Just When You Thought it Was Safe…

By: Rob Ralyea

Every morning around 7 AM I get the morning Food Safety News delivered to my Inbox. Usually about then, my coffee is done, I’ve piled through some of the more pressing stuff from the night before and I settle in to read the snippets of the goings-on in the Food Safety world. For those who know me, I am all about vomiting (aka puking) and diarrhea and all the things that go with a good foodborne illness (obviously except when I have it, which knock on wood has been pretty rare so far during my tenure on planet Earth). My most recent personal event was a few years ago when my better half got a case of what we’ll call the ‘two-bucket blues’… that’s when you get a foodborne disease that affects both ends of your body at the same time (take a moment and insert your own visual image here). That’s not a trademarked term by the way, so feel free to use it! She was even less impressed when I told her what she had, how it would progress and about how long it would last. I even told her where she probably had acquired the Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning that she was suffering with, which at the time also did not impress her (for some reason). The difference between Staph and Norovirus is somewhat subtle, in that Staph food poisoning will start about 3-4 hours in after you’ve eaten the contaminated food, and Norovirus takes roughly a day. Staph also is a bit shorter lived. Ah, such is the curse of being a food safety professional… let me also insert here that there is no such thing as the ‘intestinal flu’. The ‘flu’, short for influenza is a respiratory disease. While flu’s are in fact caused by viruses, Norovirus is not a cause of influenza. If you have diarrhea and/or vomiting and have been diagnosed with Norovirus, you have foodborne illness (which may have been contracted by merely contacting a surface that was contacted previously by an infected individual), not the ‘flu’.

As I digress back to the beginning, the tale being unfolded in my morning edition of Food Safety News, a disaster of epic proportions occurs. The headline is “Doughnut shop norovirus outbreak victim count nears 250”… NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!!!!!!! Not doughnuts!!!!!!! Yes, now doughnuts. Just when you thought something was ‘safe’, it turns out just as liable to cause foodborne disease as anything else. I mean, come on, doughnuts are fried and are beloved by most everyone around the world in one shape or another. There are the glazed, the jelly filled, the crème filled, the chocolate covered, cinnamon….gee I could go on and on. (Now you want a doughnut don’t you?).   Prior to last year we also thought ice cream was virtually safe. After all, nothing can grow in the freezer, right? Well, we do know that nothing will survive a deep fryer, so this doughnut outbreak is a case of contamination after the fact by a food handler. In fact, I surmise one of the employees was probably returning to work after suffering from Norovirus and was still carrying the virus, thereby causing this outbreak. This highlights the need for plant management to fully understand the risks associated with people returning to work after being ill and how these people need to be managed. A person suffering from Norovirus, for example, can still shed the virus for up to 2 weeks after they’ve recovered and are showing no more symptoms. The virus is also highly transmissible in that it is estimated that it takes less than 100 virus particles to make a person sick.   This little gem (Norovirus) was discovered after it caused its first recognized outbreak in 1968 in Norwalk, Ohio, infecting 150 elementary school children. My last fun fact on Norovirus is that it causes more than half of the foodborne illnesses in the United States.

The real point to the matter is we don’t typically give much sick time to food handlers or food processing employees annually. People who get sick generally either try to work through it, or if they take time off, try to take the minimum time off they possibly can, often coming back to work while still suffering some effects of the disease. In the case of Norovirus, they are in all likelihood still shedding the virus. As food safety professionals we need to be vigilant and place individuals who may have had this type of illness in non-food contact areas. Ideally they wouldn’t return to work for an extended period of time. However, we all know that even when you’re sick, the house payment, the car payment and the electric bill all still show up in the mailbox. Norovirus can live in the wild (outside of a host) for a decent amount of time so having a person in your food facility is also jeopardizing the health of your other employees. Another illustration of how transmissible the virus can be- a person vomited on a New Zealand airliner and a flight attendant cleaned it up (lucky person). During the next 5 days 43% (27 of 63 flight attendants who worked on that plane, including the one who cleaned up the vomit) came down with Norovirus. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21836128).

As food safety professionals, we need to take this disease seriously and maybe start thinking of better ways to manage people who have the disease and work in the food industry. The next time you’re out at a restaurant, I want you to envision the cook in the back, the bartender handling your drink order, or even the waiter/waitress who is bringing out your food, had been out sick for the past few days. Chances are, if that’s the case, you might be missing a few days too…give it a day or two to manifest itself. Then, CALL ME!!!! I’m always looking for new pictures of people with the ‘two-bucket blues’!! It’s my hobby J

In other news, the FDA recently released their Food Safety Plan Builder. If you already have put a Food Safety Plan together, I wouldn’t reinvent the wheel. You might take a look at it though and see if it’s of use to you. It’s located at https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/ucm539791.htm

And as always, the Cornell resources are available online at https://dairyextension.foodscience.cornell.edu/. Here you will find a clearinghouse of information related to Food Safety programs, upcoming workshops, dairy extension contacts and other information that may be of use to you.

FPDL is looking for new companies for our Incubator Program

Do you dream of starting up a new dairy company? Would you like to manufacture dairy products and you need assistance identifying a manufacturing partner? Don’t look any further, because we are here to help and we are looking for new partners for our Incubator Program!

Cornell University’s Food Processing & Development Laboratory (FPDL) is a 7,000 square foot facility that can support R&D, small scale food production and scaled-up manufacturing efforts.

Cornell’s FPDL provides education, training and technical assistance for the production of value added food and dairy products throughout New York State.  The FPDL serves as a statewide center for food and dairy processing education and training, product development and cutting-edge food processing research. It is a key resource supporting the long-term sustainability of value-added agricultural businesses (and their suppliers) across New York State. Our goal is to help promote and grow dairy processing opportunities in New York State and to provide opportunities for agricultural producers to develop and market value-added products. The successful establishment and expansion of local, value added products also encourages the creation and expansion of other local business (farmer’s markets, restaurants, agri-tourism, marketing, etc.).

To facilitate dairy start-up companies and promote growth in the dairy industry, we have developed our dairy processing incubator program.  To qualify, you must be in NY State and be a small dairy business or be aspiring to start a business in dairy processing in NY.  This is not an open-ended proposition, as you must sign agreements with Cornell University indicating your desire to start and grow a dairy processing-type business.  You must have an approved business plan in place within 3 months of starting and must be planning to move out of our facility into your own facility within 12-18 months. You also provide the labor (although we do have Food Science students/interns that are available on certain days that we use to assist in production), and for set fees, we provide equipment to use.  We will help with small product development projects provided you already have the concept.  If you want us to do full blown product development, fees increase accordingly.

Our Incubator Program has been running now for more than 4 years and has supported several companies, is currently are working with Tumino Cheese Company.

“Tumino Cheese Company, LLC was founded as a business in November 2015 but the roots of the company go back much further. The three partners involved in the company have strong ties to farming and an abiding love of dairy cows and tasty cheese.  In December 2015, Elisa Tumino-Van Amburgh, Sue Prokop, and Mariann Fessenden made their first cheeses using the Cornell University FPDL. Tumino Cheese Company came to the facility with the intent of developing recipes to recreate several Northern Italian, Alpine Style cheeses, and mostly cheeses that are not commonly found in the U.S. market.    Since joining, they have been developing and enhancing recipes and aging techniques to recreate the characteristics of those cheeses including the aging capacity necessary for full development.   Over the last year, they have produced several cheeses that are now being marketed and while doing so have made use of the connections for market access that the Cornell program provides. In addition, the company is continuing to develop their food safety and HAACP plans as they consider their move to their own facility once the program has concluded“ Elisa Van Amburgh

Their logo says it all: “Born in Italy and made in Finger Lakes”.

L-R: Sue Prokop, Elisa van Amburgh and Mariann Fessenden (Tumino Cheese Company)

Working with TCC for the last 18 months, I have seen them growing, learning and developing their business from the idea of producing traditional Italian cheeses to a successful cheese company who is providing delicious high quality cheeses for the New York market.

Now it’s time to search for new companies who want to take advantage of our Incubator Program.

We also provide contract manufacturing support to start-up companies as well as established manufacturers developing new and innovative products.  Examples of product development and research projects supported by the FPDL include dairy-based puddings, drinkable yogurts, fermented dairy beverages, flavored egg nog and other dairy related products.  Because of our smaller scale equipment, our facility is ideal for manufacturing test runs of new formulations or producing consumer or shelf life testing type products on a relatively small scale, yet still mimic real production.

If you are interested in any of these programs, or would like more information on the facility, please contact Rob Ralyea at rdr10@cornell.edu or Carmela Beliciu at clb352@cornell.edu.

Visit the FPDL website here.

When Milk Goes Bad

By: Rachel Evanowski and Nicole Martin

When milk goes bad, sometimes it goes very, very bad. Such was the case when a US fluid milk processor received a consumer complaint about one of their products turning gray. That’s certainly not a call you want to get before your morning cup of joe. Thankfully the processor reached out to the Milk Quality Improvement Program for assistance in determining what was causing this unique product spoilage. Microbiological analysis revealed that the product was contaminated with a pigment producing Pseudomonas (Pseudomonas azotoformans). Pseudomonas is known to cause a number of color defects in dairy products, including an incident when fresh mozzarella made in Germany turned blue due to a contamination with Pseudomonas fluorescens and caused international headlines (http://www.bbc.com/news/10359001). While these bacteria do not cause illness, color defects are readily detected and detested by consumers, who may assume the product has been adulterated with chemicals.

Due to the heat sensitive nature of Pseudomonas, their presence in processed dairy products is an indicator of post-processing contamination (PPC). In fluid milk this contamination is commonly associated with ineffective cleaning and sanitation practices, inadequate preventative maintenance programs and cross-contamination. Resolving PPC issues may sometimes prove challenging and in these cases source tracking methods, for example, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, that have been used for decades in foodborne disease outbreak tracking may provide a useful tool for dairy processors to find and resolve PPC. The Milk Quality Improvement Program offers a variety of services to assist dairy processors with tracking and eliminating PPC.

For more information on defects caused by Pseudomonas see the following publications:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21605787
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC152439/

SQF Updates

By: Kim Bukowski

The Safe Quality Food Institute’s (SQFI) SQF Code has been updated and redesigned in 2017 for use by all sectors of the food industry from primary production to storage and distribution and now includes a food safety code for retailers. It replaces the SQF Code, Edition 7. Plants will be audited against the Edition 8 Code starting on Jan. 2, 2018.

In August, Cornell will be offering the Accredited Basic HACCP Training, Implementing SQF Systems course and for the first time a SQF Quality Systems for Manufacturing Course.

Accredited Basic HACCP Training Course on August 24-25, 2017 is a 2-day course for individuals who have responsibility for building, maintaining, and updating plant HACCP programs that will meet customer and third party requirements. ​ This course is accredited under the International HACCP Alliance and is designed to meet the requirements set for SQF.

Implementing SQF Systems Course on August 28-29, 2017 is a 2-day course that will give participants an understanding of the Version 8 SQF Code: how to implement these requirements in a food processing plant, as well as food ingredient and food packaging plants to achieve or maintain SQF Certification. It is strongly recommended that students have completed a HACCP Course of at least 16 hours prior to taking this course.

SQF Quality Systems for Manufacturing, August 30-31, 2017 is a 2-day course that provides participants with the basics to become a SQF practitioner for the Food Quality Code for Manufacturing. Attendees will gain a thorough understanding of SQF quality concepts, principles, and application requirements, enabling the implementation of an effective Food Quality Management Program meeting SQF requirements.

If you already have your HACCP certificate and are already a SQF practitioner it would be a great opportunity to learn about the “new” Quality Code and its implementation. We are offering discounted rates if you take more than one course at a time.

Note: HACCP Training should be renewed at a minimum every 5 years.

See full course calendar here.

Dairy Foods Certificate Program- What is it and Why is it Important?

By: Anika Zuber

What it is:

Figure 1.

The Dairy Foods Certificate Program is designed to deliver robust knowledge to all participants. Whether it be a business owner or a line operator, sales associate or marketing employee, completing the dairy foods certificate program gives the baseline knowledge necessary for producing and delivering high quality, safe and wholesome dairy products in New York State and beyond.

The program works towards developing a skilled workforce by requiring participants to attend 3 Core Courses, followed by a specialized track that is geared towards the interests or business needs of an individual. The 3 core courses include: 1. Dairy Science and Sanitation 2. Pasteurization (HTST or Vat) 3. Food Safety (HACCP or FSMA PCQI). Upon earning a certificate of achievement for each core course, a specialized course (see Figure 1 for specialized courses) will be necessary to earn a Basic Dairy Foods Certificate in a specialized field.

If the participant would like to earn an Advanced Dairy Foods Certificate, they must have a minimum of 3 years work experience, take the accompanying advanced specialized course and pass an oral examination to become an Advanced Dairy Foods Extension Certificate holder.

Why is the Dairy Foods Certificate Program Important?

On-the-job training is crucial to the success of any employee. However, often times employees are not trained on the reasons why they do the things that they do, or the reasons why their specific job and job duties are important for food safety, food quality or regulatory compliance.

Figure 2. Evelyn Hadley-Rockhill, QA Manager of North Country Dairy with her Advanced Yogurt and Fermented Dairy Products Certificate

Our core and specialized courses are designed to give employees the background knowledge necessary for more complete understanding. This is important and could contribute to improved on-the-job performance, employee retention, satisfaction and overall dedication to their role in the dairy foods system. Participants in the Dairy Foods Certificate Program are often enthusiastic about bringing the knowledge they gained back to their facilities to share with their coworkers or supervisees.

To learn more about the dairy foods certificate program, click here or contact Louise Felker, lmf226@cornell.edu.