The Food and Drug Administration says processors will need "pre-market approval" before allowing food to come into contact with plastic pallets and/or storage totes that contain decabromodiphenyl.
Listeria monocytogenes is a pathogenic bacterium that can contaminate foods and cause a mild illness or, in some cases, a severe life-threatening disease. Some of the foods that have been implicated in listeria outbreaks have been ready-to-eat foods (RTE), which sometimes can support the growth of the organism to high numbers.
When processors apply a pre-cooling solution to produce stored in plastic pallets, is there a danger of decabromodiphenyl in the pallet interacting with the pre-cooling solution and compromising food safety?
Consumers aren’t the only ones who like new products. Many refrigerated food company executives also were looking for a new product - a report, in this case - from the Refrigerated Food Association (RFA).
The first half of this year had me attending as many as six food industry conferences. In hindsight, although the settings were different, one thing remained the same: issues of food safety, labor and rising energy costs dominated each meeting.
Canada's recent food poisoning crisis with processed meats now has been traced to mechanical areas deep within two meat slicers at Maple Leaf Foods' Bartor Road plant in Toronto.