Affiliations 

  • 1 Food Safety Consultant, 836B Southampton Road, Suite 355, Benicia, CA 94510, USA
  • 2 Faculty of Food Science and Engineering, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, 111 Domneasca Street, Build. F, 800201 Galati, Romania
  • 3 Laboratory of Animal Health, Food Hygiene and Quality, Department of Agriculture, University of Ioannina, GR47100 Arta, Greece
  • 4 Institute of Bioproduct Development (IBD), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
  • 5 Food Science and Technology, University of Peloponnese, 24100 Kalamata, Greece
Foods, 2021 Sep 13;10(9).
PMID: 34574279 DOI: 10.3390/foods10092169

Abstract

The food industry's failure in planning and designing of and in implementing a Food Safety Management System and its foundation elements leads, in most instances, to compromised food safety and subsequent foodborne illness outbreaks. This phenomenon was noticed, worldwide, for all food processors, but with a much higher incidence in the medium- and small-sized food processing plants. Our study focuses on the importance of Food Safety Management System (FSMS), Critical Control Points Hazard Analysis (HACCP) and the Prerequisite Programs (PRPs) as the foundation of HACCP, in preventing foodborne outbreaks. For emphasis, we make use of the example of organizational food safety culture failures and the lack of managerial engagement which resulted in a multi-state listeriosis outbreak in USA. Moreover, we correlate this with microbiological criteria. Implementation of food safety management systems (ISO 22000:2018) along with incorporation of management tools such as HAZOP, FMEA, Ishikawa and Pareto have proved to be proactive in the maintenance of a positive food safety culture and prevention of cross-contamination and fraud.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.