The joint goal of this effort is to improve fresh produce safety and streamline the requirements of the USDA’s Harmonized Good Agricultural Practices Audit Program (H-GAP) with the requirements under the Food Safety Modernization Act’s produce safety rule. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb sends a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in which he said that the two programs aren’t the same, but the H-GAP audits are another tool farmers can use to show buyers they’re implementing food safety standards under the produce rule. The new policy, Gottlieb wrote, “will further help farmers by enabling them to better assess their food safety practices as they prepare to comply with the FSMA Produce Rule and by providing produce farmers with certifications that they can use to help gain market access.” This alliance between FDA and USDA. Should help producers meet federal regulatory requirements @ https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/ucm609830.htm
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Over the past months, USDA’s Specialty Crops Program in the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) successfully collaborated with FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition to align the USDA Harmonized Good Agricultural Practices (H-GAPs) Audit Program with the minimum requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule (FSMA Produce Rule).
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FoodLogiQ CEO Dean Wiltse said: “As a technology pioneer with a legacy of success in enhanced traceability, FoodLogiQ will be taking the lead on blockchain exploration within the food space,”. The group will explore the opportunities and challenges of blockchain technology within the food industry. FoodLogiQ Chief Technology Officer Charles Irizarry said that “We are finding that companies are jumping into blockchain pilots without first understanding their business problems. We look forward to working with current and future blockchain pilot partners to help them navigate this complex landscape and collaborate on how blockchain can support their unique business.” @ https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/foodlogiq-announces-blockchain-pilot-alongside-industry-leaders-300660418.html
DURHAM, N.C., June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — FoodLogiQ, the leading SaaS provider of traceability, food safety and…
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Oasis won the Grand prize among some 60 applications submitted to the fourth annual Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Water Innovation Prize competition for its simple, inexpensive test for detecting E. coli. The test uses the development of color in a liquid media to determine if and how contaminated the water is. The assay showed 98% specificity when compared to the standard filtration method, with a limit of detection of 1 colony/100 ml of water. The self-contained disposable retails for $2.99. “The kit includes two plastic bags (one large and one small), that are pre-loaded with a specialized E. coli powdered media. Users fill the tube (large volume) and its cap (small volume) with drinking water and then pour the water in the respective bags. The bags turn orange when dissolved in the water sample,” Explains Bir Oasis founder. “Results are interpreted by the color of the bags after 48 hours if they are kept at ambient temperature, or 24 hours if incubated at 37 degrees Celsius,” Bir notes. “We’ve given it to children in India, where there’s no access to education, and, just by following the instructions, they’ve been able to perform the test.”
@ https://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/color-test-for-e-coli-captures-coveted-grand-prize/?elq_mid=27845&elq_cid=10195538
More information can be found @ https://www.oasiswatertest.com/
A startup company named Oasis, based in Bangalore, India, captured the $15,000 grand prize in the annual Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Water Innovation competition for its simple, inexpensive test for detecting E. coli.
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Food safety attorney Bill Marler said the outbreak of E. coli in lettuce points to a failure in systems that were put in place to protect the public in the wake of a similar deadly spinach outbreak in 2006. Marler believes the outbreak reflects a broader problem, which seems to affect the entire Yuma growing region, despite controls that were enacted in the last decade. “We are basically having the exact same outbreak that we had in 2006,” Marler told IEG Policy on June 1. “The size is identical. Then it was 203 [cases] with three deaths, now we have 197 with five deaths. So, I would make a pretty strong argument that the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA) and the FSMA rule have been a failure. And the failure is not taking into account the environmental causes of E.coli. And it is exactly what we’ve got here.” Marler believes that FDA needs to increase transparency and abandoning the practice of protecting the names of companies implicated in recalls and outbreaks. @ https://iegpolicy.agribusinessintelligence.informa.com/PL216600/Marler-says-Ecoli-outbreak-points-to-systems-failure-in-LGMA-FSMA?vid=Agri
On Friday, as it became clear that the E.coli outbreak in romaine lettuce has now claimed five lives, food safety attorney Bill Marler said the outbreak points to a failure in systems that were put in place to protect the public in the wake of a similar deadly outbreak in 2006.