Take a moment at the beginning of this year to perform annual food safety gap analysis, assess our organization’s food safety culture and implement the much-needed corrective actions to fill these gaps towards the establishment of an enduring food safety culture. And convince senior management that this not only pays for itself but pushes customer satisfaction and profitability beyond their wildest dreams.
So far, 61 outbreaks have been associated with raw sprouts, sickening at least 11,179.
The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control has confirmed that two strains of Listeria monocytogenes found at Bidart Bros. facility in Shafter, CA, are identical to those in an outbreak that has sickened 34 in the U.S. and Canada, and killed at least three in the U.S.
A recent study noted that 57 percent of 1,804 customer transactions observed did not involve the vendor changing gloves in between handling money and the next person’s order.
Invest in continuous training of your frontline employees on the rudiments of food safety, to empower them, to safeguard the huge cost of corporate food safety management system, to protect your brand, and to protect the public health.
Produce safety featured prominently in the recently concluded Food Safety Consortium in Chicago November 17-18, 2014 for two reasons: First, produce remains the largest source of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, and second, the recent supplemental notice by FDA calling for another round of public comments on the proposed rule for “ Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption .”
“Food defense is different from preventive controls and food defense cannot be prescriptive—it needs to be tied to a facility-specific risk evaluation,” says Shannon Cooksey, Senior Director at the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
In these times, it’s better to err on the side of caution than to regret actions on a potentially positive Ebola case. It is indeed a good time also to rethink the level of food safety culture in your organization and what you can do to ensure that your organization is not in the news for the wrong reasons.
While industry is racing to develop several promising anti-spoilage technologies, active managerial control of the various components of an effective food safety and quality assurance system remains the best practice against food spoilage and associated food losses in retail food operations.
In this interview, FSSC 22000’s Dr. Jacqueline Southee talks about what’s new for the scheme, what changes are expected in 2015 and beyond, how these changes will affect you, and why it’s important to embrace these changes to be better prepared for upcoming food safety regulations such as FSMA.
