Where Water is Gold - A Challenge to Global Food Safety and Quality Assurance:

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

An Invitation to a Noble Act

Opportunity for Positive Impact  - OPI

Can one human without divine powers change the world? No! But have single individuals contributed to improving human experiences? Yes! 
That's all that can realistically be asked of anyone.

You can demonstrate that you care beyond words 

by simply becoming a member of  GCSE-Food and Health Protection.

Free membership is offered and everyone is invited.

You now have several opportunities and options for participating in the conversation and keeping up with what is happening in the campaign. Please visit the main campaign web site often as it is continuing to be updated. http://www.afisservices.com/gcse-fhp/index.html

As part of the global action campaign, GCSE-FPH is committed to facilitating helpful information exchange among members and with the public. This means that every member is free to contribute information and every member is free to use information contributed. 

The open public forums include existing social media:  LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/GCSEFood-Health-Protection-4027142?

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/GCSE_FoodHealth

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GCSE-Food-Health-Protection/255055537857576

Blogger: http://gcse-food-health-protection.blogspot.com/

In addition to the open forums, members have the opportunity to request and receive assistance from the GCSE-Food & Health Protection Team: http://www.afisservices.com/gcse-fhp/gcseinquiry.html

Some assistance may also be requested from the GCSE-Food and Health Protection Panellists. These are highly knowledgeable and experienced individuals in matters pertaining to food and health protection, food and health product safety, quality management, auditing, training, regulatory requirements, consumer affairs and other areas of expertise. GCSE-Food & Health Protection has enlisted and continues to enlist members who serve as Panellists from around the world.

A member who wishes to be assisted with any technical question or issue pertaining to food and health protection submits a request to the GCSE-FHP Team. The Team contacts the Panellist members who are most suited to provide answers or guidance and the Team coordinates the information exchange.

For details about how this works, you may consult the Membership Guide for registered members.

Rescue Mission for Food Operations – the Strategic Integration of SSQA

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Food Safety and Your Reaction:

While unfortunate events like Ebola and MERS outbreaks that threaten our world get much publicity, an everyday reality is sadly ignored. If not more, just as many people in the so-called civilized world are dying of food poisoning events and other risks associated with food. 

When “food safety” is mentioned, which of these best describes your reaction?

A.         It is of no concern to you.

B.         You’d rather let the food industry and the government worry about it.

C.         You believe the hype is to generate work that provides income for people in that field.

D.         You take it seriously and you are interested in actions to ensure it.

E.         You actually feel directly involved and you take real actions to ensure it.

F.         You are scared to eat commercially processed or prepared food.

G.         You feel there are more serious issues in the world than the safety of food.

H.         Your reaction is a combination of: _____________________________ 

I.         Your reaction is completely something different: _____________________________ 

 "Fatal Indifference" 

Product Labeling and Claims - The Reality, the Law and the Litmus Test

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Distrust - A Critical Industry Consideration

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted by Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection, and a sworn SSQA advocate.

The Bald Persons and Hairnets Debate:

A debate on the question of bald persons needing to wear hairnets is going on among some members of the industry. It is quite intriguing to see the debate prolonged to the extent that it has. While many good comments have been made, others leave me wondering. 

Has "the rule" become more important than "the reason behind the rule"? Is anyone concerned about the level of understanding (or lack thereof) in the industry that makes it necessary for such considerations as "one rule for everyone"? If this is the level of understanding that the industry has to work with, and considering that we have more issues than the wearing of hairnets by bald people, what is the real danger faced by the industry?

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Change – Hated and Halted or Desired and Designed

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Useful Information Links for the Handling and Processing of Produce and Leafy Green Salads:

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

10 Reasons for Quality Initiatives Failure – An Understated Number

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Food Safety Audits - Observations to ignore, admit or contest:

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Ready-to-Eat Meat HACCP and Candid Candice

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Food Safety Enthusiasm

Who do you think is most or least enthusiastic about their engagement in food safety matters today?
You may add your suggestions or pick from this list: 

• Growers
• Manufacturers/processors
• Wholesale and retail outlets
• Food service and restaurant operators
• Consumers
• Food Safety Scheme owners
• Food safety auditors
• Food safety auditing companies
• Regulators
• Food safety educators
• Veteran food industry professionals
• Food-borne illness litigation lawyers
• Fresh graduates from food science or food technology programs
  

Please provide some reasons for your choice or suggestions.

You may add yours or view Previous Comments 

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Evidence of a Shameful Social Responsibility Failure – Food Recalls

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

A Question about HACCP Ownership:

Is HACCP a public domain concept as I have always believed or is anyone able to confirm otherwise that the concept is actually owned by a particular body? I will be glad to know.

Narratives about the history of HACCP includes how the concept was pioneered in the 1960s by the Pillsbury Company, the United States Army and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a collaborative development for the production of safe foods for the United States space program. According to the introduction to HACCP published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), (Publication 22376, W8088, AG, AGN, FAO Agricultural Policy and Economic Development Series, Version 4, (1998) Section 3), Pillsbury presented the HACCP concept publicly at a conference for food protection in 1971.

So who actually owns HACCP? To put this question more practically, are companies wishing to set up programs according to HACCP principles required to pay any body for the use of the concept? 

Further to the above questions, when did the practice of HACCP principles begin?

According to the Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, the root word for "harzard" was first used in the 1300s, from old French hasard, hasart – meaning "game of chance played with dice," possibly from Spanish azar "an unfortunate card or throw at dice," which is said to be from Arabic az-zahr.  The sense of the word was said to have been first recorded in the 1540s in English in reference to a sense of "chance of loss or harm, risk".

So, well before the 1960s, the root word for “hazard” was used to describe risk or harm much in the same way as we do today. Given the natural human reactions to risk and harm, it can be accurately presumed that some strategies were devised to avoid such risk or harm. In particular, where games were involved, strategies were devised to mitigate “risk”, at least the risk of losing a game. Reactions to hazard through the adoption of modern HACCP principles do not seem to be different. Hazard mitigation strategies or controls remain the expected reactions to identified hazards – much like the way we practice the HACCP principles today. The practice began well before the 1960s. It only became more refined in the industrialized world. Even today, some less refined and less rigorously documented methods of practicing hazard mitigation principles continue in the lives of almost all thinking human beings.      

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection

Demystifying Food Safety Assurance

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted by Felix Amiri

___________________________________________________________

Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection, and a sworn SSQA advocate.

The World’s Most Expensive Coffee – An example of how low things can go in our “civilized” world:

Who can fault those comments posted in response to the referenced article? The author meant well in sharing the Civet coffee fraud-busting science although the premise was reversely stated that: “Kopi Luwak, which is Indonesian for civet coffee, can cost up to £51 a cup and is often substituted for cheaper beans.” 

I suspect the author meant to say that cheaper beans are substituted for the more expensive Kopi Luwak coffee. That aside, and even without attention to the somewhat juvenile term used to describe the source association of the coffee bean, this article reveals a great deal about how low things can go. First of all, an authentication test is needed because opportunists have resorted to the fraudulent practice of selling fake coffee as “Kopi Luwak”. That’s one side of the folly.

Now to the other side of the folly: In a world where too many people are unable to afford real food, people are actually willing to pay that much (£51 per cup) for coffee? People are actually paying that much money for a flavor that is not sufficiently discernible so as to immediately detect the fake? Unless there are direct, significant and immediate health benefits associated with this coffee, anyone paying that much money for it or any other beverage, for that matter, has money but no . . .   fill in the blanks. I can definitely say that I’ll never regret not tasting the Kopi Luwak if it must be sold at that price range. Even if a generous philanthropist who is too rich to care wants to buy a cup for me, I’d rather have a regular priced coffee. With the already assorted varieties and flavors of coffee to choose from at a much lower price, I’ll never feel deprived. In fact I feel privileged and sometimes ashamed that I can afford to buy regular price coffee when so many people elsewhere go for days without food.

Finally to the fraudsters: If you are able to mimic the Kopi Luwak flavor so that it takes a scientific test to detect the difference, you have done well. However, you have the worst failing grade in trying to defraud people into thinking that they are buying Kopi Luwak. As long as the imitation process has not made your product unsafe, why not position and sell it as an authentic imitation? You You may borrow a page about complete honesty from these entrepreneur artists: Fake Banksy Prints Sell Out at Central Park Sale, TIME.com - http://entertainment.time.com/2013/10/21/fake-banksy-prints-sell-out-at-central-park-sale/#ixzz2jz8rGjh7

Reference:

"Test to prove the world’s most expensive coffee really has come from civet poo:" 

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent,  22 Aug 2013

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

Organizing for Product Safety and Quality Management Success

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

Unannounced Audits and the Issue of Distrust

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

An Actual Recall and the Most Likely Reaction of Other Parties

This poll was posted to the GCSE-Food & Health Protection Group on LinkedIn in 2012. 

Poll Question: 
If your company goes through an actual recall, what is the most likely situation that you expect it to face, A, B or C? 

Situation A: 

- If certified to a food safety program, the certifying body yanks its certificate from your company and waits for things to be fixed. They insist on another full audit with your company bearing the full cost, etc.; 

- Customers pounce on you to claim damages; 
- Government (public protection) agencies find the opportunity to levy fines on your company and lay criminal charges; 
- Competitors take it as the opportunity for negative advertisement against your company 

Situation B: 

- If certified to a food safety program, the certifying body stands by you to help you get through the situation and contributes in ways that minimize operation re-assessment costs; 
- Customers and consumers take an active part in helping to resolve the root cause of the recall and voluntarily help to fund the solution; 
- Government (public protection) agencies provide funds (loans) that you will pay back without interest to help you protect the consuming public likely affected by the recall; 
- Competitors realize that they are also affected and embark on advertisement to restore consumer confidence in the industry as a whole. 

Situation C: 
- Nobody cares; 
- Consumers, customers, certification bodies, government agencies, competitors, et cetera simply leave you alone and do not hold you accountable.

Which of these situations, A, B or C do you think is most likely to occur?

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

Aftermath of the Killer Cantaloupe Devastation:

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

The “Doing Just Fine, Thank You” Operator:

If you are doing just fine, let the reality prove it and let a knowledgeable assessor determine that fact. 

You may be perfectly happy with what you are doing right now but have you checked to see if you can do better? 

             You should not be like this guy >>>>

Satisfaction with "how things have always been done" is seldom an enlightened stance. It is often the stance of those who have yielded to perpetual incompetence.

An operation may appear to be running fine on the surface and the owner/manager may choose to argue that "the operation is running fine, thank you”. This person may ignore the signs of possible failure, especially where such signs are not addressed by the generic audit scheme used for assessing the effectiveness and reliability of implemented programs and control measures. Where certificates of "compliance" are issued to augment the bragging rights of the "Doing Just Fine " operator, the signs of failure may even become further obscured by the ensuing celebrations.

This is what the "just comply and be certified" economy does to the human mind. If, by simply following a set of rules, a certificate is earned that gives the compliance-focused operator bragging rights, the operator is lulled into resting satisfied. He or she no longer feels the need to solve real problems that require "too much thinking". Compliance-focused systems lead compliance-focused operators to neglect their responsibility to think.

Until an operation actually suffers a cataclysmic failure, obvious signs may be blatantly ignored but not during or after such failures. The “Doing Just Fine " operator who refuses to learn from reasonable predictions often learns the hard way that mere compliance may, in fact, be dangerous.

For Additional Reading:

1. Product Safety - Beyond Compliance

2. Breaking the Addiction to Superficiality

3. Systemic Fraud – closer than it appears in the mirror

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

Recall-Free versus Recall-Prone – A Tale of Three Companies

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted By Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

Product Safety - Reality, Redundancy and Money-Drain Check

The affordability of a food safety and quality management system is a significant concern for many operations. The solution is the elimination of resource drains without compromising food safety.

As it is with running a successful food business, running a successful food safety and quality assurance program requires the courage to say “NO” to all redundant suggestions and impositions. These are resource drains. Every food safety and quality manager, coordinator or custodian needs to know where the drains and gains are.

Do you know what matters in your operation and where your drains and drain plugs are? Which of these proposed requirements does your operation absolutely need and which can you do without and still maintain a recall-free existence? From your experience and assessment of the success that you have achieved with any thing on the list, you may indicate one or more of these that you consider to be redundant or "resource drain":

A.    Management commitment

B.    Employee commitment

C.    Proper training

D.    SSQA (Safety, Security & Quality Assurance)

E.    Third party certification audits

F.    Consulting Services

G.    Effective internal audits

H.    All

I.      None

Do you know of any beneficial requirements that could be added to the list?

The following posts may also be of interest:

1. Food Safety Resource Utilization and Success
2. Recent Recall Notices:

3. Well Organized Recalls – A Sadly Necessary Pre-occupation
4. Out from the Trenches of Product Recalls - Professional Casualties and Crusaders

5. Recall – Case Studies
6. The Cherry Processor

Posted By Felix Amiri

____________________________________

Felix Amiri is the current Food Industry Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection. 

Traceability beyond Recalls

This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.

Posted by Felix Amiri

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Felix Amiri is currently the chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection, and a sworn SSQA advocate.