Intervention Controls

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Ensuring that non-conforming product is never created—or at least never arrives at customers' doorsteps—is invaluable in the food industry. Reduced downgrade, less rework, and decreased out-of-specification product are all benefits of mistake proofing.

The Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Meeting on Microbial Risk Assessment (JEMRA) on the pre- and post-harvest control of Campylobacter in poultry meat was convened to review recent data and evidence, and to provide scientific advice on control measures for thermo-tolerant C. jejuni and C. coli in the broiler production chain.

Proving food safety is a monumental challenge, if not an impossibility. However, with the appropriate tools and techniques one can confirm, with a high degree of statistical confidence, the effectiveness of a preventive control for reducing a specified hazard to an acceptable level or concentration that is consistent with achieving public health objectives.  

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently published two reports—one on control measures for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in meat and dairy products, and another reviewing Listeria monocytogenes attribution, characterization, and monitoring in ready-to-eat (RTE) foods.

Food companies that prepare fresh food items often source individual ingredients from primary suppliers. The food safety risk is typically controlled at primary supplier plants or farms; however, the food safety stakes are high. It is necessary to have "boots on the ground" to assess how food safety and quality programs are integrated with the front-line operation for those suppliers who mitigate food safety risk on the behalf of a receiving company.

A recent study evaluated and compared the level of conformity with food safety requirements in cattle and pig slaughterhouses, for which large-scale and beef facilities scored better, on average.