Ensuring food safety is a must for farms and food manufacturing plants to hotels and restaurants. Contaminants and pathogens like Salmonellaare abundant and widespread, so keeping food safe can be a daunting task.
3M’s Food Safety Division takes this matter seriouslyandhas developed innovative technologies and products that can help food manufacturers protect their customers from “farm to fork”.
On March 15, 2013 3M Philippines launched the 3M™Petrifilm™ Salmonella Express System --3M’s newest product for the rapid detection of Salmonella, a significant food-borne bug which causes illnesses such as typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and food-borne illness. The launch, held at Crimson Hotel in Alabang, was attended by microbiologists and laboratory managers.
In the seminar, Dr. Alonzo A. Gabriel, scientist and associate professor from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the College of Home Economics, University of the Philippines-Diliman, said “the population has become more vulnerable to food-borne illnesses from contaminated products. Because of the increasing number of cases of food poisoning and gastro-intestinal disease outbreak, there is an increasing need to improve food quality, food safety, and food defense”.
Dr. Gabriel also said food providers are stewards of their customers’ wellbeing, so business owners and food manufacturers are important sectors in public health. Following a “farm to fork” perspective, he said everyone involved in food production and preparation shares the responsibility in every step that food commodities undergo. Food developers should never leave their safety to chance. He concluded the seminar by saying that correct practices do not only benefit consumers, they also provide food companies with a competitive edge.
A similar launch was held in General Santos, Davao and Cebu to unveil the latest innovation to the equally-booming food industry in the Visayas-Mindanao region to strengthen its campaign, zeroing-in on the importance of food safety not only for consumer protection, but also for brand protection of food products and outlets.
In February, 3M also conducted a Food Safety &Environmental Monitoring Seminar held at Enderun Colleges in Taguig City on February 21, 2013. The seminar, participated in by leading hotels and restaurant chains, focused on food safety and environmental monitoring as key steps in preventing food-borne illness. This became a venue to present the 3M™ Clean Trace™ Hygiene Monitoring System - a rapid biological test which monitors potential hazards through objective, rapid and reliable measurements.
In this event, Chris Reyes, Sales Manager for the division emphasized the need for regular hygiene monitoring of the food preparation area, including food counters, tables, utensils, as well as sponges and scrubs used for cleaning.“Proper hygiene monitoring will help reduce the risk from food or product spoilage organisms, eliminate cross contamination of one product to another, improve product quality, and reduce the risk of product recall” Reyes said.
For more information about this innovative food safety product, visit www.3M.com/ph or Like 3M Philippines and 3M Philippines Food Safety on Facebook for news and updates.
About 3M Philippines
3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Our culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. 3M is the innovation company that never stops inventing. With $30 billion in sales, 3M employs about 88,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit www.3M.com/ph or like 3M.Philippines on Facebook for news and updates.
