This is a guidance document for the peanut shelling industry and provides examples of prerequisite and HACCP programs that can be used in ensuring the safe shelling of peanuts. The handbook is part of a broader nut industry initiative to provide food safety guidance for the supply chain and was developed using GMA’s Industry Handbook for the Safe Processing of Nuts and American Peanut Council’s Good Management Practices, 2009 as a foundation.

All food products are coming under increasing scrutiny by government agencies and consumer groups. With the fast growth of the California almond industry comes the increasing risk of contamination from various sources. Contamination control programs do not start and stop at the huller/sheller or handler. Prevention steps must begin at the farm. Current technologies cannot eliminate all potential food safety hazards; however, by utilizing Good Agricultural Practices you can minimize the risk of contamination.

This guide is designed to help you examine and improve your own growing practices and ensure that they meet the generally accepted standards of Good Agricultural Practices.

The Alliance seeks to reduce food waste throughout the supply chain. The goals of the FWRA are three-fold:
1. To avoid and reduce food waste wherever possible within members’ operations and supply chains.
2. To increase the donation of safe and healthy foods that would have gone to waste and to send food to food banks to help address hunger issues.
3. To divert unavoidable food waste away from landfills toward higher value uses, such as animal feed, composting, and waste-to-energy.

This slide set, available for direct download, contains 17 PowerPoint presentations which illustrate the primary textual concepts and images contained in our latest Canned Foods manual, 8th edition. An excellent teaching aid for anyone teaching Better Process Control Schools.

This valuable book takes the latest in one of ECR’s most important enabling technologies - bar-coding and case markings - and applies it to a company’s day-to-day business shipping needs. Concentrating on the two primary grocery industry business applications - unit-of- sale and shipping units - it develops fully yet briefly the uses of the U.P.C. or SCC-14, the SSCC-18, the UCC/ EAN-128 bar-code symbology and others. Led by GMA and published by GMA along with FMI and FDI in cooperation with the Joint Industry Case Markings Work Group.

A pamphlet that explains the harmless phenomenon of magnesium ammonium phosphate crystals in canned seafood. A good education tool for your consumer affairs and claims staff.

In this report, we discuss CPG companies’ winning practices in the following performance areas: sales strategy, pricing and trade investment, the Hispanic market, high-growth channels, sales technology, and the “battle at the shelf.” Those companies that embraced winning practices were rewarded with above-average financial performance and a strong foundation for future growth.

At the conclusion of this webinar, viewers will have the knowledge and tools to determine what records your company must create and retain as part of the final Preventive Controls rule, describe the scope of FDA's records access under FSMA, and apply practical tips and industry practices to your recordkeeping procedures.

Too often when consumers have questions about food production, we strive to “educate” by providing just the science and facts. But to truly build trust and credibility, and ensure that our information is considered in consumers’ complex decision-making processes, we must lead with our values. In this webinar, we learn more about The Center for Food Integrity’s trust models and explore why values matter to effective engagement as well as explore CFI’s trust research that illustrates why finding values connections with consumers can help us move the needle.

By featuring willing and valuable partners, this guide will develop relationships that can change critical environmental challenges in packaging, energy and water into opportunities to run better businesses and meet consumer concerns. Businesses can tackle sustainability head on by engaging stakeholders, developing partnerships and integrating environmental stewardship into corporate social responsibility

This publication provides additional guidance and assistance to seafood processors in systematically designing and conducting a "scientific study" to establish and/or verify the adequacy of a heat process used for producing a ready-to-eat, perishable seafood product.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) enlisted Deloitte to conduct a study to examine the behavior of consumers related to the purchase of sustainable products. We conducted a direct study of more than 6,000 shopper experiences in 11 major retailers of varying formats to understand the characteristics of the green shopper and to examine their shopping responses to sustainability issues. This paper examines the characteristics and the behaviors of this shopper in greater detail to understand the emerging green shopper and the market opportunity to serve them.

Overlay this clear plastic ruler tool over any packaging to quickly check if your type size complies with the FDA's latest labeling rules.

In this web chat, PepsiCo's North American Nutrition Division, and Kim Combs, recall/regulatory compliance manager for the Kroger Co. shared their knowledge, experience, and most importantly, answered questions from industry in real time about easing and simplifying the recall process while remaining compliant with FSMA and other food safety regulations and standards.

This manual provides basic information on security procedures and practices that are applicable to food processing plants, distribution centers, and supermarkets.

The manual serves two purposes:

- Allows companies with security programs in place the opportunity to compare their programs against those offered in this manual.
-Provides companies without a security professional on staff the information and practice steps to initiate security measures to protect their employees, customers, physical assets, and products.

This reference manual is an invaluable tool chest for companies in search of examples of successful management practices for suppliers. Designed to aid companies in selecting valued business partners capable of supplying ingredients, food contact packaging and services that help ensure the safety of foods, this handbook follows a typical procurement process by focusing on the critical aspects of selecting a preferred supplier. Developed for ingredient suppliers and service providers to the food industry in the United States, this handbook is an essential resource for meeting U.S. regulatory requirements and implementing a successful system designed to minimize the potential for product adulteration and contamination.

This reference manual is an invaluable tool chest for companies in search of examples of successful management practices for suppliers. Designed to aid companies in selecting valued business partners capable of supplying ingredients, food contact packaging and services that help ensure the safety of foods, this handbook follows a typical procurement process by focusing on the critical aspects of selecting a preferred supplier. Developed for ingredient suppliers and service providers to the food industry in the United States, this handbook is an essential resource for meeting U.S. regulatory requirements and implementing a successful system designed to minimize the potential for product adulteration and contamination.

FWRA’s scope of work is focused on manufacturing and processing; transportation; and food sales (in store and in restaurant) of food products. Parts of the value chain not currently included in our work are agricultural food production and consumer behavior in-home. This is with the understanding that we would first aim to understand and tackle issues where FWRA member companies can make the biggest impact. For the next three years FWRA plans to further address how we can eliminate waste in the first place in our section of the value chain. Recognizing that in-home food waste is a major contributor to food waste sent to landfill, FWRA is supportive of efforts that provide a better understanding of consumer behavior and related in-home waste issues, but it remains out of the scope of our direct work.

Learn more about the Food Waste Reduction Alliance at http://www.foodwastealliance.org/

Our experts break down this final rule imposing new requirements on registered food facilities into an easy-to-understand digest while offering unique insight on the implications for your operation.

Our experts and our team from Hogan Lovells -- Elizabeth Fawell and Maile Hermida -- break down the final Sanitary Transportation rule into an easy-to-understand digest while offering unique insight on the implications for your operation.

This guidance was created to assist in-house counsel and other personnel responsible for regulatory compliance in understanding what records companies must make available to FDA investigators during a routine inspection. It also highlights gray areas of records access created by FSMA, notes frequent requests GMA members have received from investigators, and offers practical advice and considerations for navigating these issues.

For operators of facilities that manufacture or store U.S. Food and Drug Administration-regulated food products, an FDA inspection of these facilities is inevitable. And in light of increased public and legislative focus on food safety issues, the frequency of inspections is likely to increase in the coming years. While regulatory compliance is paramount for a successful inspection outcome, knowledge of the inspection process and preparation of strategic players can reduce anxiety and limit errors associated with inspections.

Your one step guide to developing and applying safe thermal processes for foods in flexible containers and processed with still retorts witoverriding pressure. Includes information on the temperature distribution and product heating rates in the retort, heat penetration tests, thermal process determination, biological process evaluation, and regulatory requirements.

This popular instructional and resource manual builds on the knowledge and practical teachings used by the industry to teach and implement HACCP. Featuring new advances in food science and regulatory references from the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), this text is a must for HACCP-related food safety management.

This slide set, available for direct download, containing 15 PowerPoint presentations, highlights the main concepts covered in HACCP: A Systematic Approach to Food Safety, 4th edition. An excellent training aid for anyone teaching HACCP workshops. 4th edition

This video is an introduction to kick-off the Industrial Food Safety: Cleaning and Sanitizing Equipment and Facilities (IFS-CS) Curriculum. The video describes the Sanitation Operator’s role and the importance of the role, displays a list of the training modules included in the Foundation Level curriculum and Is an MP4 video file, which can be played on both PC and Mac computers. Play the video prior to starting Module One of the curriculum.

The Industrial Food Safety: Cleaning and Sanitizing Equipment and Facilities Slides are intended to provide sanitation operators with a comprehensive overview of sanitation regarding food manufacturing facilities.

NEW! The second edition of this handbook has been designed as a tool chest of guidance material for all of the nut industry to utilize in developing stronger food safety measures and programs relevant to their sector of the business. A cross section of the nut growing, shelling and processing industry has been involved in development of the handbook, which promotes understanding of the role each segment plays in nut safety.

In this study, we want to discover and analyze the underlying causes of unsaleables throughout the value chain and identify actionable solutions companies can adopt and customize. This study identifies and measures unsaleables costs providing insight to opportunities that have a direct impact on the bottom line.

This guidance document was created to provide guidance on designing a Listeria Environmental Monitoring Program (LEMP). From the need to conduct investigative sampling and root cause analysis when a potential harborage is identified to when and how to escalate LEMP activities, using this “seek and destroy” approach over time with appropriate data analysis and corrective actions will help to reduce the likelihood of product contamination with L. monocytogenes.

This webinar, led by Lone Jespersen, provides insight into practical ways to measure and strengthen food safety culture for food manufacturers. Learn about dimensions and measures of food safety culture through practical cases and applied theories from organizational culture and social cognitive theory. Featuring the measuring tool "Cultivate Food Safety" and introductory remarks by Joann Givens, Acting Regional Food and Drug Director, ORA, Central Region.

This guidance document, based on the 2009 GMA report, Control of Salmonella in Low Moisture Foods, was prepared to provide guidance to members of the US pasta industry for mitigating and controlling Salmonella in their facilities. These practices are recommended as an extension of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).

In this webinar, ingredient suppliers will be able to:
• Identify changes to the Nutrition Label that require new or different information on ingredient composition
• Identify analytical and other methods that can be used to obtain nutrient information
• Understand compliance requirements for the new labeling rules and timing for their implementation

The revised rules represent the largest overhaul to the Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP) and pertinent regulations since the inception of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act over 20 years ago. If you sell, market or manufacture packaged food and beverages, your product label will likely change as a result of these rules.

By the end of this 3-part series, participants will have the knowledge and tools to:

Identify brands and products impacted by final regulations
Develop new nutrition labeling strategies
Create an action plan to prepare your operation for the final rules and compliance dates
Apply requirements to the development of new labels, nutrient and health related claims and marketing strategies

Consumer’s diets and eating patterns have changed over the last two decades. This segment looks at the updates to the Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACCs) and specific serving size rules that reflect these changes. We also explore the new requirements for presenting nutrition information to consumers and the resulting Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP) format changes.

Learn More About:

Updates and modifications to RACCs
Impact of RACC changes on current Nutrient Content Claims
New Single Serving Container definition
New dual-column NFP requirements
Changes to the NFP format

This new report shows that out-of-stock rates for online purchases of consumer products in the U.S. are nearly twice as high as in-store availability. Potential lost sales could reach $17 billion a year globally because products are not available online when consumers want to buy them.

Are the FDA regulatory requirements for a Food Safety Plan redundant with GFSI’s expectations around food safety? If you are certified to a GFSI-benchmarked scheme, are you automatically compliant with FSMA? And will FDA consider your certification during an inspection? This webinar will examine how a food safety management system built around GFSI can lead to FSMA compliance and where there might be differences.

Over the course of 2007, Clarkston Consulting conducted more than 41 interviews with suppliers, retailers, technology and data providers and examined more than 100 sources of research to gain insights into current state and perceptions on the evolution of DSD. In addition, Clarkston analyzed syndicated data provided by The Nielsen Company and IRI to formulate quantitative observations on the performance of DSD in today’s retail and CPG supply chains. Also, late in 2007, AMR Research partnered with GMA to conduct an online survey to better understand suppliers’ and retailers’ current perceptions of the DSD model. Thirty-seven retailers and 42 North American suppliers responded to the GMA/AMR Research survey.

This report combines research from these sources to present insights to position DSD in today’s market.

The Sanitation Lexicon is an effort by the GMA Sanitary Design Workgroup to standardize the terminology pertaining to the Food industry sanitation and hygiene. The goal is to calibrate the industry by agreeing upon a collection of terms and definitions associated with sanitation and sanitary principles; thus ensuring consistency and harmony when referring to a sanitation or hygiene related term such as ‘clean’ or ‘hazard’. This measure will help eliminate any confusion or differences within and across various working groups.

What are the most effective shopper marketing vehicles for building awareness … for driving trial … for creating loyalty? How should you direct your shopper marketing spend in displays … in social media … in search … in direct-to-card digital coupons? How do you decide which combinations of vehicles to use to create integrated shopper marketing programs that span the path to purchase? These are some of the questions that the fourth annual Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) shopper marketing study seeks to help you answer.

Los nuevos Controles Preventivos para Alimentación Humana (PCHF) de FSMA presentan un nuevo conjunto de retos para procesadores de comida. Notablemente control de los posibles peligros alimentarios ya no se limita a los controles de los procesos críticos tales como los utilizados en sistemas de inocuidad alimentaria de HACCP. PCHF requiere procesadores para ampliar el concepto de controles preventivos para incluir, entre otros, los controles de la cadena de provisión. Este altamente informativo webinar se dirige esos controles preventivos en la cadena de provisión. ¿Cuándo se necesitan? ¿Cómo son implementados y verificados? Únase a nosotros para averiguar cómo los controles de la cadena de provisión pueden ser un elemento eficaz de su Plan de Inocuidad Alimentaria PCHF.