In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we are joined by Brian Ronholm, Director of Food Policy for Consumer Reports, who lends his insight as a consumer advocate and former regulator to a discussion around food regulatory policy and food safety legislation. We dissect a variety of current events in food safety, such as toxic heavy metals in baby foods and food additives legislation, from multiple perspectives, including industry, consumer, regulatory, and consumer advocate.
The Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is opening a new stakeholder consultation today under the Technical Equivalence Program for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) Harmonized GAP Plus+ version 4.0.
In light of USDA-FSIS’s proposed regulatory framework to reduce Salmonella illnesses attributable to poultry, a recently published report by the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) provides guidance on microbiological criteria that might be used to identify and incentivize effective intervention strategies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) recently highlighted its key achievements in 2023 that helped strengthen food safety and the supply chain, including efforts on a new regulatory framework to crack down on Salmonella in poultry.
USDA’s Pesticide Data Program Annual Summary for 2022 shows that more than 99 percent of products sampled through PDP had residues below tolerances set by EPA. However, testing for persistent environmental contaminants that are no longer used as pesticides in the U.S. showed the presence of certain banned chemicals in some foods.
On January 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will host an educational webinar about produce safety as part of the agency’s Produce Safety University Continuing Education Program.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has revised its instructions to inspection program personnel (IPP) for performing allergen formulation verification.
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA’s ARS) have provided new insight into the ability of Salmonella to survive and adapt in food processing facilities through interactions with environmental biofilms.
A recent revision to Directive 8080.1 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) now includes egg products a commodity subject to recall under the Directive, outlining instructions for large-scale recalls and recalls of ingredients regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA’s ARS) is looking into the antimicrobial properties of mushroom extracts and how they can enhance food safety against aflatoxin-producing fungus and bacteria.