Clickers and HACCP: Educating a Diverse Food Industry Audience with Technology

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic approach to food safety education for the food industry. To receive a HACCP certificate, participants must receive an 80% or higher on the final examination. Language barriers, educational levels, and age have been noted as primary reasoning\u27s for not passing the final examination. Clicker technology has been shown to improve knowledge transfer to students in various classroom settings. Incorporation of mock final examination questions using Clickers into a traditional HACCP course has been shown in a small pilot study to increase the pass rate

Clickers and HACCP: Educating a Diverse Food Industry Audience with Technology

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic approach to food safety education for the food industry. To receive a HACCP certificate, participants must receive an 80% or higher on the final examination. Language barriers, educational levels, and age have been noted as primary reasoning\u27s for not passing the final examination. Clicker technology has been shown to improve knowledge transfer to students in various classroom settings. Incorporation of mock final examination questions using Clickers into a traditional HACCP course has been shown in a small pilot study to increase the pass rate

The effects of Produce Washes on the Quality and Shelf Life of Cantaloupe (Cucumis Melo Var. Cantalupensis) and watermelon (Cirtullus Lantus Var. Lanatus)

Our research objective was to evaluate the ability of produce washes to maintain the texture and color quality attributes of watermelon and cantaloupe while reducing the levels of natural fungi population on the melon surface. Melons were submerged for 2 min into either water control or water containing quaternary ammonium chloride (300 ppm) or an 18% hydrogen peroxide and 12% peroxyacetic acid combination (100 ppm), or an acetic acid, peroxyacetic acid and hydrogen peroxide combination (0.78%). Microbial analysis and instrumental measurements were utilized to assess the melons on day 0, 7, 14 and 21 in three separate trials. The experimental results indicated no reduction of fungal contaminants and no changes in firmness or color of melons following the applied treatments over the time of the study (P \u3e 0.05). Additionally, the results provided evidence of extension of shelf life due to application of the tested washing solutions onto the watermelons or cantaloupe. Practical Applications Concerns over microbial safety in the melon industry prompted the use of intervention treatments to reduce foodborne pathogens. New formulations of antimicrobial treatments have created a wide variety of washing treatments that the melons producers can utilize in their production system. Research has shown that many of these formulations have antimicrobial effects, but little data have shown whether quality affects will result. This fact has caused growers\u27 to hesitate using such products. The results of this work indicate that the chosen produce sanitizers did not reduce the quality of whole melons following washing treatments. Information provided by this work will be utilized to communicate benefits of surface washing in the melon industry, and to promote sanitation and safe handling practices through extension education

Implementation of food safety management systems along with other management tools (HAZOP, FMEA, Ishikawa, Pareto). the case study of Listeria monocytogenes and correlation with microbiological criteria

The food industry’s failure in planning and designing of and in implementing a Food Safety Management System and its foundation elements leads, in most instances, to compromised food safety and subsequent foodborne illness outbreaks. This phenomenon was noticed, worldwide, for all food processors, but with a much higher incidence in the medium-and small-sized food processing plants. Our study focuses on the importance of Food Safety Management System (FSMS), Critical Control Points Hazard Analysis (HACCP) and the Prerequisite Programs (PRPs) as the foundation of HACCP, in preventing foodborne outbreaks. For emphasis, we make use of the example of organizational food safety culture failures and the lack of managerial engagement which resulted in a multi-state listeriosis outbreak in USA. Moreover, we correlate this with microbiological criteria. Implementation of food safety management systems (ISO 22000:2018) along with incorporation of management tools such as HAZOP, FMEA, Ishikawa and Pareto have proved to be proactive in the maintenance of a positive food safety culture and prevention of cross-contamination and fraud. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/)

"Clickers" and HACCP: Educating a Diverse Food Industry Audience with Technology

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic approach to food safety education for the food industry. To receive a HACCP certificate, participants must receive an 80% or higher on the final examination. Language barriers, educational levels, and age have been noted as primary reasoning's for not passing the final examination. Clicker technology has been shown to improve knowledge transfer to students in various classroom settings. Incorporation of mock final examination questions using Clickers into a traditional HACCP course has been shown in a small pilot study to increase the pass rate.This article is published as Shaw, A., A. Mendonca, A., and A. Daraba. 2015. “Clickers” and HACCP: Educating a diverse food industry audience with technology. Journal of Extension 53 (6): 6TOT6. Posted with permission.</p

Bacterial Immobilization on Cattle Hides: A Novel Concept for Reducing Bacterial Contamination of Beef Carcasses

The meat of healthy cattle is sterile and surrounded by two areas that are highly contaminated with microorganisms. These areas are the hide and the intestinal tract. Because cattle hides can carry pathogens, there is a crucial need for technologies to prevent or minimize microbial cross-contamination from these sources. Two potential approaches to decontamination technology are: (1) decontamination of the hide before dressing or (2) decontamination of the carcass after de-hiding. Most decontamination techniques focus on physical removal or killing of microorganisms on the hide, using heat (80 ºC maximum) or a variety of chemical treatments.This article is from National Provisioner (2013): 99241. Posted with permission.</p

The effects of Produce Washes on the Quality and Shelf Life of "Cantaloupe" (Cucumis Melo Var. Cantalupensis) and "watermelon" (Cirtullus Lantus Var. Lanatus)

Our research objective was to evaluate the ability of produce washes to maintain the texture and color quality attributes of watermelon and cantaloupe while reducing the levels of natural fungi population on the melon surface. Melons were submerged for 2 min into either water control or water containing quaternary ammonium chloride (300 ppm) or an 18% hydrogen peroxide and 12% peroxyacetic acid combination (100 ppm), or an acetic acid, peroxyacetic acid and hydrogen peroxide combination (0.78%). Microbial analysis and instrumental measurements were utilized to assess the melons on day 0, 7, 14 and 21 in three separate trials. The experimental results indicated no reduction of fungal contaminants and no changes in firmness or color of melons following the applied treatments over the time of the study (P > 0.05). Additionally, the results provided evidence of extension of shelf life due to application of the tested washing solutions onto the watermelons or cantaloupe. Practical Applications Concerns over microbial safety in the melon industry prompted the use of intervention treatments to reduce foodborne pathogens. New formulations of antimicrobial treatments have created a wide variety of washing treatments that the melons producers can utilize in their production system. Research has shown that many of these formulations have antimicrobial effects, but little data have shown whether quality affects will result. This fact has caused growers' to hesitate using such products. The results of this work indicate that the chosen produce sanitizers did not reduce the quality of whole melons following washing treatments. Information provided by this work will be utilized to communicate benefits of surface washing in the melon industry, and to promote sanitation and safe handling practices through extension education.This article is published as Svoboda, A., A. Shaw, L. Wilson, A. Mendonca, A. Nair and A. Daraba*. 2016. The effects of produce washes on the quality and shelf life of “cantaloupe” (Cucumis melo var. cantupensis) and “watermelon” (Citrullus lantus var. lanatus). Journal of Food Quality. 39(6); 773-779. DOI: 10.1111/jfq.12229</p

Enhanced destruction of Salmonella enterica in carrot and berry juices by a combination of cinnamaldehyde and high pressure processing

Statement of the Problem: In recent years several disease outbreaks were linked to unpasteurized juices contaminated with human enteric pathogens such as Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli O157:H7 (CDC 2011; EFSA 2015). While heat pasteurization and canning can inactivate vegetative pathogens, such processes can destroy heat labile nutrients and negatively alter sensory characteristics of juices. Also growing consumer demands for foods which are nutritious, fresh-like, and devoid of synthetic preservatives, have forced juice manufacturers to explore non-thermal processes and natural antimicrobials for pathogen control in juices. The present study investigated the effect of low concentrations of cinnamaldehyde combined with high pressure processing (HPP) for killing S. enterica in carrot juice (CRJ) and a mixed berry juice (MBJ) at 4ºC. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: CRJ (pH 6.25) and MBJ (pH 3.59) with added cinnamaldehyde (0.10, 0.15 and 0.25 μl/ml) were inoculated with S. enterica (5-strain; final concentration ~107 CFU/ml). Inoculated juices without added cinnamaldehyde served as control. Juices (4ºC) were packaged in polyester pouches and pressurized (400 or 300 MPa) for 60, 90 and 120 seconds. The time between inoculation and HPP was approximately 1.5 hours. Salmonella survived for 42 days or more in control CRJ following HPP (400 MPa) for 30, 60, or 120 s. Addition of cinnamaldehyde to juices increased the sensitivity of S. enterica to HPP. Cinnamaldehyde (0.25 μl/ml) combined with 400 MPa (60 s) inactivated S. enterica by more than 5.5-log in CRJ. In MBJ, cinnamaldehyde (0.15 μl/ml) with a lower pressure (300 MPa for 120 s) resulted in complete inactivation (negative enrichment) and greater than a 5-log10 CFU/ ml reduction of S. enterica. Conclusion & Significance: The use of CA in conjunction with HPP has good potential to serve as an alternative process for heat pasteurization of juices and meet the 5-log reduction performance standard as stipulated in the juice HACCP regulations.This abstract is published as Daraba[SLL[1] , A., Mendonca, A., Manu, D., Dickson, J., Sebranek, J., Shaw, A., and A. Dispirito. 2016. Enhanced destruction of Salmonella enterica in carrot and berry juices by a combination of cinnamaldehyde and high pressure processing. Journal of Experimental Food Chemistry: 2:4 (supplement). DOI: 10.4172/2472-0542.C1.006.</p