FDA’s CAPT Palmer Orlandi Promoted for Public Health Leadership

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Palmer A. Orlandi, Jr., Ph.D., senior science officer and research director in FDA’s Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine, has been promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral and the U.S. Assistant Surgeon General. Orlandi received the flag-grade promotion during a ceremony held Thursday afternoon in the FDA Wiley Building.

“As the senior ranking officers in the Commissioned Corps, flag officers exemplify the core values for which Commissioned Officers of the U.S. Public Health Service are held in high esteem. Flag officers provide executive-level leadership within the Department and within the Agencies in which they serve. Our flag officers also carry the title of Assistant Surgeon General and, as such, we rely on them to support special initiatives and exhibit the highest caliber of public health leadership.” – Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service

Palmer Orlandi, FDA, Food Safety Consortium
WATCH THE VIDEO: Palmer Orlandi discusses FSMA and laying the groundwork for data acceptance in lab partnerships at the Food Safety Consortium.

Orlandi joined FDA 20 years ago, beginning his work at a research lab for CFSAN. It was there that he developed rapid and molecular detection methods for Cyclospora and Cryptosporidia and the Microsporidia (emerging food-and waterborne protozoan parasites). In 2008 he became the science coordinator in the Division of Field Science in FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) where he oversaw collaborative analytical methods programs for ORA and the Food Emergency Response Network. In 2012 Orlandi took on the role of senior science advisor to the chief scientist officer at the Office of Food and Veterinary Medicine. He played an active role in integrating science and research efforts across the agency’s foods program, and working to align research and lab programs to regulatory field lab needs.

Orlandi received a Commission as an officer in the U.S. Army in 1981. He has been an officer in the Commission Corps of the Public Health Service since 1991.

Hank Lambert, Pure Bioscience

Tech Spotlight: How Chipotle Fights Norovirus

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Hank Lambert, Pure Bioscience

Watch another video: Antimicrobial Technology Mitigates Pathogen Risk Throughout the Supply ChainChipotle was plagued with several foodborne illness outbreaks in 2015. Norovirus was one of them. As part of the company’s commitment to addressing its food safety issues, it enlisted the help of technology from Pure Bioscience. In the following video, Hank Lambert, CEO of Pure Bioscience, explains how and where Chipotle is using the Pure Hard Surface technology in its establishments to mitigate the risk of norovirus.

ImEpik

ImEpik Launches Food Safety Training

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ImEpik

ImEpik is launching an online training course HARPC for the Qualified Individual, and a second option through AIB International as a reseller, HARPC Online for Your Preventive Controls Support Team. The courses delve into the challenges faced by food facilities that must record and verify food safety training in their food safety plans.

“The direct connection between ImEpik’s state-of-the-art interactive learning program and AIB’s proven training and auditing success allows food companies to more efficiently train their personnel, fix gaps and document the content of HARPC training,” said Company CEO Tim Wilson in a press release. “The impact of this partnership on food safety education will be profound.”

According to ImEpik, online HARPC training for food processing employees in the food manufacturing industry was nonexistent. As a result, the company created the first interactive assessment-based training that is accessible via desktop, laptop or tablet.  The courses already underwent pilot testing in United States and globally. The course features include animation, self-paced modular content, online supplementary manual, performance assessment for certificate of completion and learning analytics. It can also be integrated into a Learning Management System.

Course enrollment is open for HARPC Online for Your Preventive Controls Support Team through AIB’s website.

Marc Simony, TraceGains

The Culture of Change Management

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Marc Simony, TraceGains

Complying with FSMA regulations or GFSI schemes isn’t always straightforward, but that also may not be the biggest challenge facing companies today. According to Marc Simony of the TraceGains Network, the large issue is change management and the culture shift that is happening within companies. In a quick video shot during the 2016 Food Safety Consortium, Simony explains.

 

Recall

Sargento’s Supplier Has Listeria Concerns, Recalls Ensue

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Recall

After being informed by its supplier Deutsch Kase Haus, LLC that its specialty Longhorn Colby cheese may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, Sargento Foods, Inc. recalled several retail cheese products. The recalled Colby and Pepper jack cheeses (available on the company’s website) were packaged at Sargento’s Plymouth, Wisconsin plant. The company also recalled several other cheeses that were packaged at the same time “out of an abundance of caution”.

The recall involving Deutsch Kase Haus is not limited to Sargento. Guggisberg Cheese, Inc., Meijer and Sara Lee have recalled their Colby and Pepper jack cheeses. According to a release by US Foods, the product recalls were initiated after a notification by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture that some products manufactured on November 3, 10 and 18 could be contaminated with Lm.

Taylor Farms also recalled products that contained the cheese products—the company’s Class I recall involved 6,630 pounds of chicken and pork salad products that were produced and packaged from February 6–9, 2017.

Food Fraud

Using Data to Prevent Food Fraud

By Maria Fontanazza
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Food Fraud

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Preventive Controls for Human Food rule is now final, and compliance dates for some businesses began in September 2016.  Economically Motivated Adulteration (EMA) or food fraud is a component in the Preventive Controls Rule.  As the global supply chain becomes more complex, preventing EMA and compliance to Preventive Controls for Human Food rule can be a challenging task.

A food company’s supply chain can be the weakest link in their food safety program. Learn strategies and how to mitigate risks at the Food Safety Supply Chain Conference | June 4–5, 2017 | Rockville, MD, LEARN MORELast year GMA and Battelle released EMAlert, a tool that enables quantitative evaluation of a company’s supply chain to economically motivated adulteration. USP also provides a platform to help companies with food fraud mitigation strategies. In a Q&A with Food Safety Tech, experts from the USP Food Program, Jeff Moore, Ph.D., science director and Karen Everstine, Ph.D., scientific liaison explain how the Food Fraud Database 2.0 works and how it can help companies with FSMA compliance.

Food Safety Tech:  How does the Food Fraud Database 2.0 assist food companies in identifying hazards and vulnerabilities?

Jeff Moore, Ph.D.: We reengineered the database [previously Food Fraud Database 1.0] from the ground up, including the structure of the data. Users wanted not just a source of high quality data to inform of risks and vulnerabilities that were related to food fraud but also some ability to analyze the information and get alerts and real-time information to figure out what to do in real time.

Karen Everstine, USP Food Program
Karen Everstine, Ph.D., USP Food Program

Karen Everstine, Ph.D.: Since it was reengineered, we’ve been able to include a lot of fields that allow food companies to tailor their results to information that is most applicable to them (i.e., geographic location). Automated analytics give a visual of what’s happening to see trends more quickly.

Moore: We have a team of dedicated analysts that are constantly scouting the public domain and looking for information globally to add to the database to make sure it’s the most comprehensive, up-to-date global database of food fraud information.

FST: What tools within FFD 2.0 can help companies with FSMA compliance?

Everstine: One of the things in the FSMA PC rule is the fact that food companies now have to identify potential hazards, whether they are intentional or unintentional, which includes food fraud-related hazards. One of the tools we built into the database is an EMA (Economically-Motivated Adulteration) hazard identification report. It allows users to input a list of their ingredients (those sourced and brought into the facility to create a finished food product), and then the report output identifies which ingredients are associated with potential hazards (i.e., adulterants that might pose a health threat to consumers). That’s the main tool we’ve built to target FSMA compliance.

Moore: One of the key parts of the PC rule as related to EMA is a question of whether the ingredient has a history of association with potentially hazardous adulterants. We put together an expert panel at USP and Karen [Everstine] was responsible for working with the panel to develop a classification system to identify adulterants that are potentially hazardous.

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Maria Fontanazza, Zephyr Wilson, Food Safety Consortium

Encourage Employees to Find Listeria

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Maria Fontanazza, Zephyr Wilson, Food Safety Consortium

Building the right food safety culture around environmental monitoring requires a realistic approach to your processes. “Culture starts with understanding your process,” Zephyr Wilson, product manager at Roka Bioscience told Food Safety Tech at the 2016 Food Safety Consortium. “You need to ask questions—a lot of questions.”

In the following video, Wilson talks about food safety culture in the context of environmental monitoring and how companies should approach environmental monitoring. “Understand all of your processes,” she said. “Take an honest look at your metrics and make sure you’re encouraging your employees to find the Listeria.”

She also reviews the steps a company should take when undergoing self-auditing, and encourages companies to work under the direction of an attorney to ensure that all results are confidential.

Alert

Is Your Condensation Under Control?

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Alert

“Drop the Mop! Take a Clean New Look at Condensation Control in Food Processing Facilities” is available on-demand Little beads of water on overhead surfaces can cause big problems. Remember the Listeria contamination that affected Blue Bell Creameries? FDA investigators spotted condensation dripping right into food and food contact surfaces. In a response to an FDA Form 483, Blue Bell wrote “As part of our internal review, we are extensively reconfiguring lines and equipment to eliminate the potential for condensation forming on pipes above processing equipment”.

Condensation can form on overhead surfaces during sanitation processes, which poses potentially serious issues. During an upcoming webinar, “Drop the Mop! Take a Clean New Look at Condensation Control in Food Processing Facilities”, experts from the University of Nebraska, Maple Leaf Foods, General Mills, Smithfield Foods, and 3M Corporate Research Materials Laboratory will discuss tips on how to manage condensation, along with the challenges associated with condensation.

Stored product pest, Rentokil

Product Pests Hurt Your Business

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Stored product pest, Rentokil

Stored product insects (SPI) can cause a revenue loss of 1–9%, according to recent research by the Centre for Economic and Business Research. The following infographic outlines the impact SPIs can have, which are the world’s most expensive pests, according to Rentokil.

Stored Product Pests
An infestation of stored product pests can also lead to foodborne illnesses. Infographic courtesy of Rentokil
Hank Lambert, Pure Bioscience

Antimicrobial Technology Mitigates Pathogen Risk Throughout Supply Chain

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Hank Lambert, Pure Bioscience

Learn more about mitigate risks in the supply chain by attending the Food Safety Supply Chain Conference, June 5–6, 2017 in Rockville, MD | LEARN MOREEver heard of silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC)? The patented molecule is a new antimicrobial being used to kill potentially deadly pathogens in places from food processing facilities to restaurants. SDC is non-toxic and has an EPA toxicity rating of IV (the lowest category).

At the Food Safety Consortium last month, Hank Lambert, CEO of Pure Bioscience, talked about how the technology his company developed can help the food industry control pathogens (including Listeria mitigation), along with its differentiating characteristics versus other disinfectants. He also gave a preview of the applications in which the company will pursue FDA and USDA approval this year.