Contamination Control

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Foreign material is an ongoing issue in food plants. The food safety foreign material plan must consider types of foreign materials, effectiveness of detection devices, and rapid screening of food safety device kick-outs. Tools to enhance investigation of these materials are equipment component mapping, defined burst limits, and protocols to restart the line.  

FDA Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network (CORE), in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and state and local public health and regulatory partners, conduct foodborne illness outbreak investigations, including those related to Cyclospora cayetanensis infections. In this article, the authors review the successes and challenges of identifying and responding to outbreaks caused by C. cayetanensis infections since 2013, the progress made, the challenges remaining, and what the future holds.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly shifted consumer demand away from restaurants and foodservice to home meals and ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products. As a complement for more convenience-type items, consumers began focusing on product expiration dates to limit trips to retail markets. Combined with consumers' nutritional focus on sugar, sodium, fat content, and additives, meeting these expectations and requirements is a serious challenge for meat and poultry processors. The most common challenges for reformulation are reduction of sodium and replacing additives such as nitrite and preservatives.

Pthotrak’s Rapid Pathogen Detection Enrichment Technology is the first AOAC-certified product to enable pathogen results within an eight-hour shift. 

Spain has relaxed its regulations of chlorpyrifos and dichlorvos in imported maize, despite recommendations by the European Food Safety Authority, to fill the livestock feed gap created by the Ukraine crisis.

Regardless of whether or not cooks wash their poultry or not before cooking it, bacterial contamination is rampant in the kitchen, a recent study finds.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its 2020 EU report on pesticide residue levels in food, including a dietary risk assessment.

The Codex Alimentarius Committee has drafted a new guidance for the management of microbiological foodborne illness outbreaks at the recent Committee on Food Hygiene meeting.

Per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are causing long-lasting contamination on Maine farms, prompting the state’s lawmakers to call on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for financial assistance.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) launched a new webpage with resources and information to combat Salmonella in poultry.