Contamination Control

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recently published a report that provides guidance for the dairy industry on food-safe sourcing, use, and reuse of fit-for-purpose water.

Flour mills produce a "ready-to-cook" product. The most severe food safety hazards at flour mills are physical and include metal, wood, pests, and other items. A variety of equipment is used in an enclosed system to prevent physical and other contamination of the product.

Popular oat-based food products often eaten by children may contain unsafe levels of chlormequat, an agricultural chemical associated with negative health effects, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) published a report that highlights multi-year trends for antimicrobial resistance among Salmonella from data collected by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) during 2014–2019.

Consumer Reports (CR) recently tested canned tuna from popular brands, and observed varying levels of mercury, a toxic heavy metal found in foods, on a can-to-can basis.

The Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) recently published a technical report on the prevention and control of microbiological hazards in sprouts.

Researchers are investigating the use of antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria as a food-safe, clean-label, and environmentally friendly alternative to chemical pesticides, which pose food safety and environmental health risks.

Every fourth restaurant and café in Sweden provides incorrect information about allergenic ingredients, according to a report from the Swedish Food Agency (also known as Livsmedelsverket in Swedish).

Risk-based approaches for food allergens offer a path forward for both allergen management and precautionary allergen labeling decision-making. After many years of research, a clearer picture has emerged of the population-level, threshold-dose distributions for major food allergens using data generated in double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge studies. If the food allergen management field is headed for a shift toward quantitative, risk-based management strategies, however, then several method considerations and important data gaps must be addressed.

This article presents the key findings of outbreak investigations from 2014–2021 that have been linked to the consumption of fresh, soft queso fresco-type cheeses in the U.S. The authors outline some of the specific circumstances that small manufacturers of all cheeses may encounter in an effort to provide lessons learned and highlight available resources.