Listeria monocytogenes is a ubiquitous pathogen with a high mortality rate that can become persistent in the retail food environment, says Janet Buffer, MPH, of the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention, Ohio State University. During her presentation “Listeria monocytogenes and sanitation in the retail environment,” at the “Food Safety Hazards Series” virtual event, she discussed areas in retail food service environments most likely to harbor the pathogen as well as the best-proven methods to reduce the prevalence of listeria in your facility.

View the full “Food Safety Tech Hazards Series: Listeria” virtual conference on demand.

Areas that are more likely to harbor listeria monocytogenes in the retail food environment include:

Cracks and crevices in the floor
The floor/wall juncture, especially under sinks
On touchpoints of cooler handles and deli slicers
In front of deep fryers
In front of deli slicers and on slicer blades
Drains
Sink interiors
Areas where raw chicken is stored or transported

“Listeria monocytogenes is hardy. It tolerates salt, grows in cold environments and is moderately resistant to acids,” said Buffer. “It is also ubiquitous. We find it in soil, water, silage, manure and sewage. We bring it in on our shoes. We can carry it on our clothes, and it can become a persistent pathogen in our retail spaces.”

A recent study by Briana C. Britton, et al, published in Food Control Journal, identified the most effective sanitation and customer service strategies correlated with lower listeria prevalence in retail delicatessens. These include:

When the deli is cleaned two-to-three hours/day
Changing gloves after touching nonfood surfaces
Keeping sanitation records
Using foam to clean and sanitize

“All chemicals work and all work very well,” said Buffer. “But, they must be used at the correct concentrations and they will require some elbow grease.”

June 14, 2022

Food Genomics

How Data Analysis Supports Food Safety

By Emily Newton

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Data analytics can reduce the risks of foodborne illness, improve collaboration among food processing and service teams and help identify food fraud. As technology has advanced, researchers, policy-makers and food safety professionals are finding new ways to collect, use and analyze data. Following are some of the latest advances in the field of data analytics and food safety.

Improving Risk Assessment Strategies

Data and tracking have long been integral components of food safety risk assessment. Today, researchers are combining big data, machine learning and microbial genomics to create next-generation quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA).

Researchers at the University of Maryland received funding from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) to support work that combines machine learning and computational analysis with genomic sequencing and data about foodborne pathogen characteristics. They intend to take advantage of big data available in the agriculture and food sectors and integrate data from food production, processing, food safety risk factors and genomic data to inform—and potentially transform—public health strategies to prevent foodborne diseases and speed response to outbreaks.

QMRA can be used to: predict the behavior and transmission of pathogens across food production, processing and supply chain; identify areas in the chain that could lead to contamination; and estimate the probability and consequences of adverse public health effects in the event that tainted products are consumed.

Abani Pradhan, associate professor in Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Maryland and lead investigator on this project, explains that this data analysis project should lead to better accuracy due to the inclusion of AI and genomics. “The sheer abundance of information by including molecular and genomic data available should increase the robustness of disease risk estimates by reducing the sources of uncertainty and variability in the QMRA model,” said Pradhan. “This is important because there are so many different species of each foodborne pathogen, and even within the same species, there are different variations or types called serovars.”

Pradhan’s team are starting with Salmonella, because it has more than 2,500 serovars, all of which have highly variable characteristics. How resistant a pathogen is to heat stress or antimicrobials, how infectious it is and how quickly it grows and spreads are all characteristics of the pathogen that can be partially explained by genomic data.

“The idea is to connect that genetic information with the characteristics of the pathogen to bridge the gap between the genes and the food safety aspects for consumers,” said Pradhan. “If we can use machine learning tools to understand the linkages between genotypes and phenotypes, based upon that we can determine which serovars are the most concerning so that we can focus our experimental work on those types and further strengthen our models to create a risk assessment that provides a more robust and complete picture of the risk for risk mitigation.”

Using Online Data To Detect Safety Issues

The U.S. has a robust regulatory and oversight system to identify foodborne threats. In 2019, researchers led by Adyasha Maharana of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington, wanted to see if online consumer reviews might contain safety clues that could identify unsafe food products before official inspections or recalls occurred. They created a database linking Amazon food and grocery product reviews to product recall data from the FDA, and analyzed more than 1 million Amazon reviews featuring words like “sick,” “ill” and “foul.” The results showed that only 0.4% of the Amazon reviews containing those words were for recalled products.

The researchers also found synonyms for terms linked to FDA recalls in 20,000 reviews, although those products were still on the market. The researchers concluded that this “might suggest that many more products should have been recalled or investigated” and note their work could be used to aid regulators in determining which items to investigate.

A similar project, Google’s machine-learning algorithm FINDER (Food-borne Illness Detector in Real Time), uses search and location logs to identify restaurants that could be making people sick in real time. FINDER pulls data from people’s Google search queries for terms or symptoms that suggest they may have food poisoning. It then matches that information to Google location data logs to figure out which restaurants those individuals may have visited.

They tested this approach in Las Vegas and Chicago for four months in each city. The data analysis application helped food inspectors find 25% more unsafe restaurants compared to the previously used inspection method.

Neither of these case studies suggests regulators should do away with their more established procedures. However, combining this type of data analysis with existing strategies could further enhance safety.

Reducing Food Fraud

Many of today’s consumers want to know that the food they are eating comes from organic farms or was otherwise produced to certain standards. That’s why many restaurants now list which supply chain partners they use for specific menu items. This type of data reporting and sharing also offers improved food traceability. Having accurate information about where a food or beverage originated makes it easier to address and track problems when they do occur.

End-to-end traceability and real-time monitoring technologies continue to evolve, bringing new, more powerful tools that help providers at every link of the farm to table chain identify loss, theft and potential safety issues.

At the University of Adelaide, researchers improved upon current methods of detecting wine fraud by combining fluorescence spectroscopy and machine learning to determine a beverage’s molecular fingerprint. The team looked at Cabernet Sauvignon from three different wine regions. They found that their method could correctly authenticate the geographic origins of wine with 100% accuracy.

It is impossible to remove all food and beverage safety risks from the supply chain. However, successful applications of data analysis that help keep people safer are undoubtedly steps in the right direction. As more companies in the food and beverage industry adopt new data analysis tools, other interesting possibilities will become apparent. Even as things stand, the applications are full of promise.

June 7, 2022

FST Soapbox

A Check on Food Service Safety

By Derek Stangle

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Food safety is a primary concern worldwide. On a national scale, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earmarked $44.8M for food safety in the President’s FY2022 Budget Request, with more than half of that funding going to the New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative—a blueprint for the use of new and emerging technologies and approaches.

The New Era of Smarter Food Safety is centered around four core elements:

Tech-enabled Traceability
Smarter Tools and Approaches for Prevention and Outbreak Response
New Business Models and Retail Modernization
Food Safety Culture

These foundational pillars cover a range of technologies, analytics, business models and values. Working together, these elements help create a safer and more traceable food system.

The focus on food safety culture is particularly interesting. The FDA calls upon restaurants and food service providers to define food safety culture goals, and to develop and launch internal training on the principles of food safety, starting with education on the tools available for food safety with a particular focus on tools that assess and measure progress.

Creating that safety culture is critical to any brand in food service. Employees, equipped with the proper tools and procedures, are on the front lines of food safety: from ensuring proper food storage and refrigeration, to keeping food prep areas and utensils clearly marked, clean and sanitary, and cooking food to safe temperatures.

According to the Safe Food Alliance, food safety culture refers to the specific culture of a facility: the attitudes, beliefs, practices and values that determine what is happening when no one is watching. A strong culture of food safety helps a facility both prevent and catch deviations in their processes that can impact the safety, quality and legality of their products.

How to Maintain Cleanliness and Service Standards

Yet a food safety culture alone is not enough. Equip your employees for success by providing the proper tools and training. For new employees, training should include: education of the restaurant’s cleanliness and service standards, where these standards are derived from (i.e. FDA Food Code), the purpose of restaurant inspections and the consequences of receiving a food code violation.

Starting with the basics, employees should carefully inspect the kitchen, eating and dining areas, as well as restrooms, to make sure the restaurant meets legal health requirements and store-implemented standards. Implementation of the FDA food code ensures cleanliness and food safety practices, including the most current science, technology and legal precedents. Adhering to these guidelines enhances the customer and employee experience by reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses, and the likelihood of physical injury.

Maintaining cleanliness and service standards can be difficult, and the tasks required for food safety can be cumbersome for employees. Manual checklists can help ensure tasks are completed. Newer technologies, such as digital checklists, can further streamline food safety tasks, with compliance and visibility into whether procedures are being diligently followed and completed.

One major challenge of using manual/paper checklists is the lack of transparency in completion rates and quality of tasks. This is especially true for operators of multiple locations. Digital checklists can require employees to provide managers with evidence of task completion—signing a form or capturing a task completion photo.

A manager also can assess the state of restaurant cleanliness and predict threats to food safety and customer satisfaction remotely. For example, if a manager identifies that the tables in the customer seating area are overdue to be wiped down, they can alert employees to this issue.

Having a digital record of completion provides managers confidence that their procedures are being followed, especially when it comes time for restaurant inspection. These insights also allow managers to refine employee education. With effective implementation, these good habits will become routine.

Without an accurate view of operations, food safety and restaurant cleanliness standards cannot be accurately assessed. Eventually, these inconsistencies may cause unforeseen customer service conflicts and food code violations.

Establishing a food safety culture, backed by routine and technology tools, will help your team develop the habits needed to achieve and maintain the high level of cleanliness and service standards required to prevent foodborne illness and increase customer satisfaction.

May 31, 2022

FST Soapbox

Four Benefits of Automation in Seafood Processing

By Emily Newton

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Seafood processing work typically comes with harsh working conditions like wet floors, sharp tools, heavy machinery and long working hours. Tasks like gutting, cutting and canning are almost always dull, dirty and dangerous—the “three D’s” work that manufacturers often struggle to fill. As a result, many businesses turn to outsourcing to handle seafood processing needs.

Automation offers another solution. With modern robotics and automated systems, businesses can streamline seafood processing work, making it easier to process seafood closer to where it was caught or farmed. These are four of the top benefits for companies that automate seafood processing.

1. Minimizing Seafood Processing Labor Costs

Likely the most significant benefit of automation in seafood processing is lower labor costs. An automated solution can either support or replace workers at some point in a seafood processing workflow, allowing businesses to shift workers where they are needed.

As a result, these businesses are able to significantly reduce their labor costs, which is often one of the biggest expenses in seafood processing.

Because the seafood industry faces a significant and growing labor shortage—like most other industries—the labor-cost-reducing benefit of automation will become even more valuable over the next few years.

While the United States government is taking steps to manage this labor shortage—like handing out additional H-2B worker visas for seafood processors—it’s likely that the seafood industry will face a tight labor market for the foreseeable future.

2. Improving Productivity and Preventing Process Errors

Another benefit of automation can include greater efficiency and reduced waste. Fortunately, many stages in the seafood processing industry can be automated if plants invest in the proper equipment. De-heading, gutting, fin removal, and skinning are some of the tasks that food processors can automate. While the manual approach is more conventional, it’s often both time consuming and more difficult.

When workers are tired or inexperienced, they may also make mistakes or unclean cuts, potentially leading to wasted fish, slower work, and reduced product quality. Process mistakes can also make food less safe. Errors made in almost every step of the process, from gutting to canning, can potentially create food safety issues that may put customers’ health at risk.

Machines, by contrast, are very consistent. They can work for multiple shifts in a row with the right maintenance, providing the same level of quality over many hours. Typically, if machines make mistakes, they also make the same mistakes. As a result, managers may be able to more quickly find and adjust the parameters or tooling they need to change to resolve process errors.

Mistakes made by human workers may be less consistent and require more costly interventions, like training, to manage.

3. Using Automation to Make Seafood Workers Safer

In addition to reducing labor costs and making seafood processing more efficient, automation can also make this work much safer. Tasks like cutting, gutting and canning can be, by nature, very dangerous for workers.

Other occupational hazards of seafood processing may include extremely low temperatures, heavy equipment, poor ergonomics, excessive noise levels, and exposure to allergens or toxins.

These threats can lead to both acute injury and long-term health conditions, like musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) from nonergonomic movements or hearing loss from excessive noise levels.

The tasks that automation is best at handling—work that is dirty, dull or dangerous—also tend to be some of the least-safe work available. These tasks are repetitive, potentially nonergonomic, and expose workers directly to threats like biological aerosols or sharp cutting tools.

Every one of these tasks that a processor is able to partially or fully automate is a risk that a worker won’t be exposed to.

Even if it’s not possible to fully replace a human worker with an automated solution – like a cutting machine, packaging machine, or pick-and-place robot—any automation investment can generally make a processing plant safer.

With a targeted automation investment, processors may be able to make seafood processing work both much more appealing and safer, helping to manage two of the most significant challenges facing processors right now.

4. Making Seafood Processing Facilities More Flexible

Modern market conditions are volatile. Labor costs, raw material prices and consumer demands can change quickly. Inflation has also made operating expenses much harder for businesses to predict.

The ability to adapt fast to changing market conditions is necessary for seafood processors to be successful. Because experts predict the market will remain unpredictable, flexibility and agility in processing will remain invaluable assets in the near future.

Modern solutions are also helping to make automated systems even more adaptable, allowing processors to use the same technology for many purposes.

One good example is cobots, or collaborative robotics. These are robots built to work in close proximity with human workers and perform tasks that conventional automation systems can’t generally perform. By leveraging safety features like padded joints, force limiters, and motion detectors, they can work in the same space as a human worker with less risk of injury or harm.

Manufacturers and seafood processors use cobots for a variety of different applications—including pick-and-place, machine tending, depalletizing, and packaging goods. Some of the same technology that makes cobots safer, like machine vision, also enable new use-cases. For example, machine vision can allow a cobot to perform quality-control processes, like removing low-quality or unsafe products from a production line.

Most cobots, in addition to being built for safety, are also designed to be slotted into or out of workflows as needed. Lightweight and easy to reprogram, manufacturers and processors can quickly repurpose a cobot for many different tasks as needed, allowing them to stay responsive to changing consumer demands or shifting material prices.

As a result, these bots are a good automation investment for businesses that want to streamline work without sacrificing the flexibility that can sometimes be lost in the transition from manual to automatic processes.

Automation Helps Make Seafood Processing Safer and More Efficient

For seafood processors, automation may soon become an essential investment. In the industry, automated solutions can provide benefits like improved efficiency, reduced waste, greater safety, and better plant flexibility. New solutions, in particular, are helping seafood processors to keep their plants close to where the seafood is caught and farmed.

The seafood industry is likely to face a tight labor market and supply chain disruptions into the future. By adopting automated solutions, processors can more easily adapt to a changing market.

April 22, 2022

FST Soapbox

What Is Your Company’s Level of Digital Risk Maturity?

By Steven Sklare

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The digital transformation of food safety management programs is a common topic of discussion today, across the full range of media including print, blogs, websites and conferences. It has also been generally acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the adoption of various digital technologies. However, let’s be clear, COVID-19 may have accelerated the process, but the process was under way as the only way for food companies to efficiently cope with the increase of required compliance documentation for regulatory bodies, such as FDA, USDA, etc., non-regulatory organizations such as GFSI, and customer specific requirements. COVID-19 has added a sense of urgency, as the fragility of both domestic and international supply chains has been exposed with long-term sources of ingredients or equipment being cut off overnight. We must also overlay the need to manage food safety risk and food fraud vulnerability in real time (or even predict the future, which will be discussed further in a future article). The food industry has also had to adjust to dealing with many aspects of work and production without typical face-to-face interaction—a norm of operating within the environment of a global pandemic over the past two years.

What is not clear, however, is the meaning of “digital transformation” or the “digitization” of a food safety management program. What is not clear is what these terms mean to individual organizations. The frenzy of buzzwords, “urgent” presentations, blogs and webinars help to create an improved level of awareness but rarely result in concrete actions that lead to improved results. I admit to being guilty of this very hyperbole—in a previous article discussing “Chocolate and Big Data”, I said, “If a food organization is going to effectively protect the public’s health, protect their brand and comply with various governmental regulations and non-governmental standards such as GFSI, horizon scanning, along with the use of food safety intelligent digital tools, needs to be incorporated into food company’s core FSQA program.” Sounds great, but it presupposes a high level of awareness of those “digital tools”. What is not clear to many organizations is how to get started and how to create a road map that leads to improved results, more efficient operations and importantly, to ongoing improvement in the production of safe food.

Addressing a new concept can be intimidating and paralyzing. Think back to the beginning days of HACCP, then TACCP, then VACCP, and post FSMA, preventive controls! So, where do we start?

Nikos Manouselis, CEO of Agroknow, a food safety data and intelligence company with a cloud-based risk intelligence platform, Foodakai, believes the place to start is for food companies to perform an honest, self-assessment of their digital risk maturity. Think of it as a digital risk maturity gap analysis. While there are certainly different approaches to performing this self-assessment, Agroknow has developed a simple, straightforward series of questions that focus on three critical areas: Risk monitoring practices and tools; risk assessment practices and tools; and risk prevention practices and tools. The questions within each of these areas lead to a ranking of 1–5 with 1 being a low level of maturity and 5 being a high level of maturity. One of the goals of the self-assessment is to determine where your company stands, right now, compared to where you want to be or should be.

While this is not a complete nor exhaustive process, it helps to break the inertia that could be holding a company back from starting the process of digitizing their food protection and quality systems, which will allow them to take advantage of the benefits available from continuous monitoring of food safety risks and food fraud vulnerabilities, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics.

April 21, 2022

FST Soapbox

Three Ways to Ensure Food Safety During Supply Chain Disruptions

By Laura Dunn Nelson

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For the last two years, we consumers have experienced the global supply chain challenges associated with a variety of items such as lack of home appliances, favorite packaged foods or paper towels. And now the Ukraine war has sparked a new supply chain crisis with projected shortages of chemicals, oilseeds, iron, steel, fertilizers, wood, palladium and nickel. It’s clear that disruptions will continue as the world endures a crippled supply chain.

Most consumers don’t consider how supply chain interruptions affect the production and safety of so many of the foods we eat. Delays in any food ingredient or packaging can disrupt production schedules, delay shipments, and lead to empty retail shelves for thousands of food processors, manufacturers and retailers across the globe.

As manufacturers cope with these challenges, they frequently have to identify new suppliers or change processes and formulas on the fly. These unanticipated changes may often lead to shortcuts that can pose significant risks to consumers and cause food recalls.

It’s often hard to imagine all the interdependencies within the global supply chain, but one missed shipment or unavailable product can produce ripple effects throughout the globe. To reduce the risks associated with supply chain delays, food processors should implement resiliency measures such as effective change management and food safety vendor audit programs, detailed product specification and vendor expectation requirements, and multi-sourced vendor strategies.

To address these issues, this article reviews three ways food manufacturers can continue to minimize delays and reduce food safety risks when the supply chain interrupts production.

Learn more about how to address risks in the supply chain by viewing the Food Safety Tech Hazards Series: Supply Chain | On Demand1. Empower Workers to Report Issues

It’s always important to remember that employees can be the best defense against food safety threats. They’re the ones who interact with the products day-to-day and have the most familiarity with the ingredients. Their expertise is especially important now that supply chain disruptions are introducing new issues and anomalies.

Food manufacturers should train employees to understand which ingredients and products are acceptable and encourage them to speak up when they notice any anomalies. It’s also critical that training instills in workers the idea that they share the responsibility to ensure the safety and quality of the products they produce.

When frontline employees have the authority and the autonomy to alert their supervisors when they see something unusual or unexpected, they can become a powerful weapon in the food safety risk prevention arsenal. Harnessing the eyes of all your employees as your ultimate quality control team will help prevent costly recalls, product rework and further production delays.

2. Review Supplier Specs

When food manufacturers start working with a new supplier, they should take the necessary time to review their detailed product specifications to understand the technical and functional aspects of their product. From nutritional values and potential allergens to ingredients and chemical properties, it’s critical to have a full picture of what goes into the product before incorporating it into your manufacturing process.

As a best practice, manufacturers should also ask for a copy of the supplier’s recent GFSI food safety audits or equivalent and proof of liability insurance.

It’s also critical to thoroughly review vendor product specifications to confirm that a newly sourced ingredient meets your purchase expectations, label requirements, and food safety and quality risk profile. Considering how quickly an interruption can occur, it’s important to establish new vendor expectations and develop a supplier questionnaire. In addition, always plan ahead by sourcing multiple backup suppliers prior to ingredient and packaging disruptions.

3. Examine Supplier Labels

Understanding the product specifications is a critical first step, but it’s equally important to compare the label to the specs to ensure it is compliant and expected.

When a package arrives on the dock, receivers need to know if the contracted product has arrived as specified. Is the product packaged correctly, within expected shelf life, in a sanitary condition? Receivers should answer these and other questions by looking for inconsistencies per pallet like mixed lot codes and product shelf-life variances. Employees should also check the condition of incoming products including noting unusual odors or colors that might not seem right or for packaging that looks different from prior shipments.

The ongoing supply chain disruptions are predicted to continue this year, which means they can potentially cause food safety challenges based on inconsistencies in raw materials and undocumented process changes in production. Food safety leaders must hone their change management skills to successfully lead their organizations through these challenging times.

Adhering to the strict practices detailed in this article might seem like a lot of extra work and attention, but it’s actually something food manufacturers should be doing all the time as part of a mature food safety culture.

April 8, 2022

FST Soapbox

Food Businesses: Reduce Food Waste and Save Significant Money

By CJ Pakeltis

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After two years of COVID-19—and now an escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict—the failing supply chain is a pressing concern in the food industry. Exacerbating the supply chain issues is our excessive food waste problem. As supplies become more difficult and expensive to secure, we should be focusing more attention on reducing waste. Food businesses that proactively work to reduce food waste will save significant money, meet corporate sustainability goals and help the planet.

Food waste is estimated at between 30-40% of the U.S. food supply, which equates to an astonishing 133 billion pounds and $161 billion in waste, according to the USDA. In addition to discarded food, there is also considerable waste of labor, energy and other resources that go into producing, processing, transporting, prepping, cooking, storing and disposing of unused food.

Food waste occurs for many reasons, including:

Spoilage at every stage of the supply chain
Problems like mold or bacteria during harvesting, transporting, processing, etc.
Damage by insects, rodents, and other pests.
Equipment malfunction (such as faulty walk-in coolers).
Improper storage (e.g., not holding foods at proper temperatures).
Over-ordering, over-prepping, or cooking more than what’s needed, and tossing out the extras.

Many food businesses inadvertently practice wasteful behaviors. This is due, in large part, to the lack of accurate, comprehensive data. If operators don’t have accurate data about their inventory, sales patterns and forecasts, it can lead to food waste, which can be costly to your business and damaging to our planet.

At a time when every dollar counts—and the supply chain is strained—your organization should proactively work to reduce food waste. The following are some effective ways to accomplish this goal.

Adopt the right software. Integrated software is the best solution to eliminate wasted food, money and other resources. Today’s systems allow organizations to view sales patterns, track inventory, manage production, avoid overstocking, enhance food safety and quality, and determine areas of wastage. Tech solutions allow organizations to use data—not instincts—to make better, more profitable, less wasteful decisions.
Conduct a food waste audit. Food waste is bad for the environment as well as business margins. A food waste audit can help a company determine how much food is being wasted, as well as the type of foods not being used effectively. This practice can help companies address waste problems and adjust their inventory accordingly.
Implement sustainable strategies. It’s problematic—and wasteful—when retail locations receive large quantities of fresh foods and can’t sell it all before it spoils. Hannaford Supermarkets found a solution to this common conundrum. They have their trucks deliver smaller amounts of food more frequently—versus less frequent, higher volume deliveries. As a result, they are selling fresher produce with less waste.
Make waste reduction part of company culture. Train staff to reduce waste, and properly use, cook, package and store foods while always prioritizing waste reduction. Adopt a waste-not-want-not mindset and follow sustainable strategies that are practiced starting in the C-suite.
Donate surplus food. After learning that billions of pounds of food goes to waste in the United States while millions of people are going hungry, entrepreneur Jasmine Crowe created Goodr, a food waste management company that connects food businesses with a surplus of supplies to non-profit organizations that give it to the food insecure. Additionally, grocery chain Trader Joe’s is well-known for their generous food donation program. In just one year, the company donated $295 million worth of their unused products to food banks, feeding the hungry and eliminating a huge amount of waste.
Improve packaging. Our industry must create better packaging that effectively protects and preserves food throughout the entire supply chain cycle—and helps reduce waste. For instance, companies are experimenting with more compostable packaging, clearer use-by/expiration dates, easier-to-understand usage instructions, tips for storing leftovers, and ways to use some of the food without compromising the rest of the food in the package.
Reconsider portion size. Some restaurants offer smaller meals (i.e., half portions) to reduce waste. Food manufacturers are also providing smaller options, such as the single-serving Duncan Hines Perfect Size Cakes for customers who want just a small treat without having to waste an entire cake. Sabra Singles hummus, Good Culture cottage cheese, Kraft Mac and Cheese and other companies offer single serving containers, which means less waste.
Use every scrap. Vegetable peels, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags and other non-meat scraps can be used for compost, which is nutrient-rich and will go back into the earth to grow more food. Use the compost to grow your own herbs and produce or share it with local farmers and gardeners.
Consider other eco-friendly options. Sustainable organizations are taking our food scraps and recycling them into bioenergy, bioplastics and clothing. Investigate eco-friendly organizations in your area and donate your unused food to them to repurpose it. For instance, H&M’s Conscious collection uses silk-like fabric made from citrus juice by-products and discarded orange peels. Other clothing lines, cosmetics companies and other innovators are making sustainable products from food waste.

It is important to recognize that the food industry’s waste isn’t limited solely to food. The following are some additional eco-friendly practices that companies can implement.

Reduce plastic waste. Americans produce a whopping 42 million tons of plastic waste annually. Increasingly, companies are looking for eco-friendlier options. Footprint, a materials science company, is inventing and manufacturing plant-based solutions to replace plastic. This innovative company is working with food companies—including McDonalds, Costco and Conagra—to adopt plant-based solutions, eliminate short-term use plastic, reduce CO2 emissions, cut landfill waste, and reach corporate sustainability goals. Stonyfield Farm, known for their planet-friendly business practices, is making their yogurt cups from plants. In fact, the market for edible packaging is on the rise, and expected to grow by almost 5% by 2030. A growing number of food businesses are now relying on biodegradable and compostable packaging solutions instead of plastic. Are you one of them?
Pick the right partners. Select partners (e.g., suppliers, vendors, etc.) that are also focused on sustainability. Digital solutions can easily track supplier certifications to ensure that you’re sourcing from—and collaborating with—other companies that are committed to waste reduction and other eco-friendly business practices.
Focus on sustainability. It takes considerable energy to run equipment non-stop, so shut down non-essential equipment during slow times to save energy and money. Also, insulate your hot water pipes to decrease the amount of water your organization uses (and lower your heating needs and costs). Turn off the air conditioning and open windows. Use silverware instead of plasticware, and reusable towels instead of paper. Think of different ways to reduce waste throughout your organization and you’ll save money, resources, and the environment.

Prioritize waste reduction using these proven strategies. Remember that every little bit helps, and even the smallest changes will add up to a substantial difference over time.

April 6, 2022

FST Soapbox

Communication Tools Food Manufacturers Should Use

By Rick Farrell

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As the world continues to work toward economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, food manufacturers have been investing in products and equipment that can enhance their growth. The following are some communication tools that companies should consider adding to their arsenal to improve collaboration between workers, prevent costly mistakes and save money in the long run.

1. Cloud-Hosted Technology

With remote work becoming common in companies across the world, cloud-based technology is turning out to be an invaluable asset. In 2021, we saw a rise in labeling software providers that offer ways for local labeling software to get access to data stored in the cloud. That made it easier to obtain variable data that needed to be put on label templates at print time.

Cloud-hosted technology allows food manufacturers to print the correct labels with the right data at the proper time, and in a simple and secure manner. As a result, they can avoid risky and potentially dangerous mistakes in labeling.

2. Smart Manufacturing

Smart manufacturing is a method for companies to use data to optimize every part of the production process. Radio frequency identification (RFID) and barcode technologies are two of the most popular data carriers used by IoT devices. Such device-to-software communication helps efficiently deliver data while avoiding time-consuming manual procedures that might result in more time loss or costs.

3. New On-Spot Communication Equipment

Many factories still use cheap and outdated headsets to communicate inside loud spaces and next to machinery. That often results in unclear messages. Failing to give and receive a clear message can have dire consequences, especially in terms of food safety. For this reason, food manufacturers should regularly update headsets and other devices they use to convey messages inside factories.

Enhance Communication in Loud Facilities

There are companies that offer a modern solution to the communication problems inside factories. The following are some quality options to offer to enhance communication in loud places.

1. Two-Way Communication Headsets

Originally intended for tour guides and their groups, two-way communication headsets can have various purposes inside food factories. For instance, you can use them to make effective communication easier among your workers in the noisy parts of your plant. Or perhaps, you can use them when you bring in visitors, business partners and potential investors for a quick and interactive look around. In any case, a wireless two-way headsets system makes talking and listening quick and simple, despite ambient sounds.

Furthermore, most headsets for factories and tours are often heavy and bulky, which is why they quickly start irritating those wearing them. On the other hand, these two-way headsets are designed to be comfortable, attractive and lightweight, making them ideal for wearing for a longer period of time. And they are aesthetically appealing for any audience, including top VIPs. Therefore, your team and your guests will be able to focus on the information and their tasks with complete comfort and without any distractions. As a result, you will notice increased comprehension of your message with outside visitors and a higher level of efficiency and safety in your production areas as well as food safety levels.

2. Staff Communication Systems

A multi-channel staff communication system is another good way to ensure food safety in your factory. One example is a system that has fifteen channels, making it great for multiple employees, workgroups, and team communications, and has a transmission range of up to half a mile. It also has a two-way radio technology with privacy and long talk settings that allow you to speak without being interrupted. These types of headsets are sometimes outfitted with non-porous vinyl, which means you can disinfect them after each use.

Such a communication system also comes in handy in factories that follow COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. Not only can your employees stay safe by putting more space between each other, but their communication will remain clear and easy. That way, they will be able to focus on production and other safety guidelines.

3. Wireless Systems

Clarity of message is crucial to maintaining the necessary level of food safety in your plant. Good quality wireless systems provide clear, crisp sound, effective transmitting range, and great battery time. Furthermore, they are easy to use, maintain and store. Wireless systems also feature audio guide systems that make sure you don’t have to be worried about machinery being too loud and interrupting important information.

Conclusion

The past two years have taught us that food manufacturers who want to thrive despite both predictable and unexpected challenges need to respond and adapt quickly. A huge part of that flexibility comes from the willingness to accept changes and new tools that modern technology brings. So, from cloud computing to barcodes and better headsets, any step you take to improve communication in your factory will undoubtedly pay off in the long run.

March 28, 2022

Food Fraud Quick Bites

A Special Aura To Track Authenticity

By Susanne Kuehne

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Cognac, food fraud — Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database, owned and operated by Decernis, a Food Safety Tech advertiser. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne

Cognac manufacturer Hennessy joined AuraBlockchain, a non-profit private blockchain for luxury brands that can be used to track the entire supply chain of a product. From raw materials to manufacturing to the consumer, digital timestamps are used to trace and record every step of the production process. Every product has a unique ID, with decentralized and unchangeable blockchain records. The consumer can check these records online to ensure authenticity of the purchased product.

Resource

Taylor, P. (March 21, 2022). “Hennessey adds blockchain traceability via Aura alliance”. Securing Industry.

Mitigating Listeria Monocytogenes Risks in the Retail Food Environment