Allergenic foods pose a serious safety risk to your consumers, causing sometimes life-threatening medical reactions when exposed. As the CDC continues to report a rise in food allergies across age demographics, successful allergen management is an integral piece of food manufacturing.

In May 1997, as part of the President's Food Safety Initiative, the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture, and Environmental Protection Agency all sent to the president a report that identified produce as a key area of concern. 

Environmental sustainability is a team effort. When you incorporate environmental sustainability into your daily routine, whether at home or work, you're not only helping the environment for future generations but you're also saving money and promoting company efficiency.

Food processors who fall under the Intentional Adulteration Rule (IA Rule) must conduct a vulnerability assessment as part of their food defense plan. A vulnerability assessment measures potential public health impact (e.g. severity and scale), degree of physical access to the product, and the ability of an inside attacker to successfully adulterate your products. 

Risk analysis is a process that helps manufacturers identify and manage potential problems in their process or facility. A food defense risk analysis model has three components: risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication. Risk assessment refers to rating the severity and likelihood of a certain hazard or threat. Risk management refers to making decisions on how to control hazards and implement mitigation strategies. 

Your internal audit is only as good as the people completing it. Thus, the individuals selected must have the industry qualifications and auditing experience necessary to perform an effective internal audit. We’ve broken down the benchmarks for well-trained, qualified internal auditors by personal attributes, knowledge and skills, as well as experience and training below, so that you can get the most return on your internal audit investment.

Confused about the difference between HACCP and HARPC? You’re not alone. Both stem from the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a robust food safety legislation act enacted in 2011. The ultimate goal of each is to proactively identify food safety problems in your facility and correct for each. HACCP and HARPC are often used interchangeably, albeit incorrectly, in food processing circles. Here are the key differences.

Prerequisite programs, or PRPs, are essential to the development of effective HACCP systems. In theory, PRP’s act as the foundation of this system – the stronger a facility's foundation, the stronger its food safety plan. 

The number of active shooter incidents in the United States is currently 20% higher than in 2020. The words alone are enough to instill a sense of dread, let alone the statistics. 

While cyberattacks take different forms, they all rely on human error to gain entry to your company’s system. Luckily, there are routines and steps we can follow to prevent this. These practices are called cyber hygiene. Just like personal hygiene habits help keep us healthy, cyber hygiene practices help protect the health and security of computer systems. This blog will walk you through some of the most prevalent cyber hygiene practices.

Continuous quality improvement is more of a philosophy than a process or system. It requires commitment from everyone in the business. Everyone from senior management to frontline workers must adopt a mindset of continuously looking for ways to improve processes and systems by making them efficient and effective. Unsustainable continuous improvement efforts are those that fail to become part of a company’s culture.

Food fraud is the deception of consumers using food products, ingredients and packaging for economic gain.  Although food fraud has only recently received heightened attention, it’s been around a long time.