Public concern and awareness of the risks of PFAS combined with increased regulatory action and a new method to break down some of the most harmful compounds are signaling the food and beverage industry that its time to embrace detection and mitigation.
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a public health alert for poultry and meat products containing an FDA-regulated corn starch that has been recalled due to an undeclared allergen, specifically milk.
“Communities have suffered far too long from exposure to these forever chemicals. The action announced today will improve transparency and advance EPA’s aggressive efforts to confront this pollution, as outlined in the Agency’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap.”
The CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, the FDA and the USDA-FSIS are collecting data to identify the food source of the outbreak and confirm whether romaine lettuce is the source.
The third phase will help determine the feasibility of deploying in-house AI/ML models using the intelligence that FDA extracts from the data collected while reviewing millions of import entries per year.
By declaring Salmonella an adulterant in these products, breaded and stuffed raw chicken products will be considered adulterated when they exceed a very low level of Salmonella contamination and would be subject to regulatory action.
On August 11, the FDA will host a webinar on biennial food facility registration and unique facility identifier requirements. Registration is also open for the FDA’s annual Retail Food Protection Seminar that will take place virtually September 19-22.
From 1983 to 2018, there were 50 outbreaks globally that were attributed to frozen berries: 36 caused by norovirus and 14 by hepatitis A.
A strong food safety culture is not required by regulation, yet it will pay off in fewer violations, recalls and, ultimately, a safer public. Here is how to recognize (and overcome) the most common road blocks to building a company culture—from the C-suite to the front lines—that embraces food safety.
“Amongst meat and poultry commodities, the consistent and significant increase in the proportion of pork-associated outbreaks is of concern.”
