eNewsletter, October 2011

Your Sustainable Backyard: Olives

September 24, 2011
Davis, CA

Linda Harris gave a presentation on food safety issues related to home cured olives to approximately 40 olive curing enthusiasts. The event was the result of collaboration between the UC Davis California Center for Urban Horticulture and the UC Davis Olive Center. Also included were a guided olive oil tasting and an olive curing demonstration. Presentations can be found here.

Microbial Challenge Testing for Foods 

September 29-30, 2011
Edmonton, Alberta

The food industry routinely uses challenge testing to determine whether a specific food requires time and temperature control for safety, or is suitably formulated. When laboratory testing is used to support a change in how the product is handled in a food establishment (e.g., refrigerated to unrefrigerated holding, extending shelf life, increasing ambient temperature storage or eliminating the need for date marking), the data are submitted to a state or local regulatory agency or directly to the FDA in the form of a variance application for approval. This course is designed to familiarize participants with the 2010 National Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) document "Parameters for Determining Inoculated Pack/Challenge Study Protocols". Linda Harris and Don Schaffner (Rutgers University) presented a 2-day workshop in Edmonton, Alberta to about 30 students and industry and government employees. This is the 5th time this workshop has been offered in the past 2 years. The workshop was sponsored by the Alberta Section of the International Association for Food Protection.

Produce Safety Research Meeting 

October 20-21, 2011
Davis, CA

The Western Center for Food Safety hosted a meeting of about 30 scientists from across the country to discuss the development of documents on best practices for designing studies to evaluate survival of foodborne pathogens in the produce production environment. Linda Harris, Michele Jay-Russell, and Trevor Suslow represented UC Davis. The Center for Produce Safety hosted a reception on the first day, and several members of the CPS technical committee attended. Significant progress was made in development of the document drafts which are expected to be released in early 2012. A recent story in The Packer explains the project further.

Basic and Advanced HACCP 

October 24-28, 2011
Davis, CA

Linda Harris participated in back to back Basic and Advanced HACCP workshops held at UC Davis. Bruce Hoar (WIFSS) and Lisa Benjamin (WCFS) also participated in the workshop, which attracted food safety personnel from a wide range of processing facilities (both in scale and type) from California and as far away as Alaska and New York. These courses are offered annually at UC Davis and are recognized by the International HACCP Alliance.