The mishandling or undercooking of raw chicken meat associated with the recent Foster Farms Salmonella outbreak has sickened nearly 340 people across 20 states and Puerto Rico since March and has caused concern among consumers, consumer groups, and food-safety advocates about the safety of our food system and the efficacy of testing systems designed to…
Food Testing: Accreditation a Growing Trend Among Food Labs
Back in the 1980s, the pharmaceutical industry grappled with the prospect of requiring testing laboratories to receive accreditation, a certification of credibility according to a qualifying body. Some labs were following international standards, while others set their own standards, and, as a result, there was no minimum level of quality which any of them were…
Food Labs Integral to Changing World of Food Safety
The work of its laboratories has long been ubiquitous in the world of food safety. Public or private, their work is usually in the background, unseen but almost always unchallenged. Those days, however, may be changing. The landmark Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) mentions food laboratories 57 times and says something about laboratory tests 29…