Your customers expect your food production facilities to be clean. They take this for granted when they purchase your products. If they arrived at your plant unexpectedly, would it live up to their expectations?
There are concerns that open-date coding of foods has increased food waste. The food industry and consumers use the dates printed on food packages to manage stock rotation from food manufacturing plants to the consumer’s kitchen. Variation in terminology associated with open dates on consumer packages can result in the disposal of good food.
Food safety is increasingly becoming a global challenge. Recent foodborne illness outbreaks involving a wide range of food products have clearly shown that food pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli have breached their natural habitats.
The number of firms recalling product due to foreign material contamination has increased by 157% in the past six years. While metal fragments have been the leading cause, there have been several food product recalls related to plastic fragments.
Since the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law in January 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published in the Federal Register nearly 800 pages of proposed regulations on the act’s implementation.
The landscape is changing for commercial bakers and snack manufacturers as the Food Safety Modernization Act grants the Food and Drug Administration a wider reach. Will the act shift the responsibility for food safety of imported foods to the importer? And do all companies have the expertise they need to handle preventative measures?
One of the more challenging aspects of food manufacturing is food processors’ ability to discern between a fad and a trend, be they consumer- or industry-driven.