In the realm of food safety, the landscape seems to be ever-evolving. I do hear the persistent concerns regarding the efficacy of traditional methods in risk mitigation and compliance assurance. From the challenges faced by FS/QA teams to the need for effective communication with suppliers on food risk prevention, the food industry seems to be ripe for innovative solutions. Areas of concern for food safety professionals include: Disruption in FS/QA Teams: The traditional paradigm often finds itself entangled in the labyrinth of audit preparations, relegating proactive risk assessment to ..read more

Passion is energy*, from focusing on what really excites you. And this is something drives people together towards a common goal. That is the reason behind all Agroknow’s actions over the year. To drive passion into the hearts of its employees. And what a year 2023 has been! Full of adventures and excitement. Adventures aiming to educate, refresh our minds and hearts, bring closer together, challenge us, help us learn a bit more about each other and discover what connects and brings value to our everyday position responsibilities. To commemorate all this, we decided to take a look back at some ..read more

STELAR, the 3-year Horizon Europe project developing a data management system fit for today’s agrifood needs, is entering a new and exciting stage of the project lifetime cycle. After a first year filled with fruitful collaboration and efforts from the project’s consortium to set the stage for the Pilots, STELAR is ready to kick off Piloting activities revolving around topics of risk prevention in food supply lines, early crop growth predictions, and timely precision farming interventions.   Piloting Activities Underway There are three business cases from the domain of smart agriculture ..read more

Food recalls are the most critical situation that could befall you as a food safety professional. Among the many consequences of recalls, I could highlight putting people’s health in jeopardy, lowering consumer trust in the food industry, and making the food supply chain look unreliable and untrustworthy. And yet, one question arises: Can AI help us in preventing food recalls? In April 2022, a massive food recall hit the market, when salmonella was detected in chocolate products marketed to children, resulting in 300 people falling ill across 16 countries – predominantly young children. Althou ..read more

Working in food safety for a major food manufacturing company means that you have to deal with unexpected supply chain risks often. About a month ago, at the 2022 GFSI Conference in Barcelona, I heard so many times that identifying emerging, mid- or long-term food risks is a difficult and laborious task for food safety professionals.     Risk prevention is a complex mission with a very important goal. It is where you need to combine the best practices that food safety standards put in place, with the requirements of applicable regulations, and the requests of your key clients. Your ..read more

Few would disagree that for food companies, the safety of their products comes first. Supplier risk is manifold. You look to safeguard your supply chain while keeping your consumers’ health at heart as well. Supplier risk assessment is therefore one of the proactive steps that comes to mind for keeping food recalls at bay.   Supplier assessment is an effective and widespread process employed by food safety and quality assurance professionals around the world. A supplier risk assessment identifies the weakest spots in a food manufacturer or retailer’s -usually global- food supply chain and ..read more

Fat is flavor, or so the adage in food circles goes. If you want to achieve big taste and get mouths salivating, there is no easier ingredient to incorporate than fat or oil. From a simple smear of salted butter on toast to the integral addition of Mediterranean olive oil to a salad, a healthy (or not-so-healthy) fat is just as important to taste as it is to meal preparation. Imagine a world without oil for frying, or industrial quantities of butter that prop up bakeries and patisseries! 2021 has again been a record year for food safety incidents related to fats and oils and those in the indus ..read more

Let’s talk about supplier and ingredient risk assessment. Food risk assessment is the process through which food safety or supplier compliance teams need to calculate a risk indicator for thousands of ingredients and hundreds of suppliers, so that they rank them in terms of priority and vulnerability. This calculation can be done using some widely accepted risk assessment formulas or an internal risk scoring model. But it’s a process that may take days, very often weeks – and, in some cases, months. Often, the assessment is logged into an Excel spreadsheet that collect ..read more

There are different ways that food safety teams can stay informed about incidents and emerging risks that could be critical to their supply chain. For example, regularly checking official, trusted websites like the European RASFF portal and the US FDA recalls and safety alerts. Or subscribing to an email alert service synced to food recalls. Welcome to the world of food risk monitoring tools – also widely known as horizon scanning and foresight tools For many years, these terms were used to describe online services that scanned a large number of information sources in order to alert profession ..read more

A meal just isn’t a meal without ____. If you’re like most people, odds are that you filled out the blank with a beloved carbohydrate. Carbs are the building blocks of a balanced diet, as both a source of energy and what really rounds out that feeling of being full after eating. Every culture has its own carb of choice, whether it be a loaf fresh from the bakery, a steaming hot bowl of rice, or nutrient-rich grains native to one’s country. Where would restaurateurs, food retailers, and their suppliers be without bread for sandwiches or rice for sushi? So you can only imagine what kind of disru ..read more