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A Very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to All!!

We Will Resume Monthly Updates After January 1, 2012.

Food Safety History - Part 1

The FMSA is really hailed as the biggest change to our nations food production system in well over 40 years. As we have read and studied, the industrial revolution precipitated many changes in our society including food production. During that period, food manufacturers were free to add whatever they liked to our food, additionally, no labeling laws were required to report this to the everyday consumer. Change occurred when women's groups first protested the conditions of the slaughter houses, and the adulteration of processed foods. During that period, food producers used inks, lead and other deleterious ingredients harmful to an unknowing public. In 1885, Dr. Wiley (Chief Chemist for the USDA) began researching the use of untested chemicals, and ingredients used as food preservatives. His early work formed the basis of current food laws and regulations. In 1906, Upton Sinclair published "The Jungle", which graphically described the poor hygienic conditions of meat packing plants. Sinclairs book also led to an outcry from foreign governments demanding food imported from the US to be pure and wholesome. To be continued.....

Update On The Nutrition Facts Label

The FDA wants to revise the Nutrition Facts label to give us consumers more useful information and help to fight the national obesity epidemic. One proposal on the table is to modify parts of the label, providing more accurate serving sizes, including a much greater emphasis on calories and a diminished role in the daily values (%DV) for substances like fat, sodium and carbohydrates.
Right now, its the latest attempt to improve the way we Americans view food and make the choices about what we eat.
We actually have been expecting changes for years (over 5) and several of these changes could be proposed as early as late 2011. The FDA will likely not make a big overhaul to the label, but with changes, it will provide a shift to create a more useful nutritional snapshot of the foods we consume on a daily basis.

Rising Prices and Shrinking Product Sizes

It was a few months ago that I commented on how food manufacturers retain their profit margins. Well, much of that is now being played out - higher prices for food, smaller package sizes, and of course, pain at the pump (despite the recent drop in oil prices).
This is driving consumers to buy lower priced grocery items. Yes, Private Label!
Almost 90% of consumers surveyed by Deloitte recently said they believe prices of food are increasing and 75% of those respondents said the size of some packaged products are getting smaller. As a result of this, most consumers are purchasing private label and store branded products. There is nothing wrong with that, folks, because many of those manufacturers follow the same food guidelines for processing healthy, safe products. The only difference may be in the final specification of a food. For example, in the case of green beans, the stem defect action level may be raised by a small level or amount.
Consumers also said that they are paying attention to nutrition information. The front of package information (covered also several months ago in this blog) is helping those same consumers to trend towards healthier food purchases. I firmly believe that those consumer product companies that use healthy ingredients and are willing to share nutritional information can and will strengthen their customer base.

Food Safety Update

Verification will be an important part of the Food Safety and Modernization Act. The new regulations will require complete verification that a food safety system is working very effectively.
Both finished product and environmental testing will have to be included in the complete process.
How do we define verification? It is defined as an ongoing activity used to determine that the control measures are effective through a variety of activities. An alternate definition, perhaps a bit more complex, is verification is the confirmation through the provision of objective evidence that all specified requirements have been fully met.
Dr. Flanyak is available for consulting. His website is highlighted above.
See you next time!

Future Food Safety Inspections

Our lawmakers in Congress expect 600 foreign country inspections in 2011 with the number doubling every year for the next 5. That calculates to 19,200 foreign food plant inspections in about 5 to 6 years. The goal is probably attainable for this year, but come on guys in Congress, lets get all our oars in the water. Without substantial increases in manpower, talented manpower, or a complete overhaul as to how things are done, this is very improbable.
The FDA has said that over the next decade that it will transform itself from a domestic agency to a global agency operating in a global market and fully prepared for an agency in which product safety and quality know no borders.
The FDA  will have to heavily rely on partnerships and coalitions to expand their global reach in order to make a future successful transformation.
We wish you well.
Dr. Flanyak is now available for consulting. His website is highlighted above.

Campaign for Food Safety

A partnership between the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA, the USDA and the Ad Council has developed "Food Safe Families", a multimedia advertising campaign to educate consumers about proper food safety and food handling practices. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the risk of food borne illness and provide an education to consumers. The campaign focuses on 4 safe food handling behaviours: cleaning kitchen surfaces, utensils and hands while preparing foods, separating raw meats from other foods, preparing foods to the correct processing temperatures, and chilling raw and prepared foods promptly.

Dr. Flanyak is now available for consulting.

You may contact him at flanyakscientific@gmail.com
His website is: http://flanyakscientific.squarespace.com

The "New Plate"

Its about time! The government has replaced an outdated food pyramid guide with a similar everyday symbol, "a plate". Hopefully this new symbol will inspire consumers to act on dietary guideline messages. This new symbol, the plate, is now part of a healthy eating initiative that will convey 7 key messages from the dietary guidleines, including enjoying food but eating less, making half the plate both fruits and vegetables, drinking water instead of sugary drinks, and switching to fat free or low fat milk.
Here is a little history of this past better food program. The first pyramid was introduced in 1992 and revised in 2005 (far too long I believe). The second introduction was often criticized as being very difficult to understand and read (one needed a masters in food science).
Now the plate is something people can hook up with quickly. Afterall, we use plates everyday!
Lets hope this new icon will inspire people to change their diets and begin to eat healthy!

Food Safety and Modernization Act

As part of this Act, several interim rules were announced by the FDA over the last few days. Both the FDA and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) have jointly issued an interim final rule on "information required in prior notice of imported food". This was issued to substantiate more information in a prior notice of imported food. This change requires a person submitting prior notice of imported food (including pet food) to report the name of any country to which the article or food has been refused entry.
Similarly, in a separate ruling, the FDA expanded the agency's authority to order the detention of adulterated or misbranded products. This essentially strengthens the Agency's ability to prevent unsafe food from entering commerce. It specifically allows the FDA to administratively detain food that the Agency believes has been produced under insanitary or unsafe conditions. In this case, previous detainment was done when the Agency had credible evidence that a food product was contaminated or mislabeled in a way that presented a threat of serious health consequences to the public.
Both rulings truly strengthen the FDA's administrative decision making power and go into effect on 7/3/2011.  Way to go FDA. Keep us safe.

Dietary Guidelines of 2010 and 2011

The new Dietary Guidelines were issued by the FDA formally in late January and now most food chemists and nutritionists are reviewing and understanding the impact. We have to admit in this country  that the No 1 health risk is truly obesity. It is not cancer, heart disease, etc. Yes these latter diseases are serious problems, but obesity even is beginning to affect our children.
The most recent edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans emphasizes stronger caloric reduction and increasing physical activity. The guidelines contained no major deviations from the original draft released by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee last June, but the final iteration did seem to water down the recommendation on sodium. The recommendation is a gradual reduction in sodium from 2300 mg per day to 1500 mg per day. The final guidelines leave it at 2300 mg but specifically recommend 1500 mg for various segments of our population, which actually applies to about 50% of our US population.
Some of the other key aspects of the Guidelines are: 1) consume less than 10 %calories from saturated fatty acids by replacing them with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids., 2) consume less than 300 mg per day of dietary cholesterol, 3) keep trans fatty acid comsumption as low as possible by limiting foods that contain synthetic sources of trans fat, as partially hydrogenated oils, 4) reduce calories from solid fats and added sugars, 5) limit the consumption of foods that contain refined grains, esp refined grain foods that contain solid fats, added sugars, and sodium, 6) if you consume alcohol, do so in moderation.
Many food processors are looking to revising and reviewing many of their formulations. So stay tuned as I can report on that in future blogs, till them take care.

Food Prices

A classic method of passing price increases to consumers (you!) that usually go unrecognized is by decreasing the net weight of the food package, yet maintaining the same price. Oftentimes small weight decreases like 0.25, 0.50 ounces go unrecognized and unnoticed by the average consumer. How often do you check weights, and price per ounce?
Food manufacturers would rather use this method of price adjustment than throw a price increase your way. Consumers are not as tolerant of higher prices now as they were prior to the great recession, and many food companies feel that a price increase would drive the consumer to a private label brand. But let's admit it, some of those private label brands, for example Market Pantry, are of sound value and good quality.
Now for you chocolate lovers, price increases are expected due to worsening political and economic conditions in the Ivory Coast cocoa bean growing area (west coast of the African continent). The recent election created more disarray than stability because of an export ban.

Food Safety and Modernization Act

A recent university study found that foodborne illnesses in the US alone cost our country $152 bio in lost productivity, medical bills, etc. That is the reason for this government endeavor. We need our FDA to continue to work with public and private partners to make sure this act gets funding. Write to your congressional leader and tell him / her that the FSMA will help prevent food safety problems. We must find the funding to make this work.

Front of Pack Nutrition Labeling

The whole purpose of the front of pack nutrition labeling is to point out nutrients of encouragement and help the consumer avoid an overdose of negative nutrients.
We need information like this on all food products to help improve our public health and fight obesity in this country. This will help consumers make informed choices and better decisions about what they eat in order to maintain a much healthier diet.

New Food Safety Law

Eventhough the claimed theme of this new  Food Safety Law is prevention, there are some impediments to the full implementation of this new law.
The first one is the fact that this new law will require funding from our Food and Drug Administration, but the question is with all going on regarding reduced federal budgets, where will this money come from and whose pockets? I doubt if the "new Congress" will pass any legislation for funding $1.5 billion over the period of 2011 to 2015. You all know what that means, no new inspectors and no increased watchdog approach.
The other building situation is that this new law requires FDA to make "regulation" or guidance laws, such as the new HACCP plan for us food makers.
We know sometimes it takes years for them to provide a guidance document and then fully implement it.
Such is life in the food industry.

New Food Safety Act

With the passage of the Food Safety and Modernization Act, you should know that the FDA in consultation with the Department of Educaton is required within one year from December, 2010, to develop voluntary guidelines for managing the risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools and early childhood education programs. The guidelines are required to address, among a lot of other issues, a variey of strategies to reduce the risk of exposure to allergens in classrooms and cafeterias.
This is great especially if you have a child who easily suffers from food allergies.
I just wish we could get this done quickly and not wait one year.

The Canadian Food Health service is taking a more practical approach to allergen labeling. I applaud them.
They have included in their new allergen guideline the proper labeling of sulfites. Good work Canada!!
Our foiod administrators should follow suit.

Food, Confectionery & Pharmaceutical Consulting

Flanyak Scientific LLC is formed as a limited liability company, owned and operated by Dr. John R. Flanyak.

The company is licensed in the State of Illinois.

Dr. Flanyak has extensive food industry experience in manufacturing, product development, R&D, food law, regulatory support, packaging, cost implementation, merchandising support (product comparisons / analysis), competitive surveying (label copy / ingredient copy), quality (HACCP, QACCP, process / spec development, analytical services), ideation and marketing.

Dr. Flanyak was VP, Sr. Director, Plant Manager, Superintendent, R&D Manager, Sr. Scientist, and Group Leader for a number of food companies. He has over 39 years of industry experience.

Dr. Flanyak has also taught as an adjunct instructor at the University of Wisconsin and has developed a number of short courses to support internal corporate clients.

Dr. Flanyak has published many articles, has two patents, and one patent pending.

Dr. Flanyak will be available for consulting and serving clients after July 1, 2011.