Food Safety News Round Up

Late August Edition

Read all about it! Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

There are lots of bits of information floating around my computer. By sharing them here, I hope I can close some tabs!

Here is a summary so you can scroll down to what interests you:

1. GAO Brief on Chronic Illness includes food safety recommendations

2. Infant Formula Update

3. Which Food Safety Plan is right for you?

4. Food Processors Food Safety Toolkit

5. Whitehouse Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health

General Accountability Office released a Brief on Chronic Illness with food safety recommendations

Food Safety gets a mention in a July report from the GAO on chronic illness. They also discussed chronic illness causing more problems for people with Covid and food insecurity. 

The food safety issue raised was because of the outbreaks linked to infant milk formula. The GAO is particularly concerned about federal oversight of food safety. They state that there are 30 federal laws administered by 15 agencies that pertain to food safety. 

There are many challenges working with food businesses because of differing local, state, and federal regulations and it would be great to have a less fragmented system. 

What is currently going on with the Infant Formula Crisis? 

Apparently Abbott restarted its production of Similac Infant Formula on Friday August 26. It should take six weeks for it to reach store shelves. 

Which food safety plan is right for you?

A new blog post to help you sort out the regulations for your food business. Do you know if you need a food safety plan or a HACCP plan and what is the difference anyway? Check out the post here.

A helpful website for small food manufacturers

The Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety finally released a Processors Food Safety Toolkit for very small and small food processors. I played a tiny part in reviewing this website as I think this is really important to support small businesses. Check the toolkit out and provide feedback if anything is confusing. 

Date Announced for Whitehouse Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health

The Whitehouse announced that their Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health is on September 28 2022. The conference shall be live streamed and you can find more information is here. 

This NPR article gives a good overview of the upcoming one day conference which, hopefully, will guide food and nutrition policy for the next eight years. 

I’m looking forward to attending this event and continuing to make sure we have a strong food system. 

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Who is Cathy Davies?

I write about the intersection of food science and food systems with an emphasis on food safety, food justice and resilience. I am concerned that climate disasters and changing weather patterns are affecting our ability to eat healthy, nutritious food.  

I run a food safety consultancy, Food Safety Mid Atlantic, supporting specialty food businesses with their food safety plans and programs. If you are interested in learning more about my consulting services, please schedule a free call. 

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