FOOD GENOMICS GOES GLOBAL WGS and Related Technologies Must Become More Widespread As the World’S Food Supply Gets More Interconnected

PLUS A Single Food Agency ■ New Efforts Against Listeria ■ How to Use Environmental Monitoring Data

Volume 25 Number 4 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2018

FOOD GENOMICS GOES GLOBAL WGS and related technologies must become more widespread as world’s food supply gets more interconnected

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Safety & Sanitation 27 24 The 8 ‘W’s Getting Value from Your of an EMP These ‘W’s help RTE facilities Environmental Monitoring Data address the fundamental

©FOTOFABRIKA - STOCK.ADOBE.COM ©FOTOFABRIKA Analyzing EMP data, rather than simply questions that every collecting and filing it, can provide actionable environmental monitoring program should results to improve food safety protocols be able to answer regarding Listeria control

BY TIMOTHY A. FREIER, PHD BY RUBY LEE, PHD

Food Quality & Safety (ISSN 1092-7514) is published 6 times a year in Feb/Mar, Apr/May, Jun/July, Aug/Sept, Oct/Nov, Dec/Jan by Wiley Subscription Services, Inc.,

B U I L D I N G O N a Wiley Company, 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774. Periodical postage paid at Hoboken, NJ, and additional mailing offices. Print subscriptions are free for qualified recipients. Annual paid subscriptions are available to all others for $206. For subscription questions in the U.S., call 844-862-9286. For outside the U.S., call 856-255-5537. Food Quality & Safety is a proud member of: United Fresh Produce Association APEX, Folio Ozzie, and ASBPE award winner for editorial and graphics excellence. YEARS OF - STOCK.ADOBE.COM COVER: ©AFRICA STUDIO / LEYASW POSTMASTER: Returns and address changes to Food Quality & Safety magazine, PO Box 986, Levittown PA 19055-0986 TRUST 7D I A 5 M O N D V For more information, visit www.diamondv.com June / July 2018 5 CONTENTS

(Continued from p. 5) Manufacturing & Pathogen Patrol 29 4 FOOD SAFETY TRAINING Distribution 14 LEANING ON LISTERIA CHALLENGES AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM 39 HPP: EVERYTHING OLD New efforts are striving to IS NEW AGAIN minimize the impacts of this Incorporating technology and relentless lurker innovative tools on the floor With its seeds planted in the go a long way toward building 1600s, high pressure processing BY LINDA L. LEAKE, MS a culture of food safety is one of the ‘coolest’ innovations taking food and beverage BY LAURA DUNN NELSON packaging by storm BY LINDA L. LEAKE, MS

Quality SOLUS SCIENTIFIC 32 CALIFORNIA COFFEE COULD BE EXEMPT FROM CANCER WARNINGS Did You Know? What recent Proposition ©UNIVERSAL PURE 65 developments mean for 44 A MAN, A WOMAN, coffee roasters and retailers 42 PACKAGING SMARTER AND A GLOBAL FOOD CHAIN BY MALCOLM WEISS, The value of smart machines is While many individuals have SHANNON OLDENBURG, AND being realized throughout the food helped lower costs and preserve ALEXANDRA HAMILTON industry as they address quality, quality, Malcom McLean and productivity, and security concerns Barbara Pratt deserve special BY STEVE MULDER mention for creative ways they 34 PROP. 65: WHAT IT IS reshaped and fostered the cold AND WHAT COMPANIES NEED chain TO DO BY CHUCK DINERSTEIN, Suppliers and retailers not actively MD, MBA, FACS working toward compliance risk Columns more than just a slap on the wrist BY RANDY FIELDS Washington Report 12 REVISITING THE SINGLE Departments FOOD AGENCY 8 FROM THE EDITORS 10 NEWS & NOTES 46 NEW PRODUCTS 48 ADVERTISER DIRECTORY 35 WHEN FOOD MEETS FAITH Meeting ingredient labeling 48 EVENTS Trump’s turn to consolidate criteria to ensure religious dietary 50 SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS compliance federal food safety activities to keep agencies from cracking BY JUDY SEBASTIAN under pressure BY TED AGRES Send your thoughts and comments to [email protected]. In The Lab 37 A VALUABLE TOOL FOR QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS More Content Available at www.FoodQualityandSafety.com: qNMR is an under-used technique • Track and Trace for Small Food • Eating Deep-Fat Fried Foods Without ©FONTRIEL - STOCK.ADOBE.COM that is becoming increasingly Manufacturers Gaining Weight? An Application Note popular due to its reputation for BY THOMAS R. CUTLER BY REZA TAHERGORABI, PHD making analysis easier • ERP Systems Are the Future for Raw • Choosing a Labeling Machine BY MICHAEL FREY, PHD, AND Material Transportation for Your Filling Line TAKAKO SUEMATSU, PHD BY MATT BROWN BY KRYS BEAL

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6 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com Copyright © 2018 PerkinElmer, Inc. 400381_02 All rights reserved. PerkinElmer® is a registered trademark of PerkinElmer, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more informationvisitwww.perkinelmer.com. These arethingswecanallsavor. contamination. Saferfoods,healthier consumers–andthrivingbrands: detecting riskstohumanandanimal healthfrom and for ensuringthequalityandauthenticityofyouringredients, have cometorelyon.Weoffertrusted,industry-leadingsolutions chain –andtoprotectnourishthefoodbrandsyourcustomers protect thequalityandensuresafetyofglobalfoodsupply Food nourishes,comforts,andsustainsus.Andit’suptoallofus to adulteration and adulteration and please shorten

PUBLISHER Lisa Dionne Lento, [email protected] SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Ken Potuznik, [email protected] From The Editors PROFESSIONAL EDITOR Marian Zboraj, [email protected] DESIGN Maria Ender, [email protected] PRODUCTION Claudia Vogel, [email protected] Jörg Stenger, [email protected] he food industry has one Elli Palzer, [email protected] specific mandate from CO-INDUSTRY EDITOR Purnendu C. Vasavada, PhD, government: to produce [email protected] CO-INDUSTRY EDITOR Richard Stier, [email protected] safe food. This is further Advertising Director Temphasized with FSMA and the Dan Nicholas regulations passed to enforce it. To 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030 help ensure the safety of food and (716) 587-2181, [email protected] that occasional slips are properly Sales Office U.S./Canada/International contained, the FDA implemented A |S|B|P|E Fostering B2B editorial excellence Ken Potuznik programs to (hopefully) prevent outbreaks from expanding and American Society 29822 N 51st Place, Cave Creek, AZ 85331 of Business (480) 419-1851 • fax (480) 718-7719 affecting more people. For example, the Reportable Food Reg- Publication Editors 2018 National [email protected] istry mandates that processors of foods/ingredients notify cus- PRINT Editorial Office Award Winner tomers within 24 hours if they have issues. The FDA guidance Revenue of 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, USA $3 million or under states, “…to report when there is a reasonable probability that Reprints: E-mail [email protected] the use of, or exposure to, an article of food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.” FDA also created a group called CORE, or the Coordinated Editorial Advisory Panel Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network. This operation is Ellen Bradley, CFS Vijay K. Juneja, PhD Principal Food Scientist, Lead Scientist, Predictive Microbiology made up of a Signals and Surveillance Team, three Response River City Food Group LLC for Food Safety, USDA-Agricultural Research Service Teams, and a Post Response Team. It’s the John N. Butts, PhD responsibility of the Response Teams to stop Founder and President, Hasmukh Patel, PhD FoodSafetyByDesign, LLC; Technical Director and R&D Fellow-- the outbreak. Advisor to CEO, Ingredient Solutions, Dairy Foods R&D, Land O’Frost Land O’Lakes, Inc. But what about quality? Quality is what Cliff Coles Manpreet Singh, PhD sells products. It is why people continue to President, Clifford M. Coles Professor, Dept. of Poultry Science, purchase one brand or one item. Not only Food Safety Consulting, Inc. University of Georgia

do processors have to ensure safety, their Virginia Deibel, PhD Shawn K. Stevens quality programs must also continue to Director of Microbiology, Eurofins Food Food Industry Attorney, Food Industry Integrity & Innovation Counsel, LLC maintain the quality parameters that Patricia A. Wester make consumers happy. Years ago, one of my pro- James Dickson, PhD CEO, The Association for Food Safety Professor, Department of Animal Science, Auditing Professionals, AFSAP fessors told the story of “Creeping Meatballism.” The allegorical Iowa State University Steven Wilson story describes how someone brought meatballs to a company Steven Gendel, PhD Director of Seafood Commerce and potluck. They were so good that the company decided to pro- Senior Director, Food Science, Certification, Office of International Affairs Food Chemicals Codex at USP and Seafood Inspection duce the product. Sales went through the roof, but then R&D and marketing said even though the product was successful, it was a bit expensive to make. So, they embarked on a cost reduction program. Over the years, the product was cost reduced by com- Printed in the United States by Dartmouth Printing, Hanover, NH. Copyright 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley Company. All rights reserved. No part paring the new version to the previous iteration of the product. of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except as permitted Within a few years, the new version had no relationship to the under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through the Copyright Clearance original gold standard, but there was no statistical difference Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923: (978) 750-8400: fax (978) 750-4470. between the evolving versions. Bottom line is, the product died. All materials published, including but not limited to original research, clinical notes, editorials, reviews, reports, letters, and book reviews represent the opinions and views of As an industry we must produce safe foods. Failure to do so the authors and do not reflect any official policy or medical opinion of the institutions with can damage a company (Chipotle and Peter Pan Peanut Butter) which the authors are affiliated or of the publisher unless this is clearly specified. Materials published herein are intended to further general scientific research, understanding, and or shut down a business (Peanut Corp. of America, Sunland, discussion only and are not intended and should not be relied upon as recommending or and Bon Vivant). But we must ensure food quality remains high promoting a specific method, diagnosis or treatment by physicians for any particular patient. While the editors and publisher believe that the specifications and usage of equipment and meets consumer expectation. The food industry relies on and devices as set forth herein are in accord with current recommendations and practice repeat sales so it must retain customers by meeting their needs. at the time of publication, they accept no legal responsibility for any errors or omissions, and make no warranty, express or implied, with respect to material contained herein. Publication of an advertisement or other discussions of products in this publication should not be construed as an endorsement of the products or the manufacturers’ claims. Readers Richard Stier are encouraged to contact the manufacturers with any questions about the features or Co-Industry Editor limitations of the products mentioned. © ALEXANDER LIMBACH - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

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FDA Updates Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance The U.S. FDA releases its Small Entity Com- Based off a new report from the FAO, OIE, pliance Guide (SECG) to help smaller food fa- and WHO, countries are stepping up to help cilities meet their registration requirements tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The under the FD&C Act. The FD&C Act requires report charts progress in 154 countries, but food facilities engaged in manufacturing/ reveals some discrepancies. While some processing, packing, or holding of food for European nations have been working on human or animal consumption in the U.S. AMR policies for humans and animal sec-

to register with the FDA. The SECG explains tors for over 40 years, others have only re- © FORBES CHOCOLATE what kinds of facilities must register, when, Forbes Chocolate Named Winner of cently taken action to contain this growing and how while also explaining the conse- 2018 Food Quality & Safety Award threat. Progress in developing and imple- quences to those who fail to register, when Food Quality & Safety magazine honors Ohio- menting plans is greater in high-income FDA can suspend a facility’s registration, based Forbes Chocolate, a provider of cocoa than low-income countries but all countries and the impact of a suspension order on a and flavor powders, with the 17th annual have scope for improvement. No place has facility. The SECG is in accordance with the Award. This prestigious honor recognizes the sustained capacity in all areas. The report Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fair- dedication and achievement of an organiza- looks at surveillance, education, monitor- ness Act. tion that has made significant improvements ing, and regulating consumption and use of FDA also launches the new Substances in its safety and quality assurance programs. antimicrobials. The most promising findings Added to Food inventory, an upgraded ver- The company places great emphasis on us- are in 105 countries that have surveillance sion of the original Everything Added to Food ing new technologies, updating equipment, systems to report drug-resistant infections, in the U. S. inventory. The new inventory in- and instilling ongoing employee training to and 68 countries with systems to detect cludes 4,000 substances while providing stay at the forefront of manufacturing. Its SQF consumption of antimicrobials. The report information on food and color additives and certification also underscores the company’s also highlights the animal and food sectors, prior-sanctioned substances. Other new development and implementation of strong where there is an urgent need for more in- features include a search function tool that food safety and quality management sys- vestment and action. For example, only 64 allows users to find out food ingredients and tems. For the complete story behind the suc- countries follow FAO-OIE-WHO recommen- packaging inventories, direct links to appli- cess of Forbes Chocolate, read the in-depth dations to limit the use of critically import- cable regulations for specific substances, profile scheduled to appear in the October/ ant antimicrobials for growth promotion in and additional information such as other November 2018 issue. animal production. known names, common uses, and information by other entities when available. It’s important to note that this inventory is only Business Briefs a partial list of food ingredients and the in- Agri-Neo and Red River Commodities firmation workflow solutions to the food ventory of information from non-FDA entities announce their partnership to use safety industry. does not include an FDA approval or evalua- Agri-Neo’s food safety solution, Neo- plans to look for a buyer for its tion of the usage. Pure, to treat seeds and grains. Bosch pharmaceuticals and food units of the In addition, FDA’s new Export Listing Mod- USDA FSIS awards 3M Food Safety a Packaging Technology division. ule (ELM) is an electronic portal for getting contract for pathogen detection instru- and processing requests from establishments and kits to detect Salmonella, Hypred, Anti-Germ, Medentech, LCB and adopt a custom ments that seek to be included on all export Listeria, and E. coli. Food Safety, G3 lists for FDA-regulated food products. For name, Kersia, and a common banner for secures financing from a shared mission: inventing a food safe certain exported food products, some for- Halter Airbnb, Facebook, Planet, SpaceX, Spotify, and world. eign food safety authorities require FDA to Rocket Lab to commercialize the compa- enters into an agreement with provide publicly available lists of exporters ny’s AI-powered “point and click” appli- Sealed Air to offer food packaging eligible to ship products to that country. This cation in combination with proprietary Kuraray America materials derived from its Plantic bio- expanded module improves FDA’s ability to “Cowgorithm,” letting farmers manage based resins. efficiently process establishments’ requests livestock globally. to be added to the lists, monitor listed com- Q Laboratories opens a new Bio-Rad Laboratories signs a co-mar- panies, and generate updates for foreign 30,000-sq.-ft. laboratory facility in Cin- keting agreement with Bruker to bring cinnati, Ohio. regulatory agencies. foodborne pathogen detection and con-

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Assembly launched aspecial into inquiry thescandal. Intheirfindings, lawmakers recom The AFDO 122nd Annual Education Conference recently wrapped up in South Burlington, Vt., A NewAFDOand Industry Vision the creation of 800jobs inanew“food safety police” to thefarm reporting minister. thing that has beenallowed by theEU. This could raise 270 million euros per year, and lead to He also suggested imposing afee onfood producers to finance state-run inspections, some more important than thecurrent ones,” said Gregory Besson-Moreau, head of thecommittee. by therules must suffer the consequences: criminal and financial sanctions that will bemuch mended tougher judicial and financial sanctions against food makers. “Those whodonot play registration link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J7P63LN. and public health. To become involved orlearn more, provide contact information via the forums to allow greater input toward continuously improving thesafety of thefood supply successful collaboration and innovation by establishing equal partnership at meetings and Common Purpose” extends beyond individual stakeholder interests; rather, it aims to drive alike inimproving public health and consumer services. The concept of “Partners with a a common purpose embraced and supported by bothgovernment regulators and industry food industry representatives. The “Partners with aCommon Purpose” initiative recognizes asserving aspringboard for anewinitiative, creating change through ashared vision with milk in France and around the world due to the outbreak. France’s National France Needs ‘Food Safety Police’ to Avoid NewLactalis Crisis world’s largest dairy group, had to recall more than 12million tins of baby As As milk factory last year that led to dozens of babies falling ill. Lactalis, the inated products to avoid a repeat of the point a“food safety police” and increase fines onthose who sell contam reported by Reuters, lawmakers inFrance say thecountry should ap Salmonella outbreak at a Lactalis August /2018 September 11 - - - - Washington Report

wide range, from “reorganizing statistical agencies” and “restructuring the postal Revisiting the service,” to “reforming the federal role in mortgage refinance.”

Single Food Fragmented Food Safety The OMB report notes the Government Agency Accountability Office (GAO), the investi- Trump’s turn to consolidate gative arm of Congress, has been urging reform of the nation’s fragmented food federal food safety activi- safety oversight system for more than 40 ties to keep agencies from years. According to GAO, food safety ef- cracking under pressure forts are currently performed by an inef- ficient patchwork of 16 separate federal BY TED AGRES government agencies, led by FDA and FSIS, which together administer at least 30 different laws relating to food safety and specific food commodities. Adding to the overall complexity, the federal system is supplemented by more than 3,000 states, localities, tribes and ollowing in a long and thus far fu- included in the “Delivering Government territories, many of which have their own tile tradition of attempting to con- Solutions in the 21st Century” report, is- laws and agencies to inspect facilities and solidate the federal government’s sued June 22, 2018. investigate and contain illness outbreaks. disparate food safety activities, The report represents findings of the GAO, in its most recent report on the Fthe Trump administration in late June pro- Office of Management and Budget (OMB), subject (January 2017), highlighted some posed merging the functions of FDA with which was tasked by President Trump in confounding examples: FSIS inspects USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service March 2017 to produce a comprehensive manufacturers of packaged open-face (FSIS). The resulting new Federal Food plan to reform and reorganize the gov- meat or poultry sandwiches (those made Safety Agency would be housed within ernment “to better meet the needs of the with one slice of bread) while FDA inspects USDA and, unlike the present bifurcated American people.” manufacturers of packaged closed-face system, would have oversight over virtu- “This reorganization plan is intended meat or poultry sandwiches (those made ally all the foods that Americans eat. to balance the mission, service, and stew- with two slices of bread). Calling the present system “illogical ardship responsibilities of the executive And consider pizza, the poster child and fragmented,” the Trump administra- branch, while reducing inefficiency, risk, for what’s wrong with this system: FDA tion argues that consolidating FSIS and the and duplication,” Margaret Weichert, OMB has primary responsibility for regulating food safety functions of FDA “would allow deputy director, told the House Oversight manufactured frozen pizzas made with for a better allocation of resources based and Government Reform Committee in cheese, but FSIS has primary responsibil- on risk, better communication during ill- June. The proposals, she explained, came ity for those made with meat or pepperoni. ness outbreaks, and improved policy and from the agencies themselves, from fed- Multiple other federal agencies play roles program planning through development of eral employees, academics, and interest in regulating other components of both a single strategic plan.” groups, and included more than 106,000 types of pizza. The new Federal Food Safety Agency comments from members of the public. Creating a new, separate food safety would serve as the central point for “A transformation of this size will agency “would reduce duplication of in- coordinating with state and local food take time and teamwork to implement,” spection at some food processing facili- safety stakeholders, thereby “rationaliz- Weichert noted. While some changes can ties, improve outreach to consumers and ing the simplifying the federal food safety be made directly by the federal agencies industry, and achieve savings over time regulatory regime,” according to the re- involved, other “more complex propos- while ensuring robust and coordinated organization plan, one of more than 30 als” will require action by the president or food safety oversight,” the OMB report

different government reform proposals Congress, she said. The proposals span a says. FDA, which would be stripped of ©FONTRIEL - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

12 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com most of its food responsibilities, would sibilities should reside in a single entity action and reconciliation of regulatory be renamed the Federal Drug Admin- or agency, with a unified administrative approaches, which the administration ac- istration, and focus on drugs, devices, structure, clear mandate, a dedicated bud- knowledged in its proposal,” Havens says. biologics, tobacco, dietary supplements, get, and full responsibility for the oversight “To be sure, several previous single and cosmetics. of the entire U.S. food supply,” the OMB re- food safety agency legislative proposals (Only days after release of the OMB’s port says. have been unsuccessful. However, given proposed reorganization, FDA Com- Not mentioned in the OMB report is the the uptick in foodborne illnesses and re- missioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, posted an Obama administration’s proposal in 2015 calls in recent years, perhaps Congress will update about E. coli in romaine lettuce, to remove food safety-related components view President Trump’s proposal more fa- which concluded: “Our food safety pro- from both FDA and FSIS and consolidate vorably than it did President Obama’s gram at the FDA has never been stronger, them into a single new agency that would plan,” Havens told Food Quality & Safety and we seek to strengthen it further still... remain within the Department of Health magazine. But he emphasized that he was Our agency has a long history of focusing and Human Services (HHS), which also not forecasting any particular outcome. on public health protection through our houses FDA, CDC, and other public health food safety efforts. Food safety is part of a agencies. (USDA is an independent agency Bolstering Collaboration culture of public health that’s integral to and not part of HHS.) At that time, the pro- But interagency cooperation is not at a our agency.”) posed agency would have had primary standstill. FDA and USDA in January is- The OMB report says USDA is “well- responsibility for food safety inspections, sued a formal agreement, in which the poised” to house the new Federal Food enforcement, applied research, and out- agencies pledged to “bolster coordination Safety Agency. The agency is a “strong break response and mitigation. and collaboration” to streamline regula- leader in food safety, having a thorough Nor does the OMB report mention tions and reduce inspection inefficien- understanding of food safety risks and congressional legislation that would have cies, particularly when both agencies issues all along the farm to fork contin- created a single food safety agency. These, have jurisdiction over a food producer, uum.” The Agricultural Research Service like other similar proposals, have gone such as a canned soup facility or pizza (ARS) spends about $112 million annually nowhere. While the single agency concept manufacturer. on in-house food safety research, and ARS makes theoretical sense, there has been a More substantively, in June the agen- scientists work with both FSIS and FDA to notable reluctance on the part of federal cies announced a collaborative effort to help develop research priorities and food officials and others to do much about it. streamline produce safety requirements safety practices. There are at least three reasons for this, for farmers by aligning USDA’s Harmo- USDA also has established relation- says Timothy D. Lytton, PhD, a law profes- nized Good Agricultural Practices Audit ships between state departments of ag- sor at Georgia State University. First, he Program with the requirements of FDA’s riculture, local farms, and processing fa- says, there are many Congressional com- FSMA Produce Safety Rule. The goal is to cilities, “and is thus keenly aware of food mittees that currently oversee federal ensure a better understanding of and com- safety issues at all levels,” the report adds. agencies that regulate food safety, and they pliance with safety standards by produce The proposed consolidation would are unlikely to support any reorganization farmers, and avoid duplication of inspec- merge approximately 5,000 full-time that would reduce their power. Second, tion efforts. equivalent (FTE) employees and $1.3 bil- industry associations are unlikely to sup- “I have been an advocate for a single lion from FDA with about 9,200 FTEs and port reorganization because “consolida- food safety agency for years,” says David $1 billion in resources in USDA. “In the tion threatens to reduce their access and Acheson, MD, former FDA associate com- long term, the administration expects this influence over agency decisions.” Third, missioner for foods and founder of The proposal would result in improvements in meaningful consolidation “would require Acheson Group. “The challenges and in- food safety outcomes, policy and program a complete overhaul of federal food safety efficiencies of having two separate depart- consistency, and more efficient use of tax- laws and regulations, a task of extraordi- ments overseeing food in the U.S. and the payer resources,” the report says. nary legal and political complexity,” Dr. need to streamline the regulations of FDA Lytton said in a recent analysis. and USDA are topics that tend to come up History of Reform Proposals Perhaps recognizing such challenges, in discussion every time a major rule or In 2007, GAO added federal oversight of the most recent GAO recommendations fo- standard is introduced,” he says. food safety to its list of government ar- cus on developing a national strategy for “And with the recent announcement eas “at high risk for fraud, waste, abuse, food safety oversight, which in turn, could from the agencies, it’s likely to arise again,” and mismanagement, or most in need of lead to a consensus on how to proceed. Dr. Acheson continues, “but this time it is transformation.” In addition to GAO’s rec- Indeed, such a change would require the regulatory bodies themselves which ommendations, consolidation proposals considerable time and effort, explains Jon- have taken positive action to streamline have been raised over the years through athan Havens, vice chair of the food and requirements,” he says, referring to the reports by the National Academy of Sci- beverage practice at Saul Ewing Arnstein & interagency produce safety agreement. ■ ences and other organizations. Lehr and former regulatory counsel at FDA. These groups “have recommended “Merging the food safety functions of FDA Agres is an award-winning writer based in Laurel, Md. Reach that the core federal food safety respon- and USDA would require Congressional him at [email protected].

August / September 22018018 13 Pathogen Patrol

mother may only show flu-like symptoms and may never even know that she was in- fected with the pathogen if she did not seek medical attention,” she points out. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling the incident in South Africa the largest Listeria outbreak that has ever been detected and is offering assistance in di- agnosing and monitoring the organism to any impacted governments as needs arise. “This Listeria outbreak has been the crisis that made South Africa, and pos- sibly the whole of Africa, realize the importance of food safety and foodborne diseases and the need to invest in improving the control of them,” says Peter Ben Embarek, PhD, WHO’s global food safety specialist. “South Africa has embarked on a deep reform of its food safety system including strengthening of its regulations, Leaning on Listeria standards, and food inspection activities.”

New efforts are striving to minimize U.S. Stats the impacts of this relentless lurker An estimated 1,600 people get listeriosis in the U.S. each year from L. monocyto- BY LINDA L. LEAKE, MS genes, resulting in some 1,500 hospital- izations and about 260 deaths, according t’s the worst documented liste- estimated 4,000 tons of food has been to the CDC. riosis outbreak in global his- recalled,” Dr. Anelich relates. “The recall In 2017, 158 cases associated with Liste- tory.” So says microbiologist has included not just polony, but also ria were reported to CDC. Lucia Anelich, PhD, principal many other products produced by Enter- Along with pregnant women and their “Iof Anelich Consulting, Pretoria, South Af- prise, as a precaution.” newborns, listeriosis is most likely to im- rica, of the devastating public health cri- Unbelievably, babies are the popula- pact adults aged 65 or older and people sis that has tallied a mindboggling 1,056 tion group most dramatically impacted with weakened immune systems. cases and 214 deaths as of July 4, 2018. by the polony listeriosis tragedy. Some 92 According to FoodSafety.gov, foods According to the South Africa De- babies have died in South Africa as a result particularly susceptible to Listeria con- partment of Health, the source of the of the outbreak. tamination include ready-to-eat deli meats outbreak that began in January 2017 has “Obviously, babies are not eating po- and hot dogs; refrigerated pâtés and meat been identified as a bologna-like sausage lony,” Dr. Anelich relates. “The transmis- spreads; unpasteurized (raw) milk and known as polony. The implicated product sion of Listeria monocytogenes occurs when dairy products; soft cheese made with containing the outbreak strain was traced a pregnant woman eats the contaminated unpasteurized milk, such as queso fresco, to Enterprise Foods in Polokwane. Enter- food and transmits the organism via her feta, brie, and camembert; refrigerated prise demonstrated the presence of the placenta to the unborn baby. This may re- smoked seafood; and raw sprouts. ST6 strain in its facilities, according to the sult in miscarriage, stillbirth, or preterm de- South African National Institute for Com- livery. Another potential outcome may be Minimizing Virulence municable Diseases. delivery on time, but then the baby could be Researchers at North Carolina State Uni- Not surprisingly, massive recalls have born with meningitis, pneumonia, or sep- versity (NCSU), Raleigh, have completed a been conducted across the country and ticaemia, from which they may succumb.” proof-of-concept study in which they iden- in neighboring countries that imported The pregnant mother is often not se- tified several compounds that may be ef-

those products from South Africa. “An riously affected, Dr. Anelich notes. “The fective in minimizing Listeria’s virulence. ©SGO / BSIP - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

14 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com In this case, the process started leading to the suppression of virulence. models to more accurately predict the risk with the key understanding that inhib- This is a completely new avenue, especially from Listeria. iting a particular enzyme of Listeria, for fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria.” To that end, SDSU food microbiology glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase professor Sanjeev Anand, PhD, and doc- (GalU), leads to rather dramatic modifica- More Robust Risk Assessment toral student Neha Neha, MS, are focusing tions of the bacterial cell surface, according To benefit the dairy processing industry, specifically on the recovery potential of any to Paul Orndorff, PhD, professor emeritus researchers in the South Dakota State Uni- Listeria cells injured in a variety of ways. of microbiology. versity (SDSU), Brookings, Dairy and Food “Our risk assessment models use both “From this point we determined that Science Department, in a cooperative ef- product matrix parameters and environ- these chemical modifications in turn ren- fort with a commercial ice cream and fro- mental considerations, such as storage dered Listeria much less virulent than it zen desserts manufacturer, are developing (Continued on p. 16) normally is, and thus less able to cause illness,” Dr. Orndorff says. The work was published in Molecular Informatics in March 2018. Dr. Orndorff and his collaborators in the NCSU Department of Chemistry, post- doctoral researcher Melaine Kuenemann, PhD, and Denis Fourches, PhD, an assistant professor of computational chemistry, G t e embraced the task of identifying potential G t compounds that could inhibit the function of GalU. Using computers and cheminfor- o matics methods, Dr. Fourches and Dr. Kuenemann characterized, analyzed, and Flies? Control! virtually screened more than 88,000 drug- like compounds using a technique called 3D molecular docking. All those computations, which were Flying insect based on the three-dimensional structure of the GalU protein and virtual rep- Control Equipment resentations of each compound, took several weeks to accomplish, Dr. Fourches mentions. “Through computer modeling, we prioritized 37 compounds predicted to bind the GalU active site and thus looked promising enough to be tested in vitro,” he relates. “Of the 37, three compounds showed good experimental activity and were deemed effective enough to warrant fromfro SScatter-free…catter fre further study. This is a great result, consid- …to Zappers ering we had no idea what type of chemical could actually bind the GalU pocket.” Moreover, all those compounds, commercial-grade quality for when it matters including the less active ones, yielded important information about how their chemical structures relate to their activity in inhibiting GalU’s function, Dr. Fourches notes. “We were able to derive several predictive structure-activity relationships based on those 37 compounds, and these relationships will help us design even more effective GalU inhibiting compounds,” he elaborates. “This study shows that one can (800) 966-8480 develop small molecules to shut down the activity of one specific bacterial enzyme, www.insect-o-cutor.com

August / September 2018 15 Pathogen Patrol

(Continued from p. 15) CERTUS FOOD SAFETY CERTUS SOLUS SCIENTIFIC CERTUS System offers same-shift swab-to-result. Listeria samples being loaded onto the Solus automated platform.

temperature, duration, pH, and water To address the issue of cross-contami- shift results. To start, the CERTUS System activity, in addition to the potential levels nation in the manufacturing environment, is focusing on environmental Listeria de- of cross-contamination from the environ- the next step is to determine how Listeria tection, according to John Coomes, com- ment,” Dr. Anand relates. builds up in the environment, what char- pany president. This is important, Dr. Anand says, acteristics make this possible and how it “The CERTUS System utilizes sur- because recent cases of Listeria in frozen resists cleanup. This phase of the study face-enhanced Raman spectroscopy foods that have resulted in recalls, ranging starts later in 2018, Neha notes. nanoparticle technology,” Coomes relates. from frozen vegetables to ice cream bars, “As part of its path to AOAC validation, have reinforced the need for better meth- New Lab Assay which is expected in August this year, the ods of gauging the risk of foodborne patho- On July 9, 2018, Solus Scientific, Mansfield, CERTUS System recently underwent an gen contamination in processing plants. U.K., launched commercial availability of intensive battery of performance-based “Listeria contamination has been re- Solus One Listeria, a new pathogen detec- tests proving detection of Listeria species cently traced to niches in the food process- tion system. at 104 colony forming units (CFUs) during ing environment that harbor the bacteria,” “Solus One Listeria is an assay offering a standard eight-hour work shift. Results he points out. “For example, Listeria con- next-day detection of Listeria species in also show that 1 CFU of Listeria monocy- tamination in one commercial ice cream environmental samples,” says Ray Wake- togenes can be detected in as little as 18 plant was traced to bacteria on the spout of field, CEO of Solus. “This assay provides hours from swab to result.” an ice cream freezer. This is not surprising, a negative or a presumptive positive result Coomes says tests demonstrate the since Listeria is a cold-loving microorgan- from a single enrichment step in less than CERTUS System’s ability to detect Listeria ism. Pasteurization and cooking kill this 25 hours.” in produce wash samples known to have organism, but the bacteria can grow at The whole process is a selective enrich- high bioburden. “With a range of matrices temperatures 40 degrees Fahrenheit and ment followed by an immunoassay, Wake- that include stainless steel, ceramic, plas- above in refrigerators and can even survive field explains. “If you break this down, the tic, and concrete sample sites, the CER- freezing.” enrichment incubation is 22 hours and the TUS system provides 98 percent accuracy, Neha says that, although injured Liste- immunoassay is 2 hours and 45 minutes, which is equivalent to other commercial ria cells are not known to cause illness, hence a total of 24 hours and 45 minutes,” pathogen detection systems that are much they may have the ability to recover and he elaborates. more complex, have longer prep times repair themselves. According to Wakefield, benefits of and require expensive laboratories and To better understand the risk from in- Solus One Listeria, which is AOAC cer- technicians,” he points out. “Moreover, jured cells, she looked at the organism’s tified, include a significant reduction of inclusivity and exclusivity test results have behavior in different types of ice cream technician hands-on time. “High sample demonstrated that all challenging strains mixes with total solid levels ranging from throughput can be achieved with a sin- of Listeria are accurately detected with the 36 percent to 45 percent. She spiked the gle instrument, giving the laboratory the CERTUS System, and interfering bacteria samples with three levels of a nonpatho- ability to cope with fluctuating sample are excluded from results.” ■ genic Listeria strain before pasteurization. volumes, and also improving capacity to “Results showed that injured Listeria grow,” Wakefield relates. Leake, doing business as Food Safety Ink, is a food safety consultant, registered SQF contract auditor (High Risk), and cells did not recover in the ice cream mix award-winning freelance journalist based in Wilmington, itself under the normal conditions of mix Same-Shift Listeria Results N.C. Reach her at [email protected]. handling,” she reports. “Studies are cur- Expected to be commercially available on rently underway to evaluate the influence Sept. 15, 2018 is a new in-house pathogen For extended coverage on Listeria, go of any handling abuse on the recovery po- testing system from CERTUS, Chicago, Ill., to the August/September 2018 issue on tential of injured cells.” that offers real-time detection and same- www.FoodQualityandSafety.com.

16 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com FQS_Hygiena Ad_MAR18.pdf 1 3/20/18 8:54 AM

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Global Leaders in Food Safety Testing FOOD GENOMICS GOES GLOBAL WGS and related technologies must become more widespread as the world’s food supply gets more interconnected

BY TED AGRES ©AFRICA STUDIO / LEYASW - STOCK.ADOBE.COM ©AFRICA STUDIO / LEYASW

18 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com dvancements in food genomics, particularly high-throughput or next-generation sequencing, are allowing scientists and regulators to detect and identify foodborne pathogens with unparal- leled speed and accuracy. By the end of this year, laboratories at FDA, USDA’s Food Safety and In- spection Service, and the CDC will rely almost exclusively on whole genomeA sequencing (WGS) as their main surveillance tool to differentiate strains of bacteria and identify related clusters of infections. But as the world’s food supply becomes increasingly inter- ©SERGUNT - STOCK.ADOBE.COM connected, there is also a growing recognition that WGS and related technologies must become more widespread, particularly in economically developing food-producing countries. The U.S., WGS can map the genetic for example, imports foods from about 200 different countries, sequence of pathogens and including 90 percent of our seafood and at least half of our fresh fruit, depending on the season. other organisms with such “This is why we’ve focused on developing and using ad- precision that researchers can vanced technologies and science to enhance our efforts in preventing food safety problems and improve our distinguish between differ- response time when incidents occur,” says FDA ent strains of a bacterium or Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD. “We need to invest even more in these efforts, and in even slight variations by the tools to track and trace contaminated geography within the food in the supply chain.” same strain. Today, high-throughput sequencing “has become progressively faster and cheaper, providing higher quality and longer and larger number of freely available through an open-source, cloud-based platform reads, resulting in better resolution called GalaxyTrakr. This new platform “provides a user-friendly and reproducibility,” says Behzad and cost-effective solution for industry and other partners to Imanian, PhD, research assistant address their bioinformatic needs,” says James Pettengill, professor at the Institute for Food PhD, a biostatistics and bioinformatics geneticist at CFSAN. Safety and Health (IFSH). Currently about 140 researchers in 42 locations worldwide are us- “The food industry is showing ing GalaxyTrakr, with 15 new users signing on each week. great interest in this technology and many of its members have already in- WGS BENEFITS vested in, experimented with, or even WGS can map the genetic sequence of pathogens and other or- implemented it in their research and devel- ganisms with such precision that researchers can distinguish opment procedures,” Dr. Imanian tells Food between different strains of a bacterium or even slight variations Quality & Safety magazine. by geography within the same strain. “Just as the Hubble tele- But expanding food genomics will require scope revealed previously unsuspected star clusters in the dark- overcoming numerous challenges, including cost, est areas of the sky, so public health surveillance using methods training, and data handling and storage. There are also with better resolution can identify clusters of infection that were unresolved legal, privacy, and technical standards issues, some previously missed,” says Robert Tauxe, MD, director of CDC’s Di- of which still persist in the U.S. Nevertheless, governments and vision of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. private researchers are working to expand WGS and related tech- Prior to WGS, scientists used tools such as polymerase chain nologies domestically and internationally. reaction (PCR) and pulsed-field electrophoresis (PFGE) to gen- “In the future, most likely a global WGS system will enable very otype microorganisms for diagnostic subtyping. In addition to specific and almost real-time identification of all microorganisms,” difficulties in standardization, “these pre-WGS techniques were says Jorgen Schlundt, PhD, steering committee head of Global Mi- often laborious and time consuming, required highly trained per- crobiological Identifier (GMI), a consortium of private scientists sonnel, and expensive equipment,” says David J. Lipman, MD, and clinicians from more than 40 countries. GMI advocates for a former director of the National Center for Biotechnology Informa- worldwide, interconnected platform of genomic databases to cre- tion (NCBI) at the National Institutes of Health. “WGS overcomes ate “one harmonized and revolutionary tool supportive of interna- many of these old problems.” tional health regulations and global public health.” In PulseNet, the CDC-run network that connects public Researchers at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nu- health and food regulatory agency laboratories nationwide, WGS

August / September 2018 19 COVER STORY: FOOD GENOMICS GOES GLOBAL

certified, Dr. Carleton said. “By the end of 2018, we anticipate that WGS will be the main PulseNet surveillance tool for detecting dispersed outbreaks caused by Listeria monocytogenes, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and Salmonella,” Dr. Tauxe said. Further, the analytic methods have been harmonized with those used in FDA’s GenomeTrakr food testing network, Dr. Tauxe added. GenomeTrakr currently contains more than 200,000 pathogen genome entries in its open-source portal, housed at NIH’s NCBI, with more than 5,000 isolates being sequenced and added monthly. FDA is currently working to expand GenomeTrakr’s dis- tributed network of laboratories internationally and make its reference database more widely available in other countries. Other current food genomics efforts include characterizing pathogens from CIDTs using metagenomics (cataloging all the species in an environmental sample) and using rapid WGS plat- The World Health Organization forms to mine pathogen adaptations that directly contribute to preventive controls requirements for industry. “Taken together, and other international groups it is apparent that the role for WGS in microbiological food safety have been encouraging wide continues to grow as it integrates more and more into pathogen adoption of WGS technology analytic workflow,” says Eric Brown, PhD, director of FDA’s Di- to help manage infectious vision of Food Microbiology. diseases, including food- WGS LIMITS AND CHALLENGES The extent to which WGS and similar technologies will truly mit- borne ailments. igate foodborne illnesses remains to be seen. As the ability to identify outbreaks has improved due to new technologies, “par- adoxically, the number of outbreaks may increase since we are now able to identify problems that had previously been invisible (Continued from p. 19) to us,” Dr. Gottlieb said in a recent statement. this year has replaced PFGE as the primary method for detecting Indeed, improvements in pathogen and risk detection tech- and investigating Listeria outbreaks. In the coming months, WGS nologies are partially responsible for the more than doubling in will also be used for Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter, says the number of food recalls during 2004-08 compared to 2009- Heather A. Carleton, PhD, leader of the bioinformatics team at 13, according to an April 2018 report from USDA’s Economic CDC’s Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch. Research Service. As CDC’s Dr. Tauxe puts it, as WGS matures, Partially driving this change are the local and state clinical “more dispersed outbreaks will be detected and investigated, labs that increasingly supply data to PulseNet from culture-in- and that on average, each will involve fewer cases.” dependent diagnostic tests (CIDTs), such as immunoassays and But improvements in WGS and genetic testing are not sub- nucleic-acid amplified tests. While CIDTs are cheaper, faster, and stitutes for traceability, as illustrated by this year’s E. coli out- easier to use than WGS to detect bacteria in sick patients, they break linked to romaine lettuce. Researchers used WGS to link are unable to determine the DNA subtype (“fingerprint”) or other the strain of E. coli O157:H7 that sickened at least 210 people and characteristics necessary for PulseNet to detect outbreaks, track killed five in 36 states to lettuce from the Yuma Valley region of antibiotic resistance, or monitor disease trends. Arizona. The bacterium, however, was never actually found on Because of this, “PulseNet is preparing for a future without lettuce in fields or in commerce. Indeed, only after the outbreak isolate culture,” Dr. Carleton told an IFSH symposium on food was declared over in late June did Dr. Gottlieb announce that safety and high-throughput sequencing in May. First, research- canal water used for irrigation appears to have been the source ers will employ a technique called core genome multilocus se- of contamination. How E. coli got in the water remains a mystery. quence typing, which can determine a bacterial isolate from the “The genetics does not help in determining the source, or internal fragments of a small number of “housekeeping” genes. which field it came from, or when it happened. That requires Second, they will use shotgun sequencing to identify and subtype old-fashioned traceability and epidemiology,” says David both known and unrecognized pathogens. “The latter approach Acheson, MD, former FDA associate commissioner for foods. will leapfrog pathogen discovery and likely the identification of “If you don’t have the bacteria on the commodity, the genetics known and novel pathogens causing outbreaks of unknown eti- doesn’t help you,” he tells Food Quality & Safety. ology,” Dr. Carleton explained. Also mystifying is that the contamination went totally unde- The U.S. government has also been upgrading public health tected. “Given the amount of testing that occurs in the industry, laboratories that contribute data to PulseNet by equipping facil- both pre-harvest and throughout the supply chain, how could ities with WGS equipment and training personnel. So far, more something have such a wide public health impact but not have than 100 scientists in 46 states have been PulseNet trained and (Continued on p. 22) ©ALEXANDER RATHS - STOCK.ADOBE.COM ©ALEXANDER RATHS

20 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com Wiley Food Technology

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GLOBAL CHEESEMAKING TECHNOLOGY CHEESE QUALITY AND CHARACTERISTICS

EDITED BY PHOTIS PAPADEMAS THOMAS BINTSIS 18-327706 www.wiley.com COVER STORY: FOOD GENOMICS GOES GLOBAL

An additional limiting factor is the cost of culturing microbial samples. “This will need to be orders of magnitude less than today’s per-sample cost to be usable at the scale of current routine testing,” Dr. Beck says. But as costs decline, this will become less of an issue and “will further enable technologies, such as culture-free sequencing of food microbiomes for hazard detection.” Another challenge to adoption lies in data sharing—who can access potentially sensitive information derived from WGS, including information on virulence factors and antibiotic resistance. “How will these data be used and interpreted, and who will have access?” asks Claudia Narvaez, PhD, professor of food safety at the University of Manitoba. “And how will regulatory agencies inter- pret the findings, and how could this affect current regulations?” While policymakers and regulators wrestle with these issues, Another challenge to adoption researchers and equipment manufacturers continue to make ad- vancements in genomics instrumentation. For example, research- lies in data sharing— ers at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety have devel- who can access potentially oped a portable device that can shorten pathogen sequencing time sensitive information derived from one or two days to one or two hours. Instead of culturing the sample, which can take 24-48 hours, the USB drive-sized device from WGS, including uses tiny magnetic beads coated with antibodies to separate patho- information on virulence gen DNA from the sample. It then amplifies the DNA and sequences it in real time. factors and antibiotic In another example, researchers at Pittsburgh State University resistance. have created hybrid nanosensors composed of special iron oxide particles blended with optical dye, plus antibodies that specifically latch onto E. coli O157:H7 cells. By combining magnetic resonance imaging technology with fluorescence emission, they can quickly (Continued from p. 20) detect the pathogen in fluids, such as milk or lake water. been detected through testing?” asks Jennifer McEntire, PhD, vice Even PCR technology, long a mainstay of food industry test- president for food safety and technology at the United Fresh Pro- ing, is being upgraded. Bio-Rad Laboratories’ Droplet Digital PCR duce Association. (ddPCR) technology allows for sample partitioning. “In traditional “In the quest for more rapid tests that often have shorter en- PCR, a single measurement is performed on a single sample. In richment times, are we limiting our ability to detect microorgan- ddPCR, a single sample is partitioned into thousands of nanosized isms? I don’t know, but I feel like the question needs to be asked,” droplets, allowing thousands of independent, single amplification Dr. McEntire tells Food Quality & Safety. events within that sample,” explains Mike Clark, the company’s international PCR group manager. This can help determine whether WGS GOING GLOBAL a single E. coli cell contains the virulence genes making it patho- The World Health Organization and other international groups genic or if those genes are just present in different cells within a have been encouraging wide adoption of WGS technology to help food sample. manage infectious diseases, including foodborne ailments. While Advances are also occurring in metagenomics and food micro- industrialized countries are using WGS for food safety manage- biome sequencing. “From sequence data of a single microbiome ment, its application in developing and transitional countries sample, you are provided with pathogen information, a microbial has been limited. According to a 2016 report by the United Na- community snapshot, antimicrobial resistance, and host/food tions Food and Agriculture Organization, barriers include cost, matrix composition,” explains IBM’s Dr. Beck. “When you com- data storage, infrastructure requirements (such as high-speed pare multiple microbiomes, you are able to observe deviations in Internet), legal issues, data ownership, sharing, and intellectual your supply chain that can indicate a hazard before it is allowed property rights, and sustainability. to become an issue.” Several of these issues are not unique to developing countries, Expanding this concept, FDA’s One Health framework “holds and present challenges to the U.S. and other developed nations. that a connection exists between the environment and animal “Food producers, researchers, and regulators are each affected and human health,” says Eric Stevens, PhD, an FDA staff fellow. by the current absence in standards around laboratory prepara- One Health encourages the sharing of WGS data across the vari- tion and bioinformatics methods,” explains Kristen Beck, PhD, ous sectors related to food. “WGS can be used within supply chain technical lead for the Consortium for Sequencing the Food Sup- management that could identify problem areas on the farm to fork ply Chain and a research staff member at IBM Research-Almaden. continuum,” Dr. Stevens told the IFSH symposium. ■ “This makes standardization and comparative analysis very challenging,” she tells Food Quality & Safety. Agres is an award-winning writer based in Laurel, Md. Reach him at [email protected]. ©MATEJ KASTELIC - STOCK.ADOBE.COM ©MATEJ

22 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com Congratulations! Forbes Chocolate Named Winner of the 2018 Food Quality & Safety Award Check out the October/November 2018 issue for the complete story behind the company’s success 18 - 43880218 SafetyENVIRONMENTAL & Sanitation CONTROL

counts are trending upward or when there is a sharp spike in counts from the estab- Getting Value lished baseline data, indicating a potential problem. from Your Environmental In contrast, most pathogen EMPs are based on qualitative testing. In other Monitoring Data words, results are reported as either positive or negative. One of the limitations of Analyzing EMP data, rather than simply collecting and filing it, this type of testing is that it is unknown can provide actionable results to improve food safety protocols whether there was a single cell present on BY TIMOTHY A. FREIER, PHD the sample, or if there were thousands, as both can result in a positive result. Figure 1. Environmental sampling zones. Getting Complicated EMPs have gotten much bigger and more complicated, often testing for multiple pathogens in multiple areas of a facility. For example, in the early days of Liste- ria EMPs, many programs sampled only drains in the ready-to-eat (RTE) area. If a drain was positive, it was re-sanitized and re-tested. Today, it is not uncommon for a food or pet food manufacturing facility to test for quantitative indicator groups at pre-op to verify the effectiveness of sanitation (mainly on product contact surfaces), and also test for specific pathogens in multiple sampling zones (see Figure 1) and in multiple hygienic zones of the facility (see Figure 2). This increasing complexity of EMPs also means that the data evaluation becomes more complex. In addition to these complexities, EMP data can come from several different types of testing. Routine monitoring is the backbone of most programs. It is the n the past 25 years, there has been a generate data that can be used to improve daily, weekly, or monthly testing that is great evolution in the food and feed food safety protocols. conducted in a relatively steady manner to manufacturing industries, from a re- Most EMPs that look for broad indi- verify the efficacy of multiple prerequisite liance on finished product testing, to cator groups are quantitative. With ATP programs, such as sanitation, employee Iintensive environmental monitoring pro- testing, most detection platforms provide practices, hygienic design, and hygienic grams (EMPs). These programs can take quantitative data in the form of relative zoning. Quarterly sampling is not recom- many forms, ranging from very generic light units. If using aerobic plate count mended since the time between testing is indicator monitoring (testing for ATP or data, this too is quantitative, yielding too great should a positive be found and aerobic plate counts), to specific pathogen counts typically reported as colony form- a corrective action implemented. If the EMPs, with the most common being Liste- ing units per sample. Other quantitative routine monitoring indicates that there is ria spp. and Salmonella—organisms that indicator groups used in EMPs include a problem, another form of testing kicks in, are uniquely qualified to take up residence yeast and mold, coliforms, and Entero- the investigational sampling. This testing in food manufacturing plants. While these bacterieacea. Over time, statistical process is conducted to try to find the root cause or

programs can look very different, they all controls can be used to determine when origination of the contamination. Investi- MÉRIEUX NUTRISCIENCES

24 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com gations can be completed with just a few Figure 2. Hygienic zone sampling example. samples, but more realistically, hundreds or thousands of samples may need to be processed to solve a pathogen contamination issue. Another type of testing that can generate valuable data is special cause sampling. This includes the “extra” testing that is done to help verify control during unusual events, such as construction projects, inclement weather, power inter- ruptions, or even periods of unusually high production volumes.

Testing Positive It is now nearly universally acknowledged that a good EMP will sometimes generate positive results and should be viewed as a win/win situation. Most regulators and auditors understand this, and the focus of

viewpoints in the investigation, often ex- mentation to help illuminate past issues, Being able to visualize perts from production, sanitation, quality investigations, and corrective actions can assurance, maintenance, engineering, or be important to prevent history from re- which sites have been any other areas that might contribute to the peating itself. sampled and which have investigation. This team should interview Every environmental positive is not tested positive or negative other employees and check records to de- created equal. The reaction to a positive in termine if any unusual events happened a Zone 3 drain, far away from exposed RTE is extremely valuable before or during the contamination event. product will be much different from the rein helping to solve contam- For example, were there any unusual mois- action to a Zone 1 product contact positive. ination issues and contin- ture events, such as a roof leak, power fail- The EMP team needs to have a system that ure, construction, formulation or process knows when to initiate and escalate the uously improve the EMP. change, etc.? Answering these types of investigation and corrective action activ- questions often leads to multiple theories ities commensurate with the risk implied that need to be followed up with additional by the positive sample finding(s). Being their attention often becomes the appro- testing and fact finding. able to visualize a series of positives in re- priateness of the investigation and the cor- As EMPs began to mature, many lation to the physical layout of the facility, rective actions. This is where a good data groups found that mapping is a critical process flow, and employee activities can management system is especially critical. part of data management. Being able to greatly aid in informing the direction of The first important component of an in- visualize which sites have been sampled the investigation and corrective actions vestigation is understanding what should and which have tested positive or negative and help keep the pathogen out of the fin- trigger an investigation. With a quantita- is extremely valuable in helping to solve ished product. The concept of “seek and tive program, it may be triggered when a contamination issues and continuously destroy” means that the EMP teams seek gradual but real increase in counts has improve the EMP. Mapping can range from out the target in the most likely places, occurred or when a spike above the usual a simple drawing pinned on the wall with sampling areas that are difficult to clean background level occurs. For a qualitative multiple Magic Markers to indicate positive and sanitize (and therefore also difficult pathogen EMP, the trigger may be a single and negative findings, to sophisticated to reach for sampling). This often involves positive on a Zone 1 site (direct product computer programs (see Figure 3). A map very complete and careful disassembly of contact), or a repeat positive in this same will typically show two dimensions, but it complex equipment while sampling each area. It could also be a general increase in is also important to somehow capture the part. Then the team destroys the target or- the number of positives in an area or zone. dimension of time. Being able to look back ganism or growth niche by seeking the root Once an investigation has been trig- over a year’s worth of data to see if certain cause, implementing a permanent fix, and gered, a multidisciplinary team (probably areas or related practices are linked to a then verifying that the issue truly has been the same team that devised the routine higher occurrence of positives can help permanently eradicated. monitoring program) should meet and pinpoint problems. It is also important Sharing EMP data between similar discuss what is known and what is un- to have historical references. Many facil- facilities has played an important role known about the issue. This team should ities unfortunately have high turnover of in helping facilities improve their EMPs.

MÉRIEUX NUTRISCIENCES include members who can inject critical personnel. Having maps and other docu- (Continued on p. 26)

August / September 22018018 25 Safety & Sanitation Environmental Control

(Continued from p. 25) Figure 3. Screenshot mapping example from EnviroMap software. Some of the earliest data sharing efforts were between facilities owned by the same company. It then expanded to supplier groups, meeting at a common customer, and then various trade associations. Un- derstanding where similar facilities have found environmental pathogen problem areas have allowed EMPs to greatly accel- erate their effectiveness. Another important tool in environmental pathogen investigations is the use of strain tracking. One of the earliest examples of strain tracking was the use of serogroup or serotype data to track individual strains of Salmonella. Today we

further investigation, it is found that there sanitation systems, or access points that is moisture from rain events that is enter- can be reached without the use of special During investigations ing the trash compactor, causing growth tools, has also led to great improvements. and corrective actions, of Salmonella. Steps in improving this sit- In addition to equipment, the facility itself it has often been uation include, better staging of garbage, can be improved through better hygienic found that the process having special footwear dedicated to the zoning, air flow changes, and the preven- area, and applying a dry floor sanitizer tion of moisture or pests, etc. flow has contributed to powder. A more permanent fix can then Results of EMPs have also led to a contamination issue. be worked on, going to the root cause, changes in products being produced. and fixing the problem with the ingress of Changing products at high risk for envi- moisture into the area. ronmental pathogen issues to those at Sanitation is another key prerequi- low risk can be the most bulletproof way can differentiate to an even higher de- site program that can be improved based to reduce the overall public health risk. For gree using methods such as ribotyping or on the results of EMPs. If elevated levels example, the reformulation of RTE meat whole genome sequencing to differentiate of indicators are found during pre-op and poultry products with listeriostatic between closely related targets. The ability sampling, the sanitation practices can antimicrobials, such as lactate and diac- to determine whether a facility has a house be changed to fix the problem. Examples etate, has moved many of these products pet (an environmental pathogen that is include retraining of personnel, chang- into a lower risk status by preventing the well-adapted to the facility conditions and ing types or concentrations of detergents growth of Listeria during shelf life. is isolated routinely and over long periods or sanitizers, modifying water conditions Finally, the EMP itself can be improved of time) or house pests (transient strains (hardness), changing water pressure or based on the EMP results. In fact, EMPs that are introduced from outside the fa- temperature, or increasing the frequency should always evolve as our knowledge cility and are then eliminated) can be key. of sanitation. These same changes can also about the pathogen, product, process, Regulators that find repeat occurrences of be implemented in response to finding and facility evolve. When an EMP, pro- a house pet may determine that the facility pathogens in a pathogen EMP. cess, product, or facility is new, the EMP is operating under insanitary conditions, Hygienic design improvements can be needs to be rather extensive because the with very serious consequences to continu- made (and the capital expense justified) EMP team will be exploring, looking for ing operation of that facility. Many compa- by the EMP results. Equipment design has where potential problem areas might be. nies are incorporating strain tracking into been greatly improved as industries have With the collection of months’ or years’ their EMPs to understand persistence and identified growth niches or harborage worth of data, the EMP can be fine-tuned, better protect public health. points within equipment. Elimination of moving from reactionary to preventive. difficult-to-clean areas, such as hollow Often this means that individual samples Improving Protocols support structures, hollow conveyor roll- can be better optimized to give the most During investigations and corrective ac- ers, door gasket material, conduits, poorly value. Positives should become very rare, tions, it has often been found that the sealed control panels, etc., have helped and when found, they are welcomed as a process flow has contributed to a contam- eliminate environmental pathogen prob- way to improve the system. ■ ination issue. For example, mapping may lems, and have secondary benefits, such Dr. Freier is vice president for scientific affairs, microbi- indicate that a higher level of Salmonella as reduced spoilage issues and more effi- ology, at Mérieux NutriSciences and has published several refereed journal articles, book chapters, and patents, and positives has been found on the floor in the cient cleaning and sanitation. Designing given numerous presentations on various food safety-related

hallway leading to a trash compactor. After equipment with integrated clean-in-place topics. Reach him at [email protected]. MÉRIEUX NUTRISCIENCES

26 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com SAFETY & SANITATION ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING

Samples should be taken several hours into The 8 ‘W’s production or preferably just prior to cleanup, of an EMP which allows time for These ‘W’s help RTE facilities L. monocytogenes address the fundamental (if present) in harborage questions that every environ sites to contaminate mental monitoring program the sampling sites. should be able to answer regarding Listeria control mental pathogens can be introduced into BY RUBY LEE, PHD the processing environment. During routine sampling, it is recommended to sample and test at least 10 FCS and 10 NFCS per RTE line in a larger food plant. Within a defined period of time, all sites in the master list are sampled and tested.

When Samples should be taken several hours into production (e.g. three to four hours) or preferably just prior to cleanup, which allows time for L. monocytogenes (if present) in harborage sites to contaminate the sampling sites. Frequency should be based eady-to-eat (RTE) food safety plementation relies on the senior manage- on risk, regulation, and industry best prac- recalls and outbreaks due to ment team. This team commits to nurture tices. According to FDA’s draft guidance for product contamination of Liste- food safety culture so the EMP is not the “Control of Listeria monocytogenes in RTE ria monocytogenes from the flavor of the month to pass an audit. Foods,” higher risk products do not receive Renvironment are devastating to affected a listericidal treatment to adequately re- consumers and their families, the origi- Which duce L. monocytogenes, are not formulated nating food plants, and the food industry. Listeria spp. is the most suitable indica- to prevent the growth of L. monocytogenes RTE food plants must develop a risk-based tor and includes psychrotrophic Listeria or be lethal to L. monocytogenes, and are environmental monitoring program (EMP) monocytogenes with relatively low in- handled extensively after the pathogen that covers the eight “W”s: why, who, fective dose to cause listeriosis but with reduction step and prior to packaging. which, where, when, what, what if, and relatively high mortality rate in high-risk They also do not receive a listericidal con- what’s going on. populations (e.g. young, old, pregnant trol measure in the package, support the woman, and immunocompromised pa- growth of L. monocytogenes under normal Why tients). For low water activity foods, En- storage conditions, and have a relatively The goals of an EMP are to verify the effec- terobacteriaceae and Salmonella spp. are longer refrigerated shelf life. During rou- tiveness of Listeria control and to seek and the target indicators. tine sampling, high-risk RTE lines should destroy the pathogen and harborage sites be tested weekly on a random production (if present) for regulatory compliance (e.g. Where day. Low-risk RTE lines can be tested at a FDA Food Safety Modernization Act), recall A master list is required to document Zone lower frequency. prevention, audit readiness (e.g. Global 1 food contact surfaces (FCS), Zone 2 non- Food Safety Initiative), brand protection, food contact surfaces (NFCS) in close prox- What and customer and consumer satisfaction. imity to FCS, Zone 3 more remote NFCS An approved sampling and testing method that are in or near the processing areas and with proper application needs to be fol- Who could lead to contamination of Zones 1 and lowed by an accredited laboratory (e.g. the Although the food safety team develops 2, and Zone 4 NFCS in remote areas outside FDA’s 2015 “Testing Methodology for Liste-

©FOTOFABRIKA - STOCK.ADOBE.COM ©FOTOFABRIKA and implements an EMP, successful im- of the processing area from which environ- (Continued on p. 28)

August / September 22018018 27 Safety & Sanitation Environmental Monitoring

(Continued from p. 27) Trend analysis is con- Development of growth niches is fa- ria species or L. monocytogenes in Envi- cilitated by equipment design problems ronmental Samples”). A 1 foot x 1 foot area ducted to review the (e.g. slicing equipment or hollow areas should be sampled if applicable. Proper past, take actions today, of equipment) and unsatisfactory oper- neutralizing buffer (e.g. D/E neutralizing and improve the future. ational conditions (e.g. food debris gets broth) should be used to neutralize resid- into difficult-to-clean locations, mid-shift ual sanitizer on the sponge, if applicable, cleanup, and high-pressure cleaning). to prevent false negative results. If growth niches are not designed out of increasing in overall percentage, and/ the process, they should be controlled by What If or moving from NFCS to FCS. Statistical minimizing their contamination potential. A finding ofListeria spp. in the RTE pro- methods (e.g. Pareto analysis) should be The best plants validate the sanitation cessing environment should trigger cor- applied in trend analysis and root cause standard operating procedures to prevent rective actions such as intensified cleaning analysis. Management review should be biofilm formation in the growth niches. and sanitizing, intensified sampling and performed regularly to assess the preva- Tools for biofilm detection should be used testing, comprehensive investigation and lence of Listeria spp., identify their fluctu- during pre-operation to verify sanitation root cause analysis, “hold and test” pro- ations over time (especially at sites with efficacy, and during and after investiga- cedures, and preventative measures. Cor- sporadic positives that may have gone tion to verify corrective actions. There are rective actions should be risk-based (e.g. unnoticed previously), detect trends, and two steps in S&D. Firstly, the team dis- NFCS versus FCS, low- versus high-risk verify corrective actions. assembles equipment to a routine daily line, routine versus intensified sampling In terms of improving from average to sanitation level, inspects the disassem- phase, and isolated versus persistent find- best, the average plants file the laboratory bled equipment for organic buildup and ings) in reference to regulatory policy and reports after reviewing. The good plants growth niches, conducts microbiological industry best practices. Advances in mo- summarize Listeria findings in a table with tests if growth niches are identified, and lecular technology tools (e.g. ribotyping when and where they occurred. The better evaluates the sanitation method during and whole genome sequencing) facilitate plants assemble a multidisciplinary team pre-operation. Secondly, the team repeats definitive root cause analysis. to take actions. Some better facilities col- step one on the completely disassembled or-code routine, intensified, and investiga- equipment. What’s Going On tive vector Listeria findings on plant sche- Are you ready to use the eight “W”s Trend analysis is conducted to review the matics with areas, zones, and equipment, to improve your risk-based EMP from past, take actions today, and improve the and overlay these with transparent flow average to good, better, or best RTE food future. Trend analysis is conducted to ver- diagrams (e.g. people flow, product flow, plant status for regulatory compliance, ify Listeria control via time and/or spatial and drainage flow). The best plants go one recall prevention, audit readiness, brand patterns by observing if Listeria findings step further by taking a science-based and protection, and customer and consumer are increasing in particular sites or areas, systematic seek and destroy (S&D) ap- satisfaction? ■ increasing in the same area on multiple proach to identify, control, and eliminate Dr. Lee is a senior microbiologist and senior food safety but non-consecutive sampling occasions, Listeria growth niches proactively. specialist at NSF International. Reach her at [email protected].

28 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com SAFETY & SANITATION TRAINING

tas and tight schedules often leave safety managers and floor supervisors competing for employees’ time. The most effective onboarding programs are short and engaging, relatable, and include knowledge checks at every step to assess comprehension. However, according to a phenomenon called the “forgetting curve,” even the most compelling onboarding training can be forgot- ten—up to 80 percent—if that training isn’t continuously reinforced. Building quick three- to five-minute “refreshers” into daily operations that complement training can reinforce and keep material fresh. It can be difficult to squeeze in refreshers amid busy schedules. Luckily, the research is in our favor. Studies show the most effective refresher training is short 4 Food Safety Training and interactive. Rather than hour-long sessions, five-minute sessions punctuated Challenges and How to with questions that prompt understanding and retention are more effective. Adult Overcome Them learning experts agree on the importance of recognizing a tenured employee’s level Incorporating technology and innovative tools on the floor of knowledge by using brief refreshers as go a long way toward building a culture of food safety opposed to sitting through the same training as a new employee year after year. BY LAURA DUNN NELSON These short learning “bursts” take less time and fewer resources, so production ood manufacturers face several Safety Training Survey is an annual study can remain humming while employees challenges when it comes to train- and comprehensive industry benchmark- learn and re-learn on the job. Strategi- ing their frontline workforces. ing tool that determines the efficacy of food cally placing communications tools in Inherent struggles include heavy safety training programs across the globe. high-traffic areas, like posters and video, Fturnover, a dearth of skilled workers, high More than 1,400 food safety profession- also helps employees internalize concepts production quotas, tight timelines, and als in more than 20 food industry sectors through repetition without taking time off maintaining consistent behavior across participate in the study to determine best the floor. all lines, shifts, and locations. Add federal practices for overcoming common industry A mobile coaching app designed for regulations and compliance rules to the challenges. Some significant issues uncov- the food production floor is another way to list, and training employees well enough ered by last year’s survey were scheduling save time training. When frontline work- to routinely apply correct behavior on the time for training, keeping the message to ers receive one-on-one coaching, they’re floor becomes a bigger challenge. employees consistent, creating engaging able to ask questions that create an invalu- However, even the most complex prob- training, and verifying training for compli- able dialogue and help them apply safety lems can be overcome with the right tools ance—and these pertained to companies of on the floor. A mobile coaching app con- and an open mindset. Training shouldn’t all sizes. When examining solutions, it was ducts formal observations and corrective be designed as “one and done.” Effective clear that incorporating technology and in- actions, as well as automatically records training is continuous. Studies show an novative tools on the floor went a long way and stores observation and remediation integrated training solution that combines toward overcoming training challenges data for future audits—which is a must for interactive training, continuous reinforce- and building a culture of food safety. compliance. Many companies have seen ment, and one-on-one coaching can ele- success using such a tool designed for food vate food safety training—while resulting Challenge #1: Scheduling Time manufacturing. in a lift in production and efficiency on the It should come as no surprise that finding “Our mobile coaching app has helped food production floor at the same time. time for training has been the No. 1 chal- us improve the performance of our workers Conducted by Alchemy Systems and lenge identified each year in the Global by allowing us not only to provide the ini-

ALCHEMY SYSTEMS its research partners, the Global Food Food Safety Training Survey. High quo- (Continued on p. 30)

August / September 22018018 29 Safety & Sanitation Training ALCHEMY SYSTEMS ALCHEMY SYSTEMS Implementing booster events that complement training in daily Interactive training courseware that pauses to test learners’ knowledge operations can reinforce and keep material fresh, helping to reverse and requires participation and feedback has proven more effective than the the “forgetting curve.” old-school ways of training.

(Continued from p. 29) “Since we’ve launched the communication program, consist- tial training, but to go out onto the floors any time of day, any shift, ing of monthly topics that are reinforced with visuals throughout and verify that the learning that they achieved in the classroom has the facility, people are thinking about these topics more often,” been sustained and continues,” says Robert Munoz, learning and says Amanda Moss, HR manager at Chudleigh’s, a commercial development training manager at JBS. bakery. “The coordinated posters, the digital videos, the huddle guides, along with the training that we do monthly, really rein- Challenge #2: Ensuring Consistent Messaging forces the topics that we cover, and again, drives that safety cul- A significant challenge to consistency in many companies is hav- ture throughout the organization.” ing dozens or hundreds of supervisors, each with their own way of doing things. Not all leaders possess the same strengths, and Challenge #3: Make Training Compelling some supervisors may be less experienced or engaging. Ensuring and Memorable messaging is strong and consistent, regardless of who’s in charge, It’s difficult to jazz up food safety and operations training. One is imperative for keeping operations firing on all cylinders. way to cut through training white noise is to examine the different The right training tools can drive consistency. One way to ways your food safety training is delivered. Long gone are the days ensure messaging stays consistent is to create learning plans for of thick training manuals and boring hours-long videos. Today’s employees based on department or role. Learning plans function workers learn best when training material is delivered quickly and like playlists and allow training leaders to “plug and play,” em- to the point, mimicking the visual and digital ways in which they powering employees to take ownership over their own training. experience the world. When employees all receive the same training, messaging stays Food safety training that moves beyond generic training consistent. material and imagery (i.e., stock photography in office-centric Shift huddle guides can also help drive consistency among settings) is necessary to make an impact. Interactive training supervisors by keeping everyone on the same page, literally. Not courseware that pauses to test learners’ knowledge and requires only do the effective communications make relaying messaging participation and feedback has proven more effective than the easier, it also saves supervisors time by eliminating the need to old-school ways of training. When learners’ attention spans are reinvent the wheel each shift. short and distractions are many, quick, succinct training courses “It helps me sleep peacefully at night because whether it’s my make an impact. third shift, my second shift, or my day shift, I know that if training The Global Food Safety Training Survey reports that 76 percent is happening, they’re watching that same courseware. They’re of food companies that responded still rely on reading materials watching that same video, and it is going to be communicated and on-the-job instruction to deliver training. But for many front- across all shifts, all departments. It doesn’t matter who the facili- line workers, reading complex safety procedures and standard tator is…it is going to be the same message across the board,” says operating procedures can be difficult. James Hatch, operations training supervisor at Idahoan Foods, a More effective means of communication that encourage in- potato production company. teraction can keep workers engaged and paying close attention. Consistency post-FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) is Research also shows when workers recognize themselves or their also crucial amid evolving regulations. Implementing compa- work environments in training materials, they’re more likely to ny-wide communications, like eye-catching posters and looping remember what they have learned. digital videos in break rooms, can engage employees throughout “When we customize the programs, it takes it out of a gener- the day, reinforce compliance, and keep operations consistent. alization and puts it in a real-time format for the employees so

30 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com that they can recognize the different scenarios to help them better perform their positions,” says Cindy Fedde, training coordinator at Dorada Foods, a large poultry processor. Workers tend to glaze over generic content when it doesn’t res- onate, failing to commit important concepts to long-term memory. Incorporating food production-specific imagery and video from your workplace, even featuring your employees, can be an effective training method, which then translates into correct action on the floor. Advance course authoring software makes this easy to do with little to no technical background.

Challenge #4: Verifying Training Occurred and Was Understood Here’s the deal with food safety training: Just because it happened doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. It’s one thing to get all employees onboarded, but documenting that training occurred—and was understood—presents a new set of challenges entirely. Tracking training manually can be time-consuming and invites inaccura- cies. Yet, according to the Global Food Safety Training Survey, 66 percent of the food companies that responded say they still use DON'T paper-based documentation to track training, and more than half use Excel. CHANGE Furthermore, tracking training occurrence doesn’t account for verifying comprehension. “Active learning” that requires learners to participate and answer questions not only increases YOUR PATHOGEN engagement, but a modern learning management system can also document those answers. An automated recordkeeping MANAGEMENT system can also track when remediation was necessary, that it PROGRAM occurred, and that the employee followed through with correct behavior on the floor. … unless you really value dedicated When it comes to audits and inspections, this defensible data service with is critical. Having a central learning management system that can scale across multiple shifts and locations is the most effective way to ensure food safety across your entire operations. • Solutions tailored to your needs “When an auditor comes and asks for a specific training docu- • On-site training for you and your staff ment, I’m able to pull that record digitally within a matter of min- • Technical support for every step along utes. I have documentation for hundreds of employees, and I can the way provide that to auditors in a snap of a finger,” says Tony Salazar,

training manager at Ventura Foods, a leading food manufacturer Don’t compromise on time-to-result, that uses an automated recordkeeping system. accuracy and scalability. Get all these without Yet 35 percent of large companies still don’t have such a system having to invest in expensive equipment and in place, and as many as 80 percent of small companies don’t. As intensive training for your staff. compliance regulations continue to tighten, airtight data management will become more crucial than ever. A learning management Learn how others made the change system that can sync up records on or offline will be necessary for to Romer Labs at many production environments. www.romerlabs.com/change Food companies that are willing to incorporate new methods of training, including a central learning management system that can deliver timely, consistent training and document data for compliance, mobile coaching tools, and meaningful communications, FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ROMER LABS TESTING will be the companies that can transcend the current challenges to SOLUTIONS AND CONTACT: create a strong frontline workforce. And since the success of any Romer Labs Inc. food company is directly tied to the knowledge, skill, and strength 130, Sandy Drive, Newark, DE 19713, USA T +1 302 781 6400 of their workforce, these relatively modest investments in training [email protected] tend to pay remarkable dividends. ■ www.romerlabs.com Dunn Nelson is vice president of food safety and global alliances at Alchemy Systems. Reach her at [email protected].

August / September 2018 31 sued on May 7, 2018, affirming an earlier preliminary decision, marked the end of Phase II in the litigation, which addressed coffee sellers’ Proposition 65 affirmative defense based on an Alternative Signifi- QualityLABELING cant Risk Level (ASRL) assessment. The court previously rejected several other affirmative defenses during Phase I , including those based on the First Amendment, federal preemption, and the statutory No California Significant Risk Level (NSRL). Both the ASRL and NSRL are affirma- Coffee Could Be tive defenses that can be used to demonstrate that no warning is required. Under Exempt from the NSRL approach, warning requirements do not apply if a defendant can Cancer Warnings demonstrate “that the exposure poses no significant risk assuming lifetime expo- What recent Proposition sure at the level in question for substances 65 developments mean for coffee known to the state to cause cancer.” Essen- roasters and retailers tially, the defendants argued during Phase I that no warning was required for coffee because consumers’ exposure to acrylamide was less than the 0.2 micrograms per day NSRL that OEHHA has set. BY MALCOLM WEISS, SHANNON OLDENBURG, AND ALEXANDRA HAMILTON To prevail on the NSRL defense, a quantitative risk assessment must be alifornia coffee drinkers may no pose consumers to unacceptable levels of performed to prove that exposure to acryl- longer see cancer warnings along any of more than 900 chemicals listed as amide is below 0.2 micrograms per day with their morning caffeine fix. known by the state to cause cancer, birth level. Defendants, however, focused on The coffee served to consumers defects, or other reproductive harm. Acryl- presenting evidence showing that coffee Chas not changed, but a recent proposed amide has been on the Proposition 65 list as a whole does not increase cancer risks. regulation by California’s Office of Envi- since 1990 as a carcinogen. The Interna- Judge Berle agreed with the plaintiff that ronmental Health Hazard Assessment tional Agency for Research on Cancer iden- defendants’ evidence on the cancer risks (OEHHA) would exempt coffee from can- tifies acrylamide as a “probable human car- of coffee as a whole, a mixture of numer- cer warnings required for many consumer cinogen” and the U.S. EPA characterizes it ous substances, was insufficient to meet products in the state. OEHHA’s proposal as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” their burden to assert the NSRL defense. comes shortly after a statement of deci- Acrylamide is not a chemical added Instead, he found that a quantitative risk sion by the Los Angeles Superior Court to coffee. Rather, it occurs naturally assessment to determine the risk from just this spring that found that brewed coffee during the roasting process as a result of acrylamide exposure from coffee, not the sold at retail stores contains levels of acryl- the Maillard reaction (the same chemical drink as a whole, was required. amide that require a warning. reaction that creates browning when sear- Phase II of the trial, on the other hand, The case was consolidated from two ing a steak, for example). Acrylamide is focused on the ASRL affirmative defense, suits filed in 2010 by a Proposition 65 produced when starchy foods like toast, which is based on interpretation of the citizen enforcer called the Council for Ed- potatoes, or many snack foods are cooked Proposition 65 implementing regulations. ucation and Research on Toxics (CERT), above certain temperatures. Effectively, there is no duty to provide a alleging that more than 90 businesses warning even if an exposure exceeds the selling brewed coffee had violated Cal- Years of Litigation established NSRL, “where sound consid- ifornia’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu erations of public health support an alter- Enforcement Act of 1986—better known as Berle’s recent ruling came after nearly native level,” such as “where chemicals in Proposition 65—by failing to provide warn- eight years of litigation. The decision is- food are produced by cooking necessary to ings to consumers based on the exposure render the food palatable or to avoid mi- to acrylamide.* *Council for Education and Research on Toxics v. crobiological contamination.” Defendants Under California’s Proposition 65, busi- Starbucks Corp. et al., No. BC435759, and Coun- argued that coffee fits within these “sound nesses with more than 10 employees must cil for Education and Research on Toxics v. Brad considerations” because cooking—roast- Barry Company Ltd. et al., No. BC461182, both in provide “clear and reasonable” warnings the Superior Court of the State of California for ing—is required to render brewed coffee

for products, including food, that may ex- the County of Los Angeles. palatable for consumers. ©MAX DALLOCCO - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

32 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com In Phase I, the court rejected an argu- to address CERT’s motion for permanent Berle’s decision for coffee sellers, his de- ment by CERT that, to qualify for an ASRL, injunction and the companies’ motion cision could hold meaning for businesses defendants must take measures to reduce to stay. outside the coffee industry. In particular, acrylamide levels to the lowest possible it demonstrates the incongruous nature level. The court also found, however, that Regulatory Intervention of Proposition 65 decisions and the re- defendants had failed to meet their burden On June 15, 2018, OEHHA issued its pro- sulting difficulty for businesses to avoid to qualify for an ASRL defense because posed regulation to provide that coffee burdensome litigation. For instance, the their quantitative risk assessment focused does not pose a significant cancer risk weed-killing product Roundup need not on coffee as a mixture rather than just the based on the naturally occurring carcin- bear a Proposition 65 warning pursuant to acrylamide in it. In Phase II, Judge Berle ogens in it, and thus Proposition 65 does a recent ruling by a federal judge, but as a again rejected defendants’ proposed ASRL not require cancer warnings for coffee. result of this decision, coffee must. defense because the revised quantitative OEHHA relied on a report issued in June Moreover, that this case has been liti- risk assessment was based on acrylamide 2018 by the World Health Organization’s gated for the past eight years evidences the generally and was not specific to acryl- International Agency for Research on Can- cost and difficulty involved for businesses amide in coffee. cer, which reviewed over 1,000 studies to to deal with Proposition 65 claims and to The court likewise rejected defen- determine that “inadequate evidence” successfully defend against them. That dants’ arguments in favor of setting an linking coffee consumption to cancer ex- difficulty is compounded since the bur- ASRL 10 times greater than the NSRL ists, and that coffee drinkers experience den of persuasion falls to the defendant for acrylamide, despite expert testimony strong antioxidant effects that are related to prove a defense—even as in this case, from a former commissioner of FDA, that to a reduction in cancer risk. Under the where the defendants believed they had a FDA had regulated certain carcinogens in proposal, most brewed coffee would be preponderance of evidence to support that food at a more lenient risk level (10-4 in- exempt from Proposition 65 warning re- coffee on balance has more health benefits stead of the typical 10-6 standard), and a quirements, but only for those chemicals than harms. In light of these defense con- former OEHHA proposal to regulate acryl- that occur naturally in the roasting and siderations, compliance up front is the best amide in bread and cereal at that same brewing process (i.e. not for exposures approach for businesses. 10-4 risk level. The court rejected both related to listed chemicals that are inten- The recent decision in the coffee case rationales as “inadequate grounds for an tionally added to the coffee or enter the is a salient example of a common criticism alternative risk level.” Moreover, the court coffee in some other fashion). of Proposition 65 that it leads to warn- found that some of the product testing the ing fatigue. As consumers are faced with defendants relied on was scientifically un- Warning Fatigue? more and more warnings, the warnings reliable and inadmissible. Coffee is not the first food product to be the become less and less effective, even when A number of the coffee companies in focus of a Proposition 65 suit over acryl- the threat may be significant. Some have the case responded to Judge Berle’s pro- amide exposure. Previous suits alleged argued that warnings do not change con- posed ruling issued on March 28, 2018, failures to warn of acrylamide exposures sumer behavior at all, meaning that coffee by arguing that they did prove that acryl- in some potato products. A suit against drinkers are unlikely to stop ordering their amide in coffee is not present at dangerous Kentucky Fried Chicken for failure to warn regular beverage even if it comes with a levels and they need not comply with the of acrylamide in its fried and baked potato cancer warning. ■ warning requirement. Judge Berle none- products was settled in 2007, as was a sim- theless finalized his decision. CERT filed ilar suit against potato chip manufacturers Weiss is a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in Los Angeles. Reach him at [email protected]. Oldenburg a motion seeking permanent injunction the following year. is a senior attorney with the same firm. Reach her at sol- in light of the court’s ruling. A hearing is Although OEHHA’s proposed regu- [email protected]. And Hamilton is an associate with the firm in Washington, D.C. Reach her at ahamilton@ scheduled in the case for the end of July lation may obviate the impact of Judge HuntonAK.com.

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August / September 2018 33 QUALITY LABELING

to cause cancer and/or (as appropriate) [name of one or more chemicals], which is [are] known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www. P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.” Proposition 65 was designed to be enforced by the California Attorney Gen- eral Office and/or any district or city attorney for cities whose population exceeds 750,000. In the event a consumer food product is discovered to contain chemicals at levels that exceed the permissible NSRLs and/or MADLs, and the consumer product does not have a warning, these officials could bring a lawsuit against the offending companies. Because of the vast number of potential exposures and viola- Prop. 65: What It Is and tions, consumer advocacy groups, private citizens, and law firms are also allowed What Companies Need to Do to enforce Proposition 65 on the govern- Suppliers and retailers not actively working ment’s behalf. toward compliance risk more than just a slap on the wrist Need to Know BY RANDY FIELDS Because of the Proposition 65 changes, food manufacturers should continuously stay abreast of new notices to ensure that here’s a lot of buzz right now icals since it was first published in 1987. the types of food products they are man- around California’s Proposition OEHHA also publishes maximum permis- ufacturing are not being targeted. Man- 65, which leaves many suppli- sible exposure levels above which written ufacturers should also consider testing ers and retailers wondering warnings are required. These include No their products against the standards es- Thow it affects them, what they should Significant Risk Levels (NSRLs) for car- tablished under Proposition 65 to ensure know, and what to do about it to ensure cinogens and Maximum Allowable Dose they are compliant. If not, they will re- compliance. Proposition 65, also known Levels (MADLs) for chemicals causing require a warning. as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic En- productive toxicity. Food retailers should also read the forcement Act, was enacted in Novem- new notices to ensure that the food prod- ber 1986 and requires businesses to give The Warning ucts they sell are not being targeted. Retail- warnings to California consumers about Under the current law (effective until Aug. ers should send notices to their suppliers exposures to chemicals that cause cancer 30, 2018), if the use of a food product sold inquiring about whether the products they or birth defects and reproductive harm. to California consumers will expose them are purchasing may contain Proposition These exposures can come from facilities, to a Proposition 65 chemical at levels ex- 65 chemicals exceeding the established equipment, and/or consumer goods. By ceeding the NSRLs and/or MADLs, then the NSRLs and/or MADLs and, if so, whether requiring warnings of exposures, the law food product label must contain a warning they require warnings. Each of these in- suggests that California consumers are or there must be a warning on the shelf quiries and responses should be carefully better equipped to make informed deci- where the product is stocked. Under the managed and documented. sions about the places they visit and the upcoming revisions to Proposition 65, if the Bottom line for the new Proposition 65 products they buy. use of a food product sold to California con- regulations is that retailers and suppliers Proposition 65 is administered by the sumers will expose them to a Proposition not actively working toward compliance Office of Environmental Health Hazard -As 65 chemical at levels exceeding the NSRLs risk more than just a slap on the wrist. Cal- sessment (OEHHA), part of the California and/or MADLs, then the food product label ifornia is a litigious state and if executives EPA. OEHHA determines which chemicals or shelf sign must contain a new statement: doing business there are not compliant meet the scientific and legal requirements “WARNING: Consuming this product they could wind up out of business. ■ for placement on the Proposition 65 list, can expose you to chemicals including which must be updated annually and has [name of one or more chemicals], which Fields is CEO of ReposiTrak and Park City Group. Reach him

grown to include more than 900 chem- is [are] known to the State of California at [email protected]. POPOV - STOCK.ADOBE.COM ©STEPAN

34 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com QUALITY LABELING

egories of kosher food include meat, dairy, When Food Meets Faith and pareve—food products that are nei- Meeting ingredient labeling criteria to ensure religious ther meat nor dairy. Cleaning activities, production utensils and equipment used, BY dietary compliance | JUDY SEBASTIAN preparation steps, processing, and food packaging procedures need to adhere with the religious requirements as well. Kosher food products that are neither meat nor dairy may lose their pareve status if they are processed in meat or dairy production facilities that lack a physical separation from the rest of the operation or when additives have been employed—meaning, the purity has been compromised. This rule is meticulously practiced by observant Jews even when it comes to handling cooking utensils, food contact surface, and food storage containers. Some may run the extra mile of following separate cleaning cycles for utensils used to nswering the question, “What’s haram are universal terms that apply to all prepare dairy products and those utilized for dinner?” unvaryingly leads facets of a Muslim’s life, this categoriza- in cooking meat and poultry products. to more questions. The modern tion is commonly used in relation to food When it comes to wine, a separate set food culture web is continu- and beverage products, food contact ma- of guidelines dictate production and pro- Aously branching and growing in complex- terials, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. cessing. Even if all the ingredients in the ity as dietary preferences of consumers Haram foods include pork and porcine produced wine are of kosher origin and the worldwide are being influenced by geo- byproducts, alcohol, and products that equipment used is kosher compliant, it will graphic location, protein choices, lifestyle may contain enzymes or emulsifiers made be certified and endorsed as kosher only trends, ethnic backgrounds, seasonal from haram animal fats such as lard, por- if the production was carried out solely by availability, and a factor that directs one’s cine gelatin, or fats derived from animals Torah-observant Jews. inner compass—religious beliefs. not slaughtered following the Islamic laws. Jain. Jains or the followers of the an- With over 4,000 (and growing) reli- Food products fermented by yeast and that cient Indian religion, Jainism, presumably gions being observed, several sects and contain hints of alcohol also fall under the observe the most stringent diet. The core doctrines bridge food with faith and spir- haram category. The way in which an an- philosophy of Jainism is to respect all liv- ituality. Devout followers of influential imal is slaughtered prior to processing is ing things—including microorganisms and religions such as Islam, Christianity, Juda- pivotal according to religious guidelines practice non-violence or “ahimsa.” This ism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism, to and needs to be carried out by a skilled limits their dietary options to a strict vegan name a few, make intentional food choices and trained Muslim slaughterer. In addi- diet that excludes dairy, meat, seafood, to satisfy their nutritional requirements tion to this, meat, poultry, and seafood poultry, and vegetables such as onions, and respect the religious laws. This im- need to be derived from animals and fish potatoes, and garlic as they grow beneath pacts food safety and quality management fed vegetarian feed for them to be certified the ground. Followers of this faith also systems from harvesting, slaughtering, or as halal. According to the report released find themselves cooking each meal fresh, sourcing to food packaging and labeling. by the World Halal Forum in 2015, halal as they refrain from consuming food that foods account for 16 percent of the global is a day old or older and may be harbor- Religious-Based Diets food industry and this number is expected ing other living beings such as microbes. There is a growing need for food busi- to grow significantly by 2020. Staunch followers don’t eat before sunrise nesses to ensure religious compliance, Kosher. Jews recognize certain types and after sunset to ensure what they eat apart from meeting established health of food products as permissible (kosher, is “visible” to them. This practice dates to and safety standards. A few revered re- Hebrew for pure) and prohibited (treif). pre-artificial light days when it was difficult ligion-based dietary labels include the Kosher food certification and labeling is to navigate in the dark. following. slightly more complicated as it branches A common predicament most Jains Halal. Followers of Islam observe two out further based on elaborate Biblical face is the permissible levels of insect broad food categories, namely halal (Ara- regulations. Moreover, it is prohibited for fragments or rodent hair, described as bic for those that are permitted) and haram meat and dairy products to mix with each insect filth and rodent filth respectively,

©VICTOR MOUSSA / MAHMOUD RAHALL - STOCK.ADOBE.COM (those that are forbidden). While halal and other, from farm to fork. The three sub-cat- (Continued on p. 36)

August / September 22018018 35 Quality Labeling

(Continued from p. 35) approach is unbiased and universal. While during and after the slaughter. These la- highlighted by the U.S. FDA and other in- countries that are governed by religious bor-intensive processes are hard to sus- ternational food safety agencies. Per the laws, such as nations within the Middle tain nationwide and are more expensive FDA an action level is required only if an East, find it easier to mandate food label- to maintain. average of 30 or more insect fragments per ing requirements and parameters, other Food security gets negatively im- 10 grams of food product is detected. In an countries that are more secular cannot pacted. When ingredient and/or nu- ideal environment, there ought to be zero stipulate similar, if not the same, ingredi- trition labeling requirements are not presence of any extraneous substances in ent labeling criteria. Although voluntary met by the point of export, the point of food products. However, keeping realistic efforts are being made by certain food import must temporarily hold the product scenarios and risk levels in mind, foreign brands to reduce this gap, a few challenges before choosing to dispose of it or return contaminants such as bug parts and mi- still exist. it to the supplier. With costs involved, crobes are bound to enter the food system. Lack of cultural and religious un- supply chain regulations, and customs This explains why devout followers of derstanding. The world is more inter- requirements to consider, most coun- Jainism find it hard to choose reliable and connected now than before. Ethnic and tries choose to dispose of food products trustworthy dining options or purchase cultural diversity is becoming more that do not match the local food labeling food and beverage products. common and is influencing food culture requirements. This adds to the problem Although there isn’t a formal inspec- globally. Efforts need to be made to under- of food wastage and negatively impacts tion or certification agency in place to stand the needs and wants of the current food security. validate food brands that offer Jain- demographic. This can be augmented by friendly dietary options, a few sectors of investing in data analyses to understand Opportunities for Improvement the hospitality industry such as the avia- the current population and economy bet- Analyzing quality data surrounding tion sectors have taken proactive steps to ter. The four major religion-based diets dining and food purchasing patterns of include these options as a part of their in- previously mentioned illustrate that we are the current demographic will help food flight offerings. simply scratching the surface when it brands gauge what their action items are to Hindu. Hinduism is a religion based comes to understanding cultural differ- gain a competitive edge. Though labeling on co-existence and interdependence of ences on a global level, and the various every ingredient appears to be the obvious sentient beings. The Hindu diet also is diets they follow. solution, there are certain limitations as predominantly vegetarian-based to reflect Disjointed global compliance sys- complex compounds may be a derivative the community’s belief in non-violence. tems. Enhanced international trade reg- from two or more sources. Higher Hindu castes such as Brahmins fol- ulations and import/export tariffs have Religious-based food product certifi- low a strict vegetarian diet with rigor and made it easier to source ingredients from cation and accreditation bodies could in- discipline. Traditional Orthodox Brahmins around the world. While the commercial troduce economical certification programs may choose to clean the entire household side is benefitting from this, communica- to support small-scale food businesses and engage in a cleaning ritual should tion and compliance are two other major that usually are founded by people who they learn that one of their guests had areas of improvement. Food brands that have identified a specific need of an ethnic consumed meat or poultry products prior engage in major export activities need to community. to entering the household. Clarified butter, be mindful about their customers overseas Regulatory authorities need to make or ghee, is of importance to the Hindus as and ensure the language is translated, if an intentional decision to include the it is rich, flavorful, and is often associated needed, with each ingredient specified, needs of other ethnic groups, especially if with a sign of prosperity. where possible. Unfortunately, food label- their population size is significant. For ex- Depending on the level of adherence, ing requirements of one country may not ample, gelatin can be obtained from meat, beef is forbidden for the most part as cows necessarily match that of another. In addi- poultry, and pork products and is often hold a sacred status and are revered as tion, more efforts are usually made to meet used in food, cosmetic, and personal care well. Pork and pork byproducts may be the minimum export compliance require- products. Forward-thinking food brands prohibited, depending on the caste or ment versus maximizing communicating are voluntarily disclosing ingredients sect. This is why Hindus around the world information pertaining to the product to such a pork- or beef-derived gelatin. One are pressing for more transparency when the end user. might make the argument that this dis- it comes to food ingredients and nutrition Religious food processing stan- closure may negatively impact sales. The labeling. Bovine and/or porcine gelati- dards are more rigorous. Both halal and other perspective that often gets missed is nous additives cannot be a part of a typical kosher slaughtering processes require consumers can recognize brands that are Hindu diet. time, manual labor, and more operational transparent and therefore feel safe trust- space to effectively and accurately carry ing them. ■ Religious Food Labeling out the religious requirements. The stan- Sebastian, Food Quality & Safety magazine’s blogger, is a Challenges dards set in place are based on ancient, registered (GCC and U.K.) food safety consultant, speaker, Food codes established by federal food traditional religious texts that emphasize and trainer with Dubai-based food safety consultancy, Apex Food Consultants. Reach her at judysebatian@gmail. safety agencies around the world primar- on caring for the animal prior to slaughter- com and follow her blog at www.foodqualityandsafety.com/ ily focus on public health and safety—the ing it and treating the carcass with respect category/food-quality-safety-blog/.

36 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com ther in solid or liquid state, negating the requirement for complicated sample preparation, and facilitating efficient sample screening for multi-component mixtures (i.e. foods). In TheRAPID METHODS Lab A major feature of qNMR is that it does not require a standard reference material (RM) that is identical to the analyte. Hydro- gen within the molecules can be observed and measured with NMR, so even if the molecules are different, the presence of hydrogen means that quantitative analysis is possible. This is extremely useful for quantification of new compounds and means that calibration curves are not required for this analysis.

False Food Claims Food characterization is becoming increasingly important due to food fraud scandals around the world and changing consumer attitudes toward what’s in their food. As a result of consumers’ rising interest in this, there’s also increased regulation regarding substantiation of health benefits in order to police false claims. The two together have led to much more scrutiny of labels, and consumers are becoming more confident in reading food A Valuable Tool for packaging, and understanding it and what it means for their health. Quantitative Analysis Food testing labs are validating that qNMR is an under-used technique that is becoming increas- the claims manufacturers are making on their packaging are correct, and the tech- ingly popular due to its reputation for making analysis easier nology available is making this process BY MICHAEL FREY, PHD, AND TAKAKO SUEMATSU, PHD much easier than it has been in the past. Traceability is crucial to the global food supply chain as companies are un- he food industry is subject to pensive, low-sensitivity, and altogether der mounting pressure to understand and intense scrutiny throughout the complicated when compared to chro- implement ways to track and trace their supply chain due to the vital matographic methods. However, that’s all products throughout the food chain and requirement to verify the safety changing, with qNMR attracting attention prove authenticity and place of origin. Tand authenticity of foods. Many traditional from a variety of fields for the reliability of This pressure comes in a bid to improve analysis techniques are limited in their the results it can achieve. food safety, but also to ensure security and capabilities, and in a high-throughput en- avoid a public health disaster or negative vironment like a food testing laboratory, qNMR Catches On economic impact. rapid methods for non-specific analysis Traditionally a research method, NMR is RMs are indispensable for accurate are required. increasingly becoming an analytical tool analysis of hazardous substances in food; Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) that has particular merit in the food indus- however, regulators have not been able to has long been a preferred method for or- try. NMR methodology enables primary keep pace to provide RMs for the growing ganic compound analysis, but it’s quanti- and secondary metabolites to be identified number of organic compounds that might tative NMR (qNMR) that’s making waves and quantified, delivering high-through- require analysis. in a field that has so far been reliant upon put spectroscopic and structural infor- chromatography for its quantitative anal- mation on a wide range of metabolites Case Study ysis requirements. Although NMR has a simultaneously. In collaboration with JEOL Ltd, the Na- quantitative performance in principle, it A key benefit of using NMR for food tional Metrology Institute of Japan im-

©279PHOTO - STOCK.ADOBE.COM has previously been considered big, ex- testing is that samples can be analyzed ei- (Continued on p. 38)

August / September 2018 37 In The Lab Rapid Methods

Figure 1. qNMR can allow for quick and accurate quantification of analytes from natural sources when obtaining a reference material is difficult. Figure 2. 1H-NMR spectrum of apple juice. JEOL USA JEOL USA

(Continued from p. 37) The food industry needs quick methods matic conditions, fruit ripening, and agro- proved the 1H NMR method to perform for non-specific analysis. nomic factors make up the composition of precise comparisons of signal quantities NMR reveals multiple components extra virgin olive oils. NMR can character- from protons at different chemical shifts. of food on a single spectrum, with high- ize them in terms of geographical origin, This enabled quantitative analysis at an throughput analysis. Measurement of the genetic origin, authenticity, and quality. acceptable level of uncertainty for a vari- ratio of components can address the issue ety of organic RMs by using a primary RM The Future of Food Testing for protons. Because foods are so diverse and complex, NMR thus allows for accurate (and A major feature with different compounds and chemical rapid) quantification of analytes derived of qNMR is that structures, concentrations, solubility, and from natural sources when it is difficult nutritional values, the technique used for to obtain RM for quantification. Tartary it does not require detailed analysis is crucial. With so many buckwheat contains large amounts of ru- a standard reference challenges around proving the authentic- tin as a functional flavonoid. Quercetin, a material that is iden- ity of food, it’s clear that qNMR is a valu- flavonoid, can be detected as a degrada- able tool for analysis and, importantly, tion product of rutin in samples because tical to the analyte. a time-saving technique for food testing there are rutin degrading enzymes in Tar- laboratories. As food research and devel- tary buckwheat noodles. An NMR system opment progress and become ever more was used to quantify the amount of quer- of adulteration—with qNMR, it is possi- innovative, the need to prove authentic- cetin found in a sample of noodles, using ble to confirm the proportion of a target ity, safety, and quality of foods grows in hexamethyl disilane as an internal refer- component in a sample and to determine importance. ence standard. It was determined that the the absolute amount of the component of Although it might be new to many in content of quercetin was 1.58 ± 0.14 mg per interest. the food industry, qNMR isn’t a new tool gram of Tartary buckwheat. Figure 1 shows Figure 2 shows a 1H-NMR spectrum of for analysis; rather it’s an under-used the 1H NMR spectrum of methanol extract apple juice, with the signals of ethanol and technique that’s becoming more popular of the sample. sugars clear. In this sample, the signals among analytical chemists due to its grow- can be viewed separately, allowing for the ing reputation for making analysis easier. The Challenge of Counterfeiting extraction of both quantitative and quali- As industries employing NMR tech- The USP (United States Pharmacopeia) tative information in an efficient manner, niques invest in technology capable of ever Food Fraud Database lists hundreds of without having to change measurement more complex research and analysis, it’s incidents of economically motivated adul- conditions. entirely possible that NMR will become a teration, substitution, counterfeiting/ NMR analysis, together with che- standard method for quantitative analysis mislabeling of food products (e.g. olive mometrics, has allowed some import- in the future. ■ oil and milk powder), and some adulter- ant characteristics of food such as geo- Dr. Frey, an analytical instruments product manager for JEOL ants such as melamine. Techniques like graphical origin, genotype-phenotype USA, Inc., has worked in a variety of NMR areas including software development and NMR spectrometer R&D. Reach chromatography can provide a detailed relation, quality, and authenticity to be him at [email protected]. Dr. Suematsu, an NMR applications profile of food but require a lot of sample investigated. Olive oil is a good example chemist at JEOL Resonance Inc., is qNMR technical advisor for Accreditation System of National Institute of Technology prep and manual processes, which means of this application. Complex interactions and Evaluation and a committee member of Japanese Indus- they’re expensive and time-consuming. between the variety of olives, pedocli- trial Standards for qNMR. Reach her at [email protected].

38 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com Manufacturing & Distribution PACKAGING

and high hydrostatic pressure, abbrevi- ated as HHP. In June 1899, Bert Holmes Hite published a bulletin entitled “The Effect of Pressure in the Preservation of Milk,” which first documents pressure being used as a food preservation method. Hite is credited as the first person to conclusively demonstrate the inactivation of microorganisms using pressure. Founded in 1976, Chairman’s Foods started using HPP in 2011. Examples of the company’s products include kettle cooked fillings for chicken pot pies; sous vide cooked proteins; ready-to-eat chicken salads and other prepared items for food service delis and steam tables; and as- sorted co-pack queso dips for several gro- cery store chains, including Whole Foods. Emphasizing chicken salad, Staudt is quick to mention that HPP has helped Chairman’s Foods attract new customers HPP: Everything Old to the wildly popular comfort food. “Many companies make chicken is New Again salad, but, thanks to HPP, we can make it using fresh ingredients, with a longer shelf With its seeds planted in the 1600s, high pressure life, and a clean label with a short list of processing is one of the ‘coolest’ innovations taking food ingredients void of powders and preserva- and beverage packaging by storm | BY LINDA L. LEAKE, MS tives,” Staudt explains. “Since we are not stuck with old processing traditions, we have new opportunities.” or Chris Staudt, high pressure into a vessel and subjected to a high level Chairman’s Foods utilizes the HPP processing (HPP) is a key that of hydrostatic pressures (43,500-87,000 services of Universal Pure, shipping prod- has opened new doors, profes- pounds per square inch) transmitted by ucts to the latter’s facilities in Villa Rica, sionally speaking. As CEO of cold water. Ga., Coppell, Texas, and Lincoln, Neb. FChairman’s Foods, LLC, Staudt oversees Acknowledged by USDA and FDA as From those locations, Chairman’s arranges production of custom fresh and frozen a kill step, HPP is a natural process that shipping to its customers once HPP is products for food service and retail cus- inactivates E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, completed. tomers in a 40,000-square-foot plant at Listeria monocytogenes, and other food- HPP is typically used to enhance food the company headquarters in Nashville, borne pathogens, with minimal impact safety and extend product shelf life, which Tenn. and a 38,000-square-foot facility in on a consumable product’s taste, texture, is the technology’s biggest economic im- Columbus, Ga. appearance, or nutritional value. pact, says Mark Fleck, an HPP consultant “HPP is nothing new,” Staudt says, Tracing its roots back to the 17th cen- for Universal Pure. “Because HPP ad- “but it has opened doors for us, allowed tury, HPP is also called pascalization, as dresses typical spoilage organisms such us to provide solutions for our custom- an homage to the French scientist Blaise as bacteria, yeast, and mold, producers ers that traditional methods would not Pascal who studied the effects of pres- realize significant shelf life increases often allow.” sure on fluids; bridgmanization, after a two to four times improvement,” he re- Simply put, HPP is a technique by physicist Percy Williams Bridgman who lates. “More times than not, HPP becomes which food and beverage products, already won the 1946 Nobel Prize for Physics for a critical control point in a food produc-

TRUE FRESH HPP sealed in final packaging, are introduced his work on the physics of high pressures; (Continued on p. 40)

August / September 2018 39 Manufacturing & Distribution Packaging

(Continued from p. 39) er’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan.” Another benefit, Fleck mentions, is that HPP can also serve as a package leak detector. “HPP uses simple water pressure which is applied uniformly (isostatic) to the packages,” he notes. “If the package integrity is faulty, operators can remove the defective packages post HPP, thereby delivering 100 percent quality packaged products to their customers. Food producers can reduce or eliminate credits and chargeback expenses.” According to Fleck, the added shelf- life benefit of HPP produces savings across the production and distribution spectrum.

“Manufactures may be able to produce UNIVERSAL PURE the product less frequently and in larger An employee loads meat, sealed in its package, into the HPP canister where it will be subjected batches, thereby making their operation to isostatic water pressure. more efficient,” he explains. “Logistics may have the option to ship full truckloads Offering HPP services since 2015, rather than LTL (less than truckload) ship- Another benefit, Fleck True Fresh HPP operates four Hiperbaric ments, thereby obtaining better rates. And, 525 processors, with a total annual ca- extended shelf life helps retailers reduce mentions, is that HPP pacity of 100 million pounds. The portfo- stocking frequency and minimizing out of can also serve as a pack- lio of food products that True Fresh HPP code date products.” age leak detector. processes includes hummus, salsas, deli meats, marinated meats, cold-pressed Impact on Food Packaging juices, sauces, vegetables, spreads, milk, “The first and major consideration when nut milks, cheese, sausage, cold coffee selecting packaging for HPP is that the that the label adhesive will also be ex- drinks, baby food, and pet food. package will be submerged in water during posed to moisture. A popular alternative In March 2018, True Fresh HPP the process,” Fleck says. “Secondly, some is to print the label directly on the food launched a partnership with NutriFresh flexibility must be a part of the package.” package or one can apply the label post Services, Edison, N.J., an HPP and cold- Fleck notes that these requirements HPP.” pressed juice manufacturing facility. By can be addressed by selecting a plastic Grant Lorsung, president of True combining True Fresh’s four Hiperbaric bottle, bag, stand-up pouch, or utiliz- Fresh HPP, Buena Park, Calif., says the HPP machines with NutriFresh’s three ing form-fill-seal packaging technology. effect of HPP on food packaging has Hiperbaric HPP units, the merger creates “Many semi-rigid cups with heat sealed been monumental. “While speaking re- a HPP tolling enterprise with a capacity of lidding films perform well,” he points out. cently with a large supplier of plastics, 200 million pounds annually. “And there are a variety of peelable lidding they mentioned that just five years ago “This is a process that is just in the in- films available to make the package more they were not going to waste time on fancy stages,” Lorsung emphasizes. “As consumer friendly.” developing specific resins or packaging the U.S. consumer begins to realize just From a material perspective, there are offerings for HPP,” he relates. “But HPP how much better it is for food safety and numerous options to choose from, Fleck is revolutionizing the food packaging quality, HPP technology will continue says. “For example, PET (polyethylene industry, and even this particular plas- to grow at an exponential rate. Because terephthalate), HDPE (high-density poly- tics supplier has since developed a full HPP is a cold process, it does not alter the ethylene), and PP (polypropylene) are catalog of films and containers of all food product, and no artificial preserva- excellent choices,” he relates. “If barrier sizes and shapes designed specifically tives or additives such as color or flavor properties are desired, EVOH (ethylene vi- for HPP.” are needed. Vitamins and minerals re- nyl alcohol) or nylon can become a layer in Packaging manufacturers focus on main intact after HPP, and taste, texture, co-extruded films.” understanding the design to handle the and appearance all remain the same.” Label type is another important el- HPP process, Lorsung mentions. “To that ement of successful HPP, Fleck adds. end, special fitments on spouts, welds on HPP Validation Center “Think in terms of non-paper-based la- edges, and shapes to withstand HPP pres- Cornell University opened the HPP Valida- bels suitable for food packaging,” he ad- sures are being incorporated into HPP tion Center at its Geneva, N.Y., campus on vises. “Don’t forget to take in to account packaging,” he says. Feb. 1, 2017.

40 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com The CPC has developed a High Pressure Certified logo that members can use after their HPP process, HACCP plan, and validation studies are verified by a third party audit...

According to Randy Worobo, PhD, a professor of food microbiology in Cornell’s Department of Food Science, three types of customized services are offered at the 1,500-square-foot Center: HPP safety val-

idation studies, microbiological shelf-life ROB WAY studies, and physicochemical evaluations. The state-of-the-art Hiperbaric HPP machine at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. The Center features a 55-liter commercial Hiperbaric HPP unit. “We do the full range of validation Cold Pressure Council The logo program reflects the goal of studies for bacterial pathogens and pro- In March 2017, the Cold Pressure Coun- the Council, which has always been two- tozoan parasites,” Dr. Worobo relates, cil (CPC) was launched with a mission fold, Longfield says. “First, we want to cre- noting that since the Center is designated to lead, facilitate, and promote industry ate uniformity among the HPP industry biosafety level 2, Clostridium botulinum is standardization, user education, and through consistent use of the technology not tested there. “Our pathogen validation consumer awareness of HPP, according that meets regulatory requirements,” she studies are conducted with 5-strain cock- to Joyce Longfield, MS, vice president of points out. “To do so, we provide guidance tails using isolates that are from similar product innovation, Good Foods Group, on using HPP as either a CCP or for shelf sources. We can perform HPP pathogen LLC, Pleasant Prairie, Wis., and CPC chair. life extension. This led to creating the logo validations and shelf life determinations Managed by PMMI, The Association program for companies that wanted to for a variety of foods that include juices, for Packaging and Processing Technolo- demonstrate support for consistent valida- meats, purees, wet salads, etc. Due to the gies, Reston, Va., the CPC was formed by tion for use of the technology. The logo pro- HPP unit being part of a biosafety level 2 nine member companies that contributed gram also provides organizations support laboratory, no processing for commercial time, talent, and financial resources to in bringing awareness to the consumer.” sale is permitted.” establish the Council on a firm footing, Second, the Council strives to grow In just over a year, more than 100 Longfield says. consumer awareness of the benefits of HPP pathogen validation studies have been “Currently boasting more than 20 food, and ultimately consumer demand performed at the Center for a whole gam- members, the CPC includes companies for these food and beverages, Longfield bit of products, Dr. Worobo reports. “Many that have and use HPP equipment, such as continues. “The website for the logo, ex- of these products are already commercial- machinery manufacturers and processors; pected to be up and running by the end of ized and being sold in the marketplace suppliers of materials associated with the summer of 2018, will be separate from across the U.S.,” he notes. HPP, including packaging; and regulatory that of the Council and will have the look and academic professionals,” she relates. and feel similar to that for non-GMO prod- “Our long-term goal is to be a global orga- ucts, where the information provided is to nization.” Good Foods and Universal Pure educate the consumer on HPP benefits,” are two of the founding members. she says. “The logo website content will The CPC has developed a High Pres- not be overly scientific, but rather will be sure Certified logo that members can use information that’s easier to digest.” ■ after their HPP process, HACCP plan, and Leake, doing business as Food Safety Ink, is a food safety validation studies are verified by a third- consultant, registered SQF contract auditor (High Risk), and party audit, and after paying the CPC award-winning freelance journalist based in Wilmington, licensing fee of $250 per stock keeping N.C. Reach her at [email protected].

COLD PRESSURE COUNCIL unit per year. Brands that recently started The CPC’s High Pressure Certified logo using the logo include Good Foods, Evo- For extended coverage on HPP, go to can be used by members after their lution Fresh, and Suja Juice, Longfield the August/September 2018 issue on HPP process, HACCP plan, and validation www.FoodQualityandSafety.com. studies are verified by a third-party audit. notes.

August / September 22018018 41 MANUFACTURING & DISTRIBUTION PACKAGING

Packaging Smarter The value of smart machines is being realized throughout the food industry as they address quality, productivity, and security concerns

BY STEVE MULDER

martphones and other connected would group bottles to the packing lines. In addition, smart machines can devices have made our lives easier The traditional “screw” method meant deliver value with modernized safety. in countless ways. In the indus- bottles could spend up to 12 seconds in the By using contemporary safety technolo- trial world, smart machines are infeed, resulting in labels or bottles being gies that integrate safety and machinery Sperforming a similar feat. marked, scratched, or dented. control into one system, smart machines Smart machines are defined by their The company chose to use an intelli- are less prone to nuisance shutdowns powerful digital capabilities, like real-time gent track system with independently con- than hardwired safety systems, resulting diagnostics, seamless connectivity, and trolled movers to help protect bottle and in a more productive machine. They also contemporary safety technologies. But label integrity. The system’s movers are provide access to safety-system data, what makes the machines revolutionary in contact with the bottle for only 0.3 sec- which safety and operations profession- is how these capabilities make industrial onds—20 times less than a screw approach. als can use to better understand risks and operations more competitive. The system also uses intelligent bottle-flow improve compliance and reduce safety-re- In food packaging, smarter and high- management to avoid products piling up lated downtime. er-performing machines are helping make and bumping into each other. operations more flexible to accommodate Smart machines can also inherently Optimizing the Design product varieties and different packaging improve productivity and efficiency in food The right connectivity and performance sizes. They also maximize productivity, packaging operations. levels are paramount in a smart packaging improve quality, and enhance safety, even They can connect to sensors and de- machine’s design. as packaging becomes more complex. vices and use intelligent software to en- From a connectivity standpoint, the hance machine control. By combining machine should be able to communicate Business Value standardized information reporting with in real time on an IP-based, standard, and Smart packaging machines can help food standardized machine functionality, they unmodified Ethernet network infrastruc- companies address their most pressing can help drive continuous improvements ture. EtherNet/IP, a trademark of ODVA, business needs. in OEE. Inc., is one example of a proven network For example, smart machines present But smart machines can also im- technology. It supports a simple network new ways to protect product quality, espe- prove productivity in new and creative architecture and can handle multiple con- cially as packaging operations evolve and ways. For instance, a packaging OEM trol and safety applications. become more complex. developed a remote-monitoring solution At the system level, a smart packaging Gebo Cermex, a packaging and pal- for its packaging equipment. The solu- machine should make use of the latest in- letizing equipment maker, recently intro- tion allows customers to monitor equip- tegrated control and information technolo- duced a modular infeed system to help ment statuses both on and off the plant gies. These technologies deliver increased food and CPG producers meet a key need: floor using mobile technology. It allows performance, easier access to information, mass customization. The system is com- the machine builder to offer remote- and reduced machine complexity—all of patible with any bottle shape and dimen- monitoring services to better maintain a which are ideal for smart machines. sion and can feed up to 400 bottles per machine’s health and improve its overall For instance, new control options

minute. One challenge was how the system performance. provide anywhere from 20 percent to 45 ©AGNORMARK - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

42 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com percent more application capacity. This tem upgrades or replacements, and faster Application security. Security mea- can help simplify a machine’s design troubleshooting. sures can be used to manage access and complexity while meeting more demand- prevent changes at the manufacturing ap- ing packaging applications. Also, these Managing Security plication level. controllers include up to 1-gigabit Eth- Security continues to be top of mind as Authentication, authorization, and ernet ports to support more data-driven food companies move to more connected, accounting software can restrict and mon- operations. information-enabled operations. itor application access and changes. Tam- It’s also worth considering how a smart Indeed, new connections on ma- per-detection capabilities can track un- packaging machine leverages device inte- chines can create opportunities for secu- wanted application modifications. And a gration to impact everything from design rity threats. And those threats can come in role-based access control system can limit time to maintenance. Smart machines many forms: physical or electronic, remote worker access to critical process functions that take advantage of advanced integra- or onsite, malicious or unintentional. or require that they enter login information tion between controllers and devices can That’s why smart packaging machines before accessing applications. consolidate controller programming, should support a defense-in-depth secu- Device security. Device authentication device configuration, and operation and rity approach. Defense-in-depth security is and identification can help make sure only maintenance activities all into one soft- a security best practice based on the idea trusted devices are used in food packaging. ware environment. that any one point of protection can, and Food producers can also change the This advanced integration brings likely will, be defeated. It uses layers of out-of-the-box configurations for embed- benefits to the design stage. For example, security to mitigate such threats and help ded devices to help make them more se- it allows packaging machine builders to protect intellectual property, safeguard cure. For example, companies can control leverage library management to store, operations, and secure remote-access which tags can be modified from HMIs and manage, and reuse code, which can reduce connections. external applications. Or they define tags development time. Defense-in-depth security spans six as constants, which cannot be modified by But the benefits of advanced inte- different layers of security. Some of these controller logic. gration also extend into production. layers, and potential security measures Physical security. In addition to se- It can help operators and technicians with that can be applied within them, include curing access to their plants or facilities, more predictive diagnostics, faster sys- the following. (Continued on p. 48)

August / September 2018 43 instance, and then used for delivery pur- poses at the other end of the line?” It took McLean another 20 years to realize his vision. Loading an entire truck Did You Know? and its contents wasted too much precious space, so he had to develop containers. And cargo ships had to be redesigned to accommodate these newly created and standardized containers. Malcom took a World War II tanker A Man, and retrofitted its deck to carry his new containers, and in 1956 the first container a Woman, and ship sailed out of Newark, N.J., with 58 containers that six days later were unloaded in a Global Food Houston. It took some time, but the wake of that shipment was felt globally and it Chain changed the face of the shipping industry, remaking ship and harbor design, creating a new manufacturing sector for containers—while, it should be noted, decimating an established workforce and their union. When all was said and done, the cost of loading a ship was reduced from $5.86 per ton to 16 cents. While many individuals have helped lower costs and Quality preserve quality, Malcom McLean and Barbara Pratt deserve The history of food refrigeration for special mention for creative ways they reshaped and transportation dates back centuries. In fostered the cold chain | BY CHUCK DINERSTEIN, MD, MBA, FACS the early 1800s, Frederic Tudor, “The Ice King” of Massachusetts, developed a means to harvest the ice formed on lakes he “value” of food can be simplis- moving empty tobacco barrels around the and ponds during New England’s winter, tically quantified by a formula: state. While family finances limited his and subsequently transported the ice Value = Quality/Cost. While educational reach, perhaps they fueled to the far warmer climes, even the sun- many individuals have helped his desire for economic stability, even soaked Caribbean. Tlower costs and raise and preserve quality, growth. He and his two siblings formed At his peak he was sending ice to India, two deserve special mention for the cre- a small trucking company; McLean still 12,000 or more nautical miles away. Hav- ative, disruptive ways they helped reshape driving, but now bringing cotton up north ing demonstrated the ability to ship ice, and foster today’s global food supply. for export. it was only a small step to use ice for pro- With U.S. Highway 1, the main route tecting perishable produce. Food grown Cost north more a cobbling of established roads in one part of the country could be packed Maxton, N.C., was struggling as the Great than a real interstate, it took far longer in ice and transported by rail across to the Depression’s grip on America’s economy to get to New York’s ports than it takes to- other. In fact, the name for iceberg let- tightened in the early 20th century. Settled day. And once he arrived, his trip was only tuce is claimed to come from the piles of by the Scottish in the late 1700s, Mack’s beginning. ice packed in with the lettuce when it was Town was shortened to Maxton, a more The cotton was off-loaded from Mc- shipped by railcar. fitting and proper name for a place that Lean’s truck only when the stevedores who While containers had lowered ship- was becoming a railroad center. But as handled ships’ cargo had a place to put it ping costs, they remained less than ideal. local timber disappeared and farm prices on the pier, so it could then be hoisted into Simply placing a refrigeration unit in a plummeted, even the railroad couldn’t the ship’s hold. And whether McLean was container was not working; some goods keep Maxton’s economy from the margins. patient or not, it must have seemed a waste arrived in good condition, others were By all accounts, Malcom McLean was of time for a man in a hurry to “turn and ruined. Saving money on shipping only to a bright boy with good prospects. But typ- burn.” There had to be a better way. be lost to spoilage was not a great bargain. ical of the time, his family’s income was Maybe it is apocryphal or maybe it’s Sea-Land, the company McLean insufficient for him to go on past high true, but it’s rumored during his trip up started, needed a better box. It found an school, especially in the mid-1930s. So Mc- north, McLean asked, “Why couldn’t an answer during the late 1970s in Barbara MEDVEDEVADESIGN - STOCK.ADOBE.COM MEDVEDEVADESIGN

Lean did what he could, driving a truck, entire truck be hoisted aboard ship, for Pratt, a newly graduated physics major ©

44 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com findings resulted in new container designs that incorporated customized ventilation, airflow, and temperatures for a range of fresh produce. In many ways, Pratt’s re- designing of McLean’s original containers, now called reefers, made today’s cold chain possible. An estimated 70 percent of what we from Cornell University who spent the next To investigate what was a “black box” eat today passes through the global cold several years in a laboratory investigating in terms of actual conditions in containers, chain. American consumers may not be what was then the little-known science Pratt made use of a unique laboratory: an- aware of McLean and Pratt, or of the ad- of refrigerated transportation—otherwise other container. vances we have made in cold chain logis- known as “the cold chain.” A 40-foot container (evidently the tics. But through their efforts, as well as the Her first project: moldy cocoa beans. standard of its time) was retrofitted with work and thoughts of many individuals,

©STANISLAV KOMOGOROV - STOCK.ADOBE.COM ©GUDELLAPHOTO ©STANISLAV According to Pratt, “What happens living quarters on one end and laboratory the global distribution of fresh food and typically is when the sun comes up the tem- space, computers, and sensor cabling perishable pharmaceuticals is helping perature increases inside a dry container, occupying the rest. The Mobile Research feed the hungry and care for the ill in ways that would create a mini oven, and that Lab, like any other container, was placed that were unthinkable 50 years ago. draws the moisture out of the beans…And aboard a ship, the cabling connected to And that is real value. ■ what happens when sun goes down at the sensors in containers carrying perish- end of the day, the water then condenses ables and the actual environment within Dr. Dinerstein is a Senior Medical Fellow at the American Council on Science and Health. Reach him at crdinerstein@ out of the air because the air temperature the containers studied at sea. gmail.com. changes. It would then become water Pratt’s findings for cocoa beans re- droplets [and] drop onto the bags of cocoa sulted in changed airflow patterns. In the This article is being published with the per- beans, and when you have excess moisture course of her research, she and her team mission of the American Council on Science you would then have mold growing.” looked at over 100 commodities and their and Health.

August / September 2018 45 NEW PRODUCTS

Detectable Rubber Gloves Powder-free metal detectable gloves are made from natural rubber and the anti-slip patterned finish provides a good grip in wet and dry conditions. Designed for safe use in food processing, the gloves comply with FDA and EU regulations for contact with food. The metal detectability reduces the risk of contaminated products and the bright blue color Environmental Monitoring Technology makes them highly visible if lost in the pro- Listeria PatternAlert assay rapidly identi- positive enriched sample, without the need cess area. Gloves have a higher resistance to fies molecular patterns from Listeria strains for an isolate. Each result can be matched tearing with a specification for an 0.018-in. to assist food producers in identifying har- against a user’s specific PatternAlert da- thickness. Extra benefits are derived from borage sites for persistent Listeria and in tabase to identify their pattern matches the bacteriostatic and fungistatic additives tracing back sources of contamination. across locations and time. Each pattern gen- that prevent the growth of microbial contam- The assay, which is performed using the erated by the assay encompasses a group inants. In addition, the low level of soluble fully automated Encompass Optimum work of strains and may include multiple species proteins reduces the risk of negative skin re- station, enables users to detect molecular of Listeria. Rheonix, 607-257-1242, www. sponse. Detectamet, 844-820-7244, www. patterns in just six hours directly from a rheonix.com. detectamet.com.

Desktop Color Label Printer Mix Proof Valves With print speed up to 4.5 in. per second, Offering minimized CIP fluid losses, the D4 the LX910 can handle labels as wide as 8 Series of mix proof hygienic valves is used in. and as small as 0.75 in. According to for the separation of dissimilar products the company, banding is virtually elimi- across the food and beverage, dairy, and nated—even on the faster print speeds. brewing process industries. All D4 valves Both dye-based ink and pigment ink work are fully balanced for dependable operation interchangeably on the same printer, while against pressure spikes and flow in any di- a new print head is provided each time the rection. Automated processing is enhanced cartridge is changed. Typical applications with the option of a unique control unit with include product labels for coffee, wine, wa- integrated seat lift detection and no exter- ter, bakery, confectionary, meat, cheese, nal sensors. Compressed air or lifting tools Magnetic Pull Test Kit and other specialty and gourmet foods. The are not required for removal and service. The newly designed pull test kit includes printer is also ideal for manufacturing, lab- The D4 range includes the primary D4 an improved polarity indicator to allow users oratory, government, retail, and a wide va- model, which meets the basic needs for to verify the pole configuration of the separa- riety of other markets. Primera Technology, reliable product separation and seat lift tion equipment. Another useful feature of the Inc., 800-797-2772, www.primera.com. or non-seat lift cleanability, and the DA4 indicator shows the user how far the mag- ultra-hygienic model for critical applica- netic field actually extends beyond the sur- tions requiring enhanced cleanability of all face of the magnet, which helps determine product contact surfaces. For applications spacing between cartridges for a given ap- where the current generation DA3+ hous- plication. The optional version has a digital ing is reliably in place, the DA4 can be scale that comes with NIST calibration check inserted to provide an efficient upgrade, certificate. While all industries should uti- future-proofing existing installations with lize a pull test on their magnetic separators, minimal disruption and risk. SPX FLOW, Inc., the company emphasizes that with the atten- www.spxflow.com. tion on food safety being so high, it’s required in every facility that transports, processes, or packages food. Bunting Magnetics, 800- 835-2526, www.buntingmagnetics.com.

46 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com X-Ray Source The XRBHR series of monoblock X-ray sources are designed for OEM applications powering their internal bipolar X-ray tube to 80kV and 100kV at power levels of 100W, 210W, 350W, and 500W. Features such as universal input, compact package size, and standard RS-232 or Ethernet digital interface simplify integration of any XRBHR model into a user’s X-ray system. These intelligent power supplies monitor and log over two Rapid Molecular Fingerprinting dozen operations, using a real-time clock The DART QDa System with LiveID is a di- the DART interface and the QDa detector to record total X-ray ON time. Each XRBHR rect-from-sample analytical system that where the ionized molecules are detected. model is available with fan (standard) or allows laboratories to answer questions The LiveID software provides the user cone (optional) beam geometries. Spellman such as: Is the sample authentic? Has the with the capability to train and validate High Voltage Electronics Corp., 631-630- composition of the sample changed? Is the multivariate statistical models using the 3000, www.spellmanhv.com. sample quality good or bad? Direct Analy- chemical profile obtained from the DART sis in Real Time (DART) is a direct and rapid QDa analysis. The LiveID models can be analysis technique for various sample used to classify the identity of unknown types with minimal sample preparation and samples, generating results in near real no requirement for a chromatographic sep- time and a simple yes/no answer in sec- aration. The source directs heated, ionized onds. Waters Corp., 800-252-4752, www. gas at the surface of the sample between waters.com.

Monitoring Perishable Shipments The GO Real-Time Reusable Tracker, a new ver- In Other News sion of the GO Real-Time Tracker, allows users to 3M Food Safety’s Petrifilm Rapid E. coli/ recharge and reuse the device. It provides visi- Coliform Count Plate receives PTM Certifi- bility of location and temperature of perishable cate number 051801 from AOAC Research shipments in real time, via a cellular connection. Institute. It’s suitable for use in scenarios where customers own their own trucks and/or control both the Hygiena’s BAX System assays now meet start and end point of a shipment. Emerson, 314- new ISO 16140-2 standard for all AFNOR- 553-2000, www.emerson.com. approved methods.

NSF International expands its commer- Wine pH Tester NGS-Based Platform cially available DNA analysis services for food safety and supply chain manage- The Wine pH tester (HI981033) is engineered for Pathogen Testing ment to include NGS techniques. to solve the challenge of measuring samples Clear Safety is an end-to-end NGS-based with a higher solids content. The ideal pH food safety platform for high-volume rou- Q Laboratories now has norovirus and tester for wine making, this tester is crafted tine pathogen testing. According to the hepatitis A testing in food, water, and to measure the pH in juice, must, and wine. company, by combining NGS sequencing, environmental samples listed on its The company says the probe features Clog- advanced microbiology, robotic automa- ISO 17025 Scope of Accredited Methods. ging Prevention System sleeve junction tion, data science, and software analytics, technology that resists clogging up to 20x a 99.9% accuracy can be achieved while Gelest’s BIOSAFE HM4100 antimicrobial longer than a standard ceramic frit. A spheri- lowering costs. The platform collects hun- receives certification from NSF Interna- cal glass tip design allows the probe to come dreds of millions of data points per analysis tional for food contact and drinking water applications. in direct contact with a wider area of the to learn everything about a pathogen in a wine sample for a faster pH measurement. single test. The first release of the platform SGS gets accredited as a Certification Equipped with a glass body, the electrode supports high-volume Salmonella testing. Body for the Aquaculture Stewardship is easy to clean and chemically resistant. Listeria and E. coli testing will be rolled out Council Certification scheme, which The glass body is also able to quickly reach in 2019. All tests go from sample to answer covers standards relating to farming 12 a thermal equilibrium. Hanna Instruments, in under 24 hours. Clear Labs, 650-257- species of seafood and a joint ASC-MSC Inc., 800-426-6287, https://hannainst.com. 3304, www.clearlabs.com. standard for seaweed.

August / September 2018 47 Packaging Smarter (Continued from p. 43) reduce the potential for unauthorized chines must handle. That’s why compa- companies also should secure entry points cable removals. nies should make sure the smart machines on their physical network infrastructure. they invest in today are future-ready, with Control panels, cabling, and network Be Future Ready the capacity to support additional technol- components, like routers, switches, and As smart machines continue to be em- ogies and more information. gateways, need to be protected against in- braced by the food industry, it’s not only After all, technology advances happen trusions, tampering, and accidents. important to consider how the machines quickly. And smart machines will be more Lock-out devices can prevent the will fit into production today, but also in relevant and a greater competitive differ- unwanted removal of data and virus the future. entiator if they can keep pace with those uploads by restricting unauthorized ac- The number of smart devices connect- advances. ■ cess to USB ports. And lock-in devices ing to smart machines will only grow, as Mulder is regional segment manager for packaging at Rock- can keep vital connections in place and will the volume of data that smart ma- well Automation. Reach him at [email protected].

Advertiser Directory ADVERTISER PAGE ADVERTISER PAGE Baldor Electric 2 Nexcor Technologies 52 Best Sanitizers 9 NP Analytical Laboratories 11 Diamond V. Mills 4 PerkinElmer 7 Dyson 51 Romer Labs 31 Hygiena 17 Insect-O-Cutor 15 Safe Quality Food Inst. 28, 43 Neogen 3 Wiley 21

Events ONLINE 25-27 23-25 Advanced HACCP IAFP’s 6th Latin America Symposium SQF International Conference Visit https://academy.alchemysystems.com/ on Food Safety Atlanta, Ga. advanced-haccp-elearning-course/, Buenos Aires, Argentina Visit http://www.sqfconference.com call 888-336-7224, Visit http://www.iafp-latino2018.com.ar. or call 202-220-0660. or email [email protected]. OCTOBER FEBRUARY Basic HACCP – Juice & Beverage 14-17 Visit https://academy.alchemysystems.com/product/ 12-14 basic-haccp-juice-beverage-online-course/, Pack Expo IPPE call 888-336-7224, Chicago Atlanta, Ga. or email [email protected]. Visit https://www.packexpointernational.com. Visit http://ippexpo.com/. 16-18 25-28 AUGUST Food Safety & Sanitation Short Course Global Food Safety Conference 26-29 for Food Manufacturers Nice, France AOAC Annual Meeting Pennsylvania State University Visit https://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/events/ Toronto, Canada Visit http://agsci.psu.edu/sanitation, gfsi-conference. Call 301-924-7077 ext. 170 call 814-865-8301, or email [email protected]. or email [email protected]. 16-18 SEPTEMBER HACCP Plan Development for Food Processors 18-19 New Brunswick, N.J. Have an Upcoming Event to Promote? Visit http://www.cpe.rutgers.edu/courses/current/ Dairy Supplier Food Safety Management If you have an upcoming industry event that lf0403ca.html, Workshop you would like considered for inclusion in our call 848-932-7234, Rosemont, Ill. online and print listings, go to www.foodqual- or email [email protected]. Visit http://www.usdairy.com/events ityandsafety.com/events/ for info or contact Ken Potuznik at [email protected]. or call 847-627-3249.

48 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com OUR WEBINARS SATISFY YOUR APPETITE TO LEARN.

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SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS

For access to complete journal articles mentioned below, go to “Food Science Research” located in August/ September 2018 issue at www.FoodQualityandSafety.com, or type the headline of requested article in search box.

ARTICLE: Shrinkage of Food Materials During Drying Shrinkage of food materials during drying is a common physical phenomenon that affects the textural quality and taste of the dried product. The shrinkage of food material depends on many factors including material characteristics, microstructure, mechanical properties, and process conditions. Understanding the effect of these influencing factors on deformation of fruits and vegetables during drying is crucial to obtain better-quality product. The main aim of this study is to critically review the existing theoretical shrinkage models and present a framework for a theoretical model for the shrinkage mechanism. It also describes the effect of different drying conditions on material shrinkage, how the diverse characteristics of fruits and vegetables affect shrinkage propagation, and the challenges in developing a physics-based shrinkage

model. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, July 18, 2018, online version. ©LIDDY HANSDOTTIR - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

ARTICLE: Integration of Biomedical ARTICLE: Effects of Gamma Radia- Technologies in Meat Processing tion Combined with Cinnamon Oil on Modern-day processing of meat products Smoked Salmon Slices Inoculated involves a series of complex procedures to with Shewanella putrefaciens ensure the quality and safety of the meat Smoked salmon slices inoculated with She- for consumers. As the size of abattoirs in- wanella putrefaciens were untreated (CK) or

creases, the logistical problems associated treated with 2 kGy gamma radiation (G), 1% ©MAXIM GREBESHKOV - STOCK.ADOBE.COM with large-capacity animal processing can af- (v/v) cinnamon oil (C), or the combination of ARTICLE: Microbiological Changes fect facility sanitation and the meat products, them (G+C), and then packaged and stored and Their Impact on Quality of Red potentially increasing transmission of infec- at 4°C for 10 days. Microbiological and phys- Hot Chili Pepper Mash During Natural tious diseases. And spoilage of food from iochemical analyses were then carried out. Fermentation improper processing and storage increases This review discusses how all treatments Production of hot sauce may require fer- the global economic and ecological burden showed a better effect on inhibiting the in- mentation of red hot pepper mash in bar- of meat production. Advances in biomedical crease in total viable counts, total volatile rels from two weeks up to three years. The and materials science have led to innovative basic nitrogen, and thiobarbituric acid-re- purpose of this study is to evaluate the new antibacterial technologies, which have active substances than CK, especially the microbiological changes and their impact broad applications in the medical indus- treatment of G+C. It also discusses how the on quality characteristics of red hot pepper try. Additionally, new approaches in tissue combination treatment also showed a best mash during natural fermentation over a engineering and nondestructive cooling of effect on retarding the reduction in polyun- period of 18 months. Aerobic plate count, biological specimens could improve organ saturated fatty acids of salmon samples in all lactic acid bacteria, and yeast counts, as transplantation and tissue grafting. These treatments. These results indicate that treat- well as changes in pH, acid content, color, same strategies may be even more effective ments of gamma radiation and cinnamon oil and aroma of red hot pepper mash, were in the preservation and protection of meat. on salmon samples, especially the combi- analyzed. Lactic acid bacteria and yeast pre- This review presents potential applications nation treatment, can be used to maintain sented a symbiotic association throughout of emerging biomedical technologies to the quality of smoked salmon slices. Food the fermentation process. Significant pH improve meat safety and quality. Future re- Science & Nutrition, Volume 6, Issue 4, June reduction was observed, with an inverse search directions investigating these new 2018, Pages 806-813. correlation with acid content. Aroma was technologies and their usefulness in the analyzed based on six volatile compounds meat processing chain along with regulatory, that had a significant increase during the logistical, and consumer perception issues first 60 days of fermentation, followed by a are also discussed. Comprehensive Reviews significant reduction after 300 days.Food in Food Science and Food Safety, Volume 17, Science + Technology, Volume 53, Issue 8,

50 FOOD QUALITY & SAFETY www.foodqualityandsafety.com Airblade™ technology in a tap. Wash and dry hands at the sink.

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1 Dry time measured using Dyson test method 769 based on NSF P335 using a measurement of 0.1g residual moisture. 2In collaboration with Carbon Trust, Dyson has produced a method to measure the environmental impact of electrical appliances and paper towels. The carbon calculations were produced using GaBi software providing by PE International, based on product use over five years and using the U.S. as a representative country of use. Dry times for products were evaluated using DTM 769.

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FOOD GENOMICS GOES GLOBAL WGS and Related Technologies Must Become More Widespread­ As the World’S Food Supply Gets More Interconnected

FOOD GENOMICS GOES GLOBAL WGS and Related Technologies Must Become More Widespread As the World’S Food Supply Gets More Interconnected