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Food Safety Fate

By Rick Biros

How a chance meeting lead to the sharing of an emotional and powerful food safety story. Was this random hotel elevator connection fate or divine intervention? I don’t know. What I do know is because Dana was willing to talk to a stranger, she was able to share her daughter, Kayla’s food safety story to an audience of food safety professionals and now to you.   

Featured Articles

July 7, 2026
Testing methods, analysis

Beyond the Certificate of Analysis: What Supplier Verification Really Asks of You

By Bala Murugan

Many food manufacturers treat supplier verification as a filing exercise collect the certificate of analysis, confirm it's in spec, move on. This article argues that approach satisfies neither FSMA's supply-chain program nor the scrutiny of a recall. It explains what 21 CFR Part 117 Subpart G actually requires (risk-based verification scaled to hazard severity), why a COA is an assertion rather than proof of safety, and how to build a verification program independent testing, representative sampling, and documented reasoning that matches the hazard rather than just collecting paperwork.

July 7, 2026
Nuts, tree nuts

Aflatoxin: Managing A Stubborn Threat To Global Food Safety

By Stephen Fapohunda

For food brands, processors, and exporters, aflatoxins represent a dual risk: severe public health consequences and strict regulatory enforcement. In 2024 alone, the EU rejected 127 shipments from Africa due to aflatoxin levels exceeding 2 ppb  for AFB1. For consultants and auditors, understanding aflatoxin risk is now a core compliance skill for food safety, sustainability, and ESG(Environmental, Social and Governance) audits.

July 7, 2026
FDA Logo

FDA Shares Recording of Traceability Public Meeting

On June 15, 2026 The FDA held a public meeting to give the public an opportunity to share information on continued implementation of the Food Traceability Rule and areas of remaining concern, specifically as they relate to lot-level tracking and flexibilities for compliance

July 1, 2026
FDA Logo

Foods Program Guidance Under Development

By Food Safety Tech Staff

FDA announced a list of guidance topics includes possible new topics for guidance documents or revisions to existing guidance documents that the FDA’s Human Foods Program is considering, including Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation and Microbiological Food Safety.

July 1, 2026
Workers production line

Beyond Detection: Building a Multi-Layered Food Safety Defense System

By Michael Ciepiela

Growth, continuous improvement, and increased throughput should never come at the expense of robust food safety practices. Instead, food safety programs must evolve alongside manufacturing operations to ensure both objectives advance together. The challenge arises when operational excellence begins to outpace the food safety systems designed to protect both consumers and brands.

July 1, 2026
Food processing, pest management

Food Processing Pest Management: Where Pests Are Hiding in Your Facility — And How an IPM Program Helps Stop Them

By Patricia Hottel

Pests hide wherever food residue, moisture, warmth and access points converge. In food processing facilities, those conditions appear every day in loading docks, floor drains, equipment voids and ingredient storage. A proactive Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program is the FDA-aligned standard for identifying and eliminating those conditions before they trigger a compliance issue or failed audit

June 27, 2026
Farming, sustainability

Trump wants to Reduce Pesticides but Glyphosate is ok

By Food Safety Tech Staff

On the same day the SCOTUS sided with the Trump administration and the maker of the weedkiller Roundup, Trump issued an executive order aimed at reducing pesticides in the food supply and studying the health risks they pose but with no new federal funding, and it does not call for new regulations or legislation.

May 28, 2026
FDA Logo

FDA Announces Updates to Modernize, Strengthen Pesticide Monitoring Compliance Program

By Food Safety Tech Staff

The updated compliance program will focus exclusively on monitoring pesticide residues in foods. To reflect this, the program has been renamed "Pesticides in Human Foods - Domestic and Import."

May 27, 2026

A Greenpeace Study finds microplastics in baby food pouches

By Food Safety Tech Staff

New investigation is the first to trace microplastics and plastic chemicals from plastic packaging into baby food. The testing commissioned by Greenpeace International in 2025 found plastic particles in the baby food products of two global consumer goods companies – Danone and Nestlé. The study suggests a link between the type of plastic the pouches are lined with – polyethylene – and some of the microplastics found.

May 27, 2026
FDA Logo

FDA Releases Discussion Paper Ahead of Traceability Public Meeting in June

By Food Safety Tech Staff

The discussion paper includes information and questions to help inform FDA’s engagements with stakeholders, including the upcoming virtual FDA-led public meeting on June 15th. 

Columns

July 7, 2026
Beltway Beat

USDA Risks Becoming Irrelevant on Food Safety

By Brian Ronholm
USDA Logo

While the department’s food safety leadership likes to repeatedly emphasize that they use a science-based and data-driven approach to policy making, consumer advocates worry that these statements are meaningless if they don’t translate into policy initiatives that aim to prevent foodborne illness.

May 27, 2026
Ask The Expert

The Hidden Layer of Repetition Series, Article 2 of 5

By Azure Edwards, M.S.
Manufacturing productivity, efficiency

Food safety programs are often evaluated through the events they document, yet many organizations carry significant operating cost in the events that continue returning under different names, departments, and corrective actions as part of normal work. This article examines the financial impact of recurrence, including decision latency, the labor absorbed by the hidden factory of repeated remediation, and the institutional knowledge that walks out the door before the system can hold it. Many of those costs remain invisible to conventional budgeting. Recognizing recurrence as a structural signal can help organizations recover operating capacity already present in the records they keep.

May 6, 2026
Ask The Expert

The Hidden Cost of Repetition

By Azure Edwards, M.S.
Manufacturing productivity, efficiency

Fifteen years of preventive controls investment has produced something many organizations are positioned to use more fully: a record of operational performance detailed enough to begin reading these costs as a pattern with a common origin rather than as isolated inefficiencies belonging to separate departments. That reorientation is available, and the infrastructure for it already exists. This five-part series examines food safety through the business realities that leaders already navigate: profitability, risk, growth, brand trust, and organizational function. Not to reframe food safety as a business problem, but to make visible what the industry has earned the right to see clearly.

May 3, 2026
Biros' Blog

Food Safety Fate

By Rick Biros

How a chance meeting lead to the sharing of an emotional and powerful food safety story. Was this random hotel elevator connection fate or divine intervention? I don’t know. What I do know is because Dana was willing to talk to a stranger, she was able to share her daughter, Kayla’s food safety story to an audience of food safety professionals and now to you. 

April 23, 2026
Women in Food Safety

Self-Care for the Safety-Savvy Woman: Why Taking Care of You Protects the World

By Kim Ring

Joan Menke-Schaenzer, Chief Quality Officer at Van Drunen Farms says to be a strong leader and advocate in food safety, you must first be an advocate for yourself. A deliberate, consistent commitment to self-care is the best defense against burnout, the loudest silencer of imposter syndrome, and the fuel that keeps your passion for protecting public health alive.

April 3, 2026
FST Soapbox

Harnessing AI can help to ensure safe food for consumers across the US and beyond

By Wesley Wilson
Food fraud

The food sector is already using AI to optimize its supply chains, reduce waste and improve demand forecasting. Now, pioneering food and beverage companies are also using AI for food safety processes.

Upcoming FST Events & Webinars

May 28, 2026 – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
FoodChain ID – The Packaging Decisions You Make Today Will Set Your EPR Costs Tomorrow: Data, Specs, and Eco-Modulation

With EPR regulations, reporting requirements, and eco-modulation schemes coming online, the packaging decisions you make today will determine what you pay tomorrow. In this session, FoodChain ID will explore how companies can turn regulatory compliance fees into a competitive advantage by strengthening packaging specifications, automating data and EPR reporting, and planning for long-term source reduction. Join us to take a deeper look at the practical considerations behind everyday packaging decisions, including how to evaluate design and material trade-offs, improve data quality, and connect these choices to real compliance requirements and cost outcomes.

October 21, 2026 – October 23, 2026
Food Safety Consortium Conference

Plan to attend the Food Safety Consortium Conference in Washington DC. This year's program will include the rise of AI in food safety and quality management, risk management and FSMA 15 years, later, where is food safety going? The event will focus on the convergence of policy, science, and best practices. With the conference being held near Washington, D.C., the program continues to emphasis on policy discussions, reflecting the growing need to address regulatory and legislative issues. The program will also prioritize the sharing of best practices, offering attendees the chance to learn from one another and engage in collaborative problem-solving on hot-button issues.

On Demand Events & Webinars

May 5, 2026 – 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Food Safety Audits: Horror Stories and Lessons Learned
April 15, 2026 – 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
The Visibility Gap: Why Fragmented Food Safety Systems Leave You Exposed
April 8, 2026 – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Touchless, Continuous Pathogen Control: Introducing DHP®, a Novel Method for Enhancing Sanitation Programs
March 26, 2026 – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Foreign Material Contamination: How CT Inspection Unlocks New Visibility
April 8, 2026 – 2:00 pm – May 27, 2026 – 4:00 pm
Advanced Strategic Root Cause Analysis (RCA) & Corrective Action and Preventive Action (CAPA) Online Training Course









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