Positive food safety culture that prioritizes people “key to reducing risk of contamination or recalls”

Positive food safety culture that prioritizes people “key to reducing risk of contamination or recalls”

New industry-led global guidance sets out the role of people and culture in enabling food safety and product quality

LONDON, April 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — A food safety culture that prioritizes people and supports collaboration in manufacturing facilities, food service businesses, restaurants or retail stores can help improve quality, minimizing the risks of contamination or recalls while also benefiting productivity and talent retention.

New global guidance from BSI, the business development and standards company, developed through consensus with industry giants including Walmart, McDonald’s, Kerry Foods and 3M, and published this week, identifies that the common factor in food safety incidents, quality failures and recalls is people rather than failures of machinery or technology. Equally, when issues occur, people are the key to avoiding recurrence.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), consuming contaminated food results in an estimated 600m people falling ill every year, leading to 420,000 deaths. A desire to tackle this led to a round-table discussion at the 2019 International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Annual Meeting, then, ultimately, the creation of an industry steering group. The resulting document, Developing and sustaining a mature food safety culture (PAS 320), is designed to guide organizations of all sizes across food, beverage and retail to create a culture where people are prioritized, all employees embrace food safety, take responsibility for reporting issues, and are empowered to initiate change.

Relevant to anyone from manufacturers and factory workers to restauranteurs and baristas, the guidance has been published by BSI following extensive sector discussion on food safety culture, including what it is, how to measure it and how to ensure continuous improvements. The document defines food safety culture as the “shared values, beliefs and norms that affect mindset and behavior toward food safety in, across and throughout an organization.”

It notes that creating and maintaining a strong culture that preserves quality and reduces risk requires management commitment and a mindset that safety is the responsibility of everyone at every stage of the food supply chain. Culture is also highlighted as key for employee retention, improving quality and decreasing contamination risk by decreasing turnover rate.

PAS 320 includes steps for identifying gaps and then implementing a plan for change. It makes recommendations related to leadership; the organization’s vision, mission, values and policy; organizational structure; responsibilities, accountabilities and authorities; guiding coalition team; interested parties; change champions; influencers; and food safety documentation. The guidance also includes advice on how prioritizing people in the sector not only supports improved food safety but also brings other benefits, including investment return, business performance improvement, reduction of the costs associated with poor quality, and enhanced efficiency.

The US FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety blueprint states that dramatic improvements in reducing the burden of foodborne illness cannot be made without doing more to influence the beliefs, attitudes, and, most importantly, the behaviors of people and the actions of organizations.

Neil Coole, Director, Food and Retail Supply Chains at BSI, said: “A positive food safety culture that prioritizes people and gives everyone a stake in driving quality can have a transformative effect and help reduce the risk that comes from unsafe food. This starts with leadership taking steps to turn ambition into action in order to build and sustain continuous improvements across their organization and the wider supply chain.

“Ultimately, moving from seeing food safety culture as a compliance issue to an investment in people can offer huge benefits for individuals, organizations and society as a whole.”

Scott Steedman, Director General, Standards, BSI, said: “It is tragic that so many lives are lost globally every year to contaminated food. This is something nobody in the industry can ignore, and urgent steps to change this are required. We understand that the common factor in food safety-related risks is people, and it is an organization’s culture towards food safety that presents the opportunity for continuous improvement. PAS 320 provides the guidance to empower people to make a positive impact on the future of the food industry.

“Enabling a robust food safety culture is vital for enhancing quality and safety across the food sector. Strengthening understanding of what best practice looks like and how everyone in the food sector can play a role, by enhancing global consistency and offering clarity, can help food sector organizations accelerate change and support the realization of quality and food safety ambitions. This new standard on food safety culture can build confidence in the global food industry and offer long-term benefits for everyone.”

Media Contact:
Chad Quinn, PR Manager, Americas, BSI
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +571-758-8638.

Notes to Editors:

Contact us for the copy of the standard

About BSI

BSI is the business improvement and standards company that enables organizations to turn standards of best practice into habits of excellence, “inspiring trust for a more resilient world.” For over a century, BSI has driven best practice in organizations around the world. Working with over 77,500 clients across 195 countries, it is a truly global business with skills and experience across all sectors, including automotive, aerospace, built environment, food and retail and healthcare. Through its expertise in Standards and Knowledge, Assurance Services, Regulatory Services and Consulting Services, BSI helps clients to improve their performance, grow sustainably, manage risk, and ultimately become more resilient.

To learn more, please visit: www.bsigroup.com

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SOURCE BSI Group Americas Inc.

Green Mediterranean diet is best for reducing harmful visceral fat

Green Mediterranean diet is best for reducing harmful visceral fat

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A modified Mediterranean food plan, so-named the green Mediterranean diet plan may possibly convey the most rewards to all those on the lookout to shed visceral body fat. Picture credit rating: kolderal/Getty Photos.
  • A recent examine appeared at the wellbeing outcomes of a new variation of the Mediterranean eating plan known as the eco-friendly Mediterranean eating plan.
  • The inexperienced Mediterranean eating plan is far more productive than the original at lessening the amount of money of visceral excess fat all-around inner organs.
  • Visceral unwanted fat has been joined to early mortality and a host of other severe professional medical fears.
  • A essential aspect of the new diet plan is the inclusion of walnuts, which are rich in polyphenols.

A new massive-scale medical intervention demo discovered that a modified Mediterranean diet program — identified as the green Mediterranean eating plan — is far more productive at reducing visceral fat that can encompass and problems organs than the standard Mediterranean eating plan or a generally nutritious eating plan.

All a few diet plans resulted in a reduction of visceral fats, but the green Mediterranean diet plan doubled the benefit of the “traditional” Mediterranean diet plan.

The examine was performed by the Direct-Additionally demo research group. It was led by Prof. Iris Shai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and Dr. Hila Zelicha, now at the College of California, Los Angeles, aided by colleagues from Italy, Germany, and the United States.

The examine appears in BMC Drugs.

The green Mediterranean diet differs from the first Mediterranean diet plan in its emphasis on polyphenols.

Polyphenols are plant compounds that have been connected to protection from form 2 diabetes, some cancers, and coronary heart ailment. They also surface to guidance mind health and digestion.

Polyphenols are found in darkish chocolate, berries, crimson wine, and tea, as very well as some nuts, this kind of as walnuts.

On the green Mediterranean eating plan, as envisaged in this review, a human being consumes 28 grams of walnuts — about 7 nuts — 3 to 4 cups of inexperienced tea, and 100 milligrams of the aquatic plant Wolffia globosa (Mankai) — also known as “duckweed” — in a smoothie or shake every single working day. All are rich in polyphenols.

If not, the diet regime is the same as the original Mediterranean food plan, but devoid of the usage of crimson and processed meats.

For the 18-thirty day period randomized controlled trial, researchers divided the 294 members into 3 teams:

  • a person group followed a regular Mediterranean (MED) food plan
  • 1 followed a eco-friendly Mediterranean (eco-friendly-MED) diet plan
  • a closing team a person strictly followed nutritious dietary suggestions (HDG).

All teams were supplied life style academic periods and actual physical exercise tips, alongside with a free of charge gym membership.

Scientists provided the walnuts, tea, and Mankai, along with recipes for environmentally friendly smoothies.

Dr. Aaron Cypess, of the Nationwide Institutes of Health’s Nationwide Institute of Diabetic issues and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, was not associated in the review. He praised the research to Health-related News These days:

“The medical demo was executed very well, and these sorts of extended-time period eating plan interventions are incredibly tricky to execute. The study has created quite a few hypotheses that can now be examined relating to the system by which polyphenols have an impact on VAT mass.”

“VAT” stands for “visceral adipose tissue,” which is an additional term for visceral extra fat. “Adipose” describes a entire body tissue that outlets body fat.

At the conclusion of the trial, reductions in visceral fat ended up assessed by way of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All a few teams shed a similar volume of overall entire body bodyweight.

Individuals on the eco-friendly Mediterranean diet regime decreased their visceral fats by around 14{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}. All those on the Mediterranean diet plan misplaced 6{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}, and the healthier diet group lost 4.2{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}.

Although one’s over-all weight and visual appearance are generally the metrics by which persons choose eating plans, visceral fat is a much a lot more critical concern.

Dr. Zelicha informed MNT that “in terms of the wellbeing risks related with extra body fat, visceral adipose tissue is significantly much more unsafe than the extra ‘tire’ all around your waist.”

“VAT,” explained Dr. Zelicha, “has been linked to various health and fitness problems, this kind of as high blood stress, being overweight, dyslipidemia, and diabetic issues. It also improves mortality hazard, earning it additional vital to maintain an eye on.”

Visceral fats is deep in the physique and uncovered around internal organs, not like the surface layer of extra fat that we can see.

“Most interventions now available do not goal deep adipose tissue specially,” pointed out Dr. Cypess, “yet rewards of body fat mass decline, in standard, are nonetheless valuable.”

Because it can’t be found, deciding if one has VAT is not a basic endeavor. Even though Dr. Zelicha observed that midsection circumference is a reasonably very good indicator of the presence of VAT, MRI and laptop or computer tomography (CT) scans are the gold specifications for detection.

“However, CT entails ionizing radiation, and MRI has emerged as a highly effective non-invasive prediction tool, but it is very expensive and time-consuming,” she cautioned.

There is even now a want, Dr. Zelicha mentioned, for a improved, simply available, and validated resource for evaluating VAT.

As of the time of writing, the eco-friendly Mediterranean diet plan is the routine that most appreciably lowers visceral extra fat, according to the modern investigation.

As Dr. Cypess famous: “Most diet programs guide to a reduction in the adipose tissue all-around organs. Even in this analyze, the HDG handle arm led to visceral extra fat decline, just not as significantly as the [green Mediterranean] diet plan.”

Since successful meal plans will typically supply at least some reduction in VAT, Dr. Cypess asserted, “the ideal diet plan and physical exercise program is the a person that the person can adhere to for months and a long time into the long term.”

Dr. Zelicha explained that aerobic workouts such as working or cycling have “been shown to be a powerful method for visceral adipose tissue reduction.“

In Prof. Shai’s before analysis, such physical exercise together with walnut consumption amplified the effect of the conventional Mediterranean diet program in cutting down VAT, reported Dr. Zelicha.

“Eating far more plant-centered fat,” advised Dr. Zelicha, “such as olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds, and avoiding very simple carbs and trans-fatty acids can enable reduce VAT.”