Shawn K. Stevens

Fight for Food Safety

Managing your next Food Safety Assessment

March 4, 2014

Until a few years ago, there were still a number of federal meat establishments that had not yet experienced a comprehensive Food Safety Assessment (FSA).

Fight for Food Safety

Giving tax incentives for testing

Shawn K. Stevens

February 2, 2014

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As government and industry strive to improve the safety of our food supply, not a day goes by when we don’t hear about more legislation, added regulation and new policy.

Fight for Food Safety

Leaning forward in the food-safety foxhole

Shawn K. Stevens

January 16, 2014

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How is your company oriented when it comes to food safety? Is your company leaning forward in the food-safety foxhole, or hoping that if a problem happens it can hide in it instead?

Fight for Food Safety

Listeria isn’t leaving (unfortunately)

Shawn K. Stevens

December 14, 2013

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I spent some time in my last two columns dissecting recent trends involving recalls for E. coli O157:H7 and allergens.

Fight for Food Safety

Attack of the allergens

Shawn K. Stevens

November 5, 2013

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Last month, I wrote about how industry has managed to virtually eliminate E. coliO157:H7 from our beef supply. Indeed, in the last two years, there have been only a handful of recalls relating to E. coli, and none were associated with foodborne illnesses or outbreaks.

Fight for Food Safety

Where did all the E. coli go?

Shawn K. Stevens

October 4, 2013

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Only a few years ago, we would have been hard pressed to see more than a few weeks go by without reading about another large-scale E. coli O157:H7 (“E. coli”) outbreak or recall in the news.

Fight for Food Safety

Shooting for sterility

Shawn K. Stevens

September 12, 2013

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Or, should we say, pressing for pasteurization, demanding decontamination, or aiming for anything … well, a lot more aseptic?

Fight for Food Safety

Develop a written policy for ‘companion sampling’ to FSIS testing

Shawn K. Stevens

August 8, 2013

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FSIS has begun focusing more aggressively on possible connections between slaughter establishments and positive ground-beef samples.

Fight for Food Safety

The days of ‘medium-rare’ may be numbered

Is USDA putting a stake through “medium-rare” steaks?

Shawn K. Stevens

July 10, 2013

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Indeed, USDA recently published new proposed rules requiring meat processors to properly label mechanically tenderized meat products.

Fight for Food Safety

FSIS, FDA should merge

Creating a single food-safety agency under FSMA rules would eliminate redundancy.

Shawn K. Stevens

June 14, 2013

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We have heard a lot lately about government funding shortfalls, and the impact it is having on the ability of many agencies to fulfill their responsibilities.