This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Tuesday, 30 December 2014
Wednesday, 24 December 2014
Confinement in Com-Zones
This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Monday, 15 December 2014
The Standardized Food Industry Mistake
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
Friday, 28 November 2014
Food Fraud: The Date Change Kind
THE NATIONAL | Nov 26, 2014
Stores caught cheating on best before dates
Hidden cameras reveal that packaged meat may be older than the labels suggest
We have other kinds of fraud that have not made the news like these reported findings: Read more on Systemic Fraud
Wednesday, 26 November 2014
After We Have Come this Far in Food Safety and Quality Management:
This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Saturday, 22 November 2014
Food Safety in Search of the Most Suitable and Neutral Third Party
This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Friday, 21 November 2014
If Canada's Food Safety System Ranked World's Best . . .
With the claim made
in the above press release that Canada's food safety system ranked world's best, the
following questions immediately come to mind:
- Why are so many food
recalls still reported in Canada?
- Does Canada have fewer reported recalls than the other countries to which it was compared (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America)?
- What exactly is the measure of a "world's best food safety system” in lieu of the goal of food safety management system?
- Is how well food safety failures are assessed, managed and communicated an acceptable and sufficient indicator of success?
The boasting about
Canada’s food safety system appears to be based on the examination of the wrong
criteria. Even if interviewed Canadian consumers expressed confidence in the
strength of Canada's food system (should this be the claim by Minister of
Health Rona Ambrose), such expressions of confidence can be misleading. Interviewed
consumers may not have considered the full scope of health problems that are
linked to food while responding to the questions about how much confidence they
have in the Canadian food safety system. They may not even be aware of how many
food-related problems affect them directly. For example, how many stomach
upsets they have suffered in a given period, whether they have one of many chronic
conditions caused by food such as obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc.
The
most appropriate measure of a successful food safety assurance system is the
actual absence of food-related health problems. Any legitimate claim about food
safety success must include real data to support at least a clear, consistent
and continuing reduction in food-related health problems. Anything else
constitutes an attempt to deceive.
Posted By Felix
Amiri
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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health Protection
Saturday, 8 November 2014
Food Poisoning and the Economy – “Upset stomachs cost UK 11 million working days”
This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.
Posted by Felix Amiri
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Wednesday, 5 November 2014
A Look at One Argument Supporting Unannounced Audits
Should food companies be forced to comply
with regulations or standards through unannounced audits or inspections? If so,
when should food businesses feel the most enforcement pressure:
- Long before the audits or inspection?
- Right before the audits or inspections?
- Right after the audits or inspections?
- Long after the audits or inspections?
- Never feel pressure?
- Always feel pressure?
How many unannounced
audits does it take to build sufficient trust in the party audited?
Other posts that may be of interest to you:
Posted By Felix Amiri
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Felix Amiri is the current Food Sector Chair of GCSE-Food & Health ProtectionTuesday, 4 November 2014
Equal Offenses
As a food industry professional, are you sometimes driven
to the point of exasperation as you interact with other professionals who
should know better but fail to demonstrate adequate knowledge or concern about
essential food safety considerations and measures? I am not talking about professionals
who are starting out in their careers. The inexperience of young professional
is understandable because we all start out with such inexperience. I am talking
about individuals who have been in the industry for very long and claim to be
knowledgeable. Lately I am finding myself almost always encountering this sort
of thing but I realize that, as professionals, we have to be patient with each
other. Both causing and showing exasperation are equal offenses. For the sake
of achieving real progress in the industry, we need to be open to learn from and
educate each other.
Do you have additional advice for fellow professionals?
The saying is true in more ways than can be imagined: "A little knowledge is dangerous."
Do you have additional advice for fellow professionals?
Posted By Felix Amiri
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Monday, 3 November 2014
The Cherry Processor and the Ice Cream Topping Manufacturer:
This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Saturday, 18 October 2014
A Sampling of Food Safety & Food Poisoning Stories
http://gcse-food-health-protection.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-blight-and-plight-of-restaurants.html
Indifference can be Fatal - http://gcse-food-health-protection.blogspot.ca/2013/02/fatal-indifference.html
Read stories published on the Food Poisoning Bulletin Webpage-https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/category/news/
New
York Times Stories:
More Stories Published Elsewhere (not in chronological order)
Among the
casualties was shop owner . . . who tasted the milk tea
More from: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/468178/news/metromanila/fda-testing-sample-of-deadly-milk-tea-for-cyanide
More from: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/468178/news/metromanila/fda-testing-sample-of-deadly-milk-tea-for-cyanide
By
Rebekah Carter
March
26, 2015 | Posted in Food Poisoning, News
PRESS RELEASE: Ice Cream Recalls— March 13, 2015 — Brenham, TX. "Three deaths have been reported."
Posted February 12, 2015: 7 deaths in a Multistate Outbreak of ListeriosisLinked to Commercially Produced, Prepackaged Caramel Apples - http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/outbreaks/caramel-apples-12-14/
The cantaloupe Death Trail
Mother and daughter, 14, . .
. died of possible food poisoning in Bali Food Safety Conference Hit by ... Food Poisoning
Powerful
Pesticide Killed Kids in India
http://www.newser.com/story/171283/powerful-pesticide-killed-kids-in-india.htmlCanadian Sisters Found Dead in Thai Hotel Room
"Mum
dies after eating Christmas dinner at pub 'which had not been properly cooked'"
"In sickness and in health: Wedding ruined by mass food poisoning"
and Other Stories in the Mirror (UK):
Friday, 17 October 2014
One Good Turn
The GCSE-Food and Health Protection SSQA Development Team is strategically offering
reduced price copies to selected individuals and companies. Some of the ways to qualify for
these offers are listed below:
The social media "LIKE" Challenge Offer:
Check the web with the phrase "GCSE-FHP SSQA concept", write a post about why you like the SSQA concept that obtains at least 20 likes on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any other social media, send the link or other proof to show the number of likes (minimum 20) that you have received to gcse@afisservices.com and request your free searchable PDF (single copy) of the current SSQA Implementation Manual. Unless extended, this offer ends on May 31, 2017
The social media "LIKE" Challenge Offer:
Check the web with the phrase "GCSE-FHP SSQA concept", write a post about why you like the SSQA concept that obtains at least 20 likes on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any other social media, send the link or other proof to show the number of likes (minimum 20) that you have received to gcse@afisservices.com and request your free searchable PDF (single copy) of the current SSQA Implementation Manual. Unless extended, this offer ends on May 31, 2017
Congratulations to Chi Samuel, winner at the 111,111
winning sequence point !!!
Watch the top right corner of the blog page for the winning numbers that will be shown from time to time. When you see a winning number, take a screen shot of the page and post it on LinkedIn, Twitter or send it to GCSE-Food and Health Protection at - gcse@afisservices.com – The first person to post or send the screen shot will win a free PDF copy of the SSQA Implementation Manual
AFISS Offer:
You may take advantage of this offer
and receive your free PDF copy of the current SSQA Implementation Manual if
you are willing to work with AFISS on the development and implementation of
SSQA concepts in your operation. If you are interested, go to “AFISS Offer Details”:
One Year Free Online Access Offer:
If you are a food safety and/or quality manager in a company that
has turned a new leaf, the SSQA Development Team is offering to grant you
free access to the online SSQA Implementation Manual for one year. Evidence of
what your company is currently doing with internal audits, external party audits and regulatory
inspections is required. You will receive the free access only if the SSQA
Development Team determines that your approach to internal/external audits and regulatory inspections aligns with the principles of the
GCSE-Food and Health Protection SSQA concept. This offer is currently open but a time limitation may be applied depending on the number of requests. If interested, you may contact
the SSQA Development Team for details.
Saturday, 11 October 2014
Safest Times to Eat Out
I
had a brief interview with William, a chef with very good knowledge of
restaurant food safety measures who has worked at restaurants that are affiliated with
high-end hotels. I am using only his first name to protect his identity. You
probably can already guess what he said about the extent to which he and his
fellow kitchen staff were committed to ensuring that food is safe for patrons. "At the off
hours," he said, meaning outside of the breakfast, lunch and dinner rush
hours, "it is possible to follow food safety rules". "However," he
added, "the rules go out the window when the rush is on." Incidentally, these are the times when a majority of people are served at restaurants with the increased chances of getting more people ill at once.
He did not
say this but I suspect he saw no reason for anyone to worry. After all, a few
rules ignored until it is more convenient to obey them will not hurt any of the
hungry patrons during the rush hours, right?
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Friday, 19 September 2014
Ebola and Food Risks
In the not so distant past, the Ebola virus devastation in West Africa posed a global threat according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Is Ebola still a threat to the entire world? Watch the Ebola documentary video and see what some investigators are saying:
Is Ebola still a threat to the entire world? Watch the Ebola documentary video and see what some investigators are saying:
Clearly, the death rate associated with Ebola may still be of some concern. Is there any connection or similarity between Ebola and food? Is Ebola conveyed through food? In the past, the World Health Organization has published a table of global health risks. How many of these risks can be attributed to food?
Many people do not care but we are all food consumers. Although we may feel invincible at times, it only takes one instance to change our invincibility with very regrettable consequences. In some cases, the regrettable consequences are suffered for life where life is not altogether lost.
With food, as it is
with the Ebola virus disease, indifference
can be fatal. The false security of being far away from West Africa is
insidiously deceptive in a shrinking, highly mobile and continuously mingling world.
Monday, 15 September 2014
Interesting Developments in the Field of Food safety
This blog post has been moved to the author's eBook.
Saturday, 6 September 2014
FSMA – Is a Re-think Happening?
How far will the published "Operational Strategy" go? Should further re-thinking be happening? Do the math: If enforcement has not stopped or even reduced incidents of fraud, what gives us confidence that enforcement will lead to better protection of consumers against food-borne hazards and illness under FSMA than has been achieved under previous regulatory measures?
The “Operational Strategy for Implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)” was published by the FDA On May 2, 2014. It addresses some of the challenges that I posted in January of 2013. In that post, I said: “Disappointment awaits us if these initiatives are pursued without serious modifications to address the points listed . . . and other limiting factors that are implicit in the current proposals.” You may read the full 2013 post - The New Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
The “Operational Strategy for Implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)” was published by the FDA On May 2, 2014. It addresses some of the challenges that I posted in January of 2013. In that post, I said: “Disappointment awaits us if these initiatives are pursued without serious modifications to address the points listed . . . and other limiting factors that are implicit in the current proposals.” You may read the full 2013 post - The New Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
The published FDA’s
Operational Strategy appears to have partially addressed some of the
points I listed in support of the disappointing prediction. I find this to be
inspiring although some specific details are still lacking and several of the
listed points have not been as clearly addressed. For example, the FSMA rules
are still too vague (generalized) and leave too much room for confused
interpretation, deliberate misinterpretation and manipulation; the narrow focus
on food production, manufacturing and distribution businesses persists to the
neglect of other significant parties – e.g. the roles of restaurants,
canteens and consumers; etc. Although the strategy identifies
the use of public health-oriented outcome metrics for evaluating the
success of FSMA, specific details are not provided to show how consumers
will be engaged and encouraged to actively participate in the process of
evaluating the success achieved.
Radical changes are needed in the
FSMA as in other regulatory initiatives worldwide. The most challenging is
re-thinking the punitive approach to regulatory enforcement.
The
proposed new regulations, still cloaked in the old policing mentality, are
poised to increase the burden for law-abiding operators and abate the pressure
for dubious food business owners who are very good at dodging inspectors' surveillance techniques. Catch-and-punish methods only deter until the criminally-minded
find ways around them. As violators cause undesirable events, they force regulators
to spread the surveillance net. With such broadened surveillance that wastes resources
on looking at compliant along with non-compliant operators, the burden is
increased for law-abiding operators who will do everything to comply with any extra imposed cautionary (often unnecessary) measures. On the other hand, due to regulatory resources that are often spread too thin to effectively go after the dubious, the pressure is abated for them. The dubious will do everything to avoid the extra cautionary and cash-strapped enforcement measures.
I have discussed some alternatives
in other related posts which appear to be attracting increasing attention. I
strongly suspect that we have not seen the end of the re-thinking process that
appears to be going in the direction of the GCSE-Food
and Health Protection proposals.
Monday, 18 August 2014
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Question from an Aspiring Food Professional:
Young professionals provide great opportunities for the experienced folk to be great mentors.
A young Food Science professional asked: “How can I improve my experience and improve my knowledge of Food Hygiene & Good Manufacturing Practices?”
A young Food Science professional asked: “How can I improve my experience and improve my knowledge of Food Hygiene & Good Manufacturing Practices?”
Freely share what you know because
knowledge diminishes if it is hoarded.
A recent Food Science and Technology graduate, upon reading some of my posts, sent me a message with this question. Other young professionals starting out in the food safety and quality management profession or planning to enter this field may be asking the same question.
Here
are some of the points in my response:
An academic background in food science or related field is good place to
start. Once employed, the practical everyday experiences at work (good or bad)
provide very good learning opportunities. Ongoing professional development training
may also be necessary. Such training could be obtained through short courses,
seminars and professional certification programs by reputable organizations or
institutions. In every case, the
courses should offer practical content based on real experiences along with real
opportunities for practice. The post on "Mercenary or MOM Training” provides additional information
about how to determine what courses are good to take.
Secondly, any practicing or prospective
professional will benefit from reading as broadly as possible. Reading the
news about actual related events in the industry, as well as following open forum
discussions could be helpful. Participating with comments, questions, etc., could also provide very good opportunities to learn and test your knowledge.
Other
veterans in the food safety and quality management profession may have things
to add. As for current veterans, we must first regain respect for the food safety and quality management profession. Spreading
misinformation and commercialized complicity will not help this at all. Plain
honesty about current failures with a determined and demonstrated effort at
pursuing real (not superficial) solutions will. We must re-establish the
trustworthiness of the profession. Otherwise, we will not have a worthwhile legacy
to pass on to future generations.
Please share your thoughts if you have anything to add. This may even be a question.
Please share your thoughts if you have anything to add. This may even be a question.
Posted by Felix Amiri
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Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Food Safety and Acrobatic Balancing Acts – Where do you stand?
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 ProtectionSaturday, 26 July 2014
The Lion, the Goat and the Yam Test for Prospective Food Safety Managers
A man has to cross a
river with his lion, goat and tuber of yam in a canoe. The canoe needs to take at least two of the passengers for balance each time but cannot hold more than three (the yam has sufficient weight as a passenger - huge yam). The lion has no interest in the
man or the yam as food but finds the goat to be irresistibly appetizing. The
only reason the goat is spared is because the man gets between and separates
them every time the lion goes for the goat. The goat sees the yam and feels the same irresistible urge to consume it. The man and the lion are of no
interest to the goat. The man also protects the yam from the goat. However, with him having to do the paddling, the protection intervention is not possible in the canoe. How
should the man get his yam, goat and lion safely across with no consumption
casualties?
Note: Like certain situations in food safety and quality management, there is no opportunity for "corrective action".The challenge demands SSQA kind of strategic and preventive action.
Note: Like certain situations in food safety and quality management, there is no opportunity for "corrective action".The challenge demands SSQA kind of strategic and preventive action.
Posted by Felix Amiri
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