Investing in the Science Behind Food Safety

Jan 07, 2020

2019 was a critical year for food safety across the industry and a big year for PSSI. Increased consumer sensitivity to food safety, new regulatory and compliance standards, and new technology continued to increase the need for transparency and accountability.

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Investing in the Science Behind Food Safety

PSSI is committed to protecting and advancing the future of food safety. That commitment is centered around having the right products, resources, and expertise to deliver clean, audit-ready food processing plants on-time every day.

Over the last 45+ years supporting sanitation and chemical services for food processors, we’ve led new advancements across the industry by investing in new talent, training and technologies to help our partners stay ahead. Some of the most recent include the implementation of a new 8-step sanitation process, a new real-time performance metrics platform, and the creation of a specialized Food Safety and Field Audit Support Team.

As we embark on the next decade ahead, we are putting a key emphasis on the science behind sanitation. Chemical design, including the quality, mixture and concentration, plays a critical role in sanitation and food safety. Especially as the presence and complexity of dangerous pathogens like Listeria, Salmonella, E. Coli, and others continue to grow and new strains emerge.

Constantly changing environments, due to seasonality or other factors, pose a significant risk to food safety. What works one day, may need to be adjusted slightly the following day. Thus, it requires specific, customized attention from both a chemical and sanitation standpoint to effectively deliver consistent results.

As noted in a recent whitepaper published by Jake Watts, PSSI’s Vice President of Food Safety, “a true food safety program is a microbiological formula that requires both sides [sanitation and chemical] working together to manage the specific needs of a production plant and with trained employees to execute consistently. Just one small gap or miscommunication can lead to major issues, if not managed correctly.”

That’s why it is essential to have a food safety partner who not only offers a comprehensive solution, but also a deeper level of experience and expertise across multiple areas.

PSSI had a long-term vision for this when we acquired Packers Chemical, Inc. in 2016. We built a solid partnership working together over the last four years to deliver a comprehensive solution for our partners. And to further reinforce the value of a cohesive food safety solution, we’ve now joined forces under the PSSI brand. Packers Chemical, Inc., now PSSI Chemical Innovations, will continue to provide chemical products and services as an integrated solution working together with the PSSI Food Safety Solutions team. This unified structure provides a seamless experience from start to finish, including significant savings related to chemical costs, downtime, safety and accountability.

PSSI Chemical Innovations is one of the leading chemical teams in the industry with a team of specialized microbiologists, field audit support specialists, and chemical design engineers. The team works side by side with PSSI’s food safety and sanitation experts to create custom sanitation programs, monitor performance in real-time and are on-call to quickly mitigate any potential issues.

Its team also manages full-scale quality control, analysis, research and development of chemicals and engineering solutions in its state-of-the-art lab on the PSSI campus. This includes monitoring industry data and trends on a daily basis to adjust chemical recipes or develop new solutions to ensure PSSI is armed and prepared for any situation.

PSSI Chemical Innovations is also one of the only chemical companies in the industry to have a Safe Quality Foods (SQF) Level III Food Safety and Quality Certification. This certification confirms the company has an established process to track and verify the safety and quality of its products, providing compliance in a third-party system that avoids the need for additional audits or inspections. This results in safer, more efficient sanitation shifts.

While food safety is a complex, complicated task to manage, the approach doesn’t have to be. Results show a simplified approach limiting fragmentation across disparate suppliers provides a clearer strategy, more consistent execution leading to more effective results.

The integration of our chemical and food safety teams as one PSSI family is part of our vision to lead a safer tomorrow for our partners.


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