Contamination Control

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Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences recently secured a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to study how microorganisms brought into food processing facilities by fruit protect Listeria monocytogenes within biofilms.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we interview Dr. Guangtao Zhang, the Director of the Mars Global Food Safety Center (GFSC), on the center’s work in advancing mycotoxin risk management, microbial risk management, and food integrity by generating new insights, driving technology innovations, and improving food safety capabilities and methodologies.

A recent study found LED treatment to be highly effective in controlling Shigella flexneri contamination of various foods and food surfaces.

The Institute of Food Technologists published two studies analyzing hygiene and sanitization practices for the elimination of foodborne and waterborne viruses, as well as the novel Coronavirus.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) have announced a call for experts on the control of Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry meat to participate in the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment.

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.