Check out the March 2021 edition of The National Provisioner, featuring the 2021 Burger Report, 20 years of USDA recalls and the 2021 Food Safety Report. Also, we cover such topics as stacking/interleaving, sodium reduction, case ready solutions, the deli plant of the future and much more!
COVID-19 isn’t the only thing I would have liked to leave behind in 2020. Animal-rights activist attacks also rise to the top of my list. Animal-rights activists never miss an opportunity to kick animal agriculture when its down, and the Coronavirus pandemic was no exception.
On Jan. 25, 2021, a coalition of food safety activist groups and individuals led by Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to significantly change course on its approach to regulating Salmonella and Campylobacter.
As a food industry lawyer, I like to closely track recalls of U.S. Department of Agriculture-regulated products. Each year, I watch with interest (and, sometimes, bewilderment) as a continuous stream of recalls float by. The reasons for recalls can vary wildly, involving issues ranging from the unavoidable presence of pathogens to the very avoidable presence of hydraulic fluid.
Demand for America’s favorite sandwich is on the upswing, but consumers are branching out from the traditional beef patties and grinds with newer proteins and flavors.
It’s a burger boom time. While beef burgers have long been a family favorite and a key comfort food, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent rise in home-prepped meals is elevating interest and sales patties and grinds.
The Meat Industry Hall of Fame is proud to welcome its Class of 2020 inductees. Though there was no dinner this year due to COVID restrictions, each inductee spoke with National Provisioner Editor-in-Chief Andy Hanacek to talk about their experiences in the industry.
In the food processing industry, there are many different applications in which oils are used or produced that end up in the wastewater stream. In applications where meat is cooked, fat and grease render out and collect in grease traps. Even the routine washdown of processing equipment surfaces can create a mixture of oily water.
Late last year, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 — jointly published by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services — decisively told Americans to limit foods and beverages higher in four areas: sodium, added sugars, saturated fat and alcohol.
The pandemic had a profound impact on our food spending, and we have seen a dramatic increase in dining at home. An influx of new shoppers in the grocery stores are making their food, especially lunches, at home, and they seek flavorful deli meat choices that are convenient, healthy and, above all, safe.
Case-ready packaging carries a heavy load. It’s tasked with representing the product and its values, protecting food safety, preventing color discoloration and prolonging shelf life.
Employment at U.S. meat, beef and poultry processing plants currently stands around 500,000 and is expected to grow 0.4 percent by the end of 2021, according to Meat, Beef and Poultry Processing Industry in the U.S.,” a September 2020 market research report from IBISWorld.
Microbiome research is an area of increasing interest in livestock production due to potential microbiome impacts on animal performance. The term microbiome, while scientifically rooted in the genetic makeup of the microbes, is used to more generally represent the microbial populations that are present in an environment.
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has pummeled every aspect of business, it could not knock food safety from its perch as meat and poultry processors’ primary focal point in 2020.
The last year was one for the record books in many ways. Never before had our nation’s meat and poultry processors been challenged to meet consumer demand in such intense and unorthodox ways.