Steven Swarts Breaks Down SmartWash Solutions’ New Relative Residual Risk Comparator Tool
SALINAS, CA - Best practices are always a standard to uphold, from the fields where produce is grown to the kitchens where it gets prepared into delicious creations. The supply chain that carries the harvest is long, providing opportunities for pathogens and viruses to enter. That’s where SmartWash Solutions comes in, protecting the industry’s precious cargo with its new Relative Residual Risk Comparator tool.
“One of our strategic missions is to provide technology that prevents outbreaks within the fresh-cut industry,” begins Steven Swarts, Director of Business Development. “Technology has become one of our strongest tools in prevention, and our developments fall in line with the FDA’s ‘New Era for Smarter Food Safety Blueprint.’ This comparator app helps in the prevention of an outbreak across the supply chain.”
SmartWash’s tool is driven by science to provide growers, processors, and customers an opportunity to see how their current risk mitigations and controls may impact their overall exposure to an outbreak. To that end, the tool also helps identify what improvements growers could make to their processes.
“By simplifying such a complex, layered issue, this tool makes finding ways to improve your food safety processes clearer and more accessible,” Steven explains. “The interactive app allows users to see how changes to their food safety program can reduce—or increase—their risks.”
Easy to use and keep on hand, the five-step evaluation tool calculates potential risks based on the total relative possibility of illness over the entire range of potential pathogen concentrations. Changes to the risk levels depending on the selected food safety initiatives are determined based on experimental, observational, and chemical calculations to ensure optimal accuracy.
On top of this powerful visualization tool, SmartWash provides several other solutions for produce professionals to keep their products safer.
“We provide state-of-the-art wash system controls, calibration systems, and the most effective process aid in the industry—proven to eliminate 99.5 percent of pathogens before produce reaches wash lines—all of which mitigate cross-contamination within the wash systems,” Steven shares as we look to the horizon. “We continue to develop new technologies for wash systems, but we are also looking into other areas of the process or within the processing environment in which we can prevent the spread of pathogens, and we look forward to launching these new technologies over the next year.”
Science- and technology-based solutions are getting better, and smarter. SmartWash Solutions is continually working to make that a reality, and having one of the best pilot plants around allows the company to research and trail at full-scale production.
Try out the Relative Residual Risk Comparator tool for yourself, and be sure to also have ANUK at your fingertips to update you on the latest.
