Table Talk: Food Safety and Tech News – March 2026
Welcome to the Table!
As we move into spring, food systems across the country enter one of their most active and demanding seasons. Processing schedules increase, new products launch, and facilities prepare for warmer temperatures and expanded distribution.
At UMaine Extension, our mission remains the same: to make the science behind safe, high-quality food accessible, practical, and actionable for everyone across the system.
In this issue of Table Talk: Food Safety and Tech, we focus on proactive preparation and regulatory readiness. We are pleased to announce the launch of our Meat and Poultry Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Training, an International HACCP Alliance-accredited course designed to support processors seeking compliant, defensible HACCP systems.
As always, Table Talk brings you timely, science-based insights that translate research into real-world practices, from sanitation validation and hazard analysis to regulatory updates and emerging risks. Whether you work with produce, seafood, meat, dairy, or value-added foods, this issue highlights:
- Food Safety and Regulation: Key compliance reminders and upcoming deadlines.
- Technology and Innovation: Practical tools that strengthen HACCP and sanitation systems.
- Industry Updates: Training opportunities and professional development events.
Our goal remains simple: to help you operate confidently in an evolving food system, safely, strategically, and sustainably.
Sincerely,
Gulsun Akdemir Evrendilek, Editor, Table Talk: Food Safety and Tech News
Table of Contents
- 2026 Industry Events and Trainings
- This Month’s “Table Talk”
- Food Safety Updates, Little Bit of Science
2026 Industry Events and Trainings
Plan Your Calendar: Food Safety, Seafood, Agriculture, and Extension Programs
Maine and Regional Events
Meat and Poultry HACCP
- March 30, 31, and April 1 — Bangor, Maine
- Focus: Development of a Meat and Poultry HACCP plan
National Seafood, Aquaculture, and Processing Events
Seafood Expo North America / Seafood Processing NA
- March 15–17, 2026 — Boston, MA
- Focus: Seafood processing, traceability systems, packaging innovation, regulatory compliance, and emerging technologies.
Aquatic Foods Conference (AFC)
- May 12–14, 2026 — Long Island, NY
- Focus: Seafood technology, automation, safety, and future innovations.
118th Annual Meeting – National Shellfisheries Association (NSA)
- March 22–26, 2026 — Portland, OR
- Focus: Shellfish research, PFAS impacts, aquaculture sustainability, and environmental monitoring.
National Food Safety, Industry, and Science Conferences
Annual Meat Conference
- March 2–4, 2026 — Oxon Hill, MD
- Focus: Meat safety, retail innovation, processing trends.
Food Safety Summit
- May 11-14, 2026 — Rosemont, IL
- Focus: Regulatory updates, sanitation, preventive controls, validation.
IAFP Annual Meeting (International Association for Food Protection)
- July 26-29, 2026 — New Orleans, LA
- Focus: Microbiology, sanitation, validation, environmental monitoring, PFAS, and emerging risks.
IFT FIRST Annual Event and Expo
- July 11-15, 2026 — Chicago, IL
- Focus: Food science, biotechnology, processing, AI, sensors, and innovation.
17th Conference on Food Engineering (COFE) – Society of Food Engineering (SoFE)
- November 8–11, 2026 — Waikoloa, Hawaii
- Focus: Advances in food process engineering, thermal and non-thermal technologies, microbial lethality validation, modeling, scale-up, and innovative processing solutions.
UMaine Extension Trainings (2026)
Seafood HACCP – Segment II (In-Person)
- Multiple offerings in 2026 — Bangor, ME, Portland, ME
- Focus: Regulatory compliance, hazard analysis, and plan development.
Food Sanitation Basics Micro-Credential
- Launching in 2026 — Hybrid
- Focus: Cleaning and sanitizing fundamentals, validation/verification, industry workforce training.
Regulatory and Professional Development
Food Safety Culture for Regulators – with Frank Yiannas
- March 10–11, 2026 — San Antonio, TX
- Focus: Regulatory culture assessment, compliance improvement.
AFDO Food Program Manager Workshop
- January–May 2026 (webinars) / June 2026 (in-person)
- Focus: Leadership, HR, budgeting, and emergency response.
Import Safety Update
Shrimp, Spices from Indonesia Require New FDA Import Certificate (Article, NNR Global Logistics)
- Effective October 31, 2025
- Focus: New import certification following Cesium-137 contamination findings.
This Month’s “Table Talk”
Program Updates
As workforce development and regulatory compliance continue to shape the food industry, Extension programming remains focused on practical, hands-on training that strengthens HACCP systems and sanitation performance.
This spring, we are expanding our training portfolio with the launch of a new International HACCP Alliance-accredited course designed specifically for meat and poultry processors.
Meat and Poultry HACCP Training Is Here!
We are excited to announce that our Meat and Poultry HACCP Training is officially launching this spring!
Under the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) regulations (9 CFR Part 417), every official meat and poultry establishment is required to develop and implement a written HACCP plan. In addition, 9 CFR 417.7 requires that a trained individual be responsible for developing and reassessing the HACCP system.
This 2½-day course fulfills that training requirement and follows the accredited curriculum of the International HACCP Alliance, providing participants with an official certificate upon successful completion.
- Course Title: Two and a Half Day Meat and Poultry HACCP
- Dates: March 30–31, 2026 (8:30 AM–5:00 PM) and April 1, 2026 (8:30 AM–12:00 PM)
- Location: University of Maine Cooperative Extension Office, Penobscot County, 307 Maine Ave., Bangor, Maine
- Accreditation International HACCP Alliance Accredited Course
For more information and to register for the course, visit the Two-and-a-Half-Day Meat and Poultry HACCP Course page.
Launching Our 2026 Food Safety Webinar Series
We are pleased to launch our 2026 Food Safety Webinar Series, a monthly program designed to provide practical, regulatory-focused education accessible nationwide.
This series brings together industry experts, regulators, researchers, and practitioners to address timely challenges in food safety, compliance, and innovation.
Sessions are held virtually on Fridays at 10:00 AM and are open to processors, QA professionals, regulators, consultants, and food entrepreneurs.
- Upcoming Webinar: March 6, 2026, 10:00 AM
- Title: Electronic Record Keeping
- Presenter: Noah Hersey, Alpha Chemical
As regulatory scrutiny increases under FSMA and GFSI frameworks, electronic record-keeping systems are becoming essential. This session will explore:
- Transitioning from paper to digital systems
- ALCOA+ data integrity principles
- Cloud vs. on-premise solutions
- Audit trail management
- Digital traceability during recalls
Practical case studies will demonstrate how electronic systems improve efficiency, compliance, and recall readiness.
2026 Webinar Topics Include:
This series reflects our commitment to bridging research, regulation, and real-world application across diverse sectors of the food industry.
- Electronic and In-Person Food Safety Training (April 3)
- Chemical Application and Safety Compliance (May 1)
- Food Adulteration and Food Fraud Prevention (June 5)
- Colorimetric Vibrio Detection (July 10)
- Audit Readiness for Small Businesses (August 7)
- Product Development and Green Crab Innovation (October 9)
- Environmental Air Treatment Programs (November 6)
- Alternative Protein Development (December 4)
For more information and to register for the course, visit the UMaine Extension Food Safety Webinar Series page.
Regulatory Spotlight: Preparing for the 2026 FDA Food Traceability Rule Deadline
One of the most significant federal regulatory deadlines in recent years is approaching.
Under Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the Food Traceability Final Rule, establishing enhanced recordkeeping requirements for certain high-risk foods.
Compliance Date: July 20, 2028
(Please Note: this date reflects an official FDA extension.)
This rule applies nationwide and affects processors, manufacturers, distributors, importers, and certain retailers handling foods listed on the FDA’s Food Traceability List (FTL).
Unlike traditional “one step forward, one step back” traceability expectations, this rule requires more detailed, structured, and rapidly retrievable records.
What Is Required Under the Rule?
The rule introduces two central concepts:
- Critical Tracking Events (CTEs)
- Key Data Elements (KDEs)
Businesses must capture and maintain specific data at defined supply-chain points and be prepared to submit records electronically to the FDA within 24 hours of request during an investigation.
Core Requirements at a Glance
- Written Traceability Plan: You must maintain a written plan describing procedures for lot code assignment, record maintenance, and data retrieval.
- Critical Tracking Events (CTEs): Records must be kept during harvesting, cooling, packing, shipping, receiving, and transformation activities.
- Key Data Elements (KDEs): Specific information must be documented at each CTE (e.g., lot codes, product description, quantities, locations, dates).
- 24-Hour Record Submission: Upon FDA request, required records must be provided within 24 hours.
- Sortable Electronic Format: Firms must be able to produce traceability data in a sortable spreadsheet format.
Foods Covered by the Food Traceability List (FTL)
The rule applies only to foods identified by FDA as higher risk for foodborne illness, including:
- Fresh leafy greens
- Tomatoes
- Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables
- Soft cheeses
- Nut butters
- Shell eggs
- Certain seafood (including finfish and crustaceans)
Processors should carefully review whether any of their products fall under the FTL and consider how activities such as repacking, relabeling, or combining ingredients may trigger additional requirements.
Why This Matters Now
Although the compliance deadline is July 20, 2028, preparation should begin well in advance. Implementing compliant traceability systems often requires:
- Updating written procedures
- Assigning internal responsibility
- Evaluating lot coding systems
- Training staff
- Testing electronic record retrieval
- Conducting mock recalls
Facilities relying exclusively on paper systems must ensure they can still meet the 24-hour electronic submission requirement.
Delaying preparation increases the risk of compliance gaps during inspections or outbreak investigations.
Action Item
- Review whether your products appear on the FDA Food Traceability List.
- Develop or update your written Traceability Plan.
- Confirm that your recordkeeping system can generate sortable electronic files within 24 hours.
- Conduct a timed mock recall exercise to evaluate system readiness.
For full regulatory guidance and official resources, visit the FDA Food Traceability Rule webpage.
Food Safety Updates: From HACCP to Digital Compliance
The 2026 traceability deadline highlights an important reality:
Traceability is not separate from HACCP — it strengthens it.
HACCP focuses on hazard identification and preventive controls. Traceability ensures that if a hazard escapes control, the affected product can be rapidly identified, isolated, and removed from commerce.
Together, they form a complete risk management framework.
Building a Defensible Traceability Plan
A defensible traceability plan should include:
- Defined lot code assignment procedures
- Clear documentation of product transformation steps
- Written SOPs describing record flow
- Assigned personnel responsible for record maintenance
- Routine mock recall testing
Defensibility means more than having paperwork. It means the system functions effectively under time pressure. If your team cannot retrieve lot documentation within minutes, the system requires strengthening.
Scientific Foundation: Limiting Recall Scope
Traceability systems operate on a fundamental public health objective:
Limit the scope of exposure.
The faster the contaminated product can be identified and removed, the fewer consumers are affected and the smaller the economic impact.
Strong traceability reduces:
- Consumer illness risk
- Recall size
- Brand damage
- Regulatory enforcement exposure
In outbreak response, time directly affects public health outcomes.
Paper vs. Digital Systems
Paper-based systems are not prohibited under the rule. However, they must still:
- Produce accurate and complete data
- Be organized for rapid retrieval
- Be exportable in a sortable electronic format
Digital systems improve:
- Data integrity
- Audit trail transparency
- Recall speed
- Cross-location coordination
As operations grow in complexity, digital systems significantly reduce human error and incomplete documentation risks.
Food Safety Updates, Little Bit of Science
When “Ready-to-Eat” Requires a Validated Kill Step
One of the most important decisions in HACCP plan development is how a product is classified. When a product is labeled as Ready-to-Eat (RTE), it means that the consumer can safely eat it without any further cooking. That statement carries significant scientific and regulatory responsibility.
If a product is sold as RTE, the processor must be able to clearly demonstrate how microbial hazards are controlled before the product reaches the consumer. If pathogens may be present in the raw material and there is no validated processing step to reduce or eliminate them, the HACCP plan may not be scientifically acceptable. This is not simply a labeling decision. It is a microbiological decision.
Understanding Survival Versus Growth
Many pathogens, including Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and certain Vibrio species, may naturally occur in raw seafood, meat, or poultry. Their presence at low levels does not automatically create illness risk. The risk increases when processing conditions allow these organisms to survive or multiply.
Freezing is often misunderstood as a kill step. In reality, freezing slows or stops microbial growth, but it does not reliably eliminate pathogens. Many bacteria survive frozen storage and can become active again when the product is thawed.
This means that a frozen product labeled as RTE must still address pathogen survival. Simply keeping a product frozen is not the same as destroying pathogens.
The key scientific question in hazard analysis is this: where is the microbial hazard actually controlled?
The Importance of a Validated Lethality Step
For many RTE products, safety is achieved through a validated lethality process such as cooking, pasteurization, or high-pressure processing. These processes are supported by scientific data that demonstrate specific reductions in target pathogens.
When such a step exists and is properly monitored and verified, the hazard can be considered controlled within the HACCP plan.
If no lethality step is included, and the product supports pathogen survival, the safety strategy must be reconsidered. The absence of a validated kill step leaves a gap in hazard control.
When Intended Use Must Align With Processing
If a product does not undergo a validated lethality treatment, the intended use statement becomes critical. In some cases, it may be more scientifically appropriate to label the product as “Cook Before Consumption.”
This shifts the final lethality step to the consumer and changes how the hazard analysis is written.
What matters most is alignment. The formulation, processing method, storage conditions, labeling, and hazard analysis must all support the same safety conclusion. If those elements do not align, the HACCP plan may not withstand regulatory review.
Why This Matters in HACCP Programs
HACCP is based on a simple principle. Hazards that are reasonably likely to occur must be controlled by design.
When reviewing an RTE product, regulators and auditors will ask:
- Where is the pathogen reduced or eliminated?
- What scientific evidence supports that control?
- Does the intended use match the actual processing steps?
If those questions cannot be clearly answered, the plan may not be defensible.
This is not about documentation alone. It is about microbiological reality.
The Broader Takeaway
As processors develop value-added products, including infused, marinated, frozen, or specialty items, careful evaluation of microbial risk becomes even more important. A product’s safety depends on how it is processed, how it is stored, and how it is intended to be used.
A strong HACCP plan clearly explains how microbial hazards are prevented, reduced, or eliminated. When the science, the processing steps, and the labeling all support the same conclusion, the system works.
In HACCP programs, clarity is not optional. It is essential.
Why 5-Log Reduction Matters in Food Safety?
The term “5-log reduction” is frequently mentioned in food safety discussions, validation studies, and regulatory guidance. However, many professionals hear the term without fully understanding what it means or whether it always applies to their products.
Understanding this concept helps processors make informed decisions about lethality, validation, and overall risk control.
What Does a Log Reduction Mean?
In microbiology, a log reduction describes how much a microbial population is reduced during processing. Each “log” represents a tenfold reduction.
For example:
If a product initially contains 100,000 bacterial cells:
- A 1-log reduction lowers that number to 10,000
- A 2-log reduction lowers it to 1,000
- A 3-log reduction lowers it to 100
- A 4-log reduction lowers it to 10
- A 5-log reduction lowers it to approximately 1 surviving cell
A 5-log reduction equals a 99.999 percent reduction in the original population.
The purpose of expressing reductions this way is to reflect how microorganisms grow and behave. Bacteria multiply exponentially. Because of that, reductions are also measured exponentially.
This approach allows scientists and regulators to quantify how effective a process truly is.
Is 5-Log Reduction Mandatory?
The short answer is no. A 5-log reduction is not universally mandatory for all products.
It is required in certain specific regulatory contexts, such as:
- Juice HACCP regulations, which require a 5-log reduction of the pertinent pathogen
- Some validated processes in ready-to-eat meat, poultry, and seafood operations
However, in many other foods, the required level of reduction depends on several factors:
- The pathogen of concern
- The type of product
- Whether the product is ready-to-eat or requires cooking
- Scientific risk assessments and applicable regulatory guidance
The real requirement is not “achieve 5 logs.”
The real requirement is to achieve a scientifically adequate reduction of the relevant pathogen.
Five-log reduction has become a common benchmark because it represents a substantial and measurable margin of safety. It is widely used because it provides strong public health protection, not because it is automatically required in every situation.
Why Numbers Matter in Practice
It is important to understand that a process is not validated simply because it applies heat or another intervention.
For example, cooking must achieve a specific time and temperature combination that consistently reduces the target pathogen by the required amount. The thickness of the product, its composition, and equipment performance all influence the outcome.
A product that feels hot is not necessarily a product that achieved an adequate log reduction.
That is why validation studies are critical. They demonstrate, under realistic production conditions, that the process consistently achieves the intended microbial reduction.
Without validation data, it is not possible to confidently state that the hazard has been controlled.
Beyond Cooking
Although a 5-log reduction is often associated with thermal processing, the concept applies to many food safety interventions, including:
- High-pressure processing
- Irradiation
- Acidification and fermentation
- Combination hurdle technologies involving pH, water activity, and temperature
The method itself is less important than the measurable outcome. What matters is whether the intervention
achieves the intended reduction of the target organism.
The Broader Perspective
Log reduction targets are part of a larger scientific framework. They connect microbiology, processing design, risk assessment, and regulatory expectations.
When processors understand what a 5-log reduction represents, they better understand why validation, monitoring, and verification are essential components of food safety systems.
Food safety is not based on appearance or tradition. It is based on measurable microbial control.
Understanding the science behind log reductions strengthens decision-making across the food system.
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For more information or questions, contact Gulsun Akdemir Evrendilek, Ph.D., at gulsun.akdemir@maine.edu or 207.581.1378.
University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Table Talk: Food Safety and Tech News was created to be your essential, science-based resource. We will deliver practical, timely information to help you maintain the highest quality and safety standards, covering the entire Maine food system—from field to fork and tide to table. The following UMaine Extension staff members take great care editing content, designing the web and email platforms, and maintaining email lists: Theresa Tilton and Michelle Snowden.
Information in this publication is provided purely for educational purposes. No responsibility is assumed for any problems associated with the use of products or services mentioned. No endorsement of products or companies is intended, nor is criticism of unnamed products or companies implied.
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