Vol 9 Issue 2 April 2021-June 2021
Delano A. Chambers, Donesh Johnson-Drummond
Abstract: There exist many recalls of biological, physical, and chemical nature listed on the United States Food and Drug Administration’s ‘live’ Recalls, Market, and Safety Alert Registry, which indicates failure in the production process. Of the 1593 entries as of 5/10/2021, 1001 or 62.8% affects the food and beverage industry alone; understanding that not all recalls are listed on this registry. Of the 1001 entries, 679 or 67.8% have been terminated meeting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) definition of termination. Of the 1001, an estimated 40.16% were biological, 55.44% chemical including allergen, and 3.89% physical by nature. While much focus is placed on ready to eat facilities as the final stage pre-consumer, one cannot overlook further upstream in the production process such as pre-processors, whereby if prevented at this stage it reduces the risk of potential hazards getting to consumers. The verification and validation steps of pre-processors prerequisite programs become vital in this fight to ensuring consumers receive safe and highest quality product. The production process remains a dynamic beast especially during these unprecedented times of a global pandemic, but a quick look at the registry will note that even during such strenuous times, recalls are still being made which impact all processors in the production process as some companies in recent history have even shut their doors permanently after recall. The focus of this paper therefore considers steps that may be taken by pre-processors to verify and validate their prerequisite programs especially when controls are not in place, thereby reducing risk downstream.
Keywords: Recall, pre-processors, verification, validation, prerequisite programs, consumers.
Title: Combating Food Safety Recalls Upstream, Dissecting the Recalls, Market, and Safety Alert Registry
Author: Delano A. Chambers, Donesh Johnson-Drummond
International Journal of Life Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-313X (Print), ISSN 2348-3148 (online)
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