Category Archives: food-safety

Sunrise Meats convicted of food safety and hygiene breaches

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.SunriseMeats

Sunrise Meats, a meat processor based in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west, has been fined $41,250 for a number of food and hygiene breaches. The company was convicted and sentenced for various breaches of the Food Act 2003 and ordered to pay professional costs of $10,000.

The company, which is licensed under the NSW Food Authority to operate a meat processing business, pleaded guilty to 11 charges following a series of breaches of the hygiene regulations investigated by the NSW Food Authority that lead to the issuing of a prohibition order.

The charges were:

Hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness breaches (three charges).
Contravene the provisions of the Food Safety Scheme (three charges).
Fail to comply with the conditions of licence (three charges).
Fail to comply with requirement imposed by a food safety scheme in relation to the preparation, implementation, maintenance, monitoring, certification or auditing of a food safety program (one charge).
Contravene a Prohibition Order (one charge).

The breaches included: failure to maintain fixtures, fittings and equipment to a required standard; handling food in a manner that failed to properly address the risk of contamination, namely meat being stored on the floor near a drain, on unclean benches and in contact with unclean wall tiles; and failure to have effective and continuous pest control in place.

Salmonella Testing Device to ‘Scan’ Food For Contamination

food-safety

There are devices and systems that have the ability to test the safety of food, but this new invention is better because it uses a “wireless acoustic wave sensor platform — combined with a surface-scanning coil detector”, which is extremely low cost.

Most of today’s devices can only function if the sensor is inside of a coil “to measure the sensor’s signals.”

“The key to our discovery is that measurement of biosensors can now be made ‘outside the coil’ by using a specially designed microfabricated reading device,” Yating Chai, a doctoral student in Auburn University’s materials engineering program, said.

“In the past, if we were trying to detect whether or not a watermelon was contaminated with Salmonella on the outside of its surface, the sensors would be placed on the watermelon, and then passed through a large coil surrounding it to read the sensors,” Chai said.

The device is extremely easy to use. It is handheld and can simply be passed over food to find out if it is contaminated.

an-image-of-the-new-sensor-that-could-test-for-food-contamination

FDA’s New Food Safety Law

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“FDA’s New Food Safety Law” video explains how the new law makes prevention from farm to table the basis of food safety. It describes how preventing problems before they occur is critical given today’s complex, global food supply and the emerging pathogens that are especially threatening to vulnerable populations. Finally, the video explains how the law applies to both domestic and imported foods, and to be successful requires that everyone in the food production process understands and accepts their responsibility. For more information visit http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety

FDA Suspends Inspections During Shutdown.

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According to spokesman Steven Immergut, the Food and Drug Administration has suspended all routine food safety inspections until funding is restored. The FDA will only inspect facilities believed to “present an immediate threat to public health.”

Eighty percent of the country’s food supply is monitored by the FDA for safety. This includes dairy, juice, raw eggs, farmed seafood and processed foods, such as cereal, peanut butter, candy, hummus, canned soup and frozen ravioli.

While it was clear that FDA employees would not perform food safety inspections during the government shutdown, the agency had suggested that state-contracted employees would conduct some inspections on the FDA’s behalf.

However, the FDA pays state agencies a fee for each inspection its employees conduct. The shutdown has suspended funding for these state-contracted inspections.

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Monday that would restore FDA funds during the shutdown, but the Senate has declined to vote on the piecemeal bill thus far. It is unlikely that routine food safety inspections will resume before a deal is reached to re-open the federal government.

Foster Farms says “It is your fault!”

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rawchicken

Food safety is Foster Farms’ highest priority. Foster Farms is working in partnership with USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service FSIS and Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control CDC to reduce incidence of Salmonella Heidelberg on raw chicken products produced at three company facilities in Central California. Only raw chicken products are involved. This activity is in response to an FSIS-issued alert regarding the increased incidence of Salmonella Heidelberg infection caused by eating undercooked or improperly handled chicken. While the company, FSIS and CDC continue to investigate the issue, Foster Farms has instituted a number of additional food safety practices, processes and technology throughout company facilities that have already proven effective in controlling Salmonella in its Pacific Northwest operations earlier this year. No recall is in effect.

The FSIS alert states: “FSIS further reminds consumers of the critical importance of following package cooking instructions for frozen or fresh chicken products and general food safety guidelines when handling and preparing any raw meat or poultry…. All poultry products should be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165° F as determined by a food thermometer. Using a food thermometer is the only way to know that food has reached a high enough temperature to destroy foodborne bacteria.”

“Salmonella is naturally occurring in poultry and can be fully eradicated if raw product is properly handled and fully cooked,” said Dr. Robert O’Connor, the company’s food safety chief and head veterinarian.

Foster Farms reminds consumers to follow the Poultry ABCs – Always Be Careful. Raw poultry must be handled and cooked in accordance with the safe handling guidelines on all packages of chicken. These include: keeping the product refrigerated or frozen thawing in refrigerator or microwave keeping raw meat and poultry separate from other foods washing working surfaces including cutting boards, utensils and hands after touching raw meat or poultry keeping hot foods hot and refrigerating leftovers immediately or discarding. All fresh poultry products should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165°F as measured by a meat thermometer.