ITO Thailand Hygiene Blog

Cannabis

Thailand is officially the first country in the Asian region to legalized marijuana when it has removed cannabis from the narcotics list and the amendment took effect on the 9th of June 2022. While the government has been enthusiastic about legalizing cannabis with many reasons such as medical treatments, tourism, social problems, recreation, and politics, this act has ignited controversies among academics, and healthcare sectors as the regulations and limitation of cannabis usage are still unclear and concerns for misuse of cannabis are rising. This blog will discuss the legalization of cannabis in Thailand, the difference between cannabis and hemp, medical benefits, the drawbacks, and example of cannabis products in the market.

Food Safety/Quality Monitoring Technology

When food products are manufactured, quality (e.g. color, odor, flavor, texture, deliciousness) and safety (e.g., pathogenic microorganisms, toxin generation) shall determine the shelf life of the food.

AI technology in Food industry world

Case study of HACCP assisted hand washing system by AI technology

Pest Control in Food Industry

Pests are one of the big problems of good hygienic food production control due to causing a large of damage such as damage or dirtiness of raw materials or equipment resulted from gnawing, droppings, waste scattering, contamination of animals or animal parts (e.g. dog hair, cat or rat hair, insect wings, insect legs), secretions or droppings in food, carriers of pathogens, parasites and microorganisms that spoil food, and allergens, etc. Bringing these animals into the factory area may be caused by mixing with raw materials such as weevil eggs in grains, drosophila in fruits and vegetables, pests hang onto the employees such as by stepping on insect carcasses and not changing or proper cleaning the shoes, animal entry and exit while opening the door in/out or along the openings, holes and sewers or the air such as flying insects or bird droppings, etc.

Food Security

Food shortages have been major global problems for a long time. In 1996, World Food Summit had discussed about food security issue covering the availability and access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets the dietary need and food preference for an active and healthy life equally for everyone (Source: FAO, 2008). Moreover, this issue has become increasingly serious when crises arise such as disasters, wars or epidemics. In this article, 4 main elements of food security, global situation of food security and general nutrition, important factors including recommendations for sustainable solution shall be discussed.

Pandemic Impact on Food Industry

It has already been more than 2 years since pandemic has spread all over the world. So far until now, the number of deaths has surpassed more than 6 million people (Source: World Health Organization, n.d.-b). Also, all sectors have been affected including the food industry. This article will talk about the safety of food and food packaging from virus contamination, impact of pandemic towards the food industry, food security crisis and sustainable solution guidelines.

Organizational Transformation into Digital Age by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Technology

Optical Character Recognition known as OCR technology is a technology used to distinguish the characters from a digital photograph such as a scanned image and printed images on various materials. The system consists of image acquisition hardware, such as camera or scanner, and character detection software.

Modern Food Industry with the Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) System in Conjunction with Computer Vision Technology

Nowadays, many technologies have played significant roles in food industry; for instance, either to increase production capacity, accuracy, work efficiency or to reduce the loss of raw materials, resources, time, contamination, labor shortage problem or to be used in dangerous locations

Raw Material Management (Fruit and Vegetable Products)

Continued from the previous article which we had talked about raw material management, today we will look into the other important raw materials which are fruits and vegetables. We are going to search for the answers of how the vegetables and fruits are handled for maximum safety and quality of which processes start from the farm to the processing plant until the product is ready to eat and the prevention of various contamination risks including proper storage methods according to food science guidelines.

Organic Food

Currently, the trends of health care and exercise including the consumption of organic food have become more popular. There are many food products available for sale in department stores, supermarkets and through the online channels beneficial to consumers and the food industry due to having greater variety of products. This article will talk about the organic food; namely, what the organic food is, how important it is, its effects toward health and how it is related to the food industry.

Food grade material

In the food industry or even in everyday life, we often hear the terms “Food grade” or “Food safe.” Both are similar, but they have different meanings as follows: “Food grade” means to materials suitable for direct contact with food, while “Food safe” means food grade materials and products are suitable for use and do not pose a danger to food safety. [1]

Hyperspectral imaging technology

The tenderness of meat depends on many factors such as the type, breed, age of the animal, the amount of fat in the meat, nature of rearing, including the pre-slaughter stress that can cause DFD or PSE.