The Brief
Recalls, FDA and USDA actions, and standards changes, briefed with what each one means for your facility.
Jul 22, 2026
The SQF Agents & Brokers Code, Explained for Buyers
The SQF Agents & Brokers Code, published July 6 2026, certifies the traders, brokers, and importers who move your ingredients without handling them. For the first time you can require a third-party certificate for the intermediary in your supply chain, the link that used to sit outside every audit. What it covers, who needs it, and where it fits in supplier qualification.
7 min
Jul 20, 2026
Your Recall Can't Hinge on a Single Test Result
FDA reported a positive cyclospora result on Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce, the company recalled, and a day later FDA called that result a false positive. The recall held anyway, because the outbreak link never depended on the test. For manufacturers, a recall decision that hinges on one lab result, positive or negative, is already broken.
5 min
Jun 29, 2026
Your Supplier's Other Customer Had an Outbreak. Nobody Told You.
Nara Organics and ByHeart never shared a label, a plant, or a brand. They shared a milk supplier. Seven months after ByHeart's infant-botulism recall, the same supplier's milk turned up in a second formula tied to the same illness, and the supplier's customer list to FDA never showed the link. The recall isn't the lesson. The blind spot is. Shared-supplier risk hides from one-up, one-down traceability, and most supplier agreements never account for it.
5 min
Jun 25, 2026
The Soup Was Labeled Vegetarian. The Recall Was for Shrimp.
Kettle Cuisine recalled Whole Foods minestrone labeled Vegetarian because the cups contained shrimp. FDA called it Class I. The label was right. The contents weren't. A different soup got packed into the vegetarian cup, and a store inspection caught it, not the plant. That's not a labeling failure. It's line clearance, and the vegetarian claim is what made a product mix-up life-threatening.
4 min
Jun 10, 2026
Nine Listeria Cases, One Strain, Three Years Apart
Nine Listeria cases, one genetic strain, samples spanning March 2023 to May 2026, and an unopened tub of Clover Hill requeson that still carried the strain. A strain that recurs across three years is a resident living in the plant, not a one-time slip. You tell residents from transients by sequencing your own environmental positives, not by clearing one swab at a time.
5 min
Jun 2, 2026
The Formula Changed. The Label Didn't. FSIS Caught It.
On May 31, FSIS announced a recall of about 71,603 pounds of frozen pork and crab soup dumplings. The problem was peanut, in the product and missing from the label. By Synear's own account, a formulation change caused it. Someone changed the recipe and the label never caught up. That makes this a change-control failure, not a labeling one, and the difference decides whether it happens to you.
6 min
May 12, 2026
An Unopened RTE Tested Positive for Listeria. The Cook Step Isn't What Failed.
FSIS pulled an unopened package of Daisy Brand headcheese off the line on May 9. It tested positive for Listeria. Three sick in Illinois. The product is fully cooked. Whatever happened, the cook step isn't the variable. The contamination got in somewhere between the kettle and the seal. The 430.4 Alternative your HACCP plan elected is the framework that decides what your CAPA has to prove.
5 min
May 7, 2026
Your Sanitation Crew Sends You a Service Log. The Auditor Wants Verification.
I run an SQF-certified facility. I've pulled records in all four service categories: sanitation, pest control, calibration, equipment maintenance. Here's what comes back when you ask, where the gaps are under SQF Edition 10, and a note on the Food Safety Services Code SQFI has in public comment through May 15, 2026.
8 min
May 5, 2026
Your Supplier's Supplier Recalled. Your COA Won't Save You.
Three brands recalled chips, beverage mixes, and meat products in eight days. The trigger wasn't Salmonella in any of their facilities. It was an April 27 California Dairies recall of dry milk powder, two tiers upstream. Utz says their seasoning batches tested negative for Salmonella prior to use. They're recalling anyway.
5 min
May 4, 2026
FSSC 22000 V7 Is Live. The 12-Month Clock Just Started.
Foundation FSSC published Version 7 of the 22000 scheme on May 1, 2026. The 12-month clock is running. Most coverage is hitting the headline changes. The bigger story is the ISO 22002:2025 PRP swap nobody's leading with. It rewrites the standards every QA team has been working off for years. Twelve months sounds like a lot. It isn't.
5 min
Apr 23, 2026
New York Just Passed a GRAS Disclosure Law. Suppliers Are on the Clock.
New York's Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act passed the Assembly 106 to 32 on April 21, 2026, after clearing the Senate unanimously in March. It bans Red Dye 3, potassium bromate, and propylparaben outright, and makes New York the first state to require manufacturers to publicly disclose self-designated GRAS ingredients, including those currently hidden inside "natural flavor" and "spices." The ingredient intake work starts now, not after the governor signs.
7 min
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