Food safety breaches are not just breaking the rules in the food business. It breaks the trust of your customers and can lead to losing business. Why? By breaking food safety laws, it risks foodborne illness and other dangerous consequences can occur.
In order to make sure restaurants and other types of food businesses are not making any food safety breaches, food safety inspectors check establishments. They look for things that may cause unsafe food practices and report it to authorities. In the United States, the food authority organisation is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA produced a report on the five most common breaches in America in 2017? So what are they?
The Five
- Pest Exclusion/Screening: The FDA received most complaints about pest control. Many complaints said that the food companies did not have effective measures. FDA requires food manufacturers to have a detailed pest management policy
- Sanitation Monitoring: In America, sanitation needs to satisfy Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs). Common errors committed by businesses include
• water contact with or food contacts surfaces
• cross-contamination from insanitary objects
• poor hand washing, hand sanitising and toilet facilities
• improper labelling, storage and use of toxic chemicals - Plant Cleanliness: All manufacturing plants must be constructed in a manner that allows all floors, walls and ceiling to be adequately cleaned. Unfortunately, all businesses have this in their blueprint.
- HACCP Plan Implementation: The FDA announced that all food companies need to commit to their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans. While organisations can use existing food safety programs, HACCP plans need to be consistently updates and implemented.
- Reasonable Precautions: Precautions must be taken at all times in case when procedures do not go to plan. Not having these plans can be dangerous
Do you think Australia would have similar issues? If so, how can you prevent your food business from falling into the same pattern?
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