Category: Blog

Food safety audits are a type of assessment that is conducted to ensure that an organization is following best practices when it comes to handling food. There are many different types of audits that can be completed, but a food safety audit is specifically designed to check for potential areas of risk as it pertains to food contamination. These audits often involve checking specific points in the handling process for any risks and creating a report that details the areas in which the business needs to take actionable steps in order to reduce any risks of food-borne illness. Audits should not be frightening or stressful but rather viewed as an opportunity for improvement. Food safety audits are beneficial because they offer insight on whether your company has everything in place…

In some cases you may be required to be certified to more than one standard because the food industry around the world is not standardized, governments in some countries may require you to have a specific certification (e.g. Germany IFS) and some retailers or manufacturers may demand another. In China, for example, the government sets their own standards but in order to export their products they might also need to meet other international standards that are acceptable to country of export or a retailer is asking their suppliers to be certified to a specific scheme i.e. BRC, HACCP, or SQF. Being certified to one of the food safety schemes under the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) should help reduce a businesses overall costs and duplication because these standards are increasingly…

Food safety certification is a third-party verification that products, processes or systems in the food supply chain meet accepted food safety standards. It is distinct from other systems of proof of conformity such as supplier declarations, laboratory test reports or inspection body reports. Food safety certification is based on the results of tests, inspections and audits and gives confidence to the consumer because an organization’s products and/or system are being thoroughly evaluated against accepted national and international industry standards by a competent third body. Product certification attests that a food product complies with the safety, fitness for use and/or interchangeability characteristics defined in standards, and in specifications supplementary to standards, where they are requested by the market. Organizational certification demonstrates that, for example, a food manufacturer’s quality, environmental or other…

මිනිස් ශිෂ්ථාචාරයේ මුල සිටම තමාගේ පාරිභෝජනය සඳහා විවිධ දේවල් ලබාගැනීම මිනිසාගේ ස්වාභාවික ක්‍රියාවක් වූ අතර, එම "ක්‍රියාව" මානව පරිණාමයේදි සිදුවූ විවිධ පරිවර්ථන නිසා "ක්‍රියාවලියක්" බවට පත්විය.මෑත ඉතිහාසය තුල දෛනික පාරිභෝජනය සඳහා අයිතමයන් මිළදී ගැනීම ඉහල ගොස් ඇති අතර ඒ හා සබැඳුනු විවිධ ප්‍රතිවිපාක නිසා පාරිභෝගිකත්වයේ විශාල වෙනස්කමක් සිදුවී ඇත. දශක කීපයක සිට සිදුවුන විද්‍යාත්මක දියුණුව සහ පෙරළිය ඉහත කී වෙනස්කමේ මුල් පුරුක බවට පත්විය. වාණිජකරණය සහ කාර්මිකරණය නිසා මිනිසුන්ගේ අවශ්‍යතා විවිධ වූ අතර, එම ඉල්ලුමට සරිලන සැපයුම ලබාදීමට අවැසි කරුණු කාරණා එකිනෙක සම්පාදනය වී විවිධත්වයෙන් යුතු පාරිභෝගික භාණ්ඩ වෙළඳපොලට ඉදිරිපත්විය. මෙම වෙළඳපොල තුල ඇති සියළුම භාණ්ඩ පාරිභෝගිකයාගේ අවශ්‍යතාවයන් ඒ අයුරින්ම සංසිඳුවයිද? පාරිභෝජනය තුළින් වෙනත් ගැටළු ඇතිවෙයිද? මෙම ප්‍රශ්න හටගැනීමත් සමග පාරිභෝගකයන්ගේ සිත තවත් ආකාරයකට ඒ පිළිබඳ සිතීමට යොමු විය. මෙම ගැටළුවට විශේෂයෙන්ම මුහුණපෑමට සිදුවූයේ ආහාරපාන නිශ්පාදනය සහ මිළදීගැනීම තුලය. මෙම…

Shelf life of food product is the major fact that indicates the total quality of food. In summation, it helps to see whether this product produced hygienically safe. Microbiological tests (Total Plate Count), hygienic tests (Fecal Coliforms, total Coliforms) and chemical tests (varied with the product characteristics) are borne out to ascertain the fourth dimension which can keep food for safe consumption under specific circumstance. This safe storage time is differed with simple facts. Characters of raw material and food ingredient, processing type and methods, environmental condition during processing and storing and packing material. Except those, there could be traceable reasons which effect to the food quality. Changing of microbiological and chemical characteristics could lead to the spoilage of foods. Changing the appearance of food, quantity of nutrition’s, accumulation of…

Preparing a food in a family, is a one of most concerned matter since they love each other. In Sri Lanka, it is a tradition that mother taking overall responsibility of preparing food for her family. She takes care of the kitchen activities and maintains it very well. Lacking of food poisoning information from ground level is a consequence of her commitment. When food preparing became a business, the whole scenario was changed. In the history, only male members of the family were employed in farming and other jobs (most of the time) while female (mother and daughters) working with cooking stuffs. Instead of that, now we can see all family members working hard even without thinking of safe foods. In Sri Lanka, there are several types of food manufacturers…

      In this new version, you will find an optimized protocol, a new definition of the B-scoring, and the introduction of star status to highlight unannounced audits. These updates facilitate efficient working with the standard for all parties involved. “The IFS Food Standard is designed to promote continuous improvement of the companies certified to it. Accordingly, we at IFS have the ambition to continually adapt and enhance it further. This way, our certified companies and other stakeholders can rely on us to be in tune with the latest developments”, adds Chryssa Dimitriadis, Director of Standard Management at IFS. 21 years of providing high-quality, widely accepted, and trusted standards We launched the first IFS Food Standard 21 years ago. Having over 20,000 IFS Food Certificates today, IFS has become…

Of late, it has been noticed that some of the branded food processors in Sri Lanka have been sealed and restricted its business by relevant authorities. Ex: Rice Mill, Bakery producer, and soft drink manufacturer. Why this has become a threat? There are many reasons for the background of these incidents. Lack of awareness of food safety, negligence of local regulations, and hesitating on investment in the proper food safety scheme. The output is not much simpler as we predict. Fact number one. Lost of the brand name is a huge disadvantage that cannot be gained easily. The whole business could be crumbled and there will be no space in the marketplace again. Sometimes, if the business involves export, it will be cast out from the respective countries and blacklisted…

Food safety consultants play a crucial role in addressing various challenges in the food industry. Here are some incidents where their expertise is valuable: Outbreak Investigations: Consultants assist in tracing the source of foodborne illness outbreaks. For instance, in the case of the 2018 E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce in the United States, consultants aided in identifying the contaminated batches and implementing measures to prevent further spread. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Implementation: Consultants help food businesses develop and implement HACCP plans to identify and mitigate potential hazards in the production process. In instances like the 2008 Salmonella outbreak in peanuts traced to the Peanut Corporation of America, consultants could have aided in establishing proper controls to prevent contamination. Regulatory Compliance: Consultants ensure that food companies comply with local…