Quality analysis & quality control (QA/QC)

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The Food Safety Modernisation Act: A food manufacturer’s perspective

7 May 2012 | By Lilia M. Santiago-Connolly, Senior Manager Food Safety, Heinz North America and Kurt E. Deibel, Chief Quality Officer, Heinz North America

Food manufacturers in the US regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) are preparing for forthcoming challenges related to the Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) which was signed into law by President Obama on 4 January 2011. The globalisation of the food supply, the aging population and an improved…

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Cost optimisation and extremely fast results in the powdered milk production process

1 May 2012 | By Sartorius

The moisture content of materials plays a very significant role both in the pharmaceutical and food industries, because it has a direct influence on product quality and the processing of semi-finished and end products.

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National Starch: Goole Operations

5 March 2012 | By Jon Wilson, Projects and CI Manager, National Starch and Simon Mason, Site Manager, National Starch

National Starch Food Innovation is a leading global supplier of nature-based functional and nutritional ingredients, starch and sweetener solutions to the food and beverage industries. With more than 10,000 employees, the company is active in approximately 50 countries, operating a worldwide network of manufacturing facilities, ingredient development centres and sales…

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HACCP: The rise of the prerequisites

4 January 2012 | By John Holah and Edyta Margas, Campden BRI and Robert Hagburg, Benjamin Warren, Judy Fraser-Heaps and Sara Mortimore, Land O’Lakes

This article introduces concepts and ideas about the nature and potential control of microbiological cross-contamination in a food manufacturing environment. The concepts and opinions shared do not necessarily represent the policies and/or programs used by the companies represented by the authors. Microbiological cross-contamination has been a contributing factor to several…

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The ‘Sense-Award’ scoring system: Objective adjudication for a multi category food awards competition

13 May 2011 | By Maurice G. O’Sullivan, Mary P. O’Sullivan and Joseph P. Kerry, Food Packaging Group, School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College Cork and Derek V. Byrne, Department of Food Science, Sensory Science, University of Copenhagen

Increasingly, food preference has become based on the mantra ‘we taste therefore we eat’, with consumers consistently seeking quality information across the product spectrum1. Thus, the use of ranking indications from food awards has become important to a product’s impact in the marketplace, particularly artisanal foods2. However, do these awards…

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The role of microstructure in texture perception

13 May 2011 | By Fred van de Velde & H. Jan Klok, NIZO Protein Centre, NIZO food research and Tristan Laundon & E. Allen Foegeding, North Carolina State University, Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences

Foods are eaten not only for their nutritional value but also for the pleasure of eating. Food producers reformulate their products to comply with consumer trends on fat, salt and sugar reduction as well as to reduce the number of additives. The number one goal is to maintain consumer acceptance.…

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Flexible solutions for every application

7 March 2011 | By METTLER TOLEDO

With ISO 22000 set to become the global HACCP based international food safety standard, pressure is on food manufacturers to ensure their production lines can meet these demands...

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New applications of PCR in food control

30 June 2010 | By Jeffrey Hoorfar Research Manager & Professor of Food Microbiology, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark

PCR testing of pathogens has gained widespread use in quality control laboratories throughout the food industry. Many excellent easy-to-use commercial kits are now available for a wide range of microorganisms. But are there any other potential uses for PCR other than a simple plus/minus response that indicates presence or absence…

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Safety assessment of industrial strains, starters and probiotics

12 May 2010 | By François Bourdichon, Food Safety Centre, Danone Corporate

Probiotics are used to bring health benefits to consumers through foods and are defined as "live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host[Ref 18]." Commercialised all around the world since the early 1920's, mostly focused on Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus genera, in the last…

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Can the sensory quality of chicken meat be improved?

12 May 2010 | By Renate Thieme and Steve Ladbrook, MICRO-PLUS GmbH

The digestarom poultry concept has been proven worldwide to advantageously influence the performance parameters and, therefore, the profitability of chicken meat production. Small scale institute evaluations have demonstrated improvements to carcass composition and this information is available. It was this latter finding that led to professional taste panel studies on…

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Salt reduction and the consumer perspective

12 May 2010 | By Johanneke Busch, Gerda Feunekes, Beatrijs Hauer and Wilma den Hoed, Unilever R&D Vlaardingen

In recent years, scientific studies have shown that salt intake can cause high blood pressure and associated heart diseases. Conversely, there is clear evidence that significant reductions of salt intake lead to large reductions in blood pressure, heart diseases and strokes1. Other important risk factors for these cardiovascular diseases are…

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Oxoid Brilliance Staph 24 Agar Identifies Staphylococci in Foods within 24 Hours

23 March 2010 | By Oxoid

Oxoid, a world leading microbiology brand, today announced the launch of Brilliance™ Staph 24 Agar - a selective and diagnostic chromogenic medium for the isolation and enumeration of coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS) in foods, within 24 hours.

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Campylobacter Testing with NEW Oxoid Brilliance CampyCount Agar

23 March 2010 | By Oxoid

Oxoid has launched Brilliance™ CampyCount Agar, a new, highly selective, easy-to-read chromogenic medium specifically designed for the identification and enumeration of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli in poultry and related samples.

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The food sector and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A 10 year overview

22 February 2010 | By Adrian J. Charlton, Food and Environment Research Agency, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

For many years, NMR spectroscopy was largely overlooked by the food industry. Maybe this was understandable. The instruments were expensive, the skills required to operate them could at best be described as specialist and there wasn't a broad understanding of the way in which the technology could be applied within…

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Advances in hand hygiene: Reducing contamination to food, people and the work environment

22 February 2010 | By Debra Smith, Research Manager, Food Hygiene Department, Campden BRI

The importance of hand hygiene in the transmission of infection in the medical field has been recognised since Semmelweis's observations in 1847 that the implementation of hand washing brought about a reduction in the deaths of women from puerperal fever1. In the food industry, links between food workers and the…