Part of the role of a QA/R&D/Production specialist is to conduct sensory testing of food or beverages to confirm product quality and shelf life and craft new products based on defined taste profiles. Knowing which sensory tests to implement is important because results must be both scientifically valid and actionable. In a previous blog, we…
Your food business is in the start-up phase. Maybe it’s a side hustle for now, but you know that you have a good food product that sells well. You have been able to secure a meeting with a key buyer for a national grocery chain. The meeting went very well, and you look forward to…
Pest Management is one of the critical HACCP pre-requisite programs (PRPs) which support site Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). A review of the last SQFI audit statistics shows that pest control requirements are at the top list of major non-conformities. A pest management program within a food storage or manufacturing facility involves monitoring pests including insects,…
Risk Assessment is an important activity in food safety and quality management. GFSI standards such as BRC Global Standards and the SQF code require the documentation of risk assessments as part of the certification process. One needs only to read the standards to see that the notion of risk assessment and mitigation form the basis…
Sirocco Food + Wine Consulting had the opportunity to organize a vertical sensory wine tasting at BC Winery Carter Wine Company and BC Wine Studio last month. The team was wrapping up harvest and getting ready for the Christmas season. The 10-acre property is located in Okanagan Falls, a short drive from Penticton in the…
In the last few years, sensory testing has become more recognized in the food, beverage and cosmetics industry. This is proven by IFT offering fundamentals in sensory science courses and UC Davis teaching an applied sensory and consumer science certificate to acquire hands-on skills and sensory science training. The EuroSense and Pangborn Symposia are also…
The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) came into force on January 15, 2019. The food safety requirements rest on three pillars: Business Licensing, One-step forward/One-step back Traceability and Preventative Controls for food safety. The term “Preventive Controls” is now widely used, from the Codex HACCP guidelines (2020 publication) to the FDA Food Safety Modernization…
System verification is an important component of SQF. Third-party audit stats for SQF often show that this element is non-compliant. Verification confirms that the Food Safety Management System is functioning as planned. The purpose of verification is to demonstrate that the food safety plan is science-based and that CCP is effective at controlling the significant…
Safe Quality Food (SQF) is a popular food safety certification scheme that is benchmarked to GFSI international requirements. The scheme is owned by SQFI (a branch of the Food Industry Association); the standard was first published in May 1995. SQFI issues about 11,000 certificates yearly across 40 countries and 6 continents.1 According to FMI (2022),…
Compressed air requirements in the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Edition 9 Code - Food Manufacturing reference the use of inert gasses or air that contacts food or food surfaces such as packaging or equipment surfaces. In the food and beverage industry, inert gases are used for sparging (ex: nitrogen in wine or in nitro coffee)…