Laboratory Management

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Part 3 of this Food Safety Insights series on rapid testing asks food safety professionals whether the vast increase in outsourcing of testing to contract labs has made rapid methods less useful, or if the methods' ease of use and speed are still important for better management and decision-making.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its new Integrated Food Safety System Regulatory and Laboratory Training System (IFSS RLTS) Strategic Plan 2024–2028, and will hold a stakeholder call on April 2, 2024.

A new company, Confience, born through a merger of two existing companies, has announced its vision to provide a new standard in laboratory information management system (LIMS) software, applicable to lab and quality professionals in the food and beverage sector.

Ongoing debates about the use of rapid microbiological test methods in food safety have led to the rise of many questions about the future of this type of testing. This column will explore which methods are being used, food processors' views on what attributes of the tests are most important, how fast is fast enough, and what even faster tests would enable them to accomplish. It also explores where the growth may continue and whether rapid methods used in commercial labs will continue to drive growth, or if a plateau is likely. Growth in regions outside of the U.S. and Europe will also be examined, along with whether rapid testing technology is evolving to the point where it may be acceptable to bring back the analysis to an in-plant lab.

Ongoing debates about the use of rapid test methods in food safety have led to the rise of the question: Has the vast increase in outsourcing testing to contract labs made rapid methods less useful, or is the ease of use and speed of the methods still important (if not essential) for better management and decision-making in food safety? Food Safety Insights asks food safety professionals their opinions on this question.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published a three-part guide describing how whole genome sequencing (WGS) can be used as a tool to strengthen foodborne illness surveillance and response.

In this bonus episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Trevor Craig, Corporate Director of Technical Training and Consulting at Microbac Laboratories, about the dates on consumer food packaging, their impacts on shelf life and food safety and quality (FSQ), and the role Microbac can play in helping industry manage FSQ risks.
 

In this episode of Food Safety Matters MilliporeSigma expert scientist Uma Sreenivasan and NIH health scientist administrator in the Office of Dietary Supplements, Dr. Adam Kuszak go in-depth on the important role reference materials play in assuring safety and quality of dietary supplements.

As food processors continue to recover from 2020, we wanted to find out more about their plans for 2021. One thing was clear: Testing—especially environmental monitoring—will continue to grow at a rapid pace.