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A Healthy Dose of Safety Protects Our Food Supply

The Right Chemistry. For Sustainability.

Producing an abundant, nutritious and

appealing food supply is no small feat,

but once produced, it must be kept safe.

We help the food industry guard against

a wide spectrum of microorganisms that

could otherwise threaten consumer health.

A THREE-PART SERIES ON FMC’s FOOD & FIBER ROLE

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Ensuring food safety, by controlling an array of harmful microbes, is a monumental challenge that extends from the farm to the consumer’s fork. Chemistry solutions provided by FMC are helping food processors and beverage bottlers meet that challenge on a global scale every day.

When we think about pioneers in the science of protecting our food supply, Louis Pasteur’s name might come to mind. Based on scientific research that pre-dated his own, Pasteur clearly identified the link between spoilage, disease, and microorganisms with his work on fermentation and pasteurization starting in the 1860s.

But another well-known historical figure actually initiated a breakthrough in food protection almost half a century before Pasteur: Napoleon Bonaparte. In his legendary statement, “An army marches on its stomach,” the Emperor was speaking not of providing gastronomical delights on the long road to victory, but rather the more practical matter of ensuring a safe food supply for his thousands of soldiers during their trek across Europe.

Bonaparte offered a handsome financial reward for anyone who could prevent food spoilage while feeding his army. Nicolas Appert, a French confectioner, chef and inventor, put the food into jars, sealed and boiled them until the food was fully

cooked. This first version of canning worked and it earned Appert the 12,000 franc prize, even though he may not have realized that heating the jars was killing any germs on the food.

Other food preservation methods, including smoking, drying, freezing, marinating, salting, and pickling, have been utilized for thousands of years. For the most part, these were “lucky

accidents” that could not keep pace with the large-scale demand for a reliably safe food supply. It wasn’t until the late 19th century, when

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scientists discovered and began to understand the nature of bacteria and their relationship to diseases, that the scientific breakthroughs which forged modern food safety standards began. For over 83 years, FMC has led the industry with the development of next-generation products that help ensure food safety on a global scale. Meeting Microbes Where They Live

Most food is processed in some way before it lands on grocery store shelves. Everything that comes in contact with our food supply, from machinery to human hands to the air in processing rooms, has the potential to contaminate. FMC’s food protection expertise safely serves every processing step, ensuring that the work, resources and investments that went into producing the food pays off.

FMC Industrial Chemicals’ Peroxygens Division manufactures a wide range of microbial control products designed to sustain our consumable resources. These products help control pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms for specific applications, including food handling, production and processing.

Microbial organisms, also called vectors, live in our food supply and on the hard surfaces they come in contact with during processing. Unabated exposure to these organisms – which include viruses, bacteria and fungi (yeasts and molds) – can lead to sickness and disease. Our peracetic acid product line delivers a wide range of unique properties that provide maximum microbial control.

Sustaining our food supply also helps to control health care costs. The U.S. Centers for Disease Con¬trol and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 76 million people suffer foodborne illnesses each year in the United States, accounting for 325,000 hospitalizations and more than 5,000 deaths. Health experts estimate that the yearly cost of all foodborne diseases in the U.S. is $5 billion to $6 billion in direct medical expenses and lost productivity. Infections with the bacteria Salmonella alone account for $1 billion yearly in direct and indirect medical costs. Imagine the economic impact here and around the globe without the protection our products provide!

FMC’s Spectrum® Intervention Program provides poultry processors with dependable, cost-effective results that enable them to meet stringent USDA standards for Salmonella (shown above) and Campylobacter.

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Controlling ‘Them’ While Protecting Us

Controlling harmful microbes with applications that are completely benign to humans and minimally impactful to the environment is the challenge FMC continues to meet. Adhering to and sometimes surpassing the most stringent government guidelines, we offer a versatile portfolio of affordable and efficient protective products for our global food industry customers.

In direct food treatment, we focus on three areas: poultry, red meat, and fruits and vegetables.

Poultry – Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli are common organisms associated with poultry processing. FMC’s Spectrum® peracetic acid thoroughly and economically controls them all. Spectrum is the only peracetic acid patented for use at concentrations over 99 parts per million and is also approved for use in organic processing.

Red Meat – Blitz™ is FMC’s peracetic acid-based antimicrobial agent that can be applied directly to red meat carcasses, parts, and organs. Blitz offers a low investment approach to effectively reducing contamination from pathogenic bacteria that plague red meat processing. Blitz is also approved for organic processing.

Fruits and Vegetables – For food protection from spoilage organisms and pathogens during packing, processing and shipping, FMC’s line of VigorOx® liquid sanitizer and disinfectants is formulated for superior stability and performance. After use, these chlorine-free biocides break down into three environmentally benign by-products: acetic acid, water and oxygen.

Providing the Best Package of Protection

FMC developed a portfolio of specialty products formulated to meet the sterilizing and sanitizing demands of food and beverage packagers worldwide. Clarity® and VigorOx LS-15® are EPA-registered, single-component microbial agents with 15 percent peracetic acid, used on a variety of food and beverage packaging materials. Durox® LRA is a high purity, hydrogen peroxide-based product formulated for high stability and compatibility with stainless steel. This specialized product leaves very low residue and is the most suitable grade available for processes such as beverage container sterilization.

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They Are What They Eat

FMC Animal Nutrition has been a supplier to the feed industry for more than 25 years. Dr. Wendy Plocher is the Animal Nutrition Industry Manager for FMC Industrial Chemicals. Her research team developed a compound that, when fed to chickens in large scale farms, reduces litter moisture. The product is called S-Carb®.

Wendy says that the joy in her work comes from “finding unexpected benefits in expected results.” While S-Carb reduced litter moisture, enhanced respiration and improved overall health and performance, it also helped solve another long-standing problem for chicken farmers.

“We discovered that S-Carb dramatically reduces the amount of ammonia released in the chicken houses, making it much easier for the birds to breathe. Farmers want to grow healthy birds in a safe environment and also protect their workers and consumers. S-Carb helps them do all that.” Animal nutritionists, along with farmers, have embraced the product. Clearly, FMC’s long-standing commitment to innovation produced yet another breakthrough in improving and protecting the global food supply.

Sustaining a Healthier Future

The demand for FMC’s sustainability efforts in food safety is clearly poised for steady growth, particularly as rising standards of living and improving diets continue to take shape in rapidly developing economies (RDEs) around the world. By 2015, we expect roughly 50 percent of FMC’s sales to come from RDEs. These are regions with growing populations and growing demand for all of our product innovations, including our proven, reliable portfolio of essential food safety products.

Our global “army” of food safety innovators is ever vigilant, standing at the front lines of defending the world’s food supply and safeguarding consumer health.

Do you have comments or ideas on sustainability and food safety? Please share them at sustainability.info@fmc.com.

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FMC chemistry is used to protect food and beverages, such as orange juice, for processing companies globally.