More Inspections Won’t Stop Food Contamination

ASQ Quarterly Quality Report Finds Prevention is Key

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 19, 2007 – Eliminating outbreaks of foodborne illness is possible but it won’t happen by increasing inspections alone, say food safety experts in the latest Quarterly Quality Report from the American Society for Quality (ASQ), the world’s leading authority on quality improvement. The answer, the report finds, is in prevention.

“The problem is that we can’t inspect the defect out of the product,” says Steve Wilson, chief quality officer for the U.S. Commerce Department and ASQ board member. That’s because more than half of reported foodborne outbreaks cannot be attributed to any specific microorganism by current diagnostic methods, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “Since we each can’t have our own food tasters – like the medieval nobles did – our best option is to take more proactive steps in earlier stages of food production,” notes Wilson. Other experts agree.

Key trends are pushing the industry toward a more preventative approach to food safety, according to John Surak, a food safety consultant and member of ASQ’s Food, Drug and Cosmetic Division who works with major food manufacturers around the U.S.

“Consolidation of food processing to fewer plants with increased output has guaranteed that if you’re going to have a glitch, it’s going to be a big one,” says Surak. “More health-conscious consumers demanding ready-to-eat fresh fruits and veggies year-round also increase pressure for the industry to look at new ways to grow, harvest and process safe produce.”

Preventative Measures Needed

What preventative steps can the industry take to reduce risks? Participating in good quality practices is one solution, according to Janet Raddatz, vice president of quality and food safety systems at Sargento Foods. Sargento uses good manufacturing practices (GMP) and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point), a quality system that controls potential physical, chemical and microbial hazards in food production.

“We’ve voluntarily applied these systems because they make good sense, says Raddatz. “FDA isn’t requiring anyone to do it – we’re policing ourselves.”

ASQ’s quality report identifies other high-impact actions that experts say can make a major difference including:

1. Reinforce Maintenance Procedures. Constant reinforcement of personnel training and hygiene practices, cleaning sanitation and maintenance, effective recall programs, provisions for safe water supply and product handling are all essential.
2. Emphasize Consumer Education. Improper food handling at home and at retail food establishments accounts for more reported cases of foodborne illness than does failure at the processing level.
3. Strengthen Regulatory Agencies in High Risk Areas. In today’s world where deliberate contamination of food is a very real threat, it’s important for our nation’s regulatory agencies to increase protections against this type of potential disaster as well as accidental contamination.
4. Increased Diligence by Food Companies. The recent sickening of pets from toxic ingredients blended into pet foods was more a failure of corporate supplier quality programs than a failure of regulatory systems.
5. More effective inspection – not more inspection. Inspection resources are limited and need to be targeted where they are needed most. Food producers and processors – domestic and foreign – that don’t comply with federal standards and those dealing with higher-risk food should receive closer evaluation.

Please visit www.asq.org/quality-report/reports/200706.html to view the complete Quality Report.

Source – ASQ

IFT Quality Assurance Division Symposia at Annual Meeting

The IFT Quality Assurance Division will present the following symposia at the IFT annual meeting in Chicago July 29 – 31.

Session 113 – Taking the pulse of QA and food safety training: Improving the health of your programs

Employees are absolutely critical to ensuring the implementation of food safety and quality assurance programs. Effective training programs can improve compliance to and success of these programs and reduce employee turnover leading to improved productivity, reduced recalls, rework and error rates. Unfortunately in many companies, food safety and quality training programs may be a little anemic due to stretched personnel resources, limited funding, lack of awareness of best practices and time challenges. In addition to ensuring employees understand food products and complex processes, food safety/QA training programs must also support multiple languages and cultures reflecting today’s diverse workforce, effectively utilize new learning management tools and Internet technologies, and link training to key business metrics to demonstrate a return on investment. The challenge is also compounded because food scientists by education and profession, may have limited awareness of training processes and standards used by human resources professionals. In this symposium, speakers will share the latest information on strategic approaches for conducting QA/FS training assessments, best practices for adopting and rolling out innovative technologies company-wide, recommendations for linking training to performance programs, developing training that targets specific, critical job functions and the value of allowing employee groups to create their own annual quality and food safety training programs. Speakers will provide case studies of their employee training programs. The sessions will incorporate dynamic visual training elements and learning technology to demonstrate the value in conveying information. Attendees will participate and respond to questions with interactive learning devices. After the speakers present, the moderators will facilitate a 30-minute Q&A panel discussion to allow the attendees to gain in depth information.

 

 

Moderators: Sid Jhaveri, Starbucks Coffee Company, Seattle, WA
CJ Reynolds, Silliker, Homewood, IL

 

 

113-01/Monday, 2:05 p.m. – 2:20 p.m.–Assessing your plant’s QA and food safety training capabilities and programs–D. Morton: PepsiCo Beverages & Food

113-02/Monday, 2:20 p.m. – 2:35 p.m.–Putting training in employee’s hands: A low tech approach–M. Crawford: Jones Dairy Farm

113-03/Monday, 2:35 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.–Achieving profit and quality goals with effective, interactive training and documentation–L. Young: Petaluma Poultry

 

113-04/Monday, 2:50 p.m. – 3:05 p.m.–Trends in training: Insights from effective programs–C. J. Reynolds: Silliker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Session 158 – Taking safety and quality systems into the 21st century developing systematic thinking on how to do process audits

 

 

 

Defining and developing food safety and quality systems have become more formalized since the first HACCP programs. More sophisticated safety and quality requirements demand an informed three-part process which involves prerequisite programs, customer requirements and enabling management systems.

 

 

Moderators: Jeffery L Cawley, Northwest Analytical Inc.,
John G Surak, Clemson University, Clemson, SC

 

 

 

158-01/Tuesday, 8:35 a.m. – 9:05 a.m.–Prerequisite programs: The foundation of successful food safety systems–R. F. Stier: Consulting Food Scientists

 

158-02/Tuesday, 9:05 a.m. – 9:35 a.m.–Ensuring supply chain performance–J. G. Surak: Surak & Associates

 

158-03/Tuesday, 9:35 a.m. – 10:05 a.m.–Implementing next-generation food safety and quality management systems–J. Cawley: Northwest Analytical, Inc.

 

 

Making CAPA Effective: Getting to Root Cause

On June 13, 2007, John Surak presented the webinar – “Making CAPA Effective: Getting to the Root Cause” in conjunction with Qualtrax.

Webinar description –

Many times root cause analysis ends in putting a band aid on a system rather than eliminating a problem. This presentation describes a systematic process that first identifies the root cause of a problem and then develops a strategy that eliminates the cause.

Link to webinar recording – http://www.qualtrax.com/Webinars/CAPAWebiner_6-07.wmv