Biting into a forkful of food can be an unpleasant experience, if there is the presence of extraneous or foreign matter instead of one that titillates the taste buds and satisfies the appetite. Not only can it be unpleasant but also harmful, causing damage to tooth, gum and soft tissue in the mouth and throat. Foreign matter in food can occur from stones, hard plastic, glass, stems, seeds or pits. In today’s world of instant news, can your brand withstand a customer review about questionable objects found in food?

According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), extraneous matter is any foreign object in a product that is linked to objectionable conditions or practices during production, storage or distribution, while foreign matter is objectionable matter such as sticks, stones, pieces of packaging material, stems, insect fragments and hairs.

It is recognised that it would be next to impossible to grow and harvest raw material that is free from non-hazardous defects; these are called unavoidable extraneous matter by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). This is why food defect levels have been set up. However, the first line of defence against foreign matter is not the defect levels but Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). For example, having a snack of raisins, one may find stems in the pack; however, prune pits or eggshells should not be found in a slice of cake. Both the FDA and CFIA have posited that with proper implementation and maintenance of GMP the likelihood of avoidable extraneous matter is prevented.

But what are acceptable limits of defects? They are based on the measurement of the particle/matter that is found and the food that it is found in. Sharp and hard objects that can cause trauma to the mouth and throat will measure between 7 mm to 25 mm. According to the FDA, objects less than 7 mm in maximum dimensions seldom cause injury among the general population. Extraneous matter such as, hair and insect fragments also have their limits; for example, there are limits for insect fragments in chocolate and ground cinnamon, to name a few products.

The use of GMPs to prevent objectionable matter from being introduced to food products cannot be overemphasised. It is advisable that GMPs for the food business operation must include a glass and brittle plastic procedure as part of its prerequisite programme. Facility maintenance is also an important facet, under which the shielding of light bulbs would fall.

Finally, one tried and proven element of a GMP programme is that of inspection; pre- and post- and in-process inspections of processing lines or areas. This can be very useful for processes that include chopping, blending and grinding; knowing the state of the blades before use provides the control in the event post inspection shows a broken blade.

Biting in a forkful of food should delight customers, turning them into brand ambassadors. This is not possible if that forkful of food contains a stone, glass, hard plastic or other objectionable matter. Use GMP as a food safety tool to prevent such an incident.