Monday, March 30, 2020

All-In-One Software for Growers and Food & Beverage Manufacturers


Superior Food Safety has partnered with Icicle Technologies Inc. – where Food Safety and Software come together! Click here to find out more…

NEW! We will support Companies based in California to pay the Government Subsidized Price for the ON-SITE FOOD SAFETY TRAINING. Please email info@superiorfoodsafety.com with your Food Safety Training, Consulting and Software needs.

Friday, March 27, 2020

The Importance Of Cleanrooms in the Food Industry

When it comes to keeping clean, there are times when soap and water aren’t enough. This is especially true of the food and beverage industry.

The health and well being of millions depends on manufacturers’ and packagers’ ability to maintain a safe and sterile environment during production. This is why professionals in this sector are held to much stricter standards than other industries. With such high expectations from consumers and regulatory bodies, a growing number of food companies are opting the use cleanrooms.

Cleanrooms are sealed off from the rest of a laboratory or production facility. Through stringent ventilation and filtering systems, they protect against contaminants that might be found in an unrestricted environment. Mold, mildew, dust and bacteria are sifted from the air before they can enter the space.

Personnel who work in a cleanroom are required to adhere to rigorous precautions, including clean suits and masks. These rooms also closely monitor temperature and humidity to ensure the optimal climate.

Cleanrooms can be found in numerous applications throughout the food industry. Specifically, they are used in meat and dairy facilities, as well as in the processing of foods that need to be gluten and lactose free. By creating the cleanest possible environment for production, companies can offer their customers peace of mind. Not only can they keep their products free from contamination, but they can extend shelf life and increase efficiency.

If you want to learn more about cleanrooms and their classifications, take a look at the accompanying infographic. It details the essential requirements and standards for facilities in the food industry and beyond.


Article Source: https://foodsafetytech.com/news_article/the-importance-of-cleanrooms-in-the-food-industry/

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Upcoming Classes Available for Registration!


CLASSES AVAILABLE at Napa Valley College

April 16, 17, 2020
Basic HACCP Workshop for Manufactures
Regular Price $725, ETP Price $250

May 13, 14, 2020
SQF Food Safety Code for Manufacturing Edition 8.1
Regular Price $725, ETP Price $250

May 15, 2020
Internal and External GFSI Audits Workshop
Regular Price $475, ETP Price $180

June 11, 12, 2020
SQF Advanced Practitioner (Registration will open in Spring 2020)
Regular Price $725, ETP Price $250

All SQF classes are official, advertised by SQF, and provided by Superior Food Safety a SQF Licensed Training Center. 

All Food Safety Preventive Controls for Human Food classes are authorized and posted by FSPCA, and provided by Oscar Camacho a FSPCA Lead Instructor.

The fees to attend these classes are subsidized through a joint venture between Napa Valley College-Superior Food Safety and funded by ETP-Employment Training Panel Program of California.

PRICE STARTS AT $180.00 + Administrative Fees PER CLASS (See each link below for details)

Please DOWNLOAD, COMPLETE and SUBMIT the forms below to CMonahan@napavalley.edu before you begin the registration process.

Certification Application
Employment Training Panel

Saturday, March 21, 2020

On-Site Private Classes in English & Spanish and Consulting Services


Classes Available in English & Spanish and Consulting Services

WE OFFER PUBLIC AND ON-SITE TRAINING CLASSES:
  • HACCP Workshop
  • Implementing SQF Training - Version 8.0 - English and Spanish
  • FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Foods
  • FSPCA For Human Food Compliance
  • Produce Safety Rule Training Official Program
  • SQF Quality Systems For Food Manufacturers
  • Internal and External GFSI Audits
  • Crisis Management
  • Gluten-Free Certification Program
  • SQF Advanced Practitioner Course
  • Prerequisite Programs

WE ALSO OFFER:
Food Safety Consulting Services

We offer On-Site private classes in English and Spanish. Please email us for a quote: info@superiorfoodsafety.com

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

SQFI Update & COVID-19 Preparedness Checklist


Hello All,

I hope this finds you all well and taking one day at a time. Please read last update that the SQFI sent to SQF certified sites and all stake holders. For those sites that are not SQF certified, this information is also useful. Of a key importance is the check list listed below and the FAQs.




Stay safe,

Oscar Camacho

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Prayer Guide for President Trump's Call to Prayer


President Trump has declared today, March 15th, a National Day of Prayer for All Those Affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic and for Our National Response Efforts. Please join him and fellow believers across this nation by asking God to bring healing to our land and wisdom to our leaders.

Click TAKE ACTION below to download IFA's New "Pray Through the Presidential Proclamation Prayer Guide"


President Trump reminds us that there is no burden too heavy for God to lift or for this country to bear with His help and that "He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust." (Psalm 91).

Please consider joining a UNIFIED national prayer time at 8:00 p.m. EASTERN TIME with many ministries and tens of thousands gathered together to pray.

Link for Livestream webcast: https://www.ifapray.org/#prayercall

NEW FEATURES: Internal Audits, Labor Costing, Maintenance Projects

Superior Food Safety has partnered with Icicle Technologies Inc. to bring Icicle, a smart food manufacturing software, to the food & beverage and the growing industries.

NEW FEATURES: Internal Audits, Labor Costing, Maintenance Projects



The latest instalment of new features dates back to June, so the list is a little long. But that also means that there are many exciting new features to show you! Since there were so many new features to include, we created a separate list for the budding cannabis industry here in Canada, but note that most of those features can also be used by the food industry, such as destruction reports. Read on to find out how Icicle just got even better for maintenance teams, QA teams, and more!

Internal Audits

When was it released? November 21, 2019

What does it do? Everyone has audits, but what about all the time in between them? You don’t want any surprises when the auditor comes by and you may also want to check in on the performance of your facilities. The new internal audit feature allows you to conduct a weighted assessment of your food safety program which results in a score that is calculated based on all the weighted factors. When you fill out the questionnaire, you rate each weighted item on a scale of 1-5 and Icicle undertakes a statistical calculation that assigns a score to the whole facility. The default questionnaire is based on GFSI standards but can also be customized for your specific requirements. Bonus: by looking at the audit reports over time, you can measure and evaluate the performance of any particular facility or to benchmark between facilities.

Where did the idea come from? Icicle already has an assessment feature and our all-knowing Senior Account Manager, Ethan Chen, realized that this same feature could be adapted in new ways for the benefit of Icicle users. We are lucky to have Ethan on staff!

Labour Costing for Production Runs

When was it released? October 21, 2019

What does it do? Calculating the cost of a product is a crucial part of any business, so isn’t it important that you factor in everything? Now Icicle can automatically calculate the labour costs associated with any particular production run. You can configure all of your workers with a loaded cost attribute so when you allocate the labour to a particular production run, you can use that information to determine the unit costs of product that includes the labour cost. This new feature helps you price your products appropriately and you can use the data to compare different production runs to investigate the causes of overruns.

This feature will soon be expanded to include the raw material costs as well, allowing you to have actual costing for all your products at any time.

Where did the idea come from? This very useful feature idea came from Markus over at Country Prime Meats. Thank you!

High Performance Upgrade to Purchase Order Interface

When was it released? June 7, 2019

What does it do? This upgrade to the purchase order interface preloads all of the items that are possible to purchase in your Icicle account into the client device, making searches return almost instantaneous.

Where did the idea come from? This one was just an improvement idea our development team had. It was fun to do!

Maintenance Work History

When was it released? November 16, 2019

What does it do? If you navigate to the equipment detail pages for any equipment, there is a new field for work history. Icicle already generates a barcode that you can put on each piece of equipment to make the work of maintenance teams easier and more efficient. Now you can walk up, scan the barcode, and Icicle will pop the equipment detail information in Icicle automatically, together with the new previous work history region. You can see all the work that has been done on a particular machine, making it convenient for maintenance staff to quickly assess the history of work and act accordingly.

Where did the idea come from? Another little idea from our CEO, Steve.

Maintenance Projects

When was it released? November 19, 2019

What does it do? A major new feature release for Icicle’s Maintenance Management module, you can now create maintenance projects in Icicle and define milestones, assign collections of work orders, and explicit tasks to these projects. This helps you manage major maintenance projects such as the construction of a new building, renovation of filtration system, etc. By grouping all of these into a project, you can do all that planning as well as track the progress of the project and report against the projected timeline.

Where did the idea come from? Yet another great idea from Markus at Country Prime Meats!

Maintenance Activity Reports

When was it released? November 20, 2019

What does it do? With this new feature release, Icicle can now run comprehensive reports that can be sliced and diced by facility, date, etc. so you can see a comprehensive list of all the different maintenance activities that occurred in one or more facilities over a particular period of time. The strategic perspective that you can gain as a result gives you a high-level look at maintenance activities as well as the ability to drill down into the data – but you can start by reviewing all the work in one cohesive report.

Where did the idea come from? The maintenance team from Country Prime Meats was really on a roll.

Automatic QA Hold

When was it released? June 26, 2019

What does it do? The new QA Hold feature enables ingredients to be flagged as requiring testing when they arrive at your facility. When you receive the items, an alert is sent out to the QA Manager to notify them that the product has been received but that the items are being held in the QA Hold inventory location until approval is granted by the QA staff. This new feature helps you make sure that no ingredients are immediately put into production before QA staff has had a chance to confirm the safety of the ingredient.

Where did the idea come from? This feature was requested by Matthew from Honest Dumplings, thanks Matthew!

Automatic Best-Before Date for Ingredients

When was it released? July 7, 2019

What does it do? This feature release is a two-parter that will help you avoid getting stuck with stale ingredients. Firstly, we enabled a default best-before days attribute to be set for ingredients so that the best-before date can be automatically calculated if no such date is provided by the manufacturer. Secondly, a few weeks later we released another feature that enables Icicle to calculate the actual best-before date based on the lot code, provided the lot code is based on production date, as is most commonly the case. You first define a “lot code key” in Icicle that enable the system to read the production date. Once this date is known, Icicle calculates the precise best-before date.

Everyone knows that you should use the oldest inventory first in order to extend the shelf life of your products, but you can’t always guarantee that the item you received from the supplier today is newer than the one you received last week. Knowing the actual production date, and therefore the actual best-before date, helps you ensure that your suppliers aren’t sending you stale products and that you use your ingredients in the most efficient order for maximum quality and safety.

Where did the idea come from? These great ideas came from Dave and Neil at Snow Cap!

Unit Conversions for Received Products

When was it released? July 28, 2019

What does it do? Icicle already helped customers make those annoying unit conversions for ingredients, but now that feature has been extended for received products as well. Say you receive a 50lbs bag of flour and store it in inventory in kilograms. The system will automatically do the unit conversion for you, no sweat!

Where did the idea come from? This handy extension was sparked by Dave from Snow Cap.

Article Source

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Register Today for FSPCA/PCQI Preventive Controls for Human Food - In Napa March 18-20!


NAPA: FSPCA/PCQI Preventive Controls for Human Food

Date And Time
Wed, Mar 18, 2020 – Fri, Mar 20, 2020

Location
Napa Valley College
2277 Napa Vallejo Highway BLDG 3000, RM 3004
Napa, CA 94558


Description
In partnership with Superior Food Safety, Napa Valley College is hosting this timely and important workshop.

Through the California Employment Training Panel (ETP), Napa Valley College is able to offer a discount of $550 to qualified companies. Click on the following link - https://tinyurl.com/ybf76a6a and complete application to see if your company is eligible for an ETP discount (please note that an ETP 104 form must also be completed for each attendee from your company). After your forms are completed, please send all forms to Valerie Bible (707) 256-7250 / VBible@napavalley.edu. Once you are certified, you will receive the code to register for the ETP pricing of $300. If you are already ETP certified and need a code, please contact Valerie Bible (707) 256-7250/VBible@napavalley.edu.

Attend this 2-1/2 day course starting on Wednesday, March 18th and ending on Friday, March 20th.

Course Description - What You'll Learn:

  • Meet the requirements for training under Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations Part 117.155 for the Preventive Controls “Qualified Individual”
  • Learn and understand the responsibilities of a preventive controls qualified individual
  • Learn How preventive controls build on established food safety principles
  • Understand and identify the Components of a Food Safety Plan
  • Learn how to conduct Food Safety Plan activities such as developing and reviewing a food safety plan
  • Provide the necessary skills for validating preventive controls, verifying and validating process controls among others.

Three-Day Course:
Wednesday, March 18th from 8AM-5PM
Thursday, March 19th from 8AM-5PM
Friday, March 20th from 8AM-12PM

Who Should Attend:

  • Companies, especially small and medium sized, producing human foods that must comply with the Preventive Controls for Human Foods rule that is part of FSMA.
  • Food Industry Senior Management
  • GFSI Leads (SQFP)
  • Operation and Production Managers
  • Quality Assurance Managers and Supervisors
  • HACCP Coordinators
  • Supply Chain Management Personnel & Purchasing Managers
  • Auditors
  • Food Plant and Facility Managers
  • Risk Management Managers
  • Government and Food Regulatory Personnel
  • Food Safety and Quality Management Consultants

Oscar Camacho has more than 28 years of experience managing food safety and quality systems. Mr. Camacho's special insights come from years of first-hand experience in the food industry, and from client weaknesses, he identified and solved while providing auditing and consulting services.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Upcoming Classes Available for Registration!


CLASSES AVAILABLE at Napa Valley College

March 18, 19, 20, 2020
FSPCA/PCQI Food Safety Preventive Controls for Human Foods
Regular Price $850, ETP Price $300

April 16, 17, 2020
Basic HACCP Workshop for Manufactures
Regular Price $725, ETP Price $250

May 13, 14, 2020
SQF Food Safety Code for Manufacturing Edition 8.1
Regular Price $725, ETP Price $250

May 15, 2020
Internal and External GFSI Audits Workshop
Regular Price $475, ETP Price $180

June 11, 12, 2020
SQF Advanced Practitioner (Registration will open in Spring 2020)
Regular Price $725, ETP Price $250


CLASSES AVAILABLE at Butte College Training Place

March 27, 2020
PSA Produce Safety Rule
For Price Email: The Training Place

All SQF classes are official, advertised by SQF, and provided by Superior Food Safety a SQF Licensed Training Center. 

All Food Safety Preventive Controls for Human Food classes are authorized and posted by FSPCA, and provided by Oscar Camacho a FSPCA Lead Instructor.

The fees to attend these classes are subsidized through a joint venture between Napa Valley College-Superior Food Safety and funded by ETP-Employment Training Panel Program of California.

PRICE STARTS AT $180.00 + Administrative Fees PER CLASS (See each link below for details)

Please DOWNLOAD, COMPLETE and SUBMIT the forms below to CMonahan@napavalley.edu before you begin the registration process.

Certification Application
Employment Training Panel

Friday, March 6, 2020

Napa Valley Women's Half Marathon & 5K


WINE. DINE. RUN!
THE ULTIMATE WOMEN’S WEEKEND!

Join us for the annual running of the Napa Valley Women’s Half Marathon and 5K starting and finishing at Oxbow Commons Park in Napa, California!

SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2020

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

FDA Releases Third Installment of the Draft Guidance for the Intentional Adulteration Rule


Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a supplemental draft guidance designed to support compliance with the Intentional Adulteration (IA) Rule under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This is the third and last installment of the draft guidance for the IA rule.

The FSMA final rule on intentional adulteration is aimed at addressing hazards that may be intentionally introduced to foods, including by acts of terrorism, with the intent to cause wide-spread harm to public health. Unlike the other FSMA rules that address specific foods or hazards, the IA rule requires the food industry to implement risk-reducing strategies for processes in food facilities that are significantly vulnerable to intentional adulteration.

This last installment of the IA rule draft guidance adds to the previously published draft guidance with chapters covering topics focusing on food defense corrective actions, food defense verification, reanalysis, and recordkeeping. The installment also includes appendices on FDA’s online Mitigation Strategies Database and how businesses can determine their status as a small or very small businesses under the rule.

Food facilities covered by the rule are required to develop and implement a food defense plan that identifies vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies for those vulnerabilities. These facilities are also required to ensure that the mitigation strategies are working by implementing mitigation strategy management components. Compliance requirements for large facilities began in July 2019; inspections will begin in March 2020.

Article Source: https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/news/fda-releases-third-installment-of-the-draft-guidance-for-the-intentional-adulteration-rule/