What does it take to have an extremely effective Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) technician team on the production floor? This article shares practiced perspective on "what it takes." Attributes for success are identified and explained. How they are integrated within a FSQA team on the floor will go a long way to galvanizing the success of that team. For food and beverage companies, "success" means effective risk identification and management, protection of public health, reduced costs of poor quality, and the manufacture and sale of high-quality food and beverage ingredients and products.

In food safety, multiple issues always need to be addressed. To get things done, however, food safety professionals need to prioritize certain projects over others. What are those priorities now? The Food Safety Magazine audience shares their views on a number of topical issues to give an idea of where their focus will be in the coming months and years.

The 2023 Food Safety Summit keynote presentation focused on a conversation with food industry executives on the topic of balancing risks for the safety of consumers, team members, and the environment. 

To strengthen federal food safety regulation, the Reagan-Udall Foundation has published its independent review of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Human Foods Program, focusing on organizational culture, structure, resources, and authorities. The evaluation will be used to “inform a new vision for the FDA Human Foods Program.”

MilliporeSigma’s new product, ReadyStream, allows microbiological food testing technicians to instantly prepare and dispense culture media at the touch of a button.

The authors and collaborating food safety experts have delineated several unique features in Australia around food safety and quality: intimate collaborations across sectors and functions, "walk the talk," and skills and capacity building.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, vendor certification has been top of mind for the food industry given the increased requirements and oversight of third-party audits and FDA regulations to better accommodate public health. This article will give a baseline understanding of the regulatory requirements between U.S. federal bodies (FDA, USDA) in comparison to widely known GFSI standards (BRC, SQF, FSSC 22200). Additionally, it will provide insight into key control areas for mitigating risk and adapting business in accordance with the growing emphasis on the importance of food safety culture.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak with Hilarie Warren, Jenny Houlroyd, and Wendy White of Georgia Tech about the critical intersection between worker safety and food safety, and how the food sector can maintain food safety standards while also improving worker safety.