Coalition of Food News
FDA Plans Public Meeting to Address Food Safety Risks
9/9/21
September 9, 2021 - As Consumers Order More Meals and Groceries Online, FDA Plans Public Meeting to Address Food Safety Risks. On Oct. 19-21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet with members of the food industry, regulatory counterparts at all levels of government, consumers, and others to enhance our understanding of how human and animal foods are sold through e-commerce business models and to identify ways to control potential food safety risks. There is also an opportunity to comment through the Federal Register. The FDA will use the information received to decide on what actions may be needed to further protect consumers. For more information on this New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative, click here.
FDA Begins New Era of Smarter Food Safety TechTalk Podcast
4/16/21
On Thursday, April 29, 2021, FDA is launching the first in a new quarterly podcast series that focuses on the development and use of new technologies to strengthen the ability of FDA, regulated industry, and others to accelerate prevention, speed outbreak response, and more swiftly adapt to crises that could affect the human and animal food supply.
Coalition of FPTF Quarterly Meeting
3/12/21
Hosted by the Iowa Food Safety and Protection Task Force
March 18, 2021 at 2:00pm - 3:00 pm ET (1:00pm - 2:00pm CT and 11:00am - 12:00pm PT)
Task Forces Best Practices
2/22/21
Food Protection Task Forces best practices document has been posted to the AFDO Food Protection Program Portal.
New Era of Food Safety Update with the Coalition of Food Protection Task Forces
9/3/20
With guest presenters FDA Deputy Commissioner Frank Yannis and AFDO Director of Communications, Brooke Benschoter
September 29, 2020 at 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm Eastern Time.
World Food Safety Day (WFSD)
6/1/20
The second World Food Safety Day (WFSD) will be celebrated on 7 June 2020 to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.
Following the success of the first celebration in 2019, this year again WFSD reinforces the call to strengthen commitment to scale up food safety made by the Addis Ababa Conference and the Geneva Forum in 2019 under the umbrella of “The Future of Food Safety”. WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is pleased to facilitate Member States efforts to celebrate the World Food Safety Day.
Under the theme “Food safety, everyone’s business”, the action oriented campaign will promote global food safety awareness and call upon countries and decision makers, the private sector, civil society, UN organizations and the general public to take action.
Food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers and consumers. Everybody has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and will not cause damages to our health. Through the World Food Safety Day, WHO pursues its efforts to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally.
Key facts
- Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health.
- Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, causes more than 200 diseases – ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.
- An estimated 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years (DALYs).
- US$110 billion is lost each year in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe food in low- and middle-income countries.
- Children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 125 000 deaths every year.
- Diarrhoeal diseases are the most common illnesses resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, causing 550 million people to fall ill and 230 000 deaths every year.
- Food safety, nutrition and food security are inextricably linked. Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly affecting infants, young children, elderly and the sick.
- Foodborne diseases impede socioeconomic development by straining health care systems, and harming national economies, tourism and trade.
- Food supply chains now cross multiple national borders. Good collaboration between governments, producers and consumers helps ensure food safety.
Resources below:
https://www.who.int/news-room/campaigns/world-food-safety-day/2020
http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/world-food-safety-day/about/en/
FDA Fact Sheet on Safety Distributing Unused Human Food for Animal Food Use During COVID-19
3/30/20
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions on in-store dining, restaurants and restaurant suppliers may have surplus food that they cannot use and are looking for ways to repurpose their inventory. The preferred option is to use this food as human food and FDA has provided some regulatory flexibility for that redistribution. Another option is to send the unused food for use as animal food. Unused restaurant and grocery store food is commonly repurposed as animal food and is a valuable way to re-use food in a way that limits the impact on the environment.
If you can’t redistribute the unused food for human food use, FDA has developed a new Fact Sheet on how to safely distribute it for animal food use during COVID-19.
COVID-19 Information for Food Businesses
3/25/20
In collaboration with Alexandra Jakab from the Vermont Specialty Food Association and Brady O'Brien from the Vermont Retail & Grocers Association, we recorded the free webinar What You Need to Know About COVID-19. The link to the recorded webinar is: http://go.uvm.edu/covid.
In this webinar, we present some basic information about the virus (SARS-CoV-2), the disease (COVID-19), and we respond to some of the questions we have received about COVID-19 in the context of the daily activities of food manufacturer/food handlers. We also provide some online resources.
The Vermont Specialty Food Association has compiled the Coronavirus Resource Guide webpage, which is available at https://vtspecialtyfoods.org/coronavirus-resource-guide. Please visit this page if you have questions or would like to find more information about COVID-19.
FDA Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Briefing for Foods Stakeholders
3/18/20
FDA Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Briefing for Foods Stakeholders
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will host a stakeholder call on Wednesday, March 18th at 3:45 p.m. ET to discuss food safety and food supply questions related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). FDA will provide an overview of current activities, respond to stakeholders’ concerns identified in recent days, and highlight important FDA resources in response to COVID-19 pandemic. For call information click here.
COVID-19 News
3/9/20
FDA Rapid Response Team (RRT) Program shares COVID 19 resources available to food safety stakeholders. Resources available here.