Lately, I noticed that there are so many “Food Safety” issues happening all over the world. Contamination from raw materials, vegetable, raw meats till processed food.
It sounds SCARY, aren’t they? Unless if the food been SABOTAGED then it is beyond the manufacturer or producer control.
For many cases it has been produced by reputable company. Who should we trust now?
FOOD SAFETY ISSUES AROUND THE WORLD
Some recent cases are as below:
CASES
1. Needles in Strawberry (6 local brands affected)
2. 100% Minced beef claimed on packaging but mixed with other red meat.
3. Contaminated Eggs
4. Contaminated Cereal
5. Contaminated Salad
6. Contaminated Blue Cheese
7. Contaminated Rice
8. Contaminated Soup
9. Contaminated Infant Milk Powder
10. Contaminated Ready Made / Ready-To-Eat Salad
11. Contaminated Minced Meat
And Many More…….
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? ANY REASONS? ANY CAUSED?
Most Food company implement a kind of Food Safety Standard with Good Manufacturing Practices to minimized the risk at the lowest level. But how can this happen when it should be stop before delivering to the consumer.
HACCP
In HACCP (Hazard Analytical Critical Control Point), there are 3 types of contamination which can caused Food Safety issues:
1. Microbiological Contamination
2. Chemical Contamination
3. Physical Contamination
FOOD RECALL
These contamination can lead to “FOOD RECALL” which is the scariest moment for any food producer.
Once a “FOOD RECALL “is been made, this will lead to:
1. Lost in reputation or branding
2. Lost of income for the company
This showed that how fragile can be our food system, even though the food products been produced from an established reputable company. It can just happen anywhere and anytime.
Based from the HACCP analysis, there are few major factors which might cause the Food Safety issues:
1. Production Negligence
2. Unhappy Staff (sabotaged)
3. Competitors / Rival
4. Unethical Manufacturer
5. Unethical Sourcing Supplier
FOOD SAFETY awareness and implementation of strict Good Manufacturing Practices is vital element in any food producer. This comply to the smallest scale food producer till giant established manufacturers.
A food manufacturer needs to ensure all the product produces from receiving of raw materials to finished products is safe.
Same goes to raw food from farms, to ensure the process of planting till packaging of goods and delivery, to be all according to Standard Operating Procedure and Good Manufacturing Practices.
All raw materials used need to be from reliable source. A 3rd party validation will acknowledge that the goods is safe for consumption from farm to table.
But once the goods are been ship out from the premise, there is again chances of contamination can occur which is beyond control from the manufacturer because this is no more under a control environment when general public is involved managing/receiving/holding the goods.
So, “TRACEABILITY” process needs to be conducted whenever any FOOD SAFETY issue arose. Processor need to do a traceability process and to engage a 3rd party Food Safety auditor to conduct another traceability check for further verification and validation purposes.
“Food Business” is a lucrative business but its also a fragile business if Food Safety incidences happen on the food products. For the new comer in the food business, do establish and implement the Good Manufacturing Practices in your premise. And for those food company that has established, make sure that the implementation of Food Safety is been followed accordingly.
How Advanced can be the Food Science & Technology System development or Food Innovation is, if the food producer does not have the sense of good ethics in running the business, FOOD SAFETY will be the No. 1 tread to us.
GOOD INTEGRITY AND ETHICAL MINDED FOOD PRODUCER IS NEEDED IN THIS MILLENNIAL WORLD!
