Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Beware of Bug Bites and Stings
Summer. Warm weather. Sunny days. Fishing. Bugs in your beer. Mosquitoes. Ticks. Ugh.
Hey, if it were all butterflies, dragonflies and lightning bugs, life would be grand. This week, we look at bug bites and stings.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world. Not even our troubles." - Charles Chaplin (British actor, director, & screenwriter, 1889 - 1977)
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008
HACCP Principle 4: Establish Monitoring/Inspection Requirements
Traditional inspection is relatively resource-intensive and inefficient and is reactive rather than preventive compared to the HACCP approach for ensuring food safety. Regulatory agencies are challenged to find new approaches to food safety that enable them to become more focused and efficient and to minimize costs wherever possible. The advantages of HACCP-based inspections are becoming increasingly acknowledged by the regulatory community.
Monitoring is a plan which includes observations or measurements to assess whether the CCP is being met. It provides a record of the "flow of food" through the establishment. If monitoring indicates that the critical limits are not being met, then an action must be taken to bring the process back into control. The monitoring system should be easy to use and meet the needs of the food establishment, as well as the regulatory authority. It is important that the job of monitoring be assigned to a specific individual and they be trained on the monitoring technique.
This week, we look at HACCP Principle 4: Establish Monitoring/Inspection Requirements.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." - G.K. Chesterton (English writer whose prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography and fantasy, well noted for his "Father Brown" stories, 1874 - 1936)
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Monitoring is a plan which includes observations or measurements to assess whether the CCP is being met. It provides a record of the "flow of food" through the establishment. If monitoring indicates that the critical limits are not being met, then an action must be taken to bring the process back into control. The monitoring system should be easy to use and meet the needs of the food establishment, as well as the regulatory authority. It is important that the job of monitoring be assigned to a specific individual and they be trained on the monitoring technique.
This week, we look at HACCP Principle 4: Establish Monitoring/Inspection Requirements.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed." - G.K. Chesterton (English writer whose prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography and fantasy, well noted for his "Father Brown" stories, 1874 - 1936)
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Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Backyard gardens and food safety
With gasoline prices soaring and food costs not far behind, the number of Americans planning to grow their own backyard vegetables this year is up sharply. Gardening organizations, seed wholesalers, and local nurseries are all reporting hikes in the number of people buying vegetable seeds and starter plants.
It's a trend that started slowly several years ago, spurred by concerns about food safety, food quality, and global warming, say garden mavens. But how safe is what we grow? Very, especially when you follow some common sense practices.
This week, a look at backyard gardens and food safety.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow." - T. S. Eliot (poet, dramatist, and literary critic who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, 1888 - 1965)
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It's a trend that started slowly several years ago, spurred by concerns about food safety, food quality, and global warming, say garden mavens. But how safe is what we grow? Very, especially when you follow some common sense practices.
This week, a look at backyard gardens and food safety.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow." - T. S. Eliot (poet, dramatist, and literary critic who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, 1888 - 1965)
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Read this document on Scribd: Backyard gardens and food safety
Read this document on Scribd: Backyard gardens and food safety
Read this document on Scribd: Backyard gardens and food safety
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Chemistry of Fireworks
At some point, most everyone has a chance to be exposed to the awing nature of fireworks. As children, we may only see them on the television while we watch a New Years celebration, snuggled up with our parents. We continue to be exposed through our lifetimes, perhaps under the stars on the Fourth of July. But no matter the age difference, reality seems to escape with each colorful explosion. The pleasure alone lies in the magnificent bursts before our eyes.
This week, we look at the chemistry of fireworks.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "In order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount a fear." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century, 1803 - 1882)
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This week, we look at the chemistry of fireworks.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "In order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount a fear." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century, 1803 - 1882)
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
HACCP Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits
In 1972 there was an outbreak of botulism from commercially canned potato soup. This outbreak prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promulgate regulations for the production of low acid canned foods. These regulations had many of the basic concepts found in HACCP. In this same year, FDA inspectors were trained in HACCP principles and their application, but it took more "accidents at the intersection" and nearly twenty years for HACCP to really take hold.
A critical limit ensures that a biological, chemical or physical hazard is controlled by a CCP. Each CCP should have at least one critical limit. Critical limits must be something that can be monitored by measurement or observation. They must be scientifically and/or regulatory based. Examples include: temperature, time, pH, water activity or available chlorine.
This week, we look at HACCP Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "The ultimate choice for a man, in as much as he is given to transcend himself, is to create or destroy, to love or to hate." - Erich Fromm (internationally renowned Jewish-German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher, 1900 - 1980)
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A critical limit ensures that a biological, chemical or physical hazard is controlled by a CCP. Each CCP should have at least one critical limit. Critical limits must be something that can be monitored by measurement or observation. They must be scientifically and/or regulatory based. Examples include: temperature, time, pH, water activity or available chlorine.
This week, we look at HACCP Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "The ultimate choice for a man, in as much as he is given to transcend himself, is to create or destroy, to love or to hate." - Erich Fromm (internationally renowned Jewish-German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher, 1900 - 1980)
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Deja Moo? Unpasteurized milk products and tuberculosis
A rare form of tuberculosis caused by illegal, unpasteurized dairy products, including the popular queso fresco cheese, is rising among Hispanic immigrants in Southern California and raising fears about a resurgence of a strain all but eradicated in the US. Cases of the Mycobacterium bovis strain of TB have increased in San Diego county, particularly among children who drink or eat dairy foods made from the milk of infected cattle. The germ can infect anyone who eats contaminated fresh cheeses sold by street vendors, smuggled across the Mexican border or produced by families who try to make a living selling so-called “bathtub cheese” made in home tubs and backyard troughs.
Unlike typical TB, caused by the M. tuberculosis strain, the bovine variety is not easily spread through human-to-human contact. It settles less often in the lungs, making it less likely to be transmitted through breathing and coughing. However, the M. bovis bug is resistant to front-line drug therapy and adults who contract it are more than twice as likely as those with traditional TB to die before treatment is complete.
At one point, TB was referred to as consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting. This week, a look at tuberculosis.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "It's not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it." - John Wooden (retired American basketball coach, most notably at UCLA, 1910 - )
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Unlike typical TB, caused by the M. tuberculosis strain, the bovine variety is not easily spread through human-to-human contact. It settles less often in the lungs, making it less likely to be transmitted through breathing and coughing. However, the M. bovis bug is resistant to front-line drug therapy and adults who contract it are more than twice as likely as those with traditional TB to die before treatment is complete.
At one point, TB was referred to as consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting. This week, a look at tuberculosis.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "It's not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it." - John Wooden (retired American basketball coach, most notably at UCLA, 1910 - )
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
HACCP Principle 2: Identify Critical Control Points
HACCP represents an important food protection tool supported by Standard Operating Procedures, employee training and other prerequisite programs that small independent businesses as well as national companies can implement to achieve active managerial control of hazards associated with foods. Employees must learn which control points are critical in an operation and what the critical limits are at these points, for each preparation step they perform. Establishment management must also follow through by routinely monitoring the food operation to verify that employees are keeping the process under control by complying with the critical limits.
A critical control point is any step in which hazards can be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels. CCPs are usually practices/procedures which, when not done correctly, are the leading causes of foodborne illness outbreaks. Examples of critical control points include: cooking, cooling, re-heating, holding.
This week, we look at HACCP Principle 2: Identify Critical Control Points.
TTFN, Fred.
Quote of the week: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." - Plato (classical Greek philosopher, ~427 BC – ~347 BC)
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