Food Pacific Manufacturing Journal

Never let your guard down

FOOD recalls and safety alerts happen every day, and even to the best of companies. But this isn’t some kind of justification for when it happens to you. If you take all measures to ensure the quality of your product, the chances of these occurring should be remote. Food contamination can be prevented. Investing in an inspection system goes a long way in protecting customers and brands from unnecessary recalls, reminds Sornnarong Thongpas, business area manager at Mettler-Toledo (Thailand) Ltd. Mettler-Toledo has a wide range of checkweighers, x-rays and other vision systems that are suitable for meat and poultry producers. In packaging, we also focus on the merits of barcoders as explained by experts from Cognex and Datamax O’Neil.

Prevention is just a word that keeps recurring in this issue. One of our interviewees for health & nutrition is Ms Anke Sentko, the vice president for Regulatory Affairs & Nutrition Communication, Beneo Institute. In our phone conversation, she mentioned the obvious but often neglected truth: prevention-orientated nutrition is one solution to stop the development of non-communicable diseases. In keeping with healthy diets, we feature producers of natural sweeteners. Jason Hecker, vice president, Global Marketing & Innovation at PureCircle, talks about the development of stevia into a mainstream ingredient as a result of growing consumption worldwide. In boardroom connection, we feature pure Jarrah honey producer, Fewster’s Farm Honey. At a trade show in Singapore, I was able to speak to owner Kim Fewster about why honey production in Western Australia is different.