Testing & Analysis

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There are no set microbiological performance standards for food products, yet demonstrating that hazards are sufficiently controlled is a key component of FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act. For some products, such as canned goods, these standards have been set over many decades of scientific testing. For others, these performance standards have yet to be established, particularly for new, unique ingredients with minimal processing steps. This article explores the history of performance standards and provides guidance on how to establish such standards where currently lacking.

Xibus Systems Inc. has announced the development of XiSafeä, a solution for the rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria in food and beverages, and is seeking interested customers for a demonstration of XiSafeä.

A session at the 2022 International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Annual Meeting discussed recent developments in applications of predictive tools for meat and poultry products.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has awarded a contract to bioMérieux to incorporate its non-enrichment quantification system, GENE-UP™ QUANT Salmonella, into FSIS’ laboratory system to conduct Salmonella quantification in raw poultry rinse samples.

The European Food Safety Commission (EFSA) has published guidelines for reporting whole genome sequencing (WGS) data to its One Health WGS System, which will support outbreak investigations and other EFSA activities.

Hygiena has announced its new AlerTox line for almond, hazelnut, and soy. AlerTox is an ultra-sensitive allergen detection system that supports thorough Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) protocols. 

PerkinElmer has launched its new GC 2400™ Platform, an automated gas chromatography (GC) headspace sampler and GC/mass spectrometry solution for food safety testing laboratories. 

Through the use of CRISPR-SeroSeq technology, researchers found that certain strains of Salmonella are often undetected by traditional testing methods.

A recent study suggests that the cold foods supply chain is the optimal environment for the COVID-19 virus to spread over long distances. The study explores various prevention and testing methods that could be used to mitigate the pathogen’s spread through cold-chain foods.

The food industry recognizes that consumers provide a very high level of fitness-for-purpose testing when they use products. Some shrinkage is, of course, involved in this process, but this consumer sampling will always reach beyond what is possible for a manufacturer. Instead, manufacturers make a more careful study of samples that are expected to be representative of what is delivered to the consumer. The selection of these samples, including the common misconceptions around the sampling of leafy greens, is the focus of this article.