June 2023
Food Compliance Made Easy
Welcome
On June 7th we celebrated World Food Safety Day and I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the hard work and dedication you put into producing safe and secure food every day. Your commitment to food safety is what makes our industry thrive, and it is a privilege to have you as part of the HACCP Mentor community.
On the work front, I have finally finished developing the online Auditor Fundamentals training for BRCGS. This will hopefully be published in the coming month so I will let you know when it goes live. I also have a FSMS (based on BRCGS Food Issue 9) that I developed for a tropical fruit processing company up for initial certification audit next week. It is always a stressful time for new clients who are not use to this level of auditing.
Depending on where you are located, your business may be coming up to the end of the financial year. If you want to take advantage of final tax deductions for FY 2022/2023 consider enrolling in one of our many food safety courses. All of our online courses are accessible for 12 months from the date of purchase.
That is it from me this month but make sure to keep scrolling to get our latest free tools to help with your food safety compliance, our upcoming virtual training dates, food fraud cases and compliance news.
Thanks for reading
The Ultimate Guide To Equipment Calibration
Creating A Positive Food Safety Culture
Implement the risk management framework
Revised CCP Decision Tree adopted by Codex
In February 2023, the Codex Alimentarius Commission reported the adoption of the revised General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969) during CAC45. One of the key outcomes was the finalisation of the revised CCP Decision Tree by the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene.
The Codex CCP decision tree involves answering a series of questions in order to identify critical control points (CCPs). This tool helps to systematically determine which steps in a process are most critical for food safety. By answering a series of questions, businesses can identify areas where food safety risks are highest and implement appropriate controls to minimise those risks.
To see what the new CCP decision tree looks like and the find out how to use this tool to correctly identify your CCPs register for our upcoming FREE training.
Food Fraud Summary
The latest Food Fraud Summary (May 2023) has been published via the European Commission. Cases of interest include:
Soft drinks with counterfeit labels of famous brands: Punjab Food Authority (PFA) unearthed a factory producing counterfeit carbonated drinks of different popular brands in the provincial metropolis and registered a case against the adulterators on account of adulteration and counterfeiting.
7,900 counterfeit soft drink bottles that were ready to be sold in market along with 12,000 empty bottles, two filling plants and loose colours along with hazardous chemicals were disposed by the Authority.
Expired powdered milk relabelled with new expiry dates: Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has recovered 1,511 bags of expired powdered milk worth over US$545,652 at a go-down in Nairobi, the country’s capital city. The consignment was suspected to be sneaked from a Mombasa-based godown, before being hauled to Nairobi secretly for repackaging, to be sold to unsuspecting members of the public.
Multiple cases of adulterated and misbranded products found in Brazil: The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) in Brazil have recently seized:
- 7.8 tons of beans and 14.5 tons of rice adulterated with soy and mislabelled as
products of higher quality - almost 8 950 litres of olive oil with irregularities on the labels and without traceability
documentation - 1.05 tons of coffee adulterated with impurities and unsafe material
Food Traceability Trends
The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has released a report commissioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that evaluates food traceability trends based on 90 submissions from teams that participated in FDA’s 2021 Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability Challenge.
IFT determined that the knowledge, means, and technology have been developed to make end-to-end tech-enabled traceability a reality, but it will not be realized without collective action and continued innovation among the diverse food industry community.
Our ‘Food Traceability – Principles and Implementation’ course can show you how to set up a traceability system in your food business.
Purity and quality of private labelled avocado oil
A recent study found that there are still issues with purity in avocado oil and these issues extend significantly into private label oils.
Out of 29 refined samples, only 3 met both quality and purity standards. 8 of them only met the current proposed purity standards. Out of 7 virgin/extra virgin samples, only 1 met both quality and purity standards and 3 met the current proposed purity standards.
It costs more to make 100% authentic avocado oil than 100% soybean oil or a mix of 50% avocado oil and 50% high oleic sunflower oil. Fraudulent suppliers could sell their products at a lower price than honest authentic avocado oil suppliers and still make more profit.
Upcoming Live Training
We have a few live virtual courses running in June that may interest you. Enjoy the benefits of small group training with access to a global food safety compliance specialist.
Food Issue 9 Conversion for Sites (BRCGS)
Wednesday 21st June, 2023
8.30am start (Australia, Sydney Time)
Internal Auditor – 2 Day (BRCGS)
Monday 26th + Tuesday 27th June, 2023
8.30am start (Australia, Sydney Time)
Food Issue 9 Conversion for Sites (BRCGS)
Wednesday 28th June, 2023
8.30am start (USA, Central Time)
CDC releases data on Foodborne Illness Outbreaks at Retail Food Establishments
A study of 800 foodborne illness outbreaks in the US found that norovirus and Salmonella were the most common pathogens, with ill or infectious food workers contributing to 40% of outbreaks with identified contributing factors.
While most establishments had policies for ill workers, many were missing components to reduce foodborne illness risk.
New Zealand loses fight with Australia over manuka honey trademark
New Zealand honey producers have lost their latest battle to trademark manuka honey, the latest blow in a years-long fight to stop Australian beekeepers using the lucrative name.
Manuka refers to a white flowered tree that grows in both New Zealand and Australia – although it is more widely known as “tea tree” in Australia. The bees that browse its tiny pale blooms produce a kind of honey known for antibacterial and supposed health properties – and which fetches a significant price markup on the international market as a result.
