Dole Organic Lettuce
Dole Organic Lettuce
Beltway Beat

FDA Finalizes Guidance for Ready-to-Eat Fresh-Cut Produce Operations under Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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The final guidance reflects public comments received on the October 2018 draft guidance and replaces the 2008 FDA fresh-cut produce guidance. This guidance represents the agency’s current thinking on the issues related to preventing contamination in fresh cut produce. FDA’s guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, guidance documents describe the agency’s current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited. The use of the word should in FDA guidance means that something is suggested or recommended but not specifically required.

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Beyond the Survey: What Supplier Compliance Behavior Reveals About Food Safety Culture — Before It Becomes a Recall

By Santoshi Muriki
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Most food safety culture assessments still lean on annual surveys and self-reported audit responses — snapshots of what people say, taken once or twice a year. Supplier compliance behavior tells a more current story: how fast a vendor answers a document request, how often the same corrective action keeps coming back, and how long a supplier sits in an at-risk tier before anything changes. This article lays out a practical way to read that behavior as a culture signal, based on firsthand work redesigning a risk-tiered supplier verification system across a network of more than 1,000 suppliers.

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FDA Logo
Beltway Beat

The FDA is implementing a major reorganization plan called “Simple Reform” on October 1, 2026

By Food Safety Tech Staff, Rick Biros
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The FDA is implementing a major reorganization plan called “Simple Reform” on October 1, 2026, which shifts field inspectors from specialized product roles back to generalist investigators and centralizes administrative functions. The food and beverage industry should expect a shift in audit dynamics, meaning audits will likely focus less on highly specific, niche technical processes and more on foundational, broad-spectrum quality systems. Dr. Stephen Ostroff and Frank Yiannas, both former Deputy Commissioners at FDA offer their opinions on Simple Reform.

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Beltway Beat

Food Safety Consortium Conference

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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.

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SQFI Logo

SQF Edition 10 Delayed

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SQF Edition 10 has been delayed due to an extension in the GFSI benchmarking application timeline, which now runs through March 2026. The new edition emphasizes food safety culture, change management, and environmental monitoring, and it consolidates documentation requirements to create a more proactive and holistic approach to food safety. 

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