Archive of July, 2025

What is Food Fraud Many cases of food fraud are reported both in the US and around the globe. For example, a year ago there were many reports about Parmesan cheese that contained fillers like wood pulp, cellulose, and cheddar. In Europe horse meat was labeled as beef. There is no universal definition of food fraud. The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention maintains a Food Fraud Database and describes food fraud as a “deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain.” Michigan State University in its Food...

The recall of cheeses due to the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in Deutsch Käse Haus caused a snowball effect since Deutsch Käse Haus is a business–to-business provider of cheeses. Once a food recall is issued, each company that receives the contaminated products has to look at how contamination may have spread through its own plant. The situation becomes more complicated as supply chains grow longer and longer. The globalization of food supply chains makes widespread outbreaks more likely, and in some ways more difficult to track. It is hoped that the new FDA regulation as shown in the draft “Control of Listeria...

GLOBAL FOOD SAFETY INITIATIVE (GFSI) Launched in 2000, GFSI  is a worldwide industry and retail driven initiative, which mission is to “provide continuous improvement in food safety management systems to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers worldwide”. Major international retailers (Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, Mc Donald’s, …) and food manufacturing concerns (Nestlé, Coca Cola, Danone, …) are involved within GFSI board, technical committee and working groups for setting the common requirements and rules against which food safety management systems shall be benchmarked to get GFSI recognition. GFSI recognition motto is: “once certified, everywhere accepted”. Major buyers and retailers require...

Five months after the U.S. Marshals Service raided a powdered milk factory at the request of FDA, many companies are drawn into the Salmonella recall linked to milk powder and buttermilk produced by Valley Milk Products (VMP). The US Marshalls seized more than 4 million pounds of dried milk and buttermilk, due to possible Salmonella contamination, and down-stream food companies are still initiating recalls. Twinkies by Hostess This week the iconic snack Twinkies joined dozens of other food companies as a victim of a secondary recall because of Salmonella contamination at VMP. In the recall notice the company recited: “The confectionary coating contains milk powder ingredients recalled...