In Canada, the CFIA handles, on average, 175 food recalls a year. In the United States, Time Magazine reports that the number of food recalls for 2018 was 703, a number decrease from previous years. A major food recall can cost easily over 10 million dollars. For any food business, experiencing one major recall is…
When conducting descriptive sensory assessments of food and beverages, the panel coordinator must monitor the performance of the panel to ensure the accuracy of the data and, in some cases, schedule retraining on specific sensory descriptors. To review the performance of the panel and panelists has three objectives: Assessment of the overall panel performance and…
Like other fermented beverages, kombucha suits itself well for sensory evaluation. This trendy drink is a black tea-based, non-alcoholic beverage fermented by yeast and bacteria and known for its refreshing scent and taste. Sought after for its health benefits, kombucha is a low-calorie product, is rich in antioxidants, and offers antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. It…
The US FDA announced the New Era for Food Safety blueprint in July 2020 in an effort to “enhance traceability, improve predictive analytics, respond more rapidly to outbreaks, address new business models, reduce contamination of food, and foster the development of stronger food safety cultures.” One of the keystones of this food safety initiative is…
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…
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)…
Your food business is doing great. A potential major customer has contacted you. You receive the good news that they plan to list your food products! The only contract requirement is for you to secure a HACCP certification. You and your team have prepared for it for a long time, and the big day is…
Ten years ago, HACCP training was a pre-requisite to working in the food industry and learning the Codex HACCP guidelines. This changed in 2011 when Barack Obama signed FSMA into law and Preventive Control Plans for Human Food became mandatory in the United States. In North America, food products under FDA oversight which are not…
It’s been over a year since the SQF code edition 9 was published and implemented. The SQF Professional update for 2022 Q2 provides some insights on food safety compliance for certified sites. Audit Findings SQFI reported that over 7,500 audits were conducted worldwide in 2021. The average audit score reached 94.30/100, a “G-good” audit score…