Posts By: Joelle Mosso
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Designing for Success
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” -James Clear, Atomic Habits It is common in business to talk about designing for success. That means intentionally crafting systems and strategies that consistently deliver a product to customers efficiently, reliably and profitably. The faster and smoother we produce, the greater our efficiency— and…
A lot goes into defining a “lot”
Something occurred to me while participating in a metagenomics panel at the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) this past summer in Cleveland, Ohio. I was attentively listening to the other panelists and how they have found value and promise in this emerging discipline, sharing insights into how they incorporate screening ingredients and processing facilities to understand their…
Western Growers Science Nexus – Putting Risk-Based Management and Community into Action
[caption id="attachment_32487" align="aligncenter" width="428"] Image created from: thewordsearchmaker.com[/caption] Hazards are easy to identify. They sometimes take a bit of looking, but generally and with time, you begin to see them - much like looking at the word search game shown above. At first glance, there are just letters. Soon, however, your eyes recognize the patterns, and you…
The False Dichotomy of Food Safety
For those who have participated in debates, common logic strategies are used to be able to win the argument and sway the audience. While logical fallacies are technically errors in reasoning, they appeal to human psychology and can often convince the audience quite effectively. We encounter logical fallacies frequently – circular arguments, ad hominems, red herrings, slippery slopes, etc.,…
The Risk of Arbitrary Food Safety Limits
I’ll take your 1-mile setback and raise you 3. Balancing Science and Assumptions in Food Safety First attempts are rarely the best. That applies to just about everything—including writing and food safety practices. This document has been edited many times, and that doesn’t make the first version wrong or useless—it’s simply part of the iterative process of finding the best way…
Permission for Risk
Risk-based management has been the on-trend phrase of the past decade within the food safety community. Globally, numerous regulations and food safety standards have adopted language that requires food-producing entities to assess their process and product, and then apply risk-based measures appropriate for the risk. This is a logical and scientifically supported theory – it makes complete…
WG Science Bringing Applied Research Studies to Members
The Western Growers Science team has been working on applied research projects in the produce industry. Most recently, we have worked to evaluate a new technology, the CytoQuant (Romer Labs), on its utility as an additional tool to monitor food contact surface cleanliness and cleaning programs. CytoQuant is a mobile flow cytometer unit that measures intact microbial cells in as little as…
Data’s First Lesson – It’s Not What It Appears.
The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data is expanding, with stated implications ranging from making our lives a bit easier with automatic orders by our refrigerators for items running low, to the slightly more complex problem of solving climate change and world peace. As with most things, the truth of what AI will offer us (especially in the foreseeable future) largely lies…
Permission for Risk pt. 2
This is part two of a two-part series on food safety and sustainability. You can read the first part of this series in the March/April edition of the Western Grower & Shipper. Risk-based management requires that we design systems that consistently and efficiently identify risk so that appropriate measures can be implemented to reduce it. Preventing the first step of identification…
Food Safety and Sustainability: Permission for Risk
Risk-based management has been the on-trend phrase of the past decade within the food safety community. Globally, numerous regulations and food safety standards have adopted language that requires food-producing entities to assess their process and product, and then apply risk-based measures appropriate for the risk. This is a logical and scientifically supported theory – it makes complete…
Activity vs. Value
In food safety and, well, really anything in life, it is always good to check if the actions we are taking are characterized as a valuable activity or just simply an activity. For example, if trying to lose weight and you go to the gym, that activity may be valuable (aka if you run on a treadmill, lift weights, etc.), or it may only be an activity if you simply walk around, chat with other…
Salmonella in the Fresh Produce Industry
Understanding Salmonella In our first installment of “Meet the Pathogens” we focused on Listeria species. A genus of bacteria that frequently challenge the food industry with their ubiquitous nature (found almost everywhere) and capacity to grow in wet cold environments common in the food industry. While Listeria is often spoken about in the context of wet processing plants (though, it…
Listeria in the Fresh Produce Industry – Expected Encounters
Why should I understand microbial hazards? In food safety, the first important step in designing/revising a food safety program is to take time to do an in-depth analysis of the hazards that a process or product may have. When it comes to microbial hazards, that means taking time to understand the organisms, learning their characteristics and trying to understand and predict their capacity…
The Practice of Food Safety
Life involves three types of decisions: must do, could do and should do. Among these, the "must" decisions are the easiest because external forces often make them for us. These are actions that must be completed due to obligations or rules. For example, paying taxes in the United States is a "must" decision. Regardless of personal feelings, people comply to avoid penalties or jail time. It’s…
Improved Efficiency for STEC Risk Mitigation
Over the past few posts and articles, we have put out a couple of briefs about the considerations for STEC/EHEC testing, and overall risk management in the produce industry. STEC/EHEC is a diverse group of organisms, and a major contributor to outbreaks and recalls. While there are notable serogroups (O157, O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145) that most frequently lead to outbreaks and illness,…
Practical vs. Prudent in Food Safety: A Nuance that Matters.
Practical: focused on actual use or practice rather than theory or ideas; concerned with what is effective, useful or realistic in a given situation. Prudent: acting with or showing care and thought for the future; being cautious and wise to avoid unnecessary risks while also imparting feasibility. There’s a complicated relationship with the word practical. Practical is an important…
STEC Positive Now What? What Confirmatory Testing to Choose and Why
In a previous article on Shiga toxin-producing E.coli detection in the food industry, it was discussed how STEC/EHEC is somewhat of a “choose your own adventure” screening test. Since this is a broad group of organisms, variations in the methodology determine what a positive may include regarding both pathogenicity and gene targets. Often, the food industry defaults to the method and…
Exploring Wastewater Monitoring for Foodborne Illness Detection
A recent article highlights an emerging use of wastewater monitoring and microbial detection to assess the true impact of foodborne illnesses in our communities. Wastewater monitoring has long been a component of public health monitoring; however, this type of community monitoring increased in use during the COVID-19 pandemic as a means for public health officials to help curtail rising cases of…
What Has Your Data Done for You Lately?
A tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it. Does it make a sound? When thinking about food safety, we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about how we improve, and that’s extremely important. Just as important is making sure we design the systems to know whether we did. Blindly implementing and adopting best practices aimed at reducing the risk of foodborne illness is…
WG Joins Panel at 10th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Summit in Minneapolis
Western Growers facilitated a panel on the Nexus of Food Safety and Sustainability at the 10th annual Sustainable Agriculture Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 20-21. This session was selected from over 150 applications, highlighting the interest and importance of this topic in the industry. Joining Western Growers’ Science team members, Jeana Cadby and Joelle Mosso, were Gina…