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aid media package "Hygiene for professionals"

"All-round carefree material" for training on hygiene and the Infection Protection Act

A year goes by quickly, and year after year those responsible in commercial kitchens are faced with the task of organizing training in accordance with the Food Hygiene Ordinance and instruction in accordance with the Infection Protection Act for their employees. The aid media package is specially designed for this purpose and promises fun learning for everyone involved. In addition to carrying out the legally required training courses, it is also suitable for initial training for kitchen staff, for instruction in the catering trade and for extra-occupational instruction.

It contains a CD-ROM with slides, worksheets and accompanying text, a video, two specials for the trainer, two participant booklets as well as posters and stickers for motivation. All media are coordinated with one another and can be used in combination, individually or step by step.

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Hard science and haute cuisine

Molecular restaurateurs juggle proteins and polymers / Neue MaxPlanckResearch published

A physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz elegantly combines his research on soft matter with cooking as a science. For the "molecular restaurateur" Thomas A. Vilgis, the kitchen therefore becomes a laboratory. Vilgis visited the latest edition of MaxPlanckResearch (4/2003) and describes what happens when "hard science" meets "haute cuisine".

Why does meat tenderize when it is cooked, but into a tough shoe sole when it is heated for too long? What happens when whipping egg whites or clarifying butter? Scientists who call themselves "molecular restaurateurs" deal with such questions about the chemistry and physics of roasts, sauces or puddings. Thomas Vilgis is one of them. He is a full-time researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, researching the properties of polymers, biopolymers and the complex materials that can build them up.

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McKinsey study: Aldi and Lidl are profoundly changing buyer behavior

Advantages not only through low prices - supermarkets have to learn from the discounters' concepts for success

The success of the hard discounters Aldi and Lidl is changing traditional retail and supermarkets more fundamentally than previously thought. The high growth rates of the discounters are no longer solely due to the low prices. The discounter business model is based on extreme simplicity, efficiency and speed. With this, Aldi and Lidl are noticeably changing the shopping behavior of Germans. The management consultancy McKinsey & Company came to this surprising finding in a new study that was presented in Frankfurt on Tuesday.  

McKinsey believes the impact on traditional trade is profound. "Supermarkets have to orient themselves towards the successful concepts of Aldi and Lidl. Only then will they have the opportunity to win back market shares with their own strengths," said Michael Kliger, partner at McKinsey management consultancy and head of retail practice. "Smaller assortments, clearer shelves and faster shopping - Aldi and Lidl set standards that traditional retailers can no longer ignore."

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QS: Deutscher Tierschutzbund terminates its cooperation

When it comes to animal welfare, QS is a sham

The President of the German Animal Welfare Association, Wolfgang Apel, ended his work on the QS “Quality and Safety” board of trustees on February 11, 2004. "The QS seal has nothing to do with animal welfare and suggests the opposite to the consumer," explains Wolfgang Apel, explaining the withdrawal. Although QS advertises to be animal and environmentally friendly, animal husbandry only has to meet the completely inadequate minimum legal requirements that every animal breeder and keeper in Germany must comply with anyway. “A willingness to go beyond the minimum requirements and even design the QS standards in an animal-friendly manner cannot be recognized,” explains Apel.

The keeping conditions for pigs, cattle and poultry marked with QS are not animal-friendly. There is no time limit for animal transport. Above all, however, those responsible show no willingness to change the slightest thing. The President of the German Animal Welfare Association, as the only representative of an independent citizens' organization who has remained on the Board of Trustees, cannot and does not want to take part in fruitless discussions. "We can neither agree with our self-image nor with the claim that citizens address us, to support advertising that lies to the consumer," said Wolfgang Apel. “The enlightened consumer expects a seal of approval for animal products that it also stands for ethical responsibility for our fellow creatures. The QS certification mark, on the other hand, conceals endless animal suffering with slatted floors and crates for pigs, tethering for cattle, overbred turkeys and broiler chickens in oppressive confinement. "

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QA on Wolfgang Apel's resignation from the Board of Trustees

"Only togetherness for more consumer protection"

At the fifth meeting of the QS Board of Trustees on February 11.02.2004, XNUMX, Mr. Wolfgang Apel, President of the German Animal Welfare Association, “canceled” the German Animal Welfare Association's involvement in the further development and implementation of the QS system. The QS Board of Trustees regrets the withdrawal of the German Animal Welfare Association from participating in the broad implementation of QS. Not working against each other, but only working together could gradually introduce the changes in the keeping of farm animals, which the animal welfare association has called for years, into the daily practice of animal husbandry. The regret by the Board of Trustees relates not only to the termination itself, but in particular to the underlying misunderstanding about the goals of the QS system and what this cross-level security partnership can achieve in the first few years of its existence.

QS is an external quality management and auditing system that dynamically adapts to the growing requirements and represents a service instrument for continuous process improvement for all stages of food production. QS thus implements the guarantees expected by the food producers about compliance with the legally prescribed minimum standards and fulfills further additional criteria voluntarily agreed by the individual levels. The standards can be further developed at any time.

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More than 51.000 companies in the QS scheme

60 percent of German slaughter pigs are produced according to QS criteria

The QS system is becoming more and more popular in German food production. In the pig sector, almost 60% of German slaughter pigs are currently produced in accordance with QS requirements. In the cattle sector, too, the numbers have risen in recent months: 46% of young bulls and around 20% of slaughter cows and heifers are produced in accordance with the QS criteria. The QS scheme has established itself most widely in poultry: more than 70% of chicken and turkey production is integrated in the QS scheme. 

The number of QS farms increases to the same extent as the number of animals for slaughter in the QS scheme. 794 companies (scheme contracts) are currently participating in the QS scheme. This is backed by around 51.100 farms, including almost 42.000 farms. Another 8.700 locations are pending certification. 

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QS information on the press conference of "foodwatch eV"

The "foodwatch eV" from Berlin reported on January 14.01.2004th, XNUMX at a press conference with a "report" on the QS scheme. The supposedly "detailed information" turns out to be incomplete compilation about the QS scheme. We regard the report as a one-sided, sometimes outdated view with tendentious value statements. At the same time, we are disappointed with this type of presentation. The expenditures and efforts of all system participants for increased food safety are not given due recognition.

QS stands for transparency and comprehensible consumer protection. Accordingly, we will carefully examine this "report" and deal with it in an objective and clear manner.

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foodwatch criticizes the QS certification mark for food

"Quality and safety" at a bargain price? - 40-page report for download

At the International Green Week in Berlin, foodwatch sharply criticized the QS certification mark, which the food industry organizes on its own. “Neither the quality nor the safety promises can be kept”, sums up Matthias Wolfschmidt when presenting the 40-page QA report from foodwatch. According to current research by foodwatch, a lack of BSE tests has also been found at slaughterhouses that are QS-certified.

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An ideal training medium in personal and hand hygiene

Dermalux® System: Immediately visualize and train more effectively with the fluorescence method

The personnel in the food and pharmaceutical industry as well as in the catering industry need hand hygiene training just like employees, trainees and students in hospitals as well as in care facilities: Training with the Dermalux® system enables all training steps within one training unit: The dangers of cross-contamination, the Even when shaking hands can be made visible just as quickly as the correct hand disinfection and hand cleaning can be demonstrated and the recommended skin protection measures. If you traditionally needed the contact test with an incubation period of up to 48 hours to detect the contamination of hands, the fluorescence method can be used to make invisible soiling on the hands of the training participants immediately visible during the training.

With the Dermalux® system, controls are not necessarily carried out; above all, hygiene awareness is raised in a simple and extremely effective way in a matter of seconds. Test results have shown this for years. Very soon the trainer develops a feeling for the communication possibilities of the training system and can convey learning content according to his individual ideas or vary the fun factor for the participants without "showing" someone in a way that is uncomfortable for him.

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Proper hygiene is also about protecting the skin

The skin protection control with the Dermalux® system

As part of the recommended preventive measures, the didactic advantages of the Dermalux® system as part of the skin protection training courses and controls have proven to be a convincing aid. The possible uses are very broad and can be individually designed by the instructors. The training system is suitable for all those responsible in training centers, company medical practices and centers as well as for affected companies and clinics that are active in the field of professional dermatology. In addition, it has been shown in many areas such as the pharmaceutical and food industry or clinical hygiene and in the entire care sector that the combination options of elements of skin protection training and the instructions on personal hygiene that the training system opens up are perceived as particularly helpful.

For the first time it is possible to make visible that skin protection can only work where the skin protection ointments are correctly applied. Nothing could speak more convincingly for the need for skin protection than the feeling of vulnerability felt by a test person who can see the "unprotected" areas on the hands for the first time. Here the learning process starts immediately. This was already proven by the first studies at the University Clinic in Jena under the direction of Professor Peter Elsner a few years ago, and the various scientific projects currently under way have now confirmed these results. A success also for KBD GmbH, who worked out and developed the Dermalux system together with Professor Elsner on the basis of his fluorescence method, which was previously widely published in Switzerland. A special feature is that the communication specialist Karin Bartling-Dudziak, whose initials are hidden behind the company name, has succeeded, together with Professor Elsner in Germany and Switzerland, in numerous early partners in the leading industry and, for example, in the employers' liability insurance association to inspire the didactic special module. Today they are not only customers of KBD GmbH, but have also been very committed to contributing their specialist knowledge to the prosperity of the project and the dissemination of the methodology. Among other things, this has resulted in KBD GmbH now in a team with such companies stretching out feelers to nearer and further foreign countries and attracting considerable attention there.

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Argentina wants to deliver more meat to Russia

RIA "Novosti" correspondent Yuri Nikolajew reports that Buenos Aires is asking Moscow to open up the Russian market for Argentine meat and soy supplies more broadly.

"If this request is granted, Argentina will vote in favor of Russia joining the World Trade Organization," said the newspaper "Clarin", which appears in the Argentine capital, citing government sources.

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