Educating consumers and food operators on proper food-hygiene practices is the most pressing food safety issue across the island of Ireland. This is according to Ger Cadogan, Head of Quality and Technical Control at Glanbia, who says this education should focus on both storage and cross-contamination risks.
Ger manages the quality assurance (QA) and technical teams at Glanbia. They manage process and product safety and quality across Glanbia’s production units and the distribution chain. “This entails monitoring for a range of microbiological, chemical and physical parameters, which vary depending on the specific risks of the product type involved,” he says.
He says the risk from raw plant materials, in particular, is sometimes overlooked. “Plant materials are regularly transported vast distances and can have a short shelf life. It’s challenging to ensure their hygiene status before they arrive to the marketplace,” he says.
“We also work with our operations and engineering teams to design new installations and modify existing plants, and drive routine good manufacturing practices (GMP) and system auditing processes so we can deliver safe, legal and consistent products.”
Foresight is key
Their main challenge, he says, lies in anticipating new issues before they turn into problems. “This can range from working to improve standards of GMP at a plant to minimise the risk of particular microbiological threats, to tailoring our monitoring programmes to provide safeguards and customer confidence in light of a developing food scare on the other side of the world.”
Having access to the most up-to-date information on threats to our food supply is crucial, Ger says. This includes both scientific knowledge of how specific threats can arise and be controlled, and updates through a system of global food alerts such as the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASSF) and through food network groups such as safefood Knowledge Networks.
“The food industry today operates with a global reach, so we must be aware of developing threats to both our raw materials and our finished products.”
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