Food Safety in a Global Village | Archive

Category archive for ‘Food Science’

What is AMP — the tool that can help understand shelf-life

Written by Global Food Safety Resource on 3/06/20

By Annette Sansom Traditional methods of troubleshooting problems caused by microorganisms require the culturing of the microorganism in question. This has limitations linked to the conditions used to grow microbes. Advanced microbial profiling (AMP) is an alternative. It is a powerful DNA technique used to determine the unique mix of the microorganisms (microbiome) in food […]

Getting it Right: Pathogen Detection

Written by Global Food Safety Resource on 5/13/19

By Lois Harris Choosing the right pathogen detection technology for food manufacturing businesses can be a daunting task. But it’s a necessity, considering the grave consequences of allowing E. coli, Salmonella or Listeria to go undetected in the food that is produced and distributed. While the “gold standard” for the industry is still culture-related methods […]

Global Cooperation Needed to Ensure Harmonized Pesticide Levels

Written by Global Food Safety Resource on 7/13/18

By Caleigh Irwin In a world where global food supply chains are deeply intertwined, there is one issue that has a huge impact on agriculturally-related food safety and trade in North America and around the world: the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) of pesticides. MRLs are determined for the import and export of all food and […]

The Three Biggest Threats in the Global Food Chain: Provenance, Adulteration & Compliance

Written by Global Food Safety Resource on 7/13/18

By J. Marcelo Gomez and John G. Keogh Consumers are increasingly scrutinizing the provenance and authenticity of food, demanding more transparency and food safety compliance. And for good reason: food fraud is currently estimated to have a dollar value of USD $49 billion according to the Grocery Manufacturing Association (GMA). Food fraud is serious business […]

The Evolving Nature of Food Safety Points to Food Toxicity as the Next Frontier

Written by Global Food Safety Resource on 6/06/18

By Jackie Bowen Food safety is traditionally centred around mitigating the most immediate risks to consumer health and wellness, and is primarily focused on microbiological contaminants with the potential to cause serious adverse health effects in the short term. At the same time, our society is focused on avoiding health risks related to environmental contaminants […]

Do Best Before Dates Matter?

Written by Allie Gallant on 6/02/14

Best before dates are an interesting grey zone. They don’t imply as much caution as expiry dates, and often products show no signs of going bad for days or even weeks after. But they must mean something…why else would food companies bother including them? Best before dates are recommendations only, but they serve to give […]

Food safety Armageddon: Challenge your product with a worst-case scenario

Written by Allie Gallant on 4/01/14

Ideally, contamination of food is avoided through rigorous quality and safety controls applied consistently throughout the entire supply chain. But what if dangerous bacteria do make their way into a product? Is it inevitable that the product will then make people sick? Depending on how they’re designed, product formulations, processing techniques and packaging can all […]