Snack World - August 2013 - (Page 10)

News SFA updates TQM program to focus on innovation Rapid changes are emerging in snack food industry processing methodology, materials and laboratory equipment, and those new developments will now be a part of SFA’s inaugural Quality & Innovation Management Workshop, Sept. 9-13, at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. “This course is designed to improve the performance of everyone from the lab technician to the line supervisor and the operations manager,” said Shari Plimpton, PhD, vicepresident, Center for Innovative Food Technology, and SFA’s technology consultant. The new Quality & Innovation Management Workshop replaces SFA’s Total Quality Management program, and the fiveday course will include both classroom and laboratory activities. “We’ve revamped the program, recognizing the rapid developments in innovation within the industry,” Dr. Plimpton explained. “One of our missions is to be the leading edge in informing people about these new improvements that are available to their operations.” Thus, she said, the new workshop program will include speakers and demonstrators who will exhibit new laboratory methods and processing techniques. “For example, we will be providing the latest information on fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, which makes it possible to provide a more rapid analysis of a variety of compounds in product development and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, as well as improved methods of environmental testing,” Dr. Plimpton noted. SFA member companies are urged to participate in the program. “Attendees will get the latest in quality and safety management approaches, regulatory updates, updates on the Food Safety Modernization Act and updates on materials processing methods,” she said. “The goal is to improve companies’ overall operations.” For more information and to register, please visit www.sfa.org. — Bob Gatty FDA defines gluten-free The Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule defining gluten-free for voluntary food labeling. In order to use the term on its label, a snack must meet all of the requirements of the definition, including that the food must contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten, according to the agency. The rule also requires foods with the claims “no gluten,” “free of gluten” and “without gluten” to meet the definition for “gluten-free.” Snack manufacturers will have a year after the rule is published to bring their labels into compliance with the new requirements, FDA said. “We encourage the food industry to come into compliance with the new definition as soon as possible and help us make it as easy as possible for people with celiac disease to identify foods that meet the federal definition of ‘gluten-free,’ ” said Michael R. Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine. FDA was directed to issue the new regulation by the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act to help people with celiac disease maintain a gluten-free diet. The regulation was published in the Aug. 2 Federal Register. Farm Bill to wait until September Congress adjourned for its August recess without passing a new Farm Bill. Members of Congress won’t return to Washington until Sept. 9, and they then will have only nine working days to negotiate a final Farm Bill, pass it in both the Senate and the House and send it to the president for his signature. Such urgent and collaborative action, something rarely exhibited by this Congress, will be required as the 2008 Farm Act expires on Sept. 30. Alternatively, Congress may decide to extend yet again the 2008 Farm Bill to buy time for further action, or inaction, or allow “permanent law” and Depression-era farm programs to be resurrected, which would wreak havoc in markets and in grocery stores across the country and perhaps the world. The House passed a revised Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act, stripped of a nutrition title, by a 10 Snack World August 2013 www.sfa.org party-line vote on July 11. This followed the House’s failure in June to approve a Farm Bill that included a nutrition title that called for $20.5 billion in spending cuts for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over 10 years. Those cuts were opposed by most Democrats as excessive and by some conservative Republicans as being far too small. The bill may have passed even in the face of this combined opposition if amendments offered on the floor imposing new requirements and restrictions on SNAP benefit recipients hadn’t passed. These were viewed as punitive and over the top by some Democrats who had been willing to vote for the bill in the hope the SNAP spending cuts would be scaled back in a House-Senate conference. The amendments drove them into opposition, and the bill sank. http://www.sfa.org http://www.sfa.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Snack World - August 2013

Snack World - August 2013
Table of Contents
Letter from SFA - An Invasion and a Boot Camp
Supplier’s Corner - Get Involved
News - SFA updates TQM program to focus on innovation
FDA defines gluten-free
Farm Bill to wait until September
SFA CEO Profile - Dempsey Develops Bold Strategy
Government Affairs - SFA Hits Capitol Hill
SFA analyzes ‘Smart Snacks in School’ rule
Meeting Preview - Boot Camp!
New Snacks
Products & Services
Ad Index

Snack World - August 2013