Avoiding Product Recall With FLAV®FRESH
FOOD HEALTH REPORT by Trish Lindeman, R&D Manager
Concerningly, there has been an increase in product recalls due to listeria contamination recently with several products being pulled from the shelves of major grocery retailers.
There are potentially many contributing factors, none of which can be ruled in or out as the key reason.
NATIONAL LABOUR SHORTAGE: It is no secret that Covid-19 has had an impact on many areas of our home, social and working lives for the last two years. A key impact related to our industry is a national skills shortage across many production and manufacturing businesses which is impacting quality control, driving up prices and increasing demand for hard to find skilled labour.
COST CUTTING: Higher labour and manufacturing prices are resulting in margin pressure across all parts of the food production process. Unfortunately this has meant that corners are being cut to save in areas that the customer will not notice, which is often in food safety measures.
We believe that the impact from the combination of these factors has led to a spike of listeria outbreaks in recent months.
The brand, reputational and financial risk of a product recall is high.
| Every Quality Assurance and Production Manager in the food industry needs to understand the risks and have an ‘insurance policy’ to safeguard their business, customers and bottom line against a listeria outbreak.
Listeria monocytogenes is a species of pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria that can be found in moist environments, soil, water, decaying vegetation and animals, and can survive and even grow under refrigeration and other food preservation measures. When people eat food contaminated with L. monocytogenes, they may develop a disease called listeriosis. We have developed Earlee Control as an anti-microbial defence shield against risk in food processing. FLAV®FRESH is a proven innovative, safe and clean label solution that prevents the growth of foodborne pathogens. The proprietary formulation uniquely combines a selection of approved and well-established natural food ingredients from Earlee Control. |
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