Sirocco Food and Wine Consulting recently delivered organoleptic training to Lethbridge College (LC)’s culinary research team. This deliverable fits into the Alberta college’s mandate to add an applied research component to their culinary careers program.
The Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. The new legislation which covers food products subject to FDA oversight, aims at protecting public health by strengthening the food safety system. Included in the scope of the law are both domestic and imported food sold in the...
Last month, I posted an article on the updated British Columbia Food Premises Regulations. Food companies that sell products within the province will be required to submit a food safety and sanitation plan to their Environmental Health Officer (EHO) by March 26, 2016. On the other hand, companies shipping products outside the province or Canada…
If you are a BC food processor, you have probably received a letter from the BC Ministry of Health regarding compliance to new food safety requirements. This regulatory change was initiated in 2013 when sections 23 and 24 of the Food Premises Regulation under the Public Health Act were updated. The new requirements are aligned…
What is quality wine? Depending on whom you ask, you may get a different answer as quality can be defined in a multitude of ways. It may mean the absence of wine defects or taints, meeting a specific wine style, or producing a consistent product that meets wine consumers’ expectations. Defining Wine Quality UC Davis…
Governments in Canada and the US are modernising their food safety legislation to ensure consumer protection and to align with that of key trading partners. Meanwhile, large retailers, distributors and manufacturers continue to support and demand implementation of global food safety standards to meet market demands. Standards such as Safe Quality Food (SQF) or British…
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) initiated a second round of consultations with stakeholders last May to obtain feedback on proposed food safety legislation as part of the Safe Food for Canadians Action Plan . This time, the small business food sector was invited to participate in webinars and face- to-face meetings to learn about the…
On September 10, 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) published the Final Rule for Preventive Controls for Human Food as part of the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The act was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. Regulations (“rules”) under FSMA are intended to prevent…
Corrective and Preventive action (CAPA) is a continuous improvement tool that an organization uses as part of its Quality or Food Safety Management System to identify and eliminate or prevent causes of non-conformities (NC). It is defined as the systematic process of determining the root cause of existing product/process deviations in order to prevent their…
In a previous sensory blog post (Sensory analysis of food for quality control and assurance applications – A review of ASTM MNL14 standard), we identified the necessary steps to the creation of a robust food sensory evaluation program as part of a Quality Management System (QMS). This subsequent post is intended to complement the previous…