Making a difference is the ultimate goal of any food safety procedure or practice.
How do we get to a place where produce is safer today than it was yesterday?
In that spirit, I asked 14 food safety professionals this question: “What one food safety development in the past two or three years has made a difference in progress toward safer produce?”
The question was part of a broader survey in preparation of The Packer’s Food Safety section.
Here are some of the responses:
- “The answer has not changed. It’s still training, accessible, understandable training so that the workforce understands the why. We are also getting better at equipment design and manufacturing which moves the industry forward. Digitization is helpful to move FS professionals to focus on programs and operations rather than checking boxes; “
- “Social media campaigns and increased public awareness on food safety;"
- “We don’t have any single “magic bullet”. Each development, such as whole-genome sequencing or rapid testing has its niche in our efforts;"
- “Incremental improvements in water metrics and ongoing research at CPS that is practical;"
- “In the past year, the attention to personnel food safety practices;"
- “Outbreaks in commodities that have not previously had outbreaks (e.g., peaches, apples, onions). It dispels the human error / myth of “it will not happen to me;”
- “Whole Genome Sequencing;"
- ” Without question, advancements and deeper application of molecular genomic tools and analytic technologies have and will continue to provide novel and informative practical knowledge in advancing food safety strategic planning. These insights to microbiome, metagenomic, and critically needed predictive microbial source tracking are the most transformative development from primary production to packing, processing and distribution;"
- “FSMA implementation;"
- “FSMA forcing attention to food safety;"
- “Traceability is big, as was whole genome sequencing, but they won’t fully address food safety concerns until we have a reliable post-harvest kill step;" and
- “Testing and Traceability.”
TK: Thanks to all the professionals who responded to the survey. The invaluable perspectives inform what made a difference for produce safety yesterday, this moment in time, and going forward.
