Category: Updates

Are you asking yourself the question what is the limit of detection needed. People ask me how low is low enough. When you are cleaning to remove allergens you need to know when you are done cleaning. The answer like many in food safety is, it depends. A thorough review of the risks is an important starting point.
You are trying to ensure that you do not have enough allergen left on your equipment that would carry over to a new production run of a product that does not have that allergen. This could cause an allergic response in an unwary consumer.
The method of confirming the cleaning is adequate varies. Some document on a checklist that the surfaces were visually clean. Some swab cleaned surfaces on some frequency and test the swab. Others capture part of the following production run or a rinse solution and test that material. The tests are done using various test methods to determine if the target allergen is present either directly through antibody/dna testing or indirectly through general protein or ATP testing.
So how low is low enough will depend on what your risk is of a allergen cross-contact causing a consumer to have a response. There is work by the FDA and WHO on creating guidance to help as well as some other industry guidelines that may be specific to the products you make.

Come vote on whether or not we should create a student committee within MFPA to better represent the needs of our student members.

Thank you to those that were able to make the meeting.

We heard from our new President Gregory Danzeisen on the state of MFPA and a review of the Affiliate Meeting held this last summer at the IAFP annual meeting.

Polly Courtney also provided an update on the current health of our membership and financial position. We remain in a good position and look forward to doing more with our organization.

We discussed ideas for upcoming awards and meetings. In order to get as much feedback as possible, we will be creating a survey to send to our members. So please watch for the survey when it comes to your email.

Have you ever been confused on whether or not the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance released by the US FDA is law?  Here is a link I found recently that helps explain the relationship between the federal and state governments in regards to the PMO.