As we tear down our 2024 calendars and replace them with 2025 versions, it’s a good time to look back on the year in food safety challenges, accomplishments and trends that might push into the new year.

Andrew Lorenz, who consults processors on food safety, quality and regulatory issues as CEO and founder of We R Food Safety!, offers his insights into the uptick in recalls in the past year and what FSIS and the FDA had turned their focus toward by the end of the year. Additionally, he gives an update on what to expect when it comes to federal versus state inspections and the added emphasis on preventing foreign material contamination in the product stream.

Editor's Note: To view the "Robust Listeria monocytogenes Control Program" documentation that Lorenz mentions in the episode, click here; it is free of charge to anyone.