Unleashing the power of the cloud on Food Safety and Food Quality

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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SafetyChain’s FSQA Tech Talk conversation continues next week with a discussion on why cloud and mobile technologies are becoming a game changer for food safety and quality assurance (FSQA).

As part of an ongoing series that focuses on how technology is being leveraged to solve FSQA execution challenges, the next FSQA Tech Talk session’s special guest speaker will be Michele Eddy, Corporate QA Manager with UniSea.  Eddy will be sharing her experience and insight as to how realtime FSQA data, which is  available, anywhere, and at anytime, is helping to provide sales with immediate quality gradings, better manage HACCP, CAPA, and direct observations for UniSea’s pillars of sanitation,  and how the cloud is making it easier for participants in their supply chain to work together.  Eddy will also discuss use and employee adoption of mobile devices.

The session will start with SafetyChain’s Director of Technical Solutions who will discuss key benefits of the cloud on FSQA, including the ability to have realtime data proactively pushed out and acted upon,  as well as how cloud and mobile devices support FSQA transparency and visibility across the value chain. Also discussed will be common cloud misperceptions including security and employee adoption.

The speakers will be taking questions live from the audience, and FSQA attendees are encouraged to bring their IT folks to participate. Attendees who would like to see what the cloud and mobile FSQA apps look like in action, are invited to stay online after the Tech Talk for a 15 minute demo of SafetyChain’s cloud and mobile solutions. The session is being held on Tuesday, May 19 at 10:00 am PDT, and those interested in attending can visit here for more information and to register.

The FSQA Tech Talks are a part of SafetyChain’s 2015 FSQA Technology Series: “Enabling Technologies – The Food Safety & Quality Assurance Game Changer” – which includes Leadership Forums, FSQA Tech Talks and Executive Briefs. Jill Bender, SafetyChain Vice President of Marketing Communications, said, “SafetyChain has been very proactive these past several years in educating industry on key FSQA challenges such as FSMA, GFSI, cost of quality and more. Input from the thousands of people who have attended our webinar forums was that they’d also like to learn more about how their peer companies are leveraging technology to execute on these challenges – and so the 2015 FSQA Technology Series was born!” “So far more than 1,500 hundred FSQA and food company IT folks have participated in the series, and we’re very excited to continue with fabulous speakers such as Michele Eddy,” Bender continued.

To learn more about SafetyChain’s FSQA Technology series visit www.safetychain.com/2015techseries.

Upcoming FSQA Tech Talks Include:
June 23: Harnessing Cost of Quality
July 21: Conquering HACCP, HARPC and Food Safety Plan Management
Participants of this series need only sign-up once and will automatically receive notice of the next topic and login/call information.  Register here for this complimentary series.

How Supplier Scorecards Affect You

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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A supplier scorecard allows companies to measure vendor performance as it relates to risk management, quality, and compliance. Having up-to-date and accurate documentation, particularly surrounding foreign supplier verification, is an important part of FSMA compliance. Suppliers must be able to provide immediate and accurate information, especially in the event of an audit. Marc Simony, vice president of marketing at TraceGains, explains why companies should build the scorecard over time, evaluating a supplier’s performance against specific business requirements.

Risk Assessment in Pathogen Testing Methods

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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A Certificate of Analysis (COA) provides a level of confidence in the quality and purity of its product. Companies should take this document a step further and assess what the results mean. Using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) can help a company identify, quantify and assess risks associated with pathogen detection methods, giving them the background information they need to trust the results. FMEA can help companies understand the differences between testing methods by individually identifying the risks associated with each method on its own. Maureen Harte, President and CEO at HartePro Consulting, and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, talks about the challenges a company faces when assessing results on a Certificate of Analysis and the role of FMEA.

Prepare Your Food Safety Plan for the Preventive Controls Rule

By Maria Fontanazza
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As FDA prepares to issue its next final FSMA rule, Preventive Controls for Human Food, companies should already be laying the groundwork for training staff.

With the August 31 deadline for the Preventive Controls for Human Food rule only months away, careful attention must be paid to training, metrics and collaboration between larger and smaller players to prepare for implementation.

Training surrounds all aspects of a food safety plan, from understanding validation and verification to proper recordkeeping. “Regardless of what happens, training is critical and imperative,” said Donna Garren, Ph.D., American Frozen Food Institute, at the Food Safety Summit last week in Baltimore. “FDA is measuring food safety culture in an operation, and training must be ongoing.”  Garren pointed to the FDA-funded Food Safety Preventive Control Alliance (FSPCA), which was established to develop standardized curriculum and help companies, especially those small and mid-sized, with training programs to meet requirements of the preventive controls regulation. The FSPCA curriculum is fairly broad and includes content that addresses an overview of food safety plans and GMPs, preventive controls related to allergens, sanitation, and suppliers, recall plans and record-keeping procedures. FSPCA has planned its pilot sessions for April, May and June of this year, with a train-the-trainer course planned for the fall.

Formed in January, the FSMA training workgroup has been working to develop training curriculum specifically for regulators on how to evaluate a facility against the preventive controls requirements. According to Priya Rathnam, supervisory consumer safety officer, Division of Enforcement/Office of Compliance at CFSAN/FDA, the agency plans to take a staggered approach to training based on deadlines, beginning with larger companies, as it is not practical to train all safety staff at once.

FDA’s Preventive Controls Phase 2 Workgroup is developing a metrics plan to measure progress (specifically measures that directly tie in with public health outcomes) and track trends, making adjustments as necessary. The agency plans to issue a guidance document to help industry and food and feed safety staff identify significant hazards and implement preventive control strategies. An internal technical assistance network is also planned to assist in consistent implementation in the field.

Start the journey now

While many in the industry may suffer from “FSMA fatigue”, discussing the implications of FSMA day in and day out, a lot of education and outreach still remains. Not everyone within an organization is aware of the intricacies of the regulation. “[We] need to make sure others have the same level of insight that we do,” said Tim Jackson, Ph.D., director of food safety at Nestlé North America.  In addition, the bigger industry players need to work with smaller suppliers and manufacturers that don’t have the resources.

When developing an implementation approach, a company should standardize an internal approach now, rather than wait until the rule comes out in August. This begins with establishing a FSMA team. Jackson advises that this specialized team perform a detailed review of the preventive controls rule requirements and conduct a face-to-face workshop to confirm a rollout strategy and action plan. “We’re looking at our own HACCP plan,” Jackson says of Nestle, adding that they are reviewing validation of control measures and the company’s documentation system, challenging whether it’s “good enough,” and enhancing its early warning system.

DuPont and Eurofins Partnership Launches Custom Food Protection to New Heights

By Maria Fontanazza
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The collaboration aims to help manufacturers increase product shelf life while maintaining safety and quality on a wider scale.

DuPont Nutrition & Health is joining forces with Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories, Inc. to deliver tailored food protection services with advanced analytical testing services. The agreement, which is initially being launched as a pilot program in the United States, combines DuPont’s expertise in food microbial ecology and its Detect + Protect service program with Eurofins’ capabilities in microbiological testing.

The food protection program will assist manufacturers with the microbial challenges they face in their production facilities while also addressing food spoilage and waste. Introducing antimicrobials can make food products last longer, but it’s important to ensure that the quality of those products is not affected. One of the goals of the partnership is to help food manufacturers reduce spoilage and expand the shelf life of their products without making such a compromise. “Detect + Protect targets clients that are all about comprehensive [food] safety and quality,” says Marc Scantlin, vice president, US Food Division at Eurofins. “Everything has an expiration date. How can we improve the timeline of keeping whole food safe while increasing shelf life?”

According to Nathalie Brosse, global market development, BioProtection at DuPont, the company has needed more space to build its Detect + Protect offering. DuPont will be leveraging Eurofins’ extensive lab capacity to make its program more widely available, while DuPont’s international client base opens the doors for Eurofins to expand its global reach.

From a logistics perspective, the partnership will also expedite sample turnaround, as the companies take advantage of the Eurofins microbiology lab in Louisville, KY. Located in close proximity to the UPS worldwide air hub, Eurofins can receive overnight samples between 2 am and 4:30 am, providing a faster turnaround of samples by nearly six to eight hours.

DuPont and Eurofins anticipate launching the partnership in Europe but are not disclosing dates yet.

A Supply Chain Or a Growing Spider Web?

By Maria Fontanazza
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The biggest risk faced by the food and beverage industry could be the supply chain itself.

Two proposed FSMA rules, Risk-Based Preventative Controls for Human Food and the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP), place high expectations on companies surrounding their supplier controls.

During a recent Tech Talk, “Tackling FSMA Compliance”, Melanie Neumann, executive vice president and CFO of The Acheson Group, offered advice on how companies can use technology to execute on the challenges they will face under FSMA.

Game-Changing Challenges

Globalization.  “We as an industry are sourcing more ingredients than ever before—more by volume, more by way of uniqueness, and more by way of more countries,” says Neumann. “We have more companies that are playing in the global supply chain, and arguably, it’s a growing spider web versus a chain.”

Importer of Record. These days, companies have to keep track of more information than ever. “That’s where technology can come into play,” says Neumann. “We have other challenges like trying to understand who really is the importer of record, because there’s some regulatory vagueness with respect to that definition.”  Variations, such as how the Bioterrism Act and the FSVP define importer of record, can also cause confusion. “We need to take a deep dive within our organizations and ask, ‘Am I the importer of record? Do I need to comply with foreign supplier verification?’”

Foreign supplier awareness.  Some companies can’t name all the foreign suppliers present in their supply chain, and this is compounded by the reality that some foreign suppliers doesn’t understand FSMA. “Some foreign suppliers haven’t heard of FSMA, and we have a very short period of time to compliance to get them ready if you still want to source from them,” says Neumann. “Technology can help us track back and keep record of the supply chain.”

Stay on top of risk instead of letting risk catch up with you

Keeping track of mountains of information while controlling risks within a paper-based environment is quickly becoming obsolete and potentially dangerous. Having the electronic documentation will help prove compliance with requirements. “Gone are the days where we can manage all these requirements in a filing cabinet. The technological solutions out there can help you put everything in an electronic format that is searchable and at your fingertips in minutes. By regulation, you’ll need the information within hours,” says Neumann. “These systems are building in mechanisms to auto-alert you, so if something looks like it is becoming out of spec or compliance, it will raise an electronic hand.  It also helps you keep and meet the record keeping compliance requirement from both a foreign and domestic supplier management perspective.”

Listen to the entire SafetyChain FSQA Tech Talk


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FSMA Fridays: Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About FSMA but Were Afraid to Ask

Blue Bell Recalls All Products Over Listeria Concerns

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Blue Bell pulls all of its frozen treats from the shelves of grocery stores and retail outlets nationwide.

Today Blue Bell Creameries recalled all of its products—ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and frozen snacks—made at all Blue Bell facilities because they might be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. FDA has open investigations at the company’s facilities.

Consumers should not eat any of the recalled the products.  If these ice cream products are in your freezer, they should be thrown away or returned, even if some of them have been eaten without anyone becoming ill.

More information is available on the FDA Update: FDA Investigates Listeria monocytogenes in Ice Cream Products from Blue Bell Creameries

 

The Struggles of Managing Supplier Documentation

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Providing customers with updated certificates and audit documents, and migrating to digital platforms are steps suppliers can take to conquer document management.

In its annual Food Safety & Quality Assurance (FSQA) Professional Survey, TraceGains polled professionals in food manufacturing, processing and distribution on the challenges they face at various levels of the supply chain. Rajan Gupta, vice president of Customer Success at TraceGains discusses the importance they place on supplier document management.
 
Food Safety Tech: Companies understand the importance of document management. How do they struggle when collecting and managing supplier documentation?

Rajan Gupta: The greatest challenge to document management is that there is a complicated web of requirements that companies need to maintain for compliance, safety and business growth. For example, companies are required to maintain documentation proving compliance with rules and regulations such as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), labeling, allergen control programs, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), as well as FDA and third-party audits, just to name a few. With each entity, rule or regulation, companies are faced with a different set of required documentation that they must maintain and furnish upon request. Obviously, this poses a challenge for companies to not only remain abreast of new rules and regulations, but also know exactly where they stand.
 
FST: How often do manufacturers need to monitor supplier documents to ensure they are up to date?

Gupta: Despite the common misconception that safety and compliance documents should be updated every year, this is not always the case.  Certain documents, such as Kosher certificates and third-party audits, should be updated annually; however, other documents only need to be updated when something changes. To complicate matters, the industry is so far behind that catching up is becoming difficult. Often, suppliers do not proactively send updated documents to their customers, thus forcing them to require new documents each year and further complicating the company’s ability to confidently know where they stand with compliance and safety rules and regulations.

FSQ_InfoGraphic_Final
Credit: 2015 Annual TraceGains FSQA Professional Survey

 
FST: What’s the biggest tip you can offer manufacturers when it comes to ensuring documentation is in place, especially when considering the requirements of an audit?

Gupta: The key to documentation success is actively working with suppliers to minimize the “noise” of unorganized information sharing. Companies should make it a priority to take steps towards digital information sharing, thereby enabling efficiency in an otherwise very inefficient environment.  Such small steps require vision, leadership, and an inclination towards entrepreneurship.

FST Soapbox

Recent recalls: Glass in Baby Food, Staphylococcal Enterotoxin Contaminated Pork, Salmonella in Whole Foods Macadamia Nuts

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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The latest recalls are affecting Beech-Nut Nutrition, B & R Meat Processing, and Whole Foods Market.

Whole Foods Market recalls packaged raw macadamia nuts due to possible salmonella

Whole Foods Market voluntarily recalls packaged raw macadamia nuts due to possible Salmonella contamination. Recalled items were sold in AR, AZ, CA, CO, HI, KS, LA, NM, NV, OK, TX, and UT Whole Foods Market Stores. No illnesses have been reported to-date. Based upon routine testing conducted by an FDA-contracted laboratory, it was determined that the raw macadamia nuts tested positive for Salmonella.

Beech-Nut Nutrition recalls Sweet Potato & Chicken Baby Food Product due to possible glass contamination

Beech-Nut Nutrition recalls approximately 1,920 pounds of baby food products that may be contaminated with small pieces of glass… The baby food product was produced on December 12, 2014: 4-oz. glass jars containing “Stage 2 Beech-Nut CLASSICS sweet potato & chicken. The problem was discovered after the firm received a complaint from a consumer who found a small piece of glass in the product. The company has received a report of an oral injury associated with consumption of these products. FSIS has received no additional reports of injury or illness from consumption of these products.

Beech-Nut responds: “At Beech-Nut, we strive to make baby food with the best ingredients nature has to offer – freshly prepared and packaged in clean, safe and environmentally-friendly packaging. So, when any product of ours falls short of those standards, we take swift action to correct it.”

B & R Meat Processing recalls 2000+ pounds of pork due to possible processing deviation and staphylococcal enterotoxin contamination

The cured and uncured pork items were produced on various dates between August 7, 2014 and April 1, 2015… The problem was discovered when an FSIS inspector was conducting a Food Safety Assessment and observed a processing deviation.

Latest posted recalls from FDA

Embed Food Safety Culture. There’s No On/Off Switch

By Maria Fontanazza
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Experts cited management buy-in, employee satisfaction, and information sharing as the critical factors for success.

Food safety culture is not a program that is implemented at a company. It’s a living organism that’s either strengthened or weakened by the actions taken by an organization. “There’s no on/off switch,” said Lone Jespersen, director, Food Safety and Operations Learning at Maple Leaf Foods, at the GMA Science Forum held this week in National Harbor, MD.

Product safety and quality is a shared responsibility. However, fostering a positive environment in which employees embrace accountability starts at the top. “You need to have management commitment; then employee buy-in follows,” said Joseph Levitt, partner at Hogan Lovells US, LLP. “It’s a message people want to embrace.”

At Land O’Lakes, the company took a four-pronged approach to its food safety culture, focusing on a clear quality message and mindset, employee education and training, active leadership alignment and participation, and establishing effective metrics and objectives. Most significant to the company’s success was its ability to involve senior management and get their commitment to taking a product safety 101 course. Sara Mortimore, vice president, Product Safety, QA & Regulatory Affairs at Land O’ Lakes, advised the audience to take a one-on-one tactic when talking to senior management versus putting everyone together in the boardroom. Having that individual interaction with management members forces each person to commit to sharing perspectives.

Companies must focus on monitoring employee behavior and ensuring that employees feel motivated to have a positive impact on product safety and quality. It involves having a continuous improvement mindset versus complacency. Jespersen cited the antecedent-behavior-consequences model as a means to establish goals and metrics, define critical behaviors, and determine positive or negative consequences. Most important to the process is that a company keeps it foot on the pedal when improvements are being made, as a lack of consistency is what causes lapses in progress forward. She also pointed to the Food Maturity Model, a method she developed with industry stakeholders, as a guide for companies to measure employee behavior as it relates to food safety culture across an organization.