Best Practices for Chemical Hazards

This column offers expert tips on best practices to help mitigate food chemical hazard risks that have made recent headlines, including PFAS, BVO, and heavy metals.

Conceptual image about the risk for health of food additives.

Tracy Fink

Food Technology Magazine

Hazard Analysis

Understand the importance of conducting a hazard analysis to identify potential chemical risks.
Risk Mitigation

Gain knowledge of risk mitigation strategies, particularly the role of CCPs in measuring and controlling chemical hazards to prevent, eliminate, or reduce risks.
Regulatory Awareness

Learn the significance of staying informed about regulatory changes, especially in the context of synthetic chemicals like PFAS and BVOs.

Chemical hazards present a rollercoaster of risk for food producers and processors, in part because chemicals themselves are introduced to food systems from a broad mix of sources and through an array of applications. Chemicals used in food production and handling environments can be naturally occurring in air, water, or soil or they can be man-made. They can be used as food additives or compounds for formulation and functionality in final products, in cleaners, sanitizers, and detergents used on food-contact surfaces and equipment in food facilities, and in pesticides or herbicides at on-farm operations.

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Authors

Tracy Fink MS, PCQI

Tracy Fink is director, scientific programs and science and policy initiatives, Institute of Food Technologists. She has more than 25 years’ experience in leading food safety and logistics initiatives for the food industry, including with The Schwan Food Co. and NSF International.