Latest News From Food Safety/Traceability

Helping growers implement food safety practices is one important goal of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

With final comments due by early April, the FDA’s ag water proposed rule is drawing big industry attention, said Jennifer McEntire, chief food safety officer for the International Fresh Produce Association.

I remember vividly where I was on Sept. 15, 2006, when the Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory warning consumers not to eat spinach.

The “optics” and the science behind product testing were evaluated in a June 10 session at the United Fresh Produce Association’s Reimagine Conversations web seminar.

Deborah Birx, former White House coronavirus coordinator, will join Dallas-based ActivePure Technologies as chief medical and scientific advisor, the company’s CEO, Joseph Urso, said in a news release.

Michigan State University researchers are conducting a study through April 1 to assess buyer requirements for produce safety standards in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rule on additional traceability requirements for certain foods is more complicated and expensive than it should be.

Carson, Calif.-based nanobubble technology company Moleaer, in partnership with researchers from Virginia Tech, have found oxygen-filled nanobubbles are successful in disrupting microbial biofilms.

What is one thing that could make the produce supply safer?

A six-week online workshop on cleaning and sanitizing relating to the produce safety rule will be offered from Jan. 26 to March 2.

The 10-year old Food Safety Modernization Act is aging nicely, most industry leaders think.

The exit of President Donald Trump from the White House and the beginning of a new administration isn’t expected to have any immediate ramifications for produce safety policies at the Food and Drug Administration.

What is the one thing produce safety professionals need the most?

The inability to hold the Center for Produce Safety’s annual Symposium in its traditional form has opened up new opportunities for greater participation, says Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli, executive director of CPS.

Helping to preserve food safety and quality, monitoring devices connected to the internet of things (IoT) are giving produce operators more visibility into their supply chains compared with a decade ago.

The clock is ticking for the Food and Drug Administration’s determination of “high-risk” foods and what traceability/record-keeping standard those foods should meet.

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement has a new subcommittee that focuses on how land adjacent to leafy greens fields might contribute to foodborne illness outbreaks from romaine lettuce.

Israel-based Evigence Sensors is seeking inroads for its time-temperature sensor in the fresh produce business.

With annual microbial testing showing corrugated cartons are consistently safe, paper packaging advocate Fibre Box Association touts paper-based packaging as both safe and sustainable for fresh produce.

As we deal with yet another outbreak involving romaine, calls to do more for food safety are coming from all fronts. No one is more frustrated than the producers of leafy greens that these types of outbreaks continue.

We all know there is no food safety “kill step” for fresh produce consumed in a raw state. 

The Center for Produce Safety will embark on another campaign in the next year to raise funds for the group’s food safety research efforts.

The Food and Drug Administration has released an updated version of the Food Defense Plan Builder.

Clear Labs' Clear Safety platform has received Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) Performance Tested Methods certification for genus listeria and Listeria monocytogenes testing. 

With the perishable nature of fresh produce, strong buyer-supplier relationships are critical to successfully get our foods from field to table.

As we all know, food safety outbreaks have a massive effect not only on growers, but on all stakeholders throughout the fresh produce supply chain.

An important senior management responsibility involves assessing potential threats to an organization, identifying areas of concern and developing mitigation plans.

Already a big player in meat and poultry facilities, Packers Sanitation Services Inc. is seeking to expand its footprint in the fresh produce world with real-time data monitoring of its sanitation services.

Our battle against pathogens entering the fresh produce supply chain is daunting.

Two listeria workshops are set for September in California.

California produce growers can now sign up for on-farm readiness reviews to help them prepare for official produce safety inspections that will start in 2019.

The Feb. 27-28 Water Summit hosted by the Produce Safety Alliance brought a fresh focus on agricultural water safety but left questions open about the direction of future regulations.

State inspectors may be able to start conducting on-farm produce safety readiness reviews by this summer.

Though its work is far from done, funding for the Produce Safety Alliance is scheduled to run out by September 2019.

The Produce Safety Alliance has been a part of hundreds of grower training workshops on the produce safety rule, and there are many more training courses ahead.

Despite early January media reports of an E. coli outbreak in Canada and the U.S. possibly linked to romaine lettuce, food safety news was not all bad.

The lack of pest control was the No. 1 problem with food facilities inspected by the Food and Drug Administration in fiscal 2017.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering a searchable database of companies conforming to Good Agricultural Practice audits performed by the agency’s Agricultural Marketing Service.

Produce growers looking for qualified produce safety rule trainers can find it easily with a new web tool.

Answering consumer questions on social media about produce safety can pay immediate and long-term dividends.

Both industry food safety leaders and Food and Drug Administration produce safety staff say more research is needed on the levels of Listeria monocytogenes found naturally occurring on ready to eat produce.