Food Safety

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Food Safety

April 11, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Overdoor, France, ca. 1825; | Smithsonian Design Museum

Education communities have significant food safety responsibilities.  Risk gets pushed around global food service counterparties; a drama in itself and one that requires coverage in a separate blog post.*

Since 2013 we have been following the development of food safety standards; among them ANSI/NSF 2: Food Equipment one of a constellation of NSF food safety titles whose provisions cover bakery, cafeteria, kitchen, and pantry units and other food handling and processing equipment such as tables and components, counters, hoods, shelves, and sinks.  The purpose of this Standard is to establish minimum food protection and sanitation requirements for the materials, design, fabrication, construction, and performance of food handling and processing equipment.

It is a relatively stable standard; developed to support conformance revenue for products.  A new landing page seems to have emerged in recent months:

https://www.nsf.org/testing/food

You may be enlightened by the concepts running through this standard as can be seen on a past, pre-pandemic agenda:

NSF 2 Food Safety 2019 Meeting Packet – Final Draft

NSF 2 Food Safety 2019 Meeting Summary – August 21-22 Ann Arbor NSF Headquarters

NSF 2 Food Equipment Fabrication Agenda – FEF – TG – 2021-01-12

Not trivial agendas with concepts that cut across several disciplines involving product manufacture, installation, operation and maintenance.  We find a very strong influence of organizations such as Aramark and Sodexo.   More on that in a separate post.

Ranchview High School Cafeteria / Irving, Texas

This committee – along with several other joint committees –meets frequently online.  If you wish to participate, and receive access to documents that explain the scope and scale of NSF food safety standards, please contact Allan Rose, (734) 827-3817, arose@nsf.org.   NSF International welcomes guests/observers to nearly all of its standards-setting technical committees.   We expect another online meeting hosted by this committee any day now.

Keep in mind that all NSF International titles are on the standing agenda of our Nourriture (Food) colloquia; open to everyone.  See our CALENDAR for the next meeting.

University of Indiana

Issue: [13-113] [15-126]

Category: Facility Asset Management, Healthcare, Residence Hall, Athletics

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Tracey Artley, Keith Koster, Richard Robben

*See “Food Safety Risk Management: Evidence-Informed Policies and Decisions, Considering Multiple Factors, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations”


LEARN MORE:

ANSI Blog | Changes to NSF 2 Food Safety Equipment Standard

NSF International Food Safety 2018 Meeting Summary – 2018-08-22 – Final Draft

2017 Food Code | US Food & Drug Administration

Hygiene Requirements For The Design Of Meat And Poultry Processing Equipment

ARCHIVE: NSF 2 Food Safety

Commercial Kitchens

April 11, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES: Complete Monograph (2658 pages)

Commercial kitchens offer several benefits, such as efficient food preparation and large-scale production, allowing businesses to meet high demand. They provide professional-grade equipment and ample space, enabling chefs to explore culinary creativity. Commercial kitchens also promote hygiene and food safety standards, with dedicated cleaning protocols and inspections. However, hazards can arise from the high-temperature cooking equipment, sharp tools, and potentially hazardous substances. There is also a risk of burns, slips, and falls, emphasizing the importance of proper training and safety measures. Adequate ventilation and fire safety systems are vital to prevent accidents and maintain a healthy working environment.

The International Code Council is re-configuring its code development process in nearly every dimension. While that situation stabilizes let us review the back-and-forth on this topic during the previous revision cycle (linked below):

2021 International Building Code Section 306 Factory Group F Moderate Hazard

2021 International Fire Code Section 606 Commercial Cooking Equipment and Systems

The International Code Council has recently re-configured its code development calendar:

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

Public hearings on the proposed changes happen in Orlando, April 7-16.

Commercial kitchen electrical power wiring requirements are covered extensively in Article 210 through Article 215 of the National Electrical Code.  Standards action in this domain is referred to IEEE Education & Healthcare Facility Committee.

ASHRAE International: Calculating Airflow Rates, Cooking Loads in Commercial Kitchens

Related

International Mechanical Code: Chapter 10 Boilers, Water Heaters and Pressure Vessels

AGA Response to The Atlantic Article about Natural Gas Cooking

Thomas Edison State University: Undergraduate Certificate in Gas Distribution

International Fire Code

Kitchens | Americans with Disabilities Act

April 11, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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U.S. Department of Justice

Following is the current text of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), including changes made by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-325), which became effective on January 1, 2009.

The ADA was originally enacted in public law format and later rearranged and published in the United States Code. The United States Code is divided into titles and chapters that classify laws according to their subject matter. Titles I, II, III, and V of the original law are codified in Title 42, chapter 126, of the United States Code beginning at section 12101. Title IV of the original law is codified in Title 47, chapter 5, of the United States Code. Since this codification resulted in changes in the numbering system, the Table of Contents provides the section numbers of the ADA as originally enacted in brackets after the codified section numbers and headings.

CHAPTER 126—EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES

 

Kitchen Wiring

April 11, 2024
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“Le Coin de Cuisine” | 1883 Edwin Deakin

Education communities are stewards of hundreds of commercial-class kitchens in which the proximate risk of electrical energy must be managed — water spills and grease, fires, worn electrical cords on countertop equipment, faulty wiring or equipment, damaged outlets or connectors, and improperly used or damaged extension cords among them.   The safety and sustainability rules for this occupancy class is identified as Assembly Group A-2 in Section 303 of the International Building Code

We explore recent transcripts of expert committee activity in NEC Article 210 and provide links to video commentary.

Public comment on the First Draft of the 2026 NEC is open until 28 August 2024.  We typically coordinate our effort with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee.  The workspace set up for generating proposals can be found in the link below.

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

2023 National Electrical Code (Free Access)

Other access portals:

UpCodes: 2020 NEC

Texas Electrical Code

California Electrical Code

Michigan Electrical Code: Part 8 Rules

Transcripts of the 2023 NEC are linked below:

Public Input Report (Part 1)

Public Input Report (Part 2)

Public Comment Report

We examine transcripts to track technical specifics that apply to student accommodation kitchens (on and off campus), university-affiliated hospital kitchens and sport arenas.

Relevant Research:

Smart Kitchen: Real Time Monitoring of Kitchen through IoT

Design of Chinese Smart Kitchen Based on Users’ Behavior

Intelligent kitchen management system based on gas safety

A Futuristic Kitchen Assistant – Powered by Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

A Multi-radar Architecture for Human Activity Recognition in Indoor Kitchen Environments

Stuffed Cabbage

April 10, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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From the Badger Insider: Eat Like a Freshman

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

¼ pound ground pork

1 onion, chopped

¼ cup rice, parboiled

½ can tomato sauce

Parsley

Salt

Pepper

Procedure

Mix all ingredients together. Cut the core from a head of cabbage. Cook cabbage until just heated through and leaves are pliable. Peel off leaves. Put a handful of filling in each leaf and roll up the leaf. Place cabbage rolls in a baking dish.

Mix the remaining half can of tomato sauce with an equal amount of water. Pour this over the cabbage rolls. Cook in a moderate oven about one and a half hours. Serve the gravy on this dish on mashed potatoes.

Standards Wisconsin

The Science of Food Standards

 

Intellectual Property

April 10, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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It is impossible to overestimate the sensitivity of this topic but poke at it, we will.  At the moment, the less written here; the better.   Much of this domain is outside our wheelhouse; though it has settled on a few first principles regarding patents, trademarks and copyrights relevant to the user-interest we describe in our ABOUT.

Many large research universities have a watchdog guarding its intellectual property and trying to generate income from it, and; of course, for branding.  We will dwell on salient characteristics of the intellectual property domain with which we reckon daily — highlighting the market actors and the standards they have agreed upon.

Additionally, technical standards developers are generally protected by copyright law, as the standards they create are typically considered original works of authorship that are subject to copyright protection.  In the United States, the Copyright Act of 1976 provides copyright protection for original works of authorship, which includes technical standards. This means that the developers of technical standards have the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and create derivative works based on their standards, and others must obtain permission or a license to use or reproduce the standards.  

Some technical standards may be subject to certain exemptions or limitations under copyright law.  In the United States, there is a doctrine called “fair use” that allows for limited use of copyrighted works for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, without the need for permission or a license from the copyright owner.  Almost everything we do at Standards Michigan falls under the fair use doctrine.  This is why we have no search feature and most pages are protected.  If we err in this; let us know.  

Innovation management

Why The U.S. And China Fight Over IP

More

  1. Patent Act: This is the primary federal law governing patents in the United States. It sets forth the requirements for obtaining a patent, the rights of patent owners, and the remedies available for infringement.
  2. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 prohibit anticompetitive behavior in the marketplace, including the use of codes and standards to exclude competition.
  3. Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations: This contains the rules and procedures related to patents, including rules governing the filing and examination of patent applications.
  4. America Invents Act: This is a major overhaul of the U.S. patent system that was enacted in 2011. It includes provisions such as the transition to a “first-inventor-to-file” system and the creation of new post-grant review procedures for challenging the validity of patents.
  5. Manual of Patent Examining Procedure: This is a guidebook for patent examiners that provides detailed information on the rules and procedures for examining patent applications.
  6. Everett Rogers: Diffusion of innovations
  7. Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17)

 

Protection of Intellectual Property in the Supply Chain

ASTM International Intellectual Property Policy

Healthcare Standards Institute IP Policy

International Code Council Copyright Protection

IEEE Patent Policy

NFPA Regulations and Policies

Underwriters Laboratory Patent Policy

 

Intellectual Property 101

Innovation – Market Acceptance – Standardization – Human Right

Protection of Intellectual Property in the Supply Chain

April 10, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“Crystal Palace” Dickinson Brothers Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 Hyde Park

The Licensing Executives Society is an ANSI accredited standards developer that empowers, connects, and celebrates intellectual property professionals through education, best practices, networking, participating and mentoring — i.e. the classic non-profit trade association business model.   The work of LES should be of interest to the education industry which regards itself as the primary source of new knowledge.[1]

From the LES mission statement:

Across the world, innovation is the principal source of differentiated and defensible competitive advantage for individuals and enterprises. Innovation is the basis of advantaged products and services, and it drives sales and profits. It is the source of jobs. It is the engine of the global economy. Yet the intricacies of IC management are not well-understood by our political, financial, and business leaders.

In addition, in business schools around the world, IC management is not treated seriously as a business subject. In fact, to the extent it is dealt with at all, IC management is taught as a legal subject, not as the management of the largest component of value in the modern enterprise (i.e. 80 percent of the equity value of publicly traded companies). IC valuation, the business processes employed in IC management (both risk mitigation and value extraction), IC sharing and protection with third parties, and IC strategy are barely touched upon.

IC and its value are, therefore, nearly invisible to most of our business, financial, and political leaders and thinkers. They have little, if any, grounding in it. There is little accounting for it. And very often, no one outside the legal department has explicit responsibility for its protection and management.

We do not advocate in the LES suite but we track its best practice discovery.  It is time well spent, following the action in educational units finding, and bringing to market, new knowledge.

“The Palace of Art and Industry 1862” | W.E. Hodgkin

Last year LES posted notice of public consultation on another title in its bibliography: Management System for the Protection of Intellectual Property in the Supply Chain. From the project prospectus:

This standard defines a common set of expectations for what organizations can and should do to protect all types of their own IP and the IP of customers, suppliers, and partners. The Committee’s vision is to achieve standardization around how organizations develop and implement an intellectual property protection management system. This standard seeks to supplement legal and contractual IP protection methods through performance standards and business processes and practices that define the management systems required to protect all types of intellectual property (IP) in the global supply chain. The LES Standards Development Organization encourages IP thought leaders around the globe to participate in the public review and comment of LES draft standards as part of the standardization development process. As an Accredited Standards Developer of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), LES provides the 60-day public review period to encourage manufacturers, distributors, and any interested stakeholder to represent each organization’s best interests while helping to shape this field for the future.

The public consultation window closed May 26th.  

We have no information about its status as of this posting; a common condition among non-profit standards setting organizations since March.  We expect that when any LES title is in motion it will announced on the link below:

LES Standards Home Page

Most research universities compete to be recognized as the new knowledge leader and have substantial intellectual property protection enterprises to harvest licensing revenue.  These universities have large marketing units to make the accomplishments of its staff known to the public.  The number of staff involved in marketing and administration may exceed the number of staff creating new knowledge.

We encourage innovation and technology management enterprises in the education industry to communicate directly with the Licensing Executives Society about participation and/or membership.  Contact: Kelli Baxter, (703) 234-4088, kbaxter@les.org, 12100 Sunset Hills Road, Suite 130, Reston, VA 20190.   We maintain the LES suite on the standing agenda of our Human Resource teleconferences.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

 

Issue: [18-362] [20-86]

Category: Academics, Administration & Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fisher, Jack Janveja

Source: ANSI Standards Action Page 23

Workspace / Intellectual Property


More

National Institute of Standards and Technology: January 2018 Green Paper

Q&A with LES FRAND Licensing Standards Committee Co-Chairs Matteo Sabattini and Brian Scarpelli

AAU: Comment on Intellectual Property

AUTM: August 2018 Letter to US Secretary of State

ISO/TC 279 Innovation Management

Standards Michigan Related Post on ISO/TC 279

 

 

Innovation and Competitiveness in Artificial Intelligence

April 10, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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The International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is requesting public comments to gain insights on the current global artificial intelligence (AI) market. Responses will provide clarity about stakeholder concerns regarding international AI policies, regulations, and other measures which may impact U.S. exports of AI technologies. Additionally, the request for information (RFI) includes inquiries related to AI standards development. ANSI encourages relevant stakeholders to respond by ITA’s deadline of October 17, 2022.

Fueling U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness in AI: Respond to International Trade Administration’s Request for Information

Commerce Department Launches the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee

 

ANSI Essential Requirements | Patent Policy

April 10, 2024
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Click image

The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA; United States Public Law 104-113) was signed into law March 7, 1996. The Act amended several existing acts and mandated new directions for federal agencies with the purpose of:

  • Bringing technology and industrial innovation to market more quickly
  • Encouraging cooperative research and development between business and the federal government by providing access to federal laboratories
  • Making it easier for businesses to obtain exclusive licenses to technology and inventions that result from cooperative research with the federal government

The NTTAA — along with administrative circular A-119 from the White House Office of Management and Budget — made a direct impact on the development of new industrial and technology standards by requiring that all Federal agencies use privately developed standards, particularly those developed by standards developing organizations accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).   In circular A-119 federal agencies were also encouraged to participate in the development of those standards.   While discussion continues about how well the US non-government sector is doing to advance national technology strategy continues (see January 17, 2012 White House Memo  M-12-08) the US standards system remains the most effective process for advancing national technology and economic priorities for the education university and others.

ANSI is not a standards developing organization itself; it only accredits them according to its Essential Requirements: Due process requirements for American National Standards.   ANSI reports to the National Institute of Standards and Technology; a division of the US Department of Commerce; which reports to The President of the United States.  Now comes a proposed revision to Section 3.1  of ANSI’s Patent Policy regarding the inclusion of patents in American national standards:

ANSI Standards Action Page 26

Comments are due by March 26th.   You may comment directly to ANSI at this email address: psa@ansi.org.   With respect to our higher priorities, we will not be commenting on this redline, though intellectual property and patent policies are high on the agenda of many research universities.   We have advocated in other parts of the ANSI Essential Requirements document in the past, however — a history we are happy to explain at any of our weekly Open Door teleconferences every Wednesday, 11 AM Eastern time.   Anyone is welcomed to join these discussions with the login information in the link below:

Contact

 

Issue: [11-31]

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Christine Fischer, Rich Robben

 

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