Food safety across the supply chain is integral to providing safe, quality foods for your customers. Each ingredient that is added to a product is a liability, with certain ingredients having higher and lower risks (for example, liquid extracts pose less of a risk than ground spices). Managing food safety along the supply chain is not a simple task as the food supply chain is ever more complex and far reaching. Special considerations including environmental and time constraints should be made in order to ensure perishable items reach consumers before getting spoiled.
Microbiological contamination in foods generate serious health concerns as well as major economic losses. No one wants to be involved in a food recall. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it is estimated that 16% of Americans suffer from foodborne illnesses and 3,000 die annually. In addition, more than $15.6 billion is lost due to foodborne illnesses according to the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA).
It is important for both food manufacturers and consumers to conduct best practices to ensure food safety. Food manufacturers should strictly follow good manufacturing practices (GMPs) to ensure product safety and quality while consumers should always follow basic safe food handling rules including washing hands, avoiding cross contamination, and cooking their food to the right temperature. In addition, as more people are staying home, demand on meal kits and delivery is increasing. It is important that foods are kept out of the temperature danger zone (40 °F – 140 °F) for prolonged period of time as this would increase food safety risk.
Food Protection
Kalsec’s research and development food protection team is working to develop new, natural solutions by identifying novel compounds that are extracted from nature, exploring fermentation technology, and finding synergistic combinations. Kalsec’s food protection solutions leverage multifunctional and synergistic effects to enhance shelf-life of foods and improve food safety. This helps food manufacturers to protect their product while good manufacturing practices (GMPs) are being met to minimize initial microbial load and prevent post processing contamination.
Kalsec developed Duralox® NV, which uses rosemary extract and buffered vinegar to effectively inhibit the growth of spoilage microorganisms and Salmonella in comminuted and whole-muscle meat products. This formulation offers the advantages of added flavor protection and shelf life extension while remaining in compliance with clean label requirements.
About the Author |
|
|
Dr. Andrew Lee joined Kalsec in 2018 as a microbiology lead scientist. Dr. Lee earned his PhD degree in Food Science and Technology from Virginia Tech in 2017 and his master’s degree in Seoul National University, South Korea in 2012. Dr. Lee has worked on projects including model fermentation system development, starter culture development, rapid identification and characterization of microorganisms in fermented foods, metabolic engineering, and bioreactor engineering. In his current role, Dr. Lee is leading the antimicrobial R&D team developing novel, synergistic, and clean label antimicrobial products in various food applications.