Tasmanian producers protecting their reputation from food scare

Brand Tasmania is today hosting a workshop to help Tasmanian food and beverage producers protect their brand reputation from a food safety scare.

The workshop is being organised in the aftermath of the recent oyster contamination which caused a major outbreak of gastroenteritis and the recall of thousands of dollars of product.

One of the speakers, Associate Professor in Food Microbiology at the Food Safety Centre at UTAS Tom Ross says the foods that don't need cooking prior to eating pose the highest risk to industry and consumers.

He also said the current trend for more fresh, unprocessed foods means there's a growing demand for a new field of food science.

"There's more research to be done, particularly in the modern world where people want fresher foods that are less processed.

The challenge now is to say, how do we achieve the required level of safety when we haven't got some of the traditional technologies?

People don't want so much canned food any more, so the challenge now is to say, how can we assure the same level of safety in products that are fresher, and less processed?"

Other speakers at the workshop discussed ways of managing risk and communicating recovery from a food safety incident.

Source: ABC News, 23 May 2013