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What does it take to have an extremely effective Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) technician team on the production floor? This article shares practiced perspective on "what it takes." Attributes for success are identified and explained. How they are integrated within a FSQA team on the floor will go a long way to galvanizing the success of that team. For food and beverage companies, "success" means effective risk identification and management, protection of public health, reduced costs of poor quality, and the manufacture and sale of high-quality food and beverage ingredients and products.

New uses for existing technologies are being deployed in foodservice establishments to prevent persistent pathogens like Salmonella, and viral pathogens like norovirus and Hepatitis A, on surfaces where continuous sanitation and disinfection is needed. 

In food safety, multiple issues always need to be addressed. To get things done, however, food safety professionals need to prioritize certain projects over others. What are those priorities now? The Food Safety Magazine audience shares their views on a number of topical issues to give an idea of where their focus will be in the coming months and years.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs are a policy approach where producers are given a significant responsibility for the treatment of post-consumer products. They involve building the cost of disposal into the cost of the product. These programs are meant to boost collection and recycling. They can also result in increased reusable and refillable packaging and encourage material reduction in packages. Any EPR program for food packaging needs to take into account food safety requirements and comply with applicable food packaging regulations. Any changes in food packaging must continue to protect the food after filling, during transportation and storage, and throughout its shelf life. Currently, four states—Maine, Oregon, Colorado, and California—have food packaging EPR laws, with more states expected to follow. However, EPR laws impacting food packaging are still in their infancy. States are looking for the most efficient ways to meet the requirements in the statues.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Foundation has partnered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approach implementing food safety regulation in a novel way. Through the spirit of "education before regulation," implementation of the groundbreaking Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has been a success.

Cleaning program validation that primarily relies on adenosine triphosphate (ATP) monitoring can yield poor results if a few basic strategies are not incorporated into the sampling program to eliminate bias. These include probability sampling, uniformity of the sample, as well as understanding the limitation of the test instrument and the interpretation of results.

In a dynamic shipping environment, the need to anticipate and reduce food safety risks across the supply chain requires innovation, strategic leadership, and strong partnerships between food and transportation companies. This article will provide a brief history of food safety in transportation, a review of current trends, and insights into strategies and cultural expectations to prevent and control food safety risks in transportation.

A variety of actions, spanning from simply changing a nozzle to implementing AI technology, can contribute to making sanitizing procedures more sustainable. The authors dive into some of these actions and look at the effectiveness, implementation challenges, and consequences for the end products.

Cultivated meat (i.e., cell-cultured meat) has been promoted as an alternative to the livestock industry as a more sustainable, safer, and healthier means of food production. However, several regulatory and safety hurdles must be addressed for cultivated meat to reach the commercial market, as it has not yet been declared safe for consumption in the U.S. Safety considerations for cell-cultured meat include the components utilized (the raw ingredients, the source of cells, scaffolds, and bioreactors), the introduction of adventitious agents, and the presence of drug/chemical residues in the final food product. 

A special message from FAO: World Food Safety Day (WFSD) is an important recognition for the fundamental role of food safety in achieving food security, as well as its centrality in the agri-food system. Even though WFSD comes along once a year on June 7, food safety must be protected year-round to continue promoting good health and sufficient food for all.