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The Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety (NECAFS) recently announced its new online Produce Safety Handbook for Buyers. The handbook is formatted as an interactive website that clarifies the complex landscape of food safety regulations and standards across different states in the U.S. Northeast.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) published a report that highlights multi-year trends for antimicrobial resistance among Salmonella from data collected by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) during 2014–2019.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) recently highlighted the agency’s key food safety achievements in 2022.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is soliciting nominations for membership to the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF). 

In November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its new Food Traceability Rule. The rule will apply to companies that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food on FDA's Food Traceability List (FTL), but the rule will have a wide-reaching impact on processors and suppliers that work with other foods, too. We surveyed and interviewed food processors in the U.S./Canada and around the world to get their thoughts on this new rule and how it will impact their businesses.

This article presents the key findings of outbreak investigations from 2014–2021 that have been linked to the consumption of fresh, soft queso fresco-type cheeses in the U.S. The authors outline some of the specific circumstances that small manufacturers of all cheeses may encounter in an effort to provide lessons learned and highlight available resources.

This article looks back at the events of the 1993 E. coli outbreak associated with hamburgers served at Jack in the Box restaurants along the U.S. West Coast, examining the regulatory changes inspired by the fatal outbreak and its impact. Also discussed are the corporate and industry changes, spearheaded by Dr. David Theno, that set new standards for leadership and management in foodservice and food safety. 

Food safety auditing has progressed a great deal in the last three decades, but it is clear that it has yet to keep up with changing needs, expectations, and technological developments. This article explores the envisioned future of auditing, including how to develop talent and retain auditors, the qualities of a successful auditor, the importance of calibration among auditing teams, developments in technology and tools for auditors, and changes in processes with certification bodies, among other aspects.

Meal kits use a direct-to-consumer model of delivering perishable, pre-measured ingredients for pre-selected recipes that are then used to prepare and cook meals at home. Meal kits are likely to contain a variety of foods that may grow or be contaminated by pathogenic bacteria. Meal kit manufacturers also often repackage ingredients into plain or branded packaging, which can result in the consumption of unexpected ingredients or allergens.

New registration requirements for foreign food manufacturing facilities intending to export certain products to India have gone into effect, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that it has not yet received sufficient information about the scope of these requirements and the intended use of the registration information.