The current global Coronavirus outbreak adds relevance to this month’s topic: employee hygiene. Personal hygiene is as important in the preparation of meat and poultry products intended for use as human food as it is in the prevention of infectious disease. Meat and poultry products are…

9 CFR 416.4(d) states “Product must be protected from adulteration during processing, handling, storage, loading, and unloading at and during transportation from official establishments,” The intent was to consolidate all operational sanitation requirements in a single…

Chemicals are everywhere. They are in our kitchens, bathrooms, garages, and yes, our food processing establishments. Avoiding 9 CFR 416.4(c) noncompliance is easy it you follow a few simple practices…

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services inspectors routinely cite 9 CFR 416.4(a) and 9 CFR 416.4(b) when alleging noncompliance because these regulations are not straight forward. They rest on terms with no official….

Sanitation requirements for equipment and utensils found in the Bureau of Animal Industry sanitation regulations, first published as 7 CFR 8 in the 1938 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), remain intact. But times have changed. Stainless steel and plastic have replaced cast iron, steel, and…

This is the last article in a series about facilities. Dressing rooms, lavatories, and toilets are a life necessity. We do not talk about them much, but we cannot avoid them. If you prepare food for human consumption, they are essential because this is where you maintain your personal…

I took precautions yet I still contracted Shigella dysenteriae. Most likely this was from consuming fresh fruit from a vendor who washed it with water contaminated with human feces. You cannot take the safety of the water for granted. 9 CFR 416.2(g) shares…

In 21st century America, it is easy to take the pipes that carry potable water in and non-potable water out for granted. Out of sight should not be out of mind. My father was a plumber and routinely put me up close and personal….

When it comes to food safety, ventilation is neither the cause nor the solution to odors, vapors, and condensation. You prevent odors with structural containment and exhaust to the exterior, not by relocating odors elsewhere through air…