130 | Food Safety Training Exercise | FSSC Updates | When Flies Eat |
Plus, the Russian oligarch's packaging factory, mystery outbreak
This is The Rotten Apple, an inside view of food integrity for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends in food safety, food authenticity and sustainable supply chains.
Food safety training exercise, What’s Wrong with This Picture?;
Packaging Corner: PFAS phase out, red colours on packs, wanna buy a Russian oligarch’s factory?
FSSC version 6 - what you need to know;
Food Safety News and Resources;
When Flies Eat (Just for Fun);
Food fraud news, emerging issues and recent incidents
Welcome to Issue 130 of The Rotten Apple, with feeding flies, updates to the FSSC food safety standard and the March packaging corner. Best of all, a downloadable training exercise for paying subscribers.
Before we dive in I just want to say a huge thank you to Sam and Shilpa for renewing your subscriptions and sticking with me for the long term. Sam was my second subscriber when I started this newsletter way back in 2021, it’s so great to have you here!
Have a wonderful week,
Karen
P.S. If you love this newsletter, please tell your friends and colleagues about it and help grow our community of global food safety champions.
Food Safety Training Exercise
This month’s special supplement for paying subscribers is a downloadable food safety training exercise for front-line workers.
Get a copy by clicking the preview box below.
Packaging Corner
PFAS has been voluntarily phased out of food packaging (USA)
Primary packaging materials treated with grease-proofing substances containing certain types of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been phased out in the US. The phase-out was conducted voluntarily by packaging manufacturers, and covers PFAS treatments on paper-based packaging such as wrappers and pizza boxes.
Dietary exposure to PFAS was largely attributed to their use on/in food packaging, so this will reduce intake in US consumers.
Red colours on packs for plant-based ‘meat’
The colour of the packaging on plant-based meat affects its appeal to consumers.
Consumers in a survey associated plant-based meat with the colour green. The colour red was associated with good-tasting ‘meat’. The authors of the study concluded that meat eaters are more willing to try plant-based products when they are packaged in red.
How to sell plant-based products: Use red packaging? - Food Politics by Marion Nestle
The Power of Colour | ProVeg International
Wanna buy a packaging factory?
A factory that makes multi-layer, synthetic heat-shrinkable, casings for meat and sausage products is up for sale in Ukraine, after the government there confiscated it from a “Russian oligarch” near Kyiv.
The government is seeking a buyer for a packaging factory confiscated from a Russian oligarch. - UBN
FSSC version 6 Updates: What Do You Need to Know
It’s a big job keeping up with updates to GFSI-benchmarked certification standards. Before I started this newsletter I only had to pay attention to updates to the food fraud and food defense elements of standards. Now it’s everything (arp!)
Version 6 of FSSC 22000 was published in April 2023 and will be enforced from 1st April 2024.
The big changes for version 6 are in the areas of food safety culture, quality standards and systems for managing loss and waste.
Food Safety Culture
To comply with the new requirements you will need: communication plans (make sure they are two-way communications, up and down the management chain); documented training plans and training records; methods to gather feedback from employees; methods to promote employee engagement; and defined performance measures which include food safety and quality objectives, with goals defined and routine reporting, including management reviews.
Food safety culture guidance is provided by FSSC: Food Safety Culture - FSSC.
🍏 Also check out our Food Safety Culture training session from last year, accompanied by our super-popular collection of the very best food safety culture resources 🍏
Quality control
The new quality control requirements are likely to have the biggest impact for already certified sites. The FSSC quality standard has been eliminated and replaced by new quality control clauses in version 6.
Food loss and waste reduction
The new requirements require certified sites to manage donations of food made by the site, and have systems in place for the management of surplus products or by-products or waste destined for animal feed.
Other changes
There are also changes to other clauses including 2.5.1 Management of Services (specifications for recycled materials), 2.5.2 Product Labelling (cooking instructions, traceability, artwork management and approvals), 2.5.3 and 2.5.4 Food Defense and Food Fraud (documented assessments, some sectors must ensure suppliers have a food defense plan in place), 2.5.5 Logo use (for FSSC logo), 2.5.6 Allergen Management, 2.5.7 Environmental Monitoring, 2.5.10 Transport, 2.5.11 Hazard control, 2.5.13 Product Design and Development, 2.5.17 Communication Requirements, 2.5.18b Multi sites (effectiveness of corrective action shall be demonstrated across all the sites)
Best practices for implementation strategies
Don’t wait until just before the audit date for implementation to meet new changes, start early.
Check out 🍏 Stay Ahead of the Curve: A Road Map for Implementing New Audit Standards in Issue 128 🍏
Source: FSSC 22000 Version 6 webinar, Intertek Alchemy, January 2024
Food Safety News and Resources
Our news and resources section has not-boring food safety news plus links to free webinars and guidance documents: no ads, no sponsored content, only resources that I believe will be genuinely helpful for you.
This week’s head-scratcher: what made more than 500 people need medical attention after eating buck-wheat containing foods?
Click the preview below to access it.
When Flies Eat (Just for Fun)
And now for a video of a fly eating. I reckon this would work well in training about the importance of keeping doors closed to keep pests out of a food facility.
Below for paying subscribers: Food fraud news, horizon scanning and incident reports
📌 Food Fraud News 📌
In this week’s food fraud news:
📌 Insights from European food safety records;
📌 FSSC 22000 updates food fraud requirements;
📌 Food fraud hotline launched;
📌 Tuna species (canned tuna) adulteration/substitution test using PCR;
📌 Camel milk, goose intestines, organic foods.
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