Photo of Roy Costa, RS, MS (MBA)

Roy Costa is the founder and owner of the consulting firm Environ Health Associates Inc. He is a registered professional sanitarian (RS) with almost 40 years of environmental health practice in the academic, government and private sectors. Costa is an educator and food safety trainer with experience in a number of countries. He is a Lead Instructor for the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) and for the Produce Safety Alliance. Costa’s practice specializes in the prevention and control of food and waterborne infectious agents.

Opinion

The food industry and our public health agencies have long recognized that they share the same responsibility to protect consumers from unsafe food.  The modern food industry is, however, growing more diverse, dynamic, and complex. making the application of food protection throughout the broad spectrum of operations a challenge
Continue Reading Can we have a culture of prevention in a toxic sea of division?

The disgusting truth about industrial egg production is “it stinks”.  Sanitation in such environments stretches the imagination when you think of a million birds trapped in cages in huge shed-type structures called  “laying houses” and the tons of fecal material produced daily.

While a high degree of cleanliness may be
Continue Reading Rose Acre Farms: Another Bad Actor, Or a Deeper Problem?

Provisions of the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP), under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, were enacted in 2015. They mandate that foreign suppliers provide the same level of food safety protection for their products as domestic suppliers are required to provide for theirs.

This is needed as
Continue Reading FSVP compliance with FSMA achievable with A, B, C approach

Outbreaks of Salmonella and other pathogens in fresh produce are unfortunately relatively frequent occurrences. This is true, particularly with imported Mexican papaya.

Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the Centers for Disease Control have disclosed potential root cause in the latest outbreak, however, the factors that lead to contamination
Continue Reading Could the ongoing Salmonella outbreak have been prevented?