Collection

Food safety

Views: 3469

5 Key Questions to Answer During Hygienic Food Plant Design

Food safety should always be a shared responsibility for your food processing plant. Whether you’re planning the hygienic design of a new or existing facility, schedule a collaborative planning session. Invite your engineering and construction professionals along with individuals from multiple departments to answer key questions that will drive the sanitary design of your plant.

Continue Reading “5 Key Questions to Answer During Hygienic Food Plant Design”

Views: 2716

Is Your Food Processing Plant Safe From Listeria?

Listeria is a foodborne illness that can have dire consequences–sometimes, deadly. The bacteria is characteristically persistent, able to not only thrive for years, but within frozen storage and outside of the expected environments, such as meat processing plants. Are you sure you’re taking the proper measures to ensure listeria isn’t growing in your facility?

Continue Reading “Is Your Food Processing Plant Safe From Listeria?”

Views: 2510

Following Sanitary Design Best Practices Key to Avoiding Food Safety Recalls

Stellar is experiencing a major uptick in sanitary design projects, and we have a hunch as to why. The implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has many food and beverage companies taking a deeper look at their processing practices, their plant designs and the equipment that goes inside their facilities. As food recalls litter the headlines and impact the health of consumers, food safety continues to be a crucial area of focus. A sound food safety program begins on the plant floor, and it all starts with following sanitary design best practices.

Continue Reading “Following Sanitary Design Best Practices Key to Avoiding Food Safety Recalls”

Views: 594

Comment Deadline Approaching for Proposed HARPC FSMA Amendment

 


After receiving over 20,000 comments, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently amended several previously proposed rules for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), including the Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls (HARPC) for Human Food rule. To address food safety from the beginning, the proposed HARPC rule requires preventative measures be taken at food processing facilities. While the FDA is currently accepting comments on the update, the December 15 deadline is rapidly approaching.

Continue Reading “Comment Deadline Approaching for Proposed HARPC FSMA Amendment”

Views: 2301

Are HEPA Filters the Most Valuable Choice for Your Plant?

Because billions of particles lace unconditioned air with dust, dirt, bacteria and pathogens, your plant’s air filters are crucial to preventing contamination and ensuring food safety. But when it comes to filtration, more isn’t necessarily better. This is especially true with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. While HEPA filters may be a necessity for some plant environments, they could be expensive overkill for others.

Continue Reading “Are HEPA Filters the Most Valuable Choice for Your Plant?”

Views: 5630

Eliminating Noxious Plant Odors Through Incineration: A Case Study

Odor complaints from those who live and work near food processing plants have been making headlines lately, resulting in bad press and poor community relations for the manufacturers. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Air Act was created to reduce emissions of hazardous and odorous air pollutants and outlines specific requirements for food processors.  Subsequently, odor control should be a part of any food processing plant’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) program.

Continue Reading “Eliminating Noxious Plant Odors Through Incineration: A Case Study”

Views: 2111

Sanitary Process Installation: What to Ask When Selecting a Subcontractor

Equipment manufacturers play a key role in the food safety program of a food processing plant, ensuring that equipment is designed and built to meet stringent sanitary requirements. Plant owners often spend significant time and money to acquire the right equipment with the proper sanitary construction. Yet once that equipment is designed and delivered, the next critical step is ensuring that it’s installed properly, within those same sanitary standards. If you do not carefully screen installation subcontractors, you could put your plant at risk of a food safety issue.

Continue Reading “Sanitary Process Installation: What to Ask When Selecting a Subcontractor”

Views: 2313

New Trends in Sanitary Equipment Design are Improving Food Safety Standards

As food safety regulatory requirements become more stringent, equipment manufacturers are stepping up to the plate and increasing the role they play in the industry. The American Meat Institute’s (AMI) 10 sanitary design principles offer baseline standards for equipment design, yet many suppliers are going above and beyond these standards by offering improved surfaces, cleaning chemicals, and construction processes.

Continue Reading “New Trends in Sanitary Equipment Design are Improving Food Safety Standards”

Views: 592

Five Ways an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System Can Help You Comply With FSMA

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is front and center for most food processors yet managing the regulatory and reporting requirements can be taxing and time consuming. Many food processors are investing in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to more efficiently manage the process, allowing for better data collection, analysis, documentation, and reporting tools. Using an ERP program to manage your plant’s food safety program will improve your audit results, reduce food safety-related incidents and investigations, improve product quality and ultimately increase operational efficiencies.

Continue Reading “Five Ways an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System Can Help You Comply With FSMA”

Views: 893

The FDA Invites Comments from Food Processors on Proposed New FSMA Rules

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a new strategy document that outlines the agency’s guiding principles for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This latest move by the FDA is designed to encourage dialogue and collaboration between the agency and the food industry as FSMA moves into its next phase – the effective and efficient implementation of the new standards.

Continue Reading “The FDA Invites Comments from Food Processors on Proposed New FSMA Rules”