You are the Food Safety Officer of a multi-national food ingredient company. Your Managing Director is considering importing genetically modified (GM) food crops for further process into flour and starches. However, he needs to understand the food safety issues related to GM foods before making the decision. In addition, recent press reports on several cases of food borne illnesses associated with food contaminations have also cause concerns to your Managing Director. He would like you to include in your report the analytical techniques that could be employed for the isolation and identification of food-borne pathogens and the detection of toxins that might be present in the food products produced by your company.
As such, you are tasked to submit a detail report to him covering the following points:
Outline the main principles used in the genetic modification process
Review the use of GM Food/ Ingredients from various sources
Discuss the benefit and controversial issues associated with the use of GM food such as the consumer’s rights, product labeling, religious/ ethnical, and environmental concerns
Outline the principles of various laboratory techniques used for toxin detection and the permitted limit based on acceptable daily intake and food consumption studies and,
the principle of some microbiological techniques isolation and identification of foodborne pathogens such as DNA probes and Enzyme immunoassays
The Report was separated into 3 parts
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Genetically modified foods/ingredients
part 3: Detection methods to ensure food safety
To ensure the whole report covers all the point we wanted we categorise the various points to the parts to this way
Part 1: Introduction (Huiwen and YongSiang)
Outline the main principles used in the genetic modification process
Review the use of GM Food/ Ingredients from various sources
Part 2: Genetically modified foods/ingredients (Hazim and Jake)
Discuss the benefit and controversial issues associated with the use of GM food such as the consumer’s rights, product labeling, religious/ ethnical, and environmental concerns
Part 3: Detection methods to ensure food safety (BooKeong and Michelle)
Outline the principles of various laboratory techniques used for toxin detection and the permitted limit based on acceptable daily intake and food consumption studies and,
the principle of some microbiological techniques isolation and identification of foodborne pathogens such as DNA probes and Enzyme immunoassays
We will schedule a meeting on the 15th of July to collate all information and edit all necessities. See you guys soon! - BooKeong
Gobbled BAK KUT TEH at 7:04 AM
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Yong Siang's Reflection
This semester as I go into attachment and also taking up food safety as one of the subject, I began to see the applications in the food industry what I’ve learnt in the books for food safety, take for example HACCP.
For this food safety package 1, it gave me the exposure to handle the CCP decision tree where i re-learnt what I should have already known in FPQA last semester. But it has given me much more understanding and assurance about it in this project.
I believed that it’s just not me who’d experienced a tight schedule everyday due to attachment and project work, everyone else felt it too. But this is when I learnt that prioritizing my time and being discipline are very important. I am thankful that I have teammates that scold me and push me to do work because that’s what group mates are for. And from them on, discipline must definitely take place in order to complete the task given.
In project work during this package 1, I’ve also learnt being able to let go of your emotions is very important. There was once I had a session with one of the teammate that disagree with what I’ve commented about sieving being a CCP. We went on for half an hour with an intense atmosphere. Others thought we were sort of quarreling, but we didn’t. It’s just to clarify stuffs. I believed work is work, friendship is friendship, its important to separate emotions from our work in order to carry out the most effective way of working.
Overall I am grateful for this group of team members for all their patience and cooperative attitude towards me. Thank You.
Press on for Package 2 J
England FTW!
Gobbled BAK KUT TEH at 8:36 AM
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Michelle's Reflection
Reflection
First of all, I have learnt that time management, punctuality in submission of work and proper communication are all very important when it comes to group work. Of cause, no last minute work. It was not easy for our group leader. Boo Keong, to come up with a timing for everyone to meet online as most of the time, our timing clashes. Having attachment and at the same time having to complete food safety packages was not easy. I believe everyone can get quite stressed up as attachment can be quite tiring for some. Team cooperation is one factor that makes me enjoy being in this group. Everyone of the group member is always there readily to help me when I am in need.
Food safety also brings me back to all the HACCP and identification of CCP. It refreshes my memory. I believe now all of us including me know how to cope with situation like this. An example is completion of our work without any delay. Everyone in the group makes an effort to complete their work. We might not be the best group but we are a group that put in effort in our work no matter how tough it is. All the credits should go to everyone in the group and of cause our group leader that guides us through.
Package 1 has come to an end and now its package 2. I believe from the experience we got from package 1, completing package 2 will be a little easier.
Gobbled BAK KUT TEH at 11:59 PM
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Hazim's Reflection
This semester, we have to juggle two things namely school and attachment. Work has been perplexing enough and honestly having another module to do during the student internship programme is very tough on us. It has taken its toll on me early during the student internship programme. I felt very stressed when I had to juggle work and school. I was the group leader then. I could not handle the responsibility so I handed it over to Boo Keong. I believe it’s good to realise your limits as an individual and not push yourselves too hard so that you won’t overwork yourself. I apologised to the group for my submission of being the leader and Boo Keong gracefully risen to the occasion and offered to help me.
As I mentioned, doing school work and attachment at the same time is taxing. Additionally, it is group work so everyone had to be involved to do the work. It was hard as everyone had their own schedule. We tried many means of communications. Mostly via chat logs, Facebook and sometimes, Skype. Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. It was very hard to meet up in person as everyone was busy and some of us had shift work and the only time we are free is after office hours or even Sundays. We made through it somehow without much communication though. Blackboard was hard tp access for some of us but we did manage to get some posts up. As of now, with the report submitted in, I am proud of my group mates for their tireless efforts. All the best for the tests and the student internship programme.
Gobbled BAK KUT TEH at 10:20 AM
Friday, May 21, 2010
HUI WEN'S REFLECTION
This was my most fruitful learning experience. This semester is all about time and task management. It was not easy at all for us because meanwhile project is assigned to us, we are also having our internship. the only time we can discuss is during Friday night and weekends.
a few attempts trying to get the whole group to come online, but failed as some was busy with the work given by their supervisors, some ended work late. And so, our progress was delayed. However, most of us had made the effort for a group online discuss despite being so drained out. We are willing to compromise to the common time like 11.30, knowing that it wont end early. Compromising is something we have to always bear in mind and keep learning. and we finished everything by Sunday and was already checking on Sunday night and also Monday.
During the group discussions, everyone participated with enthusiasm, trying to clear their doubts, reassuring that we were on the right track. It was even better when our group members voice out their thoughts so the rest could be able to share the correct concept. I think it is better to clarify any doubts before the mistakes become serious.
i was very satisfy with the group performance and i can see everyone's effort in doing this report. Great work!
Gobbled BAK KUT TEH at 8:45 AM
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Jake's Reflection on Package 1
21 May 2010
Looking back at these few weeks :) I would say it has been a fruitful and beneficial experience. I've not only learnt new things about food safety but also in regards to being a better team player and contributor to this group project.
Regarding food safety, i've learnt that it is especially important for a food company to have a QC system in place. To ensure not just the safety of the consumers when consuming the food product, but to ensure a standard of quality to be delivered to the consumers consistently. With a proper QC system in place, the safety in the production of the food product will not be compromised and it will ensure employees are professionally trained to handle anything that would have any contact with food.
Regarding being part of this great team. I believe in the importance of being open with one another and as the saying goes "Iron sharpens iron" when we are honest with one another we would be able to improve ourselves better. I appreciate the honesty with one another because when I did not understand the importance of sieving, there is always other group members around to correct and teach despite the difficulty in making me see certain facts haha.
Good Package 1 guys!
Disclaimer: No animals or humans were harmed intentionally in the making of this project, even if have i don't care. Names mentioned in this blog post is intentional and relational. No offensive remarks were directed at anyone, if the reader excluding all lecturers is offended i don't care. Have a nice day enjoy the reflection. Cheers.
Gobbled BAK KUT TEH at 10:34 PM
BooKeong's Reflection on Package 1
Using my company's product was splendid in facilitating the whole project outline. Since i will be able to get first hand information, i would be the best person to relate to everyone anything or possibly every single information required.
The biggest yardstick would be gathering everyone and conducting a meeting that could accommodate every one's free time. Meetings are essential to let the whole group know about the progress and the tasks they need to do. Since all my group members are all occupied with their own student internship assignments the free time for them would only be on the weekends. Hence, we were actually given very limited amount of time to complete this report.
In the nutshell, I felt that all the necessary steps, work and points were stated in the report. I'm pretty adamant that we can achieve something out this report. Everyone did put in their hardwork in producing it. I'm delighted by every member's effort and hopefully package 2 would enable us to work even better.
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