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For 75 years, Nelson-Jameson has been a trusted source to the food and beverage processing industry. A fourth-generation, family-owned distributor with roots in dairy production supplies, it has expanded to offer a broad range of food processing products and services that help companies operate with the highest standards of safety and compliance. In September 2022, it broke ground on its newest distribution center in Jerome, Idaho, which will be its most technologically advanced facility yet. 

To ensure safe operation of a human milk bank (HMB), a well-designed safety assurance plan should be put in place. HMBs implement procedures that allow for the management and sanitization of donor milk without significantly altering the nutritional and biologically protective components of human milk, obtaining a product characterized by a balance between safety and biological quality.

Ensuring that non-conforming product is never created—or at least never arrives at customers' doorsteps—is invaluable in the food industry. Reduced downgrade, less rework, and decreased out-of-specification product are all benefits of mistake proofing.

Similar to the gut microbiome, foods have a diverse community of indigenous or native microbes that reside on a food product. These microbes are influenced by changes in temperature, salinity, pH, oxygen, and exposure to other organisms, resulting in shifts in the bacterial population proportions. These dynamics can be further influenced by adding new bacteria—or bacteria already present in greater proportions—to help influence and improve food safety and quality. 

Of all the key features of FDA's Traceability Final Rule, the Traceability Lot Code (TLC) stands out for its criticality and understated complexity. This crucial code serves as a breadcrumb trail, highlighting every step a product takes through the supply chain. To meet the TLC requirements, industry actors will need to make significant modifications to current lot coding practices. 

There is a growing trend of pathogenic outbreaks being traced to processed fruits, leading to industry players implementing more diligent control processes. This article discusses methodologies and regulations around fruit washing and sanitizing.

Foreign object control is more than just putting a metal detector at the end of the line. Foreign object hazards in foods pose significant public health risks, can lead to costly economic impact, and can directly affect food security and sustainability. Foreign object risk must be identified as part of a HACCP plan for every manufactured food to determine where the most effective control(s) should be implemented for every production run.  

To improve the food safety culture of an organization, it is critical that a key focus be the frontline employees. A proven tool to improve frontline employee engagement in effective food safety behaviors is the concept of "nudging"—a regular cadence of small, easily controlled, and easily taken actions to make a change process more effective, manageable, and sustainable. This article will showcase real-life examples of nudging and share successful examples.

The questions about the safety of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) are complicated. This article outlines why CEA safety depends on understanding and properly addressing the challenges of combining agricultural and ready-to-eat (RTE) into a single facility. It also addresses why CEA is not inherently safe. Ultimately, this article will show how the risk profile of CEA must be compared to that of other RTE produce and that there is no universal answer to the question of CEA safety.

The food safety management program in a foodservice business should be periodically benchmarked against the most current regulatory requirements and best-in-class food safety standards to determine if gaps exist in the program. The gap analysis should be performed by a third party to ensure an unbiased benchmark, and include a review of the corporate governance, systems/specifications, training/education, supply chain management, foodservice operations, and facilities design. The food safety management team should coordinate and review all deficiencies with an action plan prioritized to the level of risk identified.