instore - November 2017 - com - 8

Food Safety

"Failure to adequately control and label allergens will result in a
recall. Legal fees, food waste and loss of consumer conﬁdence can
be detrimental for food brands vying for increased market share.
Accurate labeling to protect customers is one step that companies
have control over in food safety. It takes work, but customer health
is depending on accurate information on the labels."
Hilary Thesmar, Food Marketing Institute
ficult to read. Mettler-Toledo introduced
the technology at Pack Expo 2016.
Mettler Toledo's visual inspection systems come with adjustable user permissions to help prevent system overrides
from happening-and if they still do,
user tracking in the control software will
show managers who was responsible for
the override. In addition, Mettler Toledo's
systems can be programmed to check all
aspects of a label, from ensuring it's the
correct label to verifying the readability
of its information. By requiring operators
to enter lot codes multiple times-or
even requiring two separate operators to
enter new lot codes-manufacturers are
able to ensure that the correct lot codes
have been registered, ensuring traceability. Vision inspection systems will also
catch more subtle errors in label presentation, such as improperly spelled or illegible words, unreadable bar codes, and
poor-quality graphics.

High-tech solutions
The severity of failing to disclose allergens is extreme because it could
result in illness or even death, says Jill
Carte, food safety category manager
for Bowling Green, Ohio-based DayMark Safety Systems. During the Food
Safety Summit May 8-11 in Rosemont,
Illinois, Carte says, one top national
grocery retailer cited nondisclosure
of allergens as one of their top three
reasons for product recall of prepared
foods and product received from outside manufacturers.
"Undeclared allergens are certainly a
problem, however 'mislabeling' comes in
many forms," Carte says. "Other reasons
for product recall in the allergen arena
include cross-contact in preparation,
product that is labeled incorrectly and
product that is not labeled at all."

8 * NOVEMBER 2017

DayMark is working with food software
specialist Nutritics on a cloud-based
system that helps companies build and
manage menu data, Carte says. The system also allows users to automatically
identify recipes that contain any of the
FDA's eight major food allergens, and it
instantly generates FDA-compliant nutritional data that can be published on
a printed label or digital menu for consumer awareness and education.

loss of consumer confidence can be
detrimental for food brands vying for
increased market share. Accurate labeling to protect customers is one step
that companies have control over in
food safety. It takes work, but customer
health is depending on accurate information on the labels."
The difference between product that's
packed and labeled before it comes to
the instore deli or bakery and product
that's packed and labeled in-house can
be big, says Lynn Dyer, president of the
Foodservice Packaging Institute.
The chances of a labeling error occurring are higher when it's done in-house,
she says. The problem is, the demand for
customized products is soaring, which
means greater variations in ingredients
- and, as a result, the need for customized labeling -at the store level.

It's also important, Carte says, for operators to realize that mislabeling can occur
along any point in the supply chain, and
to work with vendor partners who are up
to speed on food allergen labeling and
other food safety requirements.

"From our standpoint, the packaging may not change, but what's inside
might," Dyer says. "The question is: can
technology keep up with the demand for
personalized product?"

According to the FDA's Reportable
Food Registry, reports of undeclared
food allergens increased from 30 to 47
percent between 2009 and 2013, says
Hilary Thesmar, chief food and product
Safety officer and senior vice president
of food safety programs for the Food
Marketing Institute. To help reverse the
financial impacts of mislabeling on its
member companies, the FMI Foundation supports research to help find the
causes of mislabeling.

Passage of the Food Allergen Labeling
and Consumer Protection Act in 2006
dramatically increased awareness of the
importance of proper labeling of food
products, says Steve Armstrong, a consultant with Alexandria, Virginia-based
EAS Consulting Group LLC, which specializes in United States Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) regulatory matters. The law requires all food labels in
the U.S. to list ingredients that may cause
allergic reactions.

The foundation recently gave a $20,000
grant to the Food Allergy Research and
Resource Program at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln's Food Science and
Technology Department for research
that will help identify the root causes
of labeling errors and recommend best
practices for manufacturers, suppliers
and retailers in order to reduce undeclared allergen recalls. Findings will be
presented at the SQF Institute International Conference in November.

"The big challenge is to manage your
ingredients so there's no cross contamination and you're aware of what's going
into your foods," Armstrong says, adding that environmental testing is also
increasingly becoming a key component
for food processors.

"Failure to adequately control and label
allergens will result in a recall," Thesmar says. "Legal fees, food waste and

commissary INSIDER

The Food Safety Modernization Act also
has forced retailers and suppliers to step
up their food safety game when it comes
to allergan labeling and other issues,
Armstrong says. "It's critical to have
a sound and transparent management
program, especially since FSMA became
law, he says.

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