Contamination Control

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The Center for Produce Safety-funded project aims to generate practical guidance for produce growers, including improved sampling approaches to determine whether groundwater is influenced by surface water, and immediately actionable recommendations for mitigating microbial contamination and biofilms in irrigation systems.

This article looks at food safety in hydroponic agriculture, including interventions used in hydroponic crop production to control pathogenic contamination.

Radio Frequency Company’s Macrowave Radio Frequency (RF) pasteurization systems have been fully validated for the treatment of rice flour utilized in infant formula, achieving a greater than 5-log reduction of important pathogens.

The Environmental Working Group’s 2026 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce highlights PFAS pesticides for the first time. Although EWG recently updated its methodology, scientists argue it still does not consider key exposure science and risk assessment principles, therefore misleading consumers about the health risks of conventionally grown produce.

Researchers developed a quantitative microbiological risk assessment (QMRA) framework that evaluates the public health, environmental, and economic trade-offs of microbiological sampling plans. They suggested microbiological sampling may be most useful when risk-based or as a verification tool.

“If mandatory authority needs to be strengthened, the Food Safety Caucus stands ready to tackle this issue at FDA’s request,” wrote Congress members in a statement about the ongoing E. coli outbreak involving Raw Farm raw cheese products. Raw Farm has so far refused to recall.

A key cause of the outbreak was determined to be contaminated eggshells used in poultry feed. Cross-sector collaboration and data-sharing were instrumental in solving the investigation.

WHO assessed the overall public health risk as “moderate,” citing the vulnerability of infants, uncertainty around the extent of contamination, and gaps in surveillance and traceability.

The free resource outlines practical ways to identify risks, select the right inspection technologies, and build a proactive foreign material contamination prevention strategy, focusing on five key areas of food safety management.

No U.S. Salmonella outbreaks linked to Mexican papayas have been identified since 2020 thanks to collaborative efforts between regulators and industry in both countries. The case study could serve as a framework for improving food safety in other commodities and global supply chains.