Food Safety

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Advisory Board has voted to accept several updates to required food safety practices for the farming of leafy greens. Over 50 recommended changes were unanimously approved to strengthen food safety requirements for the production of leafy greens in the…

Pieter van Dijk, born in Poeldijk (the Netherlands) is the Chief Operating Officer at Ontario Plants Propagation. He spent a lot of time in the Netherlands this spring, due to the coronavirus. Right away it was a great opportunity to shop around for new installations for the expansion of the Canadian…

HelloFresh has been informed by one of its ingredient suppliers that it is conducting a voluntary recall of its onions due to the potential presence of salmonella bacteria. Please discard all onions received from May 8 through July 31, 2020. We recommend disposing of all onions received during the specified time period. For…

'Handling Fresh Produce Safely' is an e-learning course for vegetable producers wanting to train pickers, packhouse staff and farmworkers in how to handle vegetables in a clean and safe manner to manage the risk of food contamination. The four modules address: Food Safety, Staying Clean, Harvesting and Packing.…

Growers and packers focus on food safety management individually because every packhouse system is different. Flexibility in ensuring food safety through the application of practices within the context of business operations is important. To prevent contamination and maintain low contamination rates on…

Termotécnica has reinvented itself by launching the Safe Pack Antiviral and Antibacterial. Patented and unique in the market, Safe Pack uses nanotechnology to reduce the time and quantity of viral and bacterial agents in the EPS packaging produced by the company. “I believe that it’s in a crisis that the…

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 100 more people have become ill from Salmonella contamination linked to a recall of US-grown onions. This would bring the total number of confirmed cases to 339. The agency says no deaths have been reported but 48 people have been hospitalized. People who…

With constantly emerging viruses, pests and diseases in the greenhouse horticulture, hygiene in the greenhouse is an important and much-discussed topic. Clean hands, clean machines and clean water ensure a clean greenhouse, and therefore also clean crops. Steenks Service provides some tips for hygienic…

After the Covid-19 crisis, consumers are paying more attention to food safety, making higher demands on fruit and vegetable processing enterprises. Cleaning is an important step in possessing fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. Efficient and convenient cleaning equipment not only helps to improve a…

“You have to sanitize everything,” says William Kanitz with ScoringAg. “If you don’t protect your product, the consumer gets sick.” The company sells and produces sanitizing equipment for fresh produce and its packaging. Due to the Coronavirus, things have changed. It’s increasingly important to reduce…

Freshouse II LLC of Salisbury, NC, is recalling Valencia oranges, lemons, limes, organic limes, and red B potatoes because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The recall was voluntarily initiated after the company’s routine internal testing identified Listeria monocytogenes on a piece of equipment in one of the packing facilities. "We have ceased the production and distribution of the product that was packed on the equipment in question and are taking corrective actions and continually evaluating our cleaning and sanitation regimes," the company said in a statement.

No illnesses have been associated with this recall to date.

Consumers can identify recalled retail products by looking for the brand, UPC number and, if available the trace number printed on the tag or clip attached to the opening end of the bag. The recalled products were shipped directly to retailer distribution centers in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia and to wholesalers in Maryland and North Carolina (see table below). Click here to see photos and a list of recalled products.

Freshouse II LLC has notified its retail and wholesale customers who received the recalled product directly from the company and is requesting that these customers remove the recalled product from commerce. The company is also asking direct customers to notify their customers of this recall.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control is warning people in the province to check where their red onions came from amid a salmonella outbreak.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says there are now 239 confirmed cases of salmonella infections linked to red onions imported from the United States.

In the wake of a voluntary 50-state recall of red, white, yellow and sweet onions originating from Thomson International Inc. in Bakersfield, CA, an increase in pathogen testing requests is anticipated by Certified Onions Inc. in Nyssa, OR.

Each of COI’s members undergoes sampling for off-label pesticide use and for maximum residue levels, and the pathogen testing is available on request.

Kay Riley, founding member and president of COI, said the pesticide residue testing service is utilized on approximately 80 percent of the onion fields in Idaho-E. Oregon’s Treasure Valley and can be made available to other onion-growing regions as well. And he said some of the area’s sheds routinely use the pathogen testing.

“I’m certain we’ll see more pathogen testing this year,” Riley said on Aug. 3, adding that E. coli 157 and Salmonella are the two microbials involved.

SmartWash Solutions, Salinas, Calif., has released an online tool allowing produce plant managers to monitor real-time performance data on their wash lines chemistry.

That means plant manager can quickly spot potential problems and adjust processes as necessary.

The software, Process Pro Data Live (PPDL) 2020, enhances SmartWash’s PPDL with improved site speed, navigation and a data dashboard that can be accessed from any device with wi-fi, according to a news release.

Wash line data is monitored and reacted to via the “Situational Awareness View” screen, which gives the status of all wash lines in operations.

PPDL includes historical data for verification and calibration of pH and chlorine sensors that can track performance over time; it also includes a review and sign-off on verification and calibration events for Food Safety Modernization Act compliance.

The United Fresh Produce Association has food safety web seminars scheduled on a variety of topics, starting with a look at the Food and Drug Administration’s recent unveiling of its blueprint for the New Era of Smarter Food Safety.

The free “New Era” seminar is from 2-3 p.m. Eastern Aug. 5. Registration is online.

“This webinar will go beyond the numerous bulleted framework points, to share the insights, implications, anticipated impacts, and opportunities for engagement in the journey with FDA,” according to the seminar notice from United Fresh.

U.S. federal health officials say an outbreak of salmonella infecting nearly 400 people in more than 30 states has been linked to red onions, and they identified a California company as the likely source.

A parasite linked to bagged salad mixes has sickened 641 people in 11 states, federal health officials said Friday.

Supplies of papaya are steady currently as the fruit comes out of a peak production cycle. “I think it’s going to get tighter for supplies as we go into the next couple of weeks,” says Edgar Millan of Caraveo Papayas in the Bronx, NY. He notes that the majority of supplies come out of Colima, Mexico.…

"It is my great privilege to announce FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint. We were originally going to make this announcement in March, but as you all are well aware, we were forced to turn our attention to addressing the public health emergency posed by the COVID-19 pandemic." "In the months…

With traditional agriculture in India making a historic shift to next gen technology like farm automation, Artificial Intelligence, GIS mapping, satellite imagery and big data analytics, the preference for ERP solutions is on a rise owing to the complete visibility of data and product life cycle across…

The amount of plastic wasted has soared during the current lockdown, as Scots believe products are a lot safer to eat when packaged. A new Populus poll found that two in three Scots are concerned about an increase in plastic waste during lockdown. Some people seem to believe that produce like fruit and…

A Japanese chain of sushi restaurants is using an AI-powered app to assess the quality of tuna — a key step in the preparation of sushi that traditionally requires years of training from experienced human buyers. But can it really replace a human’s fish sense?

The app, named Tuna Scope, was developed by Japanese advertising firm Dentsu Inc. It uses machine learning algorithms trained on thousands of images of the cross-sections of tuna tails, a cut of the meat that can reveal much about a fish’s constitution.

The app was trained on thousands of images of tuna tails

From a single picture, the app grades the tuna on a five-point scale based on visual characteristics like the sheen of the flesh and the layering of fat. For an experienced...

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While the pandemic has brought many changes to all levels of the produce industry supply chain, for Piñabar, the machine that cuts pineapples for consumers inside of grocery stores, the disruption has fortunately been minimal. Michel van Keeken explains: “We saw the initial dip, like everyone did, but we…

Food safety has always been a concern in the fresh-cut industry. For ready-to-eat vegetables such as lettuce, the entire cleaning process usually takes 2 to 3 minutes, which is too long for conventional cleaning lines. Therefore, a cleaning line with an extended launder is necessary to ensure the…

It takes decades for a produce processor to build up its brand, but only seconds to ruin it. A product recall traced back to contamination in your packaging equipment can destroy one's credibility overnight. That’s why selecting the right vertical form fill seal bagger (VFFS) is critical to the success…

On June 22nd, the FDA warned to avoid certain "Garden Salad" products from three Midwest retailers due to Cyclospora. Now, Hy-Vee, Inc., based in West Des Moines, Iowa, is recalling an additional 12 salads across its eight-state region due to the potential that they may be contaminated with Cyclospora.…

Rwandan carrot farmers who were losing about 30 per cent of their harvest due to lack of post-harvest handling techniques are now recovering following the installation of the Zero Energy Cooling Chamber. The Zero Energy Cool Chamber is an alternative to a common refrigerator. This is an on-farm storage…

Once the dust has settled following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is likely – many in the produce industry believe – to be an increasedawareness of the importance of safety in the food production process, including during the washing and preparing of vegetables. Here, treatments from JBT alliance partner,…

Common fruits and vegetables like carrots, lettuces and apples are contaminated with tiny particles of plastic and should be a cause for “considerable concern” among public health experts, scientists say. Researchers from the University of Catania in Italy discovered apples are among the most…