To prevent business strategies going awry, continual, consistent and focused employee training is necessary to facilitate accuracy of projections, operations and food safety.

Let's face it: Virtually all food manufacturers will have a recall. Over the course of the last decade, a handful of food companies have experienced many recalls, and some of the largest food product manufacturers in the world have experienced dozens.

Workers hold the key to meat and poultry safety. The inability of plant employees to follow such hygienic practices as proper hand washing and wearing sanitized personal protective equipment can lead to contamination, the spread of foodborne illness, reduction in product shelf life and product recalls.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently issued two announcements that may be of interest to the meat and poultry industry.

Employee hygiene is a leading cause of food safety incidents, costing the industry billions, and damaging public health and brand image.

Researchers are harnessing a still-developing field of study, microgenomics, to limit pathogens in the pre-harvest stage of cattle, while common sense methods are still being used to protect poultry.

Under the standard, certain human food manufacturers, retailers and importers will be required to notify consumers that a food is either bioengineered (BE) or contains BE contents.

After a series of salmonellosis outbreaks linked to ground beef that occurred annually from 2011 to 2013, FSIS released a two-year Salmonella action plan that contained 10 objectives or activities, including: "Explore the contribution of lymph nodes to Salmonella contamination" and "Pre-harvest related activities."

To cope with heightened demand, Meatsnacks Group recently invested in three Phantom metal detectors from Fortress Technology, specifically to filter out the signal generated by iron filings from each packet's scavenger oxygen absorber.