Food Safety Top Stories

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States like California have been active in the past few years passing laws to regulate PFAS in products. So far, 12 states have enacted laws that ban or impose reporting or disclosure requirements for PFAS in products. As states continue to move forward with emerging PFAS product restrictions, those who manufacture, distribute, and sell such products must prepare for the changing legal landscape.

Understanding the structure and function of biofilms is essential for developing effective strategies to control microbial biofilm formation, mitigate biofilm-related risks, and harness the beneficial properties of biofilms for various applications.

This article explores the benefits offered by "beneficial" artificial intelligence (AI) as applied to the food and beverage industry and specifically to food safety practices. It discusses relevant elements of President Biden's October 2023 Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, as well as the Department of Defense's June 2023 Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy, and what these documents mean to AI applications in food safety.

The highly regulated food industry has recently reached major milestones in its food safety culture journey. In addition to general acceptance of the key concepts, a unified language and framework has been developed. The local food movement is characterized by short supply chains, typically involving direct sales to consumers. The majority of businesses in this category have a handful of employees and include small-scale farmers and processors, as well as cottage food producers. The concepts of food safety culture are at the infancy stage, gaining traction as the rest of the food industry settles into the new normal of behavior-based food safety practice. This article explores the question: To what extent do the established food safety culture cornerstones apply to the local food segment of the food industry?

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.

FDA's Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) require importers to verify that their suppliers are producing food in a way that meets domestic food safety standards. Through continuous monitoring, FDA targets high-risk products and supply chains to ensure the most impactful FSVP inspections. 

Temporary employees are defined as "at-will" workers who can work on a part-time, full-time, or seasonal basis. Many food manufacturers utilize temporary employees in their facility, for a wide variety of reasons, which can pose some challenges. This article discusses the possible challenges and strategies for managing them to avoid problems in your food manufacturing facility.

The primary role of FDA's Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Network is to conduct outbreak surveillance, manage the response efforts, and initiate post-outbreak activities for incidents involving FDA-regulated products. This article explores the evolution, work, and perpetual improvement of the CORE Network.

Everyone entering a food processing facility needs to know and adhere to a set of rules that address food safety, basic sanitation, and safety. Plant rules for staff and visitors comprise elements of good hygiene culture and exist to minimize the potential for cross-contamination of foods, equipment, or utensils. Some of these elements have other roles, such as personal safety.

This article discusses the unique challenges faced by food scientists and manufactures in product development, touching on the food safety and quality challenges during upscaling from initial concept to full production, how risks are managed, and how decisions are made for new ingredient selection, formulation, and new processes.