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November 20, 2024
– For TAG perspectives and analysis of other current areas of interest, visit our INSIGHTS page or view a TAG TALKS Q&A (YouTube).
May 16, 2022. Food Quality & Safety. The article on FDA’s overview of new food guidance topic cites TAG’s Vice President of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, Dr. Ben Miller, who notes the list of forthcoming guidance documents includes some clear themes around allergens, GRAS panels, plant-based and cell-cultured foods, ready-to-eat (RTE) and non-RTE food classification, and heavy metals in infant foods and juices. [Read the article.]
April 12, 2022. Food Quality & Safety. TAG founder and CEO David Acheson discusses the 2007 pet-food melamine contamination recall and the investigation by the FDA, for which he was associate commissioner for foods at the time. [Read the article.]
April 1, 2022. Pro Food World. It might seem to the average consumer that product recalls are on the rise. But according to TAG’s Director of Food Safety, Eric Edmunds, there has actually been a downturn in recalls for the past few years. [Read the article.]
March 9, 2022. Cannabis Industry Journal. TAG’s Executive VP of Regulatory Affairs Cameron Prince discusses how Salmonella and Aspergillus contamination can occur throughout the cannabis supply chain, from seed to sale. Implementing a supply chain risk assessment and management program will enable you to determine where the greatest risks lie among your ingredients and suppliers, allowing you to allocate resources based on that risk. [Read the article.]
February 6, 2022. Yuma Daily Sun. Speaking at the AgTechX Food Safety event, TAG President and CEO, Dr. David Acheson, discussed industry changes resulting from the 2006 E.coli outbreak linked to spinach – the “deadliest outbreak in U.S. history,” and other lessons learned from this and other foodborne disease outbreaks. [Read the article.]
January 24, 2022. Food Processing. TAG Founder and CEO David Acheson discusses what he foresees happening in the food industry in 2022. Between the continuing of COVID-19, worker absenteeism, supply chain disruptions, and more focused regulatory agendas from both the FDA and USDA, 2022 is sure to be an interesting year. [Read the article.]
January 12, 2022. Food Processing. TAG Founder and CEO David Acheson discusses what came of 2021 for the food industry. 2021 was a difficult year due to Covid-19 impacts, such as labor shortages and supply chain challenges. U.S. regulations and standards, as well as Canadian ones were updated throughout the year to which the industry sought out TAG for consulting inquiries. [Read the article.]
The Labor Shortage — Risks and Solutions
December 16, 2021. While you are likely much more interested in the potential risks and solutions of the labor shortage, understanding the causes is essential. TAG President and CEO Dr. David Acheson discusses the significant labor shortage issues, both throughout the worst of the pandemic and still occurring now. Prior to the pandemic, the United States job market had been growing, taking the unemployment rate to its lowest level in a half-century and making it difficult to fill jobs in both food science/management positions and on-floor skilled/low-skilled workers. [Read the article.]
December 14, 2021. Knowing Canada’s food safety rules and regulations can go a long way in working with businesses in the country. TAG’s Director of Communications, Lisa Lupo has been fully immersed in everything Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but as so often happens, just as you feel you have something fairly well down pat, something changes. [Read the article.]
December 6, 2021. Food Engineering. With the mandatory compliance date of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) rule, “National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NFBDS)” arriving on January 1, 2022, TAG Director of Food Safety Eric Edmunds, JD, discusses the rule as being a consumer information law vs. that of food safety. “The science has really shown that bioengineered foods are as safe as their conventional counterparts. But it’s a consumer information law—people want to know if they’re consuming bioengineered food, or what people commonly refer to as GMOs,” he said. [Read the article.]
November 8, 2021. QA Magazine. Dr. Brent Kobielush has joined TAG as Director of Food Safety. He comes from Cargill, Inc., where he served as director, U.S. regulatory affairs, providing leadership and technical regulatory direction. [Read the article.]
October 14, 2021. QA Magazine. TAG Founder and CEO David Acheson discusses effective leadership as an essential aspect of a successful business, realizing that it can be extremely difficult when one is faced with the unknowns of a recall crisis. [Read the article.]
September 10, 2021. ProFood World. TAG Senior Director for Food Safety and Supply Chain Risk Management Liliana Casal-Wardle participates in a discussion on the need for food manufacturers to focus on physical contaminant elimination, improving practices, and developing a culture of food safety with buy-in from all staff levels in ordert to pass inspections and prevent recalls. In the video and transcription, Casal-Wardle discusses what Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) auditors look for during audits. [Read the article.]
September 3, 2021. QA Magazine – To commemorate National Food Safety Education month, we reached out to food safety industry insiders, advisory board members and others – including TAG Director of Communications Lisa Lupo – to get some takes on why consumer education is important. Read Lisa’s take on why the food industry needs to educate its consumers. [Read the article.]
August 11, 2021. QA Magazine – How a Workplace Communicable Disease Plan can protect your business and employees. With the Delta variant causing increased issues and the flu season soon approaching, there is a strong rationale for maintaining some of your pandemic protections — and for developing a Workplace Communicable Disease Plan. A Workplace Communicable Disease Plan is a customized set of standards designed to protect a business’ workers from the spread of airborne- and fomite-transmissible diseases in the workplace, thereby protecting the business itself. [Read more]
August 9, 2021. NGA – Making recalls a normal business process and turning crises into confidence to alleviate the inconvenience and pain of recalls that flows down the supply chain to land squarely in retailers’ laps was the key topic of a webinar panel that included TAG President and CEO Dr David Acheson. Read the NGA summary of the webinar, including key takeaways or view the webinar (login required).
August 9, 2021. QA Magazine – TAG founder and CEO Dr. David Acheson talks with Quality Assurance and Food Safety magazine about the recent wave of vaccine mandates from some companies, and why he personally and professionally believes that the decision to be vaccinated – or not – should be left up to the individual. But that doesn’t mean that corporations that make those decisions are wrong, because they’re looking at it from a bigger picture. “It’s a very tricky line,” he said. “And it’s extraordinarily complicated to try to get it right.” [Read the story]
August 2, 2021. IAFP – Dr. Ruth Petran, Senior Food Safety Advisor for TAG and Founder of Ruth Petran Consulting, LLC in Eagan, Minn., has assumed the presidency of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) at the conclusion of IAFP 2021. She retired in 2020 as RD&E Senior Corporate Scientist and Vice President of Food Safety and Public Health at Ecolab in Eagan. [Read more]
July 14, 2021. Global Food Safety Resources (GFSR) – In a new article from GFSR, TAG Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Cameron Prince, Senior Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Ben Miller, and Food Safety Director Eric Edmunds are cited in a discussion of where CBD products fall in federal and state regulations. [Read more]
June 23, 2021. SafetyChain – TAG President & CEO David Acheson, provides insights on the inherent risks of the supply chain, explaining that it doesn’t matter if you have five or five thousand suppliers – some ingredients will always be riskier than others. [Read more]
May 20, 2021. Food Quality & Safety Magazine – TAG’s Ben Miller, MPH, PhD, senior director of scientific and regulatory affairs, provides perspectives on FDA’s updated Leafy Greens STEC Action Plan (LGAP). [Read more]
April 26, 2021. SafetyChain – TAG Food Safety Associate Dr. Lily Lang and Director of Food Safety Christopher Snabes provide a refresher of the FSVP Rule and review some of the main reasons for receiving a 483 so that you maintain compliance and stay audit-ready. [Read more]
April 13, 2021. QA Magazine – In his Legislative Updates column, Dr. David Acheson offers advice to the food industry on how to navigate what might be next in the fight with COVID-19. [Read more]
April 13, 2021. QA Magazine – FSMA’s food defense or intentional adulteration rule is meant to protect the nation’s food supply from someone on the inside looking to do harm on a massive scale, as discussed by TAG Director of Food Safety Christopher Snabes. [Read more]
April 13, 2021. The National Provisioner – In line with the 2021 theme of National Public Health Week (April 5-9), The Acheson Group (TAG) is “Building Bridges to Better Health” with its new Public Health Service – through which TAG assists businesses in building their own bridges to the better health of their employees. [Read more]
April 8, 2021. QA Magazine – The Acheson Group’s (TAG) new program aims to assist businesses in preparing for — and managing — public health crises. [Read more]
April 6, 2021. ProFood World – During a recent webinar, Liliana Casal-Wardle, senior director for food safety and supply chain risk management at The Acheson Group (TAG), discussed the 10-year strategy from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enhance the capabilities of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) through its New Era of Smarter Food Safety program. Casal-Wardle reviewed the four core elements of the FDA’s new strategy. [Read more]
March 23, 2021. Food Business News – David Acheson, MD, founder of the Acheson Group (TAG), said of the FASTER Act, “As major legislation in and of itself, the pending act is also indicative of the increased food regulation and enforcement that TAG sees as becoming a hallmark of 2021.” [Read more]
March 8, 2021. SafetyChain – As we enter 2021, Food & Beverage, CPG, and other manufacturers can see a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. Yet, we’re still very much in the tunnel, and it’s important for decision makers to pay close attention to the situation as it changes rapidly. Here’s a closer look at where we are now, and what we might expect as we progress through the coming year. [Read More]