ASC Food Safety Consultants

04/09/2026

Braai season is open. Unfortunately, so is food poisoning season.

September is Heritage Month, and on 24 September thousands of gardens will be full of smoke. At ASC we love it. We would just like everyone to still feel fine on the 25th.

Three mistakes we see at almost every braai:

First, the same plate. Raw chops go on it. Cooked chops come back onto it. Everything the fire just killed has been put straight back on the meat.

Second, judging wors by colour. Wors is minced meat, so bacteria are mixed all the way through, not just sitting on the surface. Colour tells you nothing. The FDA puts minced meat at 71°C in the centre and chicken at 74°C.

Third, salads standing in the sun all afternoon. Anything with mayonnaise, dairy or cooked starch belongs in the fridge until people actually eat.

None of this ruins a braai. A cheap meat thermometer and one extra clean plate fix all three.

Now the fun part. Be honest with us.

A. Guilty of the same plate B. I cook by colour, no thermometer in this house C. My salads have been out since lunchtime

Reply A, B or C below, then tag the braai master in your family and let them defend themselves.

03/09/2026

When I audit a HACCP plan I do not start with the paperwork. I walk to the line and ask the supervisor three questions.

Who verifies this. How often. What did you do the last time it drifted.

If the answers come back quickly, the rest of the audit usually goes well. If everyone looks at the QA manager, I already know what the file will show.

The plan is usually sound. The problem is that it lives with one person. HACCP was never meant to work that way. Assembling the team is one of the first steps, before a single principle is written.

Three things worth fixing this week: Name the HACCP team in writing, with a supervisor from every shift Walk the flow diagram on the floor and mark what has changed Make verification someone's stated task, not an assumption

I am spending two days on exactly this with supervisors and HACCP teams on 15 and 16 September.

If I walked your line tomorrow, who would answer those three questions.

02/09/2026

Auditors find it on the floor, not in the plan.

Good Manufacturing Practices are the everyday controls that keep a food site clean and under control: hygienic design, cleaning and sanitation, personal hygiene, pest control, waste, foreign matter, and safe storage and packaging. Get them working and your HACCP plan has something solid to stand on. Leave them loose and they turn into audit findings.

ASC is running a live virtual GMP course on 08 and 09 September 2026. Two facilitated days, from anywhere in South Africa, no travel and no venue cost. Presented by Mthokozisi Nkosi, with a Certificate of Completion at the end.

Built for QA teams, line supervisors, factory management, hygiene leaders, and warehouse and packaging staff. In house delivery available for full teams.

Request a quote: WhatsApp +27 61 483 0381 or [email protected] Course detail: ascfoodsafetytraining.com

Which one bites your site hardest, cleaning verification or pest trending? Tell us below.

01/09/2026

Would you serve raw sprouts to a pregnant customer without knowing exactly where they came from? 🥗

This month, 55 people in the US got sick from one supplier's sprouts, from two different types of bacteria at the same time. That is rare, and it shows how a small problem with seeds can turn into a big one once they are grown out.

Sprouts grow in warm, damp conditions, which is great for the sprout and just as great for bacteria. Washing them after they have grown does not fix a problem that started with the seed.

If you run a spaza shop, salad bar, or restaurant and sprouts are on your menu, this is worth a five minute conversation with your supplier.

At ASC, we help food businesses in South Africa check exactly this kind of thing, so a supplier problem never becomes your problem. 🙌

Comment "SPROUTS" if you want our quick supplier checklist.

31/08/2026

Spring is here, and so is a sale for anyone on a food manufacturing QA or HACCP team.

Until 15 September 2026, we are offering 30 percent off five of our online courses covering FSSC 22000 Version 7 and advanced HACCP, from a basic introduction right through to expert level implementation.

If your site is still certified to FSSC 22000 V6, this is a good time to get your team trained on what Version 7 actually changes, before your upgrade audit is due. And if your HACCP team wants a deeper understanding of the system they run day to day, our Advanced HACCP course is part of the sale too.

All courses are online, self paced, and you can start whenever suits you and your team.

Tag your QA manager or HACCP team lead.

29/08/2026

FSSC 22000 IMPLEMENTATION COURSE | 21–23 SEPTEMBER 2026

Join ASC Food Safety Consultants for a focused 3-day implementation course designed for food safety professionals, QA teams, technical managers and organisations preparing for FSSC 22000 certification.

Facilitated by Mthokozisi Nkosi, FSSC 22000 Lead Auditor and Food Safety Consultant.

📅 21–23 September 2026
🕗 09:00–16:30 (UTC+02:00)
💻 Online

What you'll learn:
✅ Practical FSSC 22000 implementation
✅ How to structure and implement your FSMS
✅ Practical, action-oriented approaches
✅ Certification and audit readiness
✅ Applying FSSC 22000 requirements in your organization.

29/08/2026

Recall NOTICE

⚠️ Recall of Enalapril 10 mg Arya by

The following batches of Enalapril 10 mg Arya, a medicine commonly used to treat high blood pressure, have been recalled:

GQQ24053
GQQ24064
GQQ24066
GQQ24067

Patients who are currently taking Enalapril 10 mg Arya are reminded to check the batch number on their medicine packaging.

If your medicine is from one of the affected batches, do not stop taking it without medical advice.

Visit your nearest clinic or consult your doctor or pharmacist as soon as possible for advice about your treatment.


South African Government GCIS

29/08/2026

Good food safety is invisible. That is the goal.

The plants and kitchens where our systems actually work are the ones you never hear about. No recalls. No outbreaks. No headlines. Just people doing the right thing, shift after shift, whether anyone is watching or not.

That is the real work at ASC. Not a certificate on a wall, but a system that still holds up when nobody is checking.

Have a good weekend, from all of us.

28/08/2026

🐟 Heading to the beach this week? Please don't touch, collect or eat the sardines washing up along Gqeberha's coastline.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has warned that sardines found at 1st Beacon, Pollok Beach, Hobie Beach, Humewood Beach and Kings Beach may have been exposed to unknown conditions since washing ashore. Their safety cannot be confirmed, so the advice is simple: leave them where they are. Don't collect, sell, eat or feed them to your pets.

This is separate from the sardine die off further along the Cape coast, which is still under investigation. There's no confirmed link to what's happening on our beaches, but the same rule applies either way: if you can't be sure a food is safe, don't eat it. 🙏

Share this with a friend who's planning a beach walk this week 👇

28/08/2026

Your food safety plan was probably built to stop bacteria. Viruses play by different rules.

Norovirus and hepatitis A do not grow in food, so nothing looks, smells or tastes wrong. Cold does not kill them. Most sanitisers on the shelf do not either. And an infected person can be contagious for weeks, both before and after they feel ill.

Codex CXG 79-2012 is the guideline that deals with this. We pulled out five things worth knowing, each one with the practical fix.

Swipe through, then tell us in the comments. If a staff member went home sick this morning, would your team know what to throw away and what to disinfect.