As leaders of one of our nation’s safest and most highly regulated industries, dairy manufacturers have long understood the benefits of keeping our products safe for consumers. As you are aware, the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) will require all dairy food processors to implement new standards of food safety compliance by July 3, 2012.
The Food Safety Modernization Act became law in 2011. The FDA is now writing proposed regulations that will likely take effect next year. What do dairy companies need to do to get ready?
The most sweeping set of food safety reforms of our lifetime was signed into law by President Obama in January 2011. Called the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the Food and Drug Administration is now writing proposed regulations that will likely take effect next year. What do dairy companies need to do to get ready? Here are four critical areas for you to focus on now.
Look for some regulations contained in the Food Safety Modernization Act to be released as early as this summer, with more to come by year’s end and into 2013.
Most dairy industry meetings over the past year have devoted at least one session or agenda item to safety. DMI’s Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy established a Food Safety Committee almost two years ago to evaluate existing food safety tools and develop new ones. One of the main reasons for this focus was the passage in 2010 of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Effective training of plant and quality assurance personnel is essential to achieving quality and food safety standards. The training should involve both technical and practical applications of the process. In addition, it must involve all employees, especially Bubba and his counterparts — Junior, Leroy, “They” and “Supposed To.”
Delvotest BLF is easy to use, and requires no new laboratory equipment for Delvotest customers. Dairy professionals can accurately check the milk safety at any stage, from the farm to the processing facility, with reliable results every time.
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics (SGPPL) offers a variety of safe and high-performance solutions for product transfer and dispensing. Designed to help companies reduce total systems costs and minimize downtime, SGPPL's solutions also meet stringent food regulatory standards to help food processors ensure compliance.
3M is once again revolutionizing the industry – this time in the area of pathogen detection. Its 3M™ Molecular Detection System is said to be a fast, accurate and easy-to-use method of detecting dangerous pathogens, like Salmonella, E. coli O157 and Listeria.
From a consumer’s perspective, ice cream is about fun and good times. The ice cream division of Mars Chocolate North America shares that point of view. Evidence of the company’s sense of humor is a banner welcoming visitors to Mars’ little “corner ice cream shop.” In fact, the processing facility is larger than an airplane hangar. The building consists of four production lines, wet and dry ingredient storage areas, packaging supplies and a warehouse.
Commonwealth Dairy epitomizes state-of-the-art. This joint venture between Ehrmann USA, the US subsidiary of Ehrmann AG, and Commonwealth Yogurt, started up its new, ultra-modern facility in Brattleboro, Vermontin May 2011. The SQF-certified plant, which produces yogurts for private label customers, adheres to superior quality standards. Illustrating their commitment to food safety, their three production lines are anchored with Osgood UltraClean fillers followed by SmartChek x-ray inspection systems from Mettler-Toledo Safeline.
Dairy foods have been around for thousands of years. The dairy industry has operated plants for hundreds of years. While the equipment and technology used today are noticeably different from 20 years ago, the processing steps are very similar and sometimes unchanged from a hundred years ago.