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Rabbi Paul Drazen
Chief Program Development Officer
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Board Member of the Hekhsher Tzedek Commission and The Rabbinical Assembly
New York, NY
Kimberly Rubenfeld
Program Manager
Hekhsher Tzedek Commission
St. Paul, MN
TAGS: Drazen, United Synagogue of Conservative
Judaism, Rubenfeld, Hekhsher Tzedek Commission, Kosher, Kashrut, ethical,
certification, seal, third party, Jewish law, standards, consumer,
Agriprocessors, wage, Magen Tzedek, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor, Mira Slott
Reaction to Agriprocessors Raid Leads to A New Jewish Ethical Trading Initiative
For Food: But Is There Really a Jewish Position On The Minimum Wage? reports
that when Agriprocessors, a kosher meat processor, was raided by the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agency, there were allegations of ill-treatment of the
workers. This led some to object that when consumers buy kosher food, they
expect more than simply food prepared in the ritualistic way required to meet
standards of kashrut. They expect food that is raised in accordance with Jewish
ethical principles. So the activists pushed to have the authorities that certify
food as kosher enforce a broader ethical mandate. This move to tie morality and
ethics to food seemed intriguing, so we asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, Mira Slott to find out more from Rabbi Paul Drazen, with the
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and Kimberly Rubenfeld, with the
Hekhsher Tzedek Commission. 6/16/2010
Ben Ho
Business Director
HerbThyme Farms
Compton, CA
TAGS: Ho, HerbThyme Farms, lawsuit, organic, herb,
conventional, case, audit, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor, Mira Slott
HerbThyme’s Business Director Calls Fraud Allegations Invalid And Inaccurate
saw that a class action lawsuit had been filed against HerbThyme Farms alleging
the company fraudulently sold conventionally grown herbs as organic. It smelled
suspicious to us. As the news started to percolate through the industry, we
started getting calls. Some legitimate, others were oddly anonymous. We then
received a call from HerbThyme asking for an opportunity to explain itself. We
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from Ben Ho, Business Director at HerbThyme Farms. 5/13/2010
Marilyn Dolan
Executive Director
Alliance for Food & Farming
Watsonville, CA
TAGS: Dolan, Alliance for Food & Farming, Duman,
McInerney, Thorne, Beckman, CDC, CSPI, Center for Science in the Public
Interest, produce, outbreak, foodborne, illness, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor,
Mira Slott
Analysis of CDC Database On Foodborne Illness: Most Outbreaks Not Associated
With Produce; Foodservice/At-Home Mishandling Is Chief Cause Of Produce-Related
Outbreaks found that the Alliance for Food & Farming has published a study:
Analysis of Produce Related Foodborne Illness Outbreaks. It is different
from the one
done by CSPI: First, it is not limited to FDA-regulated foods, as was the
CSPI effort. Second, this looks at produce versus other foods as a source for
foodborne illness, and third and most importantly, this study tries to tease out
to what extent illnesses attributed to produce are due to problems at the farm
or at the processing plant as opposed to at a restaurant or home kitchen. It
seemed like an intriguing approach, so we asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Marilyn Dolan, Executive
Director of the Alliance for Food & Farming. 3/29/2010
Tanios Viviani
President, Global Innovation & Emerging Markets & Chief Marketing Officer
Chiquita Brands International
Cincinnati, OH
Mike Burness
Vice President, Global Food Safety & Quality
Chiquita Brands International
Cincinnati, OH
Judy Chen
Marketing and Business Development Group Leader
Chiquita Brands International
Cincinnati, OH
TAGS: Viviani, Burness, Chen, Chiquita Brands
International, Fresh Express, food safety, consumer, consumers, salad, category,
bagged, leafy greens, social media, website, web, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor,
Mira Slott
Fresh Express Looks To Personalize Purchase Of Salads By Using New Website Tools
explains that we earlier reported that Dole, the #2 player in the salad
category, has begun a major campaign to boost sales. Now Fresh Express has
announced its own
initiative to boost its sales and, as the market share leader, those of the
category. Its executives have chosen to focus on an innovative online resource
venture as its key tool. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to conduct an exclusive telephone conference call to
understand more from several of their executives. 3/29/2010
Anonymous
TAGS: Florida, sustainability, tomato, tomatoes, growers, workers, labor, wage, exchange, Brown, McDonalds, retail, retailer, activist, penny a pound, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor, Mira Slott
Big Ramifications For Industry As Florida Tomato Growers Exchange Agrees To Penny-A-Pound Program found that the move to so-called penny-a-pound programs seemed inexorable to us. The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange had all kinds of reasons why it couldn’t participate. They claimed anti-trust issues, practical impossibility and on and on. In the end, they changed their stance and announced their own Social Accountability Program that includes a Florida Tomato Grower Code of Conduct. We wanted to get another perspective and Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott spoke to a knowledgeable observer of the industry. 3/5/2010
Gary Caloroso
Partner/President
Sahlman-Williams
Tampa, FL
TAGS: Caloroso, Sahlman-Williams, Miller, Williams, food safety, public relations, PR, consumer, retail, retailer, media, marketing, crisis, Latino, avocado, commodity board, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor, Mira Slott
PR In The Produce Industry explains that in many recent controversies affecting the trade, Gary Caloroso was one of the quiet giants working tirelessly behind the scenes to help present the industry in the best possible light. Upon hearing that Sahlman Williams Public Relations and Marketing announced that Gary was named the company’s new president, we thought it was high time to pull Gary from the shadows and ask him to speak out on the intersection of food marketing, technology, food safety and the future. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to chat with Gary. 1/28/2010
Gary Fleming
Founder & Owner
Symbolon Group
Indian Hills, CO
TAGS: Fleming, Symbolon Group, PTI, FDA, PMA, traceability, Produce Traceability Initiative, supply chain, barcode, handler, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor, Mira Slott
Gary Fleming Speaks Out: Produce Traceability Series Part 1: ‘Absent Of PTI’ details how an important part of our coverage of traceability came from Gary Fleming who has recently resigned as Vice President of Industry Technology and Standards at PMA. Wasting no time, Gary has launched a new consultancy, the Symbolon Group. We reached out to Gary hoping he might contribute to the industry by speaking bluntly on the issue of traceability in general and the Produce Traceability Initiative in particular. He has been generous enough to contribute three separate pieces and we run the first here. We also thought it would good to get a little more insight into his purpose in leaving PMA and in his general thoughts on PTI. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to raise some questions. 1/18/2010
David Nour
CEO
The Nour Group
Atlanta, GA
TAGS: Nour, Nour Group, PMA, PMA FIT, leadership, symposium, Cornell, brand, value chain, Perishable Pundit, Jim Prevor, Mira Slott
Business Expert David Nour Speaks At Leadership Symposium explains that each year, the PMA FIT Leadership Symposium—presented in partnership with Cornell University—provides the industry with a unique form of leadership development. Last year, we previewed the Leadership Symposium by running some interviews with the 2009 speakers. This year we wanted to profile a speaker who arrived in the US with a suitcase, one hundred dollars and without speaking any English… and has built a very successful career specializing in something he calls “relationship economics.” We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to get a little preview of his approach. 1/5/2010
Holly Doremus
Ph.D., Professor of Law
Berkeley Law
University of California, Berkeley
TAGS: water, Doremus, University of
California, Berkeley, California, legislation, farm, farmers, Bureau
of Reclamation, irrigation, delta, fish, environmentalist
The Next Big Industry Challenge: Water reports the California
State Legislature finally came to a water compromise agreement that,
though surely not perfect, has been widely hailed. Most observers see
the package as a breakthrough and significant achievement, even if
much more work will need to be done. Prior to the announcement in
Sacramento, the drought in California had prompted us to ask Mira
Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to speak with
an expert, Holly Doremus, Ph.D., Professor of Law at the University of
California, Berkeley to get some historical perspective and context.
11/9/2009
James Bracher
Founder & Chairman
Dimension Five Consultants Inc.
Monterey, California
TAGS: Bracher, Slott, Dimension Five
Consultants, Salinas, integrity, leadership, ethics, character, moral
responsibility, agribusiness
Integrity In Produce — How Unique Is Our Industry? recalls how
back in 2003 Basil Mills joined with Monterey business consultant, Jim
Bracher, to launch the Salinas Valley Agribusiness Integrity-Centered
Leadership Program. Its goal was audacious: to make the ag-focused
training program in Salinas into a national model. It seemed well
worth a follow-up, so we asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from James Bracher,
Founder & Chairman of Dimension Five Consultants Inc. We confess to
finding in Mr. Bracher’s interview a charming, yet quite disputable,
notion that we are all in this together and share with him a warm
regard for the people of this industry. 10/30/2009
Timothy Church
M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.
Professor, holder of the John S. McIlhenny Endowed Chair in Health
Wisdom
Director of Preventive Medicine Research Pennington Biomedical
Research Center
Louisiana State University
TAGS: Church, Louisiana State University,
exercise, Time magazine, metabolism, diet, weight, calorie
Dr. Timothy Church Sets The Record Straight On ‘Inaccurate and
Misleading’ Time Article About Exercise And Weight was intrigued
recently by an article in Time magazine titled, “Why Exercise Won’t
Make You Thin.” We didn’t much like the article… it was a weird mix of
personal anecdote and snippets of interviews and studies without much
quantification. We perked up, though, when it referred to Dr. Timothy
Church and his research. We’ve mentioned Tim before in the Pundit as
part of a piece titled,
A Little Exercise Goes A Long Way To Better Health, which touted a
book Tim co-authored based on the premise that exercise was very
valuable and even a little helped a lot, it seemed odd to see Tim
being quoted in this article with the opposite premise. We wanted to
understand what exactly was going on so we asked Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to talk with Tim and find out
more. 9/29/2009
Dr. Hans Maurer
Chair
International Federation for Produce Standards (IFPS) (United Fresh
New Zealand)
Managing Director
The AgriChain Centre
Chief Executive, International Management Centres Association, UK
Publisher, Hortsource
Professor in Agribusiness, IMCA
Auckland, New Zealand
TAGS: IFPS, standards, International
Federation, safety, GAP, AgriChain, Hortsource, global, food safety,
standardization, GS1
International Federation for Produce Standards (IFPS) — Potential
Voice Of Global Produce Industry mentions that we have been
pleased to exchange a few e-mails with Dr. Hans Maurer over the years
and have been honored by the many links to the Pundit he has provided
to the trade in New Zealand. We were pleased to see he had taken on
the Chairmanship of The International Federation for Produce
Standards. What, however, exactly is the IFPS? And what standards does
it wish to see established? Why do we need such an organization rather
than just ad hoc committees? We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Hans and find that in
many ways, organizations such as The International Federation for
Produce Standards represent the future. 9/15/2009
Louis Eni
CEO
Dietz & Watson
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TAGS: Dietz & Watson, Boar’s Head, Harris
Teeter, Deli, retailer, consumer, exclusivity, choice, brand,
merchandising, marketing, Eni
DIETZ & WATSON TAKES ON BOAR’S HEAD Is Exclusivity Anti-Consumer? Is
It Even Good For Retailers? reports that after Harris–Teeter
bumped Dietz & Watson in some stores to move to Boars Head, Dietz &
Watson decided to speak out publicly and issued a statement which
seemed to raise a lot of issues — from the perception that retailers
run the show, to the power of brands, consumer choice vs. a
manufacturer’s interests, legal issues such as restraint-of-trade and
much more. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to interview the grandson of Dietz & Watson founder
Gottlieb Dietz, who also happens to be the company’s CEO. 9/4/2009
Tim York
President
Markon Group
Salinas, California
TAGS: sustainability, Wal-Mart, index,
capital, York, Markon, suppliers, metrics, life cycle, consumers
Dangers And Broader Implications Of Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index
as we detailed in
Wal-Mart Must Include Adequate Return On Capital In Its Sustainability
“Index” Or It Will Do More Harm Than Good, Wal-Mart’s
sustainability initiative is extensive. So we focused in on one
glaring problem: Wal-Mart’s decision to exclude the economic sphere
from its proposed index. Sustainability is typically considered to
contain three spheres of responsibilities: The environmental, the
social and the economic. We would go so far as to say that speaking of
sustainability without all three of the spheres makes no sense.
Wal-Mart’s initiative is far broader than retail produce. We wanted to
examine how it might interact with other industry initiatives in
sustainability. To do so, we asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to explore the topic more by speaking to
Tim York, President of Markon Group. 8/11/2009
Jerry Welcome
President
Reusable Packaging Association (RPA)
Arlington, Virginia
TAGS: RPA, RFID, RPC, traceability,
Welcome, Reusable Packaging, tags, Wal-Mart, technology, research,
retail
RPA’s RFID/RPC Study: Pathway To More Comprehensive Traceability?
heard that the Reusable Packaging Association had done a study that
implied there could be a dramatic reduction in the cost of RFID by
utilizing tags multiple times on RPCs. We asked Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Jerry
Welcome, President of the Reusable Packaging Association. We find
RPA’s test results very encouraging as they do indicate economies may
be available that will bring down the cost of RFID if we combine it
with RPCs. It seems like some kind of traceability dream, but one
could imagine some kind of industry database with readers everywhere
feeding into it. So if product goes from a shipper to a wholesaler to
a smaller wholesaler to a purveyor and even into a store or
restaurant, one could imagine readers everywhere effortlessly tracking
the RPC. 8/5/2009
Nigel Jenney
President
Fresh Produce Consortium
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK
TAGS: seasonably, campaign, consumers,
sustainability, carbon, local, locally, Fresh Produce Consortium,
Jenney, food miles, protectionism
‘Eat Seasonably’ Campaign Another Example Of Misguided Intentions
heard that a battle was brewing in Britain between eating seasonably
advocates and the fruit and vegetable industry, and asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more
from Nigel Jenney, President of the Fresh Produce Consortium. Visit
the UK and one quickly learns that sustainability and food miles are
used as protectionist weapons and that consumers see it as an outlet
for nationalist sentiment. We did some focus groups on sustainability
in the UK and found consumers waxing poetic about “local” and the need
to limit “food miles.” So you have British nationalism, overlapping
with protectionist forces and the most mindless kind of sustainability
ethos that demands no evidence or proof but simply like to do things
to “feel good” and you have a recipe for a mess, which is pretty much
what this “eat seasonably” program is. 7/23/2009
Philippe Binard
Secretary General
Freshfel Europe
Brussels, Belgium
Frederic Rosseneu
Secretariat
Freshfel Europe
Brussels, Belgium
TAGS: standards, quality, rules,
marketing, Freshfel, Binard, Rosseneu, Halloween produce, Sainsbury’s,
grade standards, cosmetically
In Defense Of Cosmetically Challenged Produce recalls that back in
November, Sainsbury’s pulled its planned line of “Halloween produce,”
because EU standards prevented the sale of such items to consumers,
and then launched a campaign to change the regulations. Sainsbury’s
efforts have paid off. Effective July 1, 2009, the old rules have been
abolished. The question of whether grade standards are encouraging the
industry to focus on the right things and whether grade standards
serve as a consumer-protection device has long been debated. With the
sustainability movement focusing on avoiding waste, this move in
Europe may presage even bigger changes both in Europe and in the US.
We thought it worth understanding the situation better, so we asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more by speaking with two representatives of the pan-European produce
trade association: Philippe Binard, Secretary General, and Frederic
Rosseneu, Secretariat of Freshfel Europe. 7/14/2009
Maria Brous
Director of Media and Community Relations
Publix
Lakeland, Florida
Michael
Manager of Environmental Services
Publix
Lakeland, Florida
TAGS: Publix, sustainability, award,
audits, Brous, Hewitt
Publix Wins Sustainability Award From PRODUCE BUSINESS Magazine
had an opportunity recently to visit the Publix headquarters in
Lakeland, Florida. The occasion was the presentation of the 1st
Annual PRODUCE BUSINESS Retail Sustainability Award. Unlike many such
efforts, this award is not given for gimmicks or gadgets. If you
haven’t read the article by Mira Slott, who serves as Special Projects
Editor for both the Pundit and our sister publication, PRODUCE
BUSINESS, you can do so right
here. In addition, at the end of March two Publix executives,
Maria Brous, Director of Media and Community Relations, and Michael
Hewitt, Manager of Environmental Services, visited the headquarters of
both the Pundit and PRODUCE BUSINESS, where they discussed Publix and
its sustainability efforts with Mira Slott and our Publisher/Editorial
Director Ken Whitacre. The video interview lasts about 30 minutes, and
you can see it
here. 7/1/2009
Jan Caselli
Owner
Orca Distribution West
Anaheim, California
TAGS: FDA, pistachio, recall, Setton,
consumers, food safety, California, Orca, Caselli
FDA’s Pistachio ‘Warning’: The Other Side Of The Story explains
how the fallout from the discovery of salmonella in pistachios has
resulted in 664 recalls to date. Though for the first time in memory,
we received a “warning” notice from the FDA advising that consumers
not eat the product of a specific company. Basically, this appeared to
be one of the rare cases in which a company was refusing to issue a
recall despite FDA pressure. It is such a rare occurrence that we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
find out more from Jan Caselli, Owner of Orca Distribution West. It is
actually a very fascinating story with several key points. 7/1/2009
Sharon Sass, R.D.
Nutrition Education Advisor
Arizona Department of Health Services
Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Nutrition Services
Phoenix, Arizona
TAGS: Sass, Arizona, Department of
Health, PBH, Produce For Better Health, nutrition, consumption, more
matters, USDA, education, promotion
Pundit’s Mailbag — PBH’s Effectiveness May Best Be Seen At State
Levels our piece:
Got Produce? Has PBH Been Effective At Boosting Produce Consumption?
questioned if all the talent and money invested in PBH had actually
helped achieve its professed aim of increasing consumption of produce.
Because it questioned an industry and public health “sacred cow,” it
brought a number of responses, including this thoughtful letter from
Sharon Sass, R.D., Nutrition Education Advisor with the Arizona
Department of Health Services who agreed to let us in on what Arizona
is doing to utilize the Fruit & Veggies—More Matters program. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to find
out more. When we review the copious materials Ms. Sass offers, we see
her efforts as only marginally related to increased consumption. More
exercise, more low-fat as opposed to full-fat dairy consumption, a
focus on the poor — Ms. Sass, quite appropriately, is looking to
enhance the health and well being of the citizenry, and increasing
produce consumption is just one facet of that effort. 6/16/2009
Sidney Chang
Owner
Chang Farm
Whatley, Massachusetts
Kendra Nightingale, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Animal Science
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO
TAGS: farm, monocytogenes, virulence,
Listeria, contamination, sample, sprouts, seed, testing, retail,
Chang, FDA, Pasteurization, Nightingale, Colorado State University
Lessons Learned From Another Sprout Recall reports that even in
the midst of our extensive coverage of the industry problems with
alfalfa sprouts, we received word of another sprout-related recall. We
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
find out more from Sidney Chang, Owner of Chang Farm whose company
instigated the recall. Upon Sydney’s recommendation, we also asked
Mira to speak with Kendra Nightingale, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of
Animal Science at Colorado State University who clarifies and
elaborates on what is known regarding contamination of Listeria
monocytogenes in food products. 6/10/2009
Bob Sanderson
President
Jonathan’s Sprouts
Rochester, Massachusetts
Donald Schaffner, Ph.D
Extension Specialist in Food Science/Professor
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
TAGS: seed, testing, pathogen,
disinfection, sampling, sprout, safety, Sanderson, Schaffner, Rutgers,
Jonathan’s, sprouting, FDA, chlorine, water, irradiation
Discussion Of FDA’s Unclear Sprout Guidelines By Jonathan’s Sanderson
And Rutgers’ Schaffner discusses how we’ve written previously of
the tendency of the FDA to provide vague, almost meaningless,
guidance. By recommending an “appropriate” seed screening program for
sprouts, the FDA gives itself an “out” and would declare any future
food safety outbreak as ipso facto proof that the seed screening
program was not appropriate. Equally, we’ve been contacted by
sprouters pointing out that some other sprouter is not following FDA
guidelines. Yet, when we get down to details, it turns out that the
guidelines are not quite clear. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to see if we could get some
clarification on FDA guidance for sprouters from Bob Sanderson,
President of Jonathan’s Sprouts. And at Bob’s advice, we wanted to
learn more about the work that Professor Donald Shaffner is doing in
this area at Rutgers and asked Mira to speak with him as well.
6/4/2009
Steve Druckman
Chief Marketing Officer
FreshDirect
Long Island City, New York
TAGS: online, Druckman, FreshDirect,
orders, ordering, retailers, web-based, grocery, McLaughlin, Cornell,
research, shopping
New York’s FreshDirect Succeeds When Most Online Grocers Have Failed
saw that Supervalu just announced that it is ending delivery of online
orders. In most cities, consumers will still be able to order online
but will have to pick up the food at a store. Many other retailers
have abandoned computer ordering all together, such as Publix. We
thought we should talk to a computer ordering and delivery service
that appears to be thriving. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Steve Druckman, Chief
Marketing Officer for FreshDirect. They have fallen into the sweet
spot identified so many years ago by Professor Ed McLaughlin of
Cornell University and his team who did a study on Internet shopping.
5/22/2009
Ronda Reed
Marketing Director
Dole Fresh Vegetables
Salinas, California
TAGS: Dole, bagged, packaged, salad,
fresh-cut, category, consumers, research marketing, Reed
Dole’s Easy-Open Bags May Jumpstart Stagnant Salad Category
observes that for the last quarter century, big growth in produce
categories came from two areas: counter-seasonal imports and the
development of fresh-cut produce, especially bagged salads. Yet this
category has been flat or down since the spinach crisis of 2006. Dole
is, of course, the largest marketer of fresh produce, but in bagged
salads it is number two. We received word that Dole was setting its
sights on jumpstarting growth in this category and when we learned
that a focus of this effort was to address a Pundit Peeve, the
tendency of bagged salads to “explode” while being pulled open or to
require scissors to open, we were intrigued and asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more
from Ronda Reed, Marketing Director for Dole Fresh Vegetables.
5/15/2009
Marc Schenker, MD, MPH
Professor of Public Health Sciences
UC Davis School of Medicine
Allison Moore
Communications Director
Fresh Produce Association of the Americas
Nogales, Arizona
TAGS: H1N1, flu, virus, health, Schenker,
University of California, outbreak, CDC, Moore
H1N1 Flu Virus Far From Over found that Elizabeth Weise of USA
Today wrote a piece, “Swine Flu Outbreak Getting Longer-term Look by
the CDC”, saying: “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is
changing its focus from identifying cases of H1N1 to a comprehensive,
longer-term perspective”, adding a quote from the CDC’s Anne Schuchat:
“We need to guard against complacency as we move into a new normal.”
We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
update us on the situation by speaking to a medical/public health
authority and an industry participant, Marc Schenker, MD, MPH,
Professor of Public Health Sciences at UC Davis School of Medicine and
Allison Moore, Communications Director at the Fresh Produce
Association of the Americas. 5/12/2009
Lyle Orwig
spokesperson
Caudill Seed Company
Louisville, Kentucky
TAGS: Caudill, Orwig, Sprout, sprouting,
consumer, seed, alfalfa, FDA, food safety, lot, GAPs, human
consumption, certification, USDA
Alfalfa Seed Company, FDA, USDA And Supporting Cast Comment On Seed
Withdrawal reminds that the alfalfa sprout industry is operating
under an FDA
recommendation not to consume since April 26, 2009. Then the FDA
issued an “Alert,”
identifying an epidemiological link between a specific seed supplier
and the outbreak. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Lyle Orwig, spokesperson for
the Caudill Seed Company. There are several points made in the
interview we question. Mira also reached the person at USDA charged
with seed regulations and testing, Dr. Richard Payne, Chief of Seed
Regulatory and Testing Branch at the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing
Service. Finally, Mira sought clarification from the Association of
Official Seed Certifying Agencies, Chet Boruff, CEO of the Association
of Official Seed Certifying Agencies. Our
interview with Michael McCartney regarding traceability emphasized
the importance of starting traceability with the seed. One doesn’t
have to be a traceability expert to know that blending makes traceback
more complicated, so blending seed is a really bad idea. 5/12/2009
Linda J. Harris, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Western Institute for Food Safety and Security
Cooperative Extension Specialist in Microbial Food Safety
Department of Food Science and Technology
University of California
Davis, California
TAGS: salmonella, kill, Setton, FDA, CDFA,
pistachios, investigation, farms, roasting, contamination, nuts,
Harris, University of California, food safety, Almonds
Building A Better Understanding Of Salmonella In Pistachios
because the recent pistachio recall has left so many open questions,
we turned to Linda Harris at the University of California at Davis. We
spoke to many experts and all identified her as the person to speak to
when it came to tree nuts. She is understandably busy just now, but
was kind enough to work with Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to fill in some of the gaps in industry
understanding of the intersection between Salmonella and pistachios.
We really are in debt to Linda Harris. She has clarified issues that
hundreds of articles and countless interactions with government
authorities have been unable to clarify. We’ve gathered seven big
points from our discussion to know concerning this debacle. 5/1/2009
Sonia Ramirez
Legislative Representative
AFL-CIO
Washington, D.C.
TAGS: Union, AgJobs, residency, labor,
guest worker, H-2A, immigration, AFL-CIO, Ramirez
Union Sentiment On AgJOBS Hinges On Permanent Residency reminds
that politics sometimes makes strange bedfellows, and coalitions are
built and collapse. We wanted to get a sense of what was behind the
union endorsement of AgJOBS and thus how sturdy this coalition will
be. In order to get a better sense of union sentiment on this matter,
we spoke to some union leaders privately, and Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott spoke to Sonia Ramirez, Legislative
Representative for the AFL-CIO. AgJOBS has many passionate devotees.
Right now organized labor is with the bill. Yet it is a bill that
contains many things unions don’t like. Let the dynamic change just a
bit and the future of labor support for the bill would quickly become
uncertain. 5/1/2009
Tom Stenzel
President and CEO
United Fresh Produce Association
Washington, D.C.
Greggory Storey, Ph.D
Industry Relations Lead
Bayer CropScience
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
TAGS: Stenzel, sustainability, Bayer,
United, chain, global, supply, standards, grant, Education Foundation
United Fresh/Bayer CropScience Launch Global Sustainability Center
declares it was near and dear to our heart to learn at this year’s
United Convention about a new industry resource: the Center for Global
Produce Sustainability. This is an important area and one that has
seen some pullback to the recession, so it is terrific to learn that
Bayer CropScience is forward-thinking enough to look beyond the
present situation and invest for the future. We needed to learn
exactly what both Bayer CropScience and United Fresh have in store so
we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
find out more from Tom Stenzel, President and CEO of United Fresh
Produce Association and Greggory Storey, Ph.D, Industry Relations Lead
with Bayer CropScience. 4/28/2009
Bob Sanderson
President
Jonathan’s Sprouts
Rochester, Massachusetts
TAGS: Sprout, advisory, consumer, seed,
alfalfa, FDA, Sanderson, Jonathan’s Sprouts, food safety, lots, GAPs,
human consumption
Insights On The Alfalfa Sprout Advisory reveals the FDA has issued
a consumer advisory not to eat alfalfa sprouts. We turned to frequent
Pundit correspondent Bob Sanderson to see if we can find a solution to
this long running food safety issue with sprouts and asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to see what we
could learn. Bob is a real insider with deep knowledge of the
business, and he has given us two very simple changes that could make
a world of difference. One issue highlighted in our discussion is the
blending of seed lots, which makes traceability almost impossible, so
the practice should be halted. 4/28/2009
FDA Spokesperson
FDA
Washington D.C.
TAGS: salmonella, Setton, FDA,
pistachios, investigation, farms, roasting, contamination
FDA ‘Spokesperson’ Justifies Reasoning Behind Pistachio Recall
wished to get an update and clarification from the FDA itself on the
state of the Setton Pistachio recall, so we asked Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from the FDA.
The key issue is the FDA desperately wishes to avoid any consideration
of is whether its efforts actually help public health in these types
of recalls. In a situation such as this it is highly likely that by
excluding this one shipper’s product from the market, the FDA is
leaving the market to product no safer than the Setton Farms product.
Indeed, because there are sub-standard operators in the world, the
remaining product may, on average, be less safe. What clearly has to
change is that the FDA cannot be prosecutor, judge, jury and
executioner. 4/9/2009
Ralph Montano
Spokesperson
California Department of Public Health
Sacramento, California
TAGS: salmonella, California, Department
of Public Health, pistachios, investigation, farms, roasting, raw
News Flash: Every Plant Handling Raw Pistachios Has Salmonella! (But
Roasting Kills The Pathogen) admits that sometimes short-and-sweet
can be very revealing. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out what role the State of
California is playing in regard to the investigation of Setton
Pistachio from Ralph Montano, Spokesperson for the California
Department of Public Health. This brief interview brings up three very
important points to consider about pistachios, salmonella and the
expectations we should have as opposed to what has been spun by the
FDA. 4/9/2009
Jessica Chittenden
Spokesperson
Division of Food Safety and Inspection
New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets
Albany, New York
TAGS: Inspection, New York, cockroaches,
health, food safety, pistachio, Chittenden, Department of Agriculture,
deficiency, Setton, Georgia Nut, inspector, inspection
Much Ado About Two Cockroaches: Setton’s New York Affiliate Caught Up
In The Inane when it was determined that the Setton International
in New York, a Setton Pistachio in California affiliate, had recently
failed an inspection, some saw that as confirmation the California
company was doing something wrong. We wanted to better understand this
New York State inspection and asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Jessica Chittenden,
spokesperson for the Division of Food Safety and Inspection at the New
York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. The finding of two
live cockroaches is undesirable, but not something we can get
ourselves worked up about. We just don’t see anything meaningful in a
copy we were given of the inspection report. 4/7/2009
Rabbi Hanoka
Organized Kashrus Laboratories
OK Kosher Certification
Brooklyn, New Yok
TAGS: Kosher, Hanoka, Kashrus, Setton,
pistachio, pistachios, salmonella, audit, contamination, food safety,
testing, certification
Setton’s Kosher Certifier Sheds Light On Company’s Operations
although it would not be correct to say that unethical people can’t
get kosher certification, reputable certifiers will run if they get
the feeling that management is looking to cut corners the instant the
certifier leaves. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to speak with Rabbi Hanoka of Organized Kashrus
Laboratories, OK Kosher Certification, who have certified certain
Setton Pistachio products as kosher. We thank the good rabbi for his
willingness to share his experience, perspective and also a short
parable that illustrates an argument we have often made pointing out
the oddity which is the way the government views food safety as
opposed to automotive safety. 4/7/2009
Richard Matoian
Executive Director
Western Pistachio Association
Fresno, California
TAGS: Setton, pistachio, pistachios,
salmonella, audit, contamination, food safety, Western Pistachio
Association, Matoian, testing
Producer Contamination Of Pistachios Is Rather Odd finds the
decision to close an industry a serious one. We wanted to learn as
much as we could about the pistachio situation and so asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more.
People were pretty closed-mouthed, but Mira was able to clarify some
important points: Richard Matoian, Executive Director of the Western
Pistachio Association. We have a product not known to harbor
salmonella and that has some sort of kill step. To leap to the
conclusion from an isolated finding on pistachios that have been
sitting in a customer’s facility for months that this establishes even
a prima facie case for producer-contamination is rather odd. 4/3/2009
Adrienne Dimopoulos
Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs Operations
Kraft Foods
Northfield, Illinois
TAGS: Dimopoulos, Kraft, Setton,
Pistachio, salmonella, audit, contamination, food safety
Kraft At Crux Of Pistachio Recall; Hasn’t Fully Audited Supplier In
Almost Four Years argues that Kraft occupies an odd position in
this pistachio matter. It didn’t grow or process the pistachios; it
didn’t even receive them or, initially, test them. Yet its policies on
food safety and contacting government agencies have really been the
catalyst for the whole matter. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Adrienne
Dimopoulos, Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs Operations with Kraft
Foods. There is always a temptation to clam up at a time like this. So
we appreciate Kraft Foods providing some needed transparency in this
very murky subject. 4/3/2009
Jean Kinsey
Co-Director Food Industry Center
Professor in Applied Economics
University of Minnesota
Principle Investigator
Continuous Consumer Food Safety/Defense Tracking Study (CFST)
TAGS: food safety, consumer, attitudes,
confidence, tracking, study, University of Minnesota, Kinsey
Continuous Tracking Study Of Consumer Attitudes Shows Eroding
Confidence In Food Safety saw that in the course of an editorial
on food safety drawing on a new study of consumer attitudes toward the
safety of the food supply, the editors of the Star Tribune elected to
quote us discussing the relationship between this decline of public
confidence and the inability of the industry to quickly trace-forward
all the affected products. We were intrigued by this new study,
particularly the fact that it is a continuous study of consumer
attitudes, whereas most studies are only episodic. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more
from Jean Kinsey, Co-Director of the Food Industry Center and
Professor in Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota and
Principle Investigator on the Continuous Consumer Food Safety/Defense
Tracking Study. 3/12/2009
Hugo Melgar-Quinonez
Ph.D Assistant Professor
OSU Extension Specialist
Department of Human Nutrition
Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
TAGS: children, consumption, kids,
access, study, research, Melgar-Quinonez, Ohio State University
Does ‘Lack Of Access’ To Fruits And Vegetables Steer Kids To Fries And
Juice? read in USA Today, Nanci Hellmich pens a piece that runs
under the headline, “Eat Your Vegetables’: For Kids, it Means Fries.”
She makes a succinct point: “Kids aren’t eating enough fruits and
vegetables, and when they do consume produce, they are more likely to
eat French fries than nutrient-rich dark green or orange vegetables, a
study shows…” The point is derived from a study conducted by
researchers at Ohio State University and published in the Journal of
the American Dietetic Association under the title “Correlates
of Fruit and Vegetable Intakes in US Children.” The issue of
obesity in America and especially in children is a big one. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from Hugo Melgar-Quinonez, Ph.D Assistant Professor OSU Extension
Specialist in the Department of Human Nutrition at Ohio State
University. 3/6/2009
Tim York
President
Markon Group
Salinas, California
Amanda Raster
Sustainability Standards Development Manager
Leonardo Academy
Madison, Wisconsin
TAGS: sustainability, standards,
standard, food safety, Leonardo, ANSI, metrics, York, Markon
Produce Takes Greater Role In Sustainability Standards one of the
important criticisms we made of the initial attempt to establish an
ANSI sustainability standard for the industry was that a draft
standard was submitted and changes required advocacy. Instead of
starting from scratch, a rebuttable presumption had been established.
This was profoundly unfair. Much hard work has finally led to the
rejection of that draft standard and thus given the industry an
opportunity to rethink the whole process. Still, progress has been
made and the possibility of a more inclusive kind of sustainability
has been created by the formation of a group developing methods of
measurement for the produce trade similar to what we reported Keystone
is doing for other parts of agriculture in our piece
here. For an update on both sustainability tracks, we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with a
man whose activities intersect both projects: Tim York President of
Markon Group and for additional perspective on the ANSI project, Mira
touched base with the Leonardo Academy to get an update from Amanda
Raster, Sustainability Standards Development Manager. 2/27/2009
Bruce Knobeloch
Former Vice President of Marketing
for River Ranch Fresh Foods,
and Director of Produce at
Schnucks Markets, Inc.
St. Louis, Missouri
TAGS: Knobeloch, Schnucks, Cornell,
business, economic, Peterson, Produce Executive Development Program
‘Professor’ Bruce Knobeloch Is Bullish On Industry Opportunities
reminds that this year’s United Fresh/Cornell University
Produce Executive Development Program is coming up in March and
there is a new element to the program this year: a presentation from
Bruce Peterson and Bruce Knobeloch. Because both have worked on the
buy and sell sides of the industry, we can count on an unusual
perspective on how decisions get made in the produce trade. To give us
all a kind of “head’s up” as to what these gentlemen are thinking, we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
speak with both of the Bruces. We ran her first discussion under the
title,
‘Professor’ Bruce Peterson Talks About Traceability, Immigration,
Transportation and Water Utilization. Today Mira speaks with Bruce
Knobeloch, Former Vice President of Marketing for River Ranch Fresh
Foods, and Director of Produce at Schnucks Markets, Inc. 2/19/2009
Charles Hall
Executive Director
Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association
Lagrange, GA
Bo Herndon
Chairman
Georgia Agricultural Commodity Commission for Vegetables
President
L.G. Herndon Jr. Farms, Inc.
Lyons, Georgia
TAGS: growers, Georgia, Hall, Herndon,
marketing, research, commission, commodity, Georgia Fruit & Vegetable
Growers, Georgia Agricultural Commodity, funds, Vidalia
Important Day For Georgia’s Vegetable Growers… And Possibly For Entire
Industry marks today as a seminal moment. The vegetable growers of
Georgia must vote on the issue of establishing the Georgia
Agricultural Commodity Commission for Vegetables and their ballots
must be postmarked no later than today. It is an attempt to secure
funds — especially for research — but also some for education,
marketing and promotion to help the Georgia vegetable industry to
prosper. Yet, by combining many smaller items under one commission,
Georgia is taking a leadership role that may have national
implications. We asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, to see if we could learn more about this intriguing
project from Charles Hall, Executive Director of the Georgia Fruit &
Vegetable Growers Association and Bo Herndon, Chairman of the Georgia
Agricultural Commodity Commission for Vegetables, and President of L.G.
Herndon, Jr. Farms, Inc. 2/12/2008
Bruce Peterson
President, Peterson Insights
former President/CEO of Naturipe Farms
and Senior Vice President of
Perishables for Wal-Mart Stores
Bentonville, AR
TAGS: Peterson, traceability,
immigration, transportation, water, retailers, food safety
‘Professor’ Bruce Peterson Talks About Traceability, Immigration,
Transportation and Water Utilization discusses how since its
founding, the Pundit been honored to play a role on the faculty of the
United Fresh/Cornell University
Produce Executive Development Program. Each year’s iteration is a
unique variation on the theme. This year, one of the special aspects
of the program is that we are bringing in both Bruce Peterson and
Bruce Knobeloch. We did think it would be nice if we could offer a
sneak peak into the insight that will be gained by participating in
the program. So we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to speak with Bruce Peterson who tells us that:
“Immigration is still a major political problem. There has not been
meaningful change, but economic problems of the country have taken
over.” 2/11/2009
Les Winograd spokesperson
Subway Restaurants
Doctor’s Associates
Milford, Connecticut
Reggie Brown, Manager
Florida Tomato Committee
Executive Vice President
Florida Tomato Exchange and
Florida Tomato Growers Exchange
Maitland, Florida
TAGS: workers, growers, tomato, Florida,
labor, chain, Subway, Winograd, Brown, Exchange, migrant
Subway Joins Penny-A-Pound Program While Tomato Growers Feel The Pinch
reports that Subway Restaurants announced recently that it has joined
with many other quick-serve restaurants in committing to pay Florida
tomato pickers an extra penny-a-pound over their normal wages, this
movement seems to be gaining momentum again. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more
from Les Winograd, spokesperson for Subway Restaurants and Reggie
Brown, Manager of the Florida Tomato Committee Executive Vice
President of the Florida Tomato Exchange and Florida Tomato Growers
Exchange. We find five reasons why this is one of those situations in
which nothing is as it seems to be. 1/22/2009
Lee Woodger
Head of Food Chain Unit
National Farmers Union
Warwickshire, England
Rory Taylor
Media Relations Manage
Competition Commission
London, UK
TAGS: UK, retailers, suppliers, Tesco,
competition, ombudsman, investigation, supermarkets, Woodger, Taylor,
tactics
Do UK Retailers Use ‘Bully Tactics’ To Squeeze Suppliers?
uncovered how this past fall British newspapers were filled with
headlines saying that UK retailers were using the financial crisis and
consumer desire for value pricing as cover for efforts that would
crush production agriculture. Sean Poulter at The Daily Mail said:
“Tesco has been accused of putting ‘extreme’ pressure on growers and
suppliers in an attempt to compete with budget retailers like Aldi,
Lidl and Netto.” To learn more about the British producer community
and its concerns regarding retailers, we asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Lee Woodger,
Head of Food Chain Unit for the National Farmers Union and Rory
Taylor, Media Relations Manager for the Competition Commission.
1/7/2009
2008
Tony Jeary
Executive Coach
Strategic Facilitator and Author
Dallas, Texas
TAGS: leadership, PMA, leadership
symposium, Jeary, Wal-Mart, Cornell
Learn From The Masters At Leadership Symposium describes an
unusual event offered through a partnership between PMA’s Foundation
for Industry Talent, Cornell University and Pundit sister publication,
PRODUCE BUSINESS magazine, the Leadership Symposium, which will be
held January 14-16, 2009, at the Omni Dallas Park West in Dallas. In
order to get more insight into what the speakers have in store, we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
speak with one of the presenters, Executive Coach, Strategic
Facilitator and Author, Tony Jeary. 12/25/2008
Dr. Li Tang
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Cancer Prevention and Control
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Buffalo, New York
TAGS: Obama, broccoli, smoking, Tang,
cancer, Cancer Prevention, Roswell, cruciferous
Message To President-Elect Obama: Quit Smoking And Eat Your Broccoli!
describes President-elect Barack Obama as a remarkably disciplined
man. So it is a testimony to the enormously addictive habit of smoking
that during a recent interview on Meet the Press, he confessed to Tom
Brokaw that his earlier claim to Ellen DeGeneres to have given up
smoking wasn’t quite true. Whether President Obama continues smoking
or quits, there is some new evidence that he could do himself a favor
by eating broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables. We wanted to know
more about this research and asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to see if she could find out more from Dr.
Li Tang Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Cancer Prevention
and Control Roswell Park Cancer Institute. 12/18/2008
Rod Beckström
Director, National Cyber Security Center (NCSC)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington D.C.
TAGS: leadership, PMA, McDonald’s,
Homeland Security, Beckström, food safety
Leadership Symposium Offers Stimulating Speakers Michael Engeman
of the La Manna group, who won the Tip Murphy Scholarship for
Leadership Excellence, focused in on two of the topics at the upcoming
Leadership Symposium The presentation Michael mentioned on
“empowering business culture” will be presented by Polly LaBarre who
co-authored “Mavericks at Work.” Michael’s interest in “leveraging the
individual strengths of a multi-generational talent pool” will be
satisfied by Cam Marston who wrote “What’s In It For Me’ Workforce:
Managing Across the Generational Divide”. We thought that it might be
useful if we took a look at the other two presenters at the Symposium
and focus here on one with a remarkably eclectic work situation. So we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
find out more from Rod Beckström, Director, National Cyber Security
Center at the US Department of Homeland Security. 12/18/2008
Dr. Jeff Barach
Vice President and Center Director
Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)
Washington, D.C.
Member, Executive Committee
Creating Sustainable Outcomes for Agriculture
The Keystone Center
Keystone, Colorado
TAGS: irradiation, bacteria, Grocery
Manufacturers Association, E. coli, salmonella, pathogens, organism,
Barach, Keystone Center
Pundit’s Mailbag — Irradiation Risks reexamines irradiation, which
is a topic of great interest to the industry, especially since the FDA
has approved its use for pathogen reduction on iceberg lettuce and
spinach. Our recent piece
Irradiation Kickstart, brought a note from one of the Pundit’s
most thoughtful correspondents, Bob Sanderson of Jonathans Sprouts,
who often raises intriguing questions that have featured in many
Mailbags before. In this case we thought Bob’s questions concerning
irradiation of food and its effect on bacteria and on humans who
consume it were sufficiently intriguing to lead us to ask Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to, once again,
speak with Dr. Jeffrey Barach and try to get some clarification.
12/3/2008
Raquel Izquierdo De Santiago
Food Policy Advisor
Freshfel Europe
Brussels, Belgium
TAGS: School Fruit Scheme, EU, Izquierdo,
European, health, consumption, commission, parliament, Bangor
University, Council of Agriculture, Freshfel
A Dream Becomes Reality As EU Votes To Fund School Fruit Scheme
our piece,
Pan-European School Fruit Scheme, brought substantial feedback.
The trade association for the European industry held out a slender
hope that the EU School Fruit Scheme would roll out much larger than
had been expected. Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott chatted with an executive at Freshfel, Raquel Izquierdo De
Santiago, Food Policy Advisor, to update us on the latest developments
on the program. Things transpired precisely as Raquel predicted as the
Council of Agriculture Ministers approved the proposal for an EU
School Fruit Scheme. Today, we must salute a select group of true
believers in Europe and America who fight to spread good health
through increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and have
promoted specific policies to make that dream a reality. 11/24/2008
Frederic Rosseneu
Secretariat
Freshfel Europe
Brussels, Belgium
TAGS: pesticide, residue, Russia, Europe,
Freshfel, European, certificates, Rosseneu, protectionism
Russia Stalls EU Exports With Tough Pesticide Residue Stance
reports that Freshfel Europe came out with a
strong statement opposing a new Russian requirement, Russia plans
to introduce safety certificates for produce originating in the EU.
What could the Russians be looking to achieve by this measure? We
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
find out more from Frederic Rosseneu, Secretariat at Freshfel Europe.
11/18/2008
James McCurtis
Spokesperson
Michigan Department of Community Health
Lansing Michigan
TAGS: FDA, lettuce, public health,
Michigan, McCurtis, California, Aunt Mid’s, outbreak, investigation,
epidemiology
Public Health Or Power To Destroy? ran a piece recently,
Perishable Thoughts — Produce Industry On Trial, that portrayed
the Kafkaesque nature of the dilemma the produce industry finds itself
in when a food safety issue arises. An authority appears and declares
the industry or a company guilty and is not obligated to produce ANY
EVIDENCE at all to support these claims. To us this seems so obviously
unacceptable, so positively un-American, that we find it hard to
believe this state of affairs is allowed to continue. To see if we
could learn why more information isn’t being released, at least in the
Aunt Mid’s case, we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to probe deeper and speak with James McCurtis,
Spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Community Health.
10/21/2008
Dr. Laurence Swan
Managing Director for R&D
Fyffes
Dublin, Ireland
Philippe Binard
Secretary General
Freshfel Europe
Brussels, Belgium
TAGS: Europe, scheme, Swan, Binard,
Freshfel, Fyffes, school, children, Food Dudes, consumption
Pan-European School Fruit Scheme owes Marc DeNaeyer, Managing
Partner of TROFI in The Netherlands, a hat tip as this summer he
pointed out to us an interesting Pan-European School Fruit &
Vegetables Scheme in Europe. It didn’t surprise us to read that the
French don’t eat their recommended allotment of fruits and vegetables,
but we were intrigued by the notion that young people in France are
eating so many fewer than their grandparents. Of course in our
interview with
Lorelei DiSogra of United Fresh, we talked a great deal about the
U.S. program to distribute fresh produce in schools. Marc suggested a
pair who we could follow up with to learn more. We seized on his
suggestion and asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to speak to both gentlemen: Dr. Laurence Swan, Managing
Director for R&D at Fyffes and Philippe Binard, Secretary General at
Freshfel Europe. 10/17/2008
Christine Bruhn
Ph.D., Director, Center for Consumer Research
Department for Food Science and Technology
University of California, Davis
TAGS: irradiation, irradiated, research,
Bruhn, University of California, consumer, spinach, iceberg
Irradiation And Consumer Acceptance admits that although there are
many technical issues with regard to irradiation — what dose, what
packaging, logistics, cost, etc. — one of the key industry concerns is
consumer acceptance of irradiated produce, but consumer acceptance of
irradiated produce is something of a red herring. To explore this
subject more thoroughly we asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Christine Bruhn
Ph.D., Director of the Center for Consumer Research in the Department
for Food Science and Technology at the University of California,
Davis. 10/16/2008
Dr. Jeffrey Barach
Vice President and Center Director
Grocery Manufacturers Association
Washington, D.C.
Harlan Clemmons
President, COO
Sadex Corporation
Sioux City, Iowa
Richard Hunter
President/CEO
Food Technology Service
Mulberry, Florida
TAGS: irradiation, Aunt Mid’s, spinach,
gamma, Barach, furans, beef, GMA, Clemmons, Hunter, packaging,
electron, FDA
Irradiation Kickstart our recent piece,
Disputed Link To Aunt Mid’s Cut Lettuce Reveals Need For Industry
Firms To Have Easy Access To Top Epidemiologists, made us think
more about irradiation. Because this outbreak is allegedly linked to
foodservice and institutional packages of fresh-cut lettuce, some of
it was consumed in hospitals and nursing homes by high-risk
populations. After the FDA approval of irradiation on spinach and
iceberg lettuce, one suspects that those consumers with impaired
immune systems would be a ready market. We asked Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with the association
that pushed this petition before the FDA, as well as representatives
of the two main technology choices. 10/15/2008
Dominic Riggio
President
Aunt Mid’s
Detroit, Michigan
TAGS: Aunt Mid’s, Michigan, health,
department, lettuce, iceberg, outbreak, investigation, E. coli, Riggio
Disputed Link To Aunt Mid’s Cut Lettuce Reveals Need For Industry
Firms To Have Easy Access To Top Epidemiologists writes that the
papers have been filled with news reports indicating that Aunt Mid’s
Produce Co. has been the source of an E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak—this
one linked to distribution of foodservice or institutional size
packages. We mentioned
Aunt Mid’s during the spinach
outbreak of 2006, as the company worked to reassure consumers of
its food safety efforts. Now, the company is objecting to the claim
that its product is associated with an outbreak. We wanted to get to
the bottom of this situation and so asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to find out more from Dominic
Riggio, President of Aunt Mid’s. 10/7/2008
Sebastian Cianci
Spokesperson
FDA
Washington, D.C.
TAGS: Baja, ban, Mexican, peppers,
Mexico, food safety, growers, FDA, salmonella, outbreak, testing,
import, Cianci
Setting The Record Straight On AP’s Mexican Pepper Story examines
how a widely distributed AP story claimed that the FDA knew peppers
from Mexico were a big problem long before the recent
Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The Pundit has been interviewed by
several AP reporters over the years and usually finds them to have
tough standards — in fact being unwilling to run with stories without
solid evidence — this piece seemed incomplete and sloppy so we asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from FDA spokesperson Sebastian Cianci. 8/28/2008
Doug Hermance
Owner
Pea King Produce
Santa Maria, California
TAGS: Baja, ban, Mexican, peppers,
Mexico, food safety, growers, Hermance, FDA, Pea King
Baja Grower ‘Held Hostage’ To FDA’s ‘Ban’ On Mexican Peppers
reports that although Mexican jalapeño and Serrano peppers are still
effectively banned from the U.S. market, some might think that the
crisis is over. Of course, the crisis is not over if you happen to be
a U.S. grower who has built an operation in Mexico dedicated to
supplying fresh chili peppers to the U.S. market. Then it is worse
than ever. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to find out more on exactly this situation from Doug
Hermance, owner of Pea King Produce. 8/19/2008
Jim Lugg
Executive Vice-President
Science & Quality
Fresh Express
Salinas, California
Dr. Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Director
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
University of Minnesota
TAGS: research, Fresh Express, food
safety, E. coli, conference, leafy, spinach, Lugg, Osterholm
Fresh Express Conference To Unveil Research Findings in January of
2007 that we published a piece entitled,
Fresh Express Gives $2 Million: But Its Food Safety System May Be a
Bigger Gift. which featured an announcement that Fresh Express
would fund research to help the fresh-cut produce industry prevent
contamination by the deadly Escherichia coli 0157:H7 pathogen. The
funding was important, and pledging to make the results publicly
available was generous. Now we
hear that the results are in, and Fresh Express is going to host a
conference to reveal the findings. The
agenda involves both research presentations and an opportunity to
discuss and analyze its meaning and implications. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more
from Jim Lugg, Executive Vice-President of Science & Quality at Fresh
Express and
Dr. Michael Osterholm, Executive Director of the University of
Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy. 8/7/2008
Alicia Cronquist
Epidemiologist
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Denver, Colorado
TAGS: Colorado, salmonella, sickness,
jalapenos, FDA, CDC, peppers, Cronquist, Saintpaul, tested, trace
Will Colorado Salmonella Sickness Case Lead To Texas Pepper?
reports food safety attorney Bill Marler has said one of his Colorado
clients was the first person to fall ill of Salmonella Saintpaul after
having eaten jalapenos. This person actually had jalapeños left over
from his purchase and the jalapenos and the client’s illness were a
genetic match for Salmonella Saintpaul. We asked Pundit Investigator &
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from
Epidemiologist Alicia Cronquist with the Colorado Dept. of Public
Health & Environment on their efforts surrounding this discovery.
7/30/2008
Richard Epstein
James Parker Hall
Distinguished Service Professor of Law
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
TAGS: CDC, FDA, government, compensation,
tomatoes, outbreak, Epstein, University of Chicago
With FDA/CDC Protected By Sovereign Immunity, Compensation For Losses
Looks Bleak Says Professor Richard Epstein asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with
University of Chicago Professor of Law Richard A. Epstein who
describes Import Alerts as tantamount to defamation. Although he is
not particularly optimistic about the chances for the produce industry
to win compensation judicially, he opens the door a bit to individual
companies that have been defamed by a false Import Alert. 7/25/2008
John McClung
President, CEO
Texas Produce Association
Mission, Texas
Will Steele
President, CEO
Frontera Produce
Edinburg, Texas
Raul Cano
Co-Owner
Grande Produce Ltd.
Hidalgo, Texas
Gilbert Ramirez
President
A&G Produce
Edinburg, Texas
TAGS: jalapenos, cilantro, peppers, FDA,
salmonella, food safety, Mexico, outbreak, Ramirez, Cano, Steele,
McClung
Reality On The Border: Businesses Suffer At Hands Of FDA asked
Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to find
out what precisely the FDA may be doing on the US/Mexico border. She
spoke with John McClung, President & CEO of the Texas Produce
Association, Will Steele, President & CEO of Frontera Produce, Raul
Cano, Co-Owner of Grande Produce Ltd. and Gilbert Ramirez, President
of A&G Produce who all share their experiences during this crisis with
the industry at large. 7/10/2008
Ed Beckman
President
California Tomato Farmers
Fresno, California
Reggie Brown
Executive Vice President
Florida Tomato Growers Exchange
Maitland, Florida
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, California, Florida, Beckman, Brown,
production, repacking, repacked, Growers Exchange
FDA’s Erroneous Statements Clarified By California And Florida Tomato
Leaders wished to investigate the relevance of some of the points
Dr. Acheson has been discussing and asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more. She turned to Ed
Beckman, President of the California Tomato Farmers and Reggie Brown,
Manager of the Florida Tomato Committee and Executive Vice President
of Florida Tomato Exchange & Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. 7/3/2008
Dr. Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Director
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
University of Minnesota
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, investigation, public health, Osterholm,
University of Minnesota , CDC, epidemiology
Dr. Michael Osterholm, Esteemed Authority On Public Health, Speaks
Frankly About The FDA, The CDC And The Incompetent Management of the
Salmonella Saintpaul Tomato Outbreak Investigation asked Mira
Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to help find
out an expert’s perspective on the tomato outbreak and ended up with
an interview that is probably the single most important piece we’ve
ever presented here at the Perishable Pundit — for, in the course of
this interview, an esteemed expert on public health speaks out because
he has observed in the way the FDA and CDC have handled the Salmonella
Saintpaul Tomato Outbreak an affront to the enhancement of public
health he has fought for his whole career. 6/24/2008
Albert Cantu
Sales
Divine Ripe
Hidalgo, Texas
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, Baja, Cantu, Divine, Hothouse
Habeas lycopersicum — Tomatoes Falsely ‘Imprisoned’ followed up on
a recent letter from Marco Jimenez, President of Divine Ripe, LLC and
a piece we entitled,
Mexican Tomato Grower Says Illinois Embargoed Its Product. Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott spoke with an
associate of Marco’s, Albert Cantu, who laments “Those that are most
aggressive get on the approved list. It appears to be political. If we
don’t fight, we don’t get anything.” 6/20/2008
Kevin Kane
Public Relations Manager
Subway Group
World Headquarters
Milford, Connecticut
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, Subway, franchises, restaurants, Kane
Subway Still Measuring Impact Of Tomato Losses in continuance of
our
exhaustive coverage of the Salmonella Saintpaul tomato outbreak,
we’ve asked that
Retail And Foodservice Buyers Share Their Experiences to learn how
the outbreak played out. Now we went to the largest foodservice chain
by number of units and asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor, to speak to Kevin Kane, Public Relations
Manager for Subway. 6/17/2008
Dr. Anuradha Prakash
Professor and Program Director
Food Science
Chapman University
Orange, California
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, irradiation, Prakash, Chapman, irradiated
Irradiation Holds Promise For Tomato Pathogen Reduction doubtless
the industry wants food safety, recognizes the enormous costs of
outbreaks and certainly values its customers. “Sensible” approaches
are sought whereby the benefits are at least in the league of being
proportionate to the costs. Several food safety experts contacted us
suggesting tomatoes as an ideal product for irradiating. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from Dr. Anuradha Prakash, Professor & Program Director of Food
Science at Chapman University. 6/17/2008
Reggie Brown
Manager
Florida Tomato Committee
Executive Vice President
Florida Tomato Exchange & Florida Tomato Growers Exchange
Maitland, Florida
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, Florida, counties, Brown, region
Florida Tomatoes Coming Back To Life comments that one can’t fully
appreciate the extent of this Salmonella/Tomato crisis without
realizing its impact in Florida. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Reggie Brown,
Manager of the
Florida Tomato Committee and Executive Vice President of the
Florida Tomato Exchange & Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. 6/17/2008
Allison Moore
Communications Director
Fresh Produce Association of the Americas
Nogales, Arizona
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, Baja, Moore, production, Mexican, Florida
FPAA Trying To Clear Baja wished to learn more about the current
status of efforts to get the FDA to extend newly producing areas in
Mexico the same status it extended to such areas in Florida. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from Allison Moore, Communications Director for the
Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Arizona. 6/12/2008
Ricardo Alday
Spokesperson
Mexican Embassy
Washington D.C.
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, Mexican, northern, Alday, Embassy, Baja,
California
FDA Leaves Mexico In The Dark reported that areas of Mexico
continue to be blocked from selling in the US, while all currently
producing US districts are cleared. We wanted to know how the
government of Mexico was dealing with this continuing “slight” against
its farmers. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to find out more from Ricardo Alday, spokesperson for the
Mexican Embassy, Washington D.C. 6/17/2008
Allison Moore
Communications Director
Fresh Produce Association of the Americas
Nogales, Arizona
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, Baja, Moore, production, Mexican, Florida
FPAA Trying To Clear Baja wished to learn more about the current
status of efforts to get the FDA to extend newly producing areas in
Mexico the same status it extended to such areas in Florida. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from Allison Moore, Communications Director for the
Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Arizona. 6/12/2008
Charles Beasley
Bureau Chief Division of Fruits and Vegetables
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Winter Haven, Florida
Barry Gaffney
Fruit and Vegetable Regional Administrator
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Winter Haven, Florida
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, outbreak, Florida, certificate, certificates, Department of
Agriculture, Beasley, Gaffney
Following FDA’s Demand For Certificates, Florida Sends Strong Force Of
Inspectors interested as to why wholesalers, repackers and
distributors around the country said that they were not able to get
the certificates required under the FDA’s new rule, we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to see how the
Florida certification process was going from Charles Beasley, Bureau
Chief of the Division of Fruits and Vegetables for the Florida
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Regional
Administrator Barry Gaffney. 6/12/2008
Mark Munger
Vice President of Marketing
Andrew & Williamson
San Diego, California
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, regions, Andrew & Williamson, Munger,
transparency, USDA, CDC
Andrew & Williamson Hit Hard By FDA’s Mexican Tomato Ban asked
Mira Slot, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to find
out more on how the aligned supply chain had fared under the
conditions of this outbreak and spoke to Mark Munger, Vice President
of Marketing Andrew & Williamson whose conversation with us shows that
we need a 21st century food safety attitude at FDA.
6/11/2008
Liz Compton
Spokesperson
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Tallahassee, Florida
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, media, press, Florida, safe, sick, Compton
Press Misses The Mark commented that the journalism surrounding
this Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak and tomatoes has been horrid,
exacerbated by the confusion from the FDA. Yesterday the buzz was that
the FDA was adding Florida to its “not implicated” list. Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott spoke to Liz
Compton, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services to clarify. 6/11/2008
Mike O’Brien
Schnuck Markets
St. Louis, Missouri
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, Schnuck, O’Brien, retailers, consumers,
Florida
Retail And Foodservice Buyers Share Their Experiences asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with an
industry leader in each segment to find out more about their
experiences during this tomato/salmonella outbreak. Here we publish
shared experience from Mike O’Brien of Schnuck Markets and Maurice
Totty, Director of Procurement
Foodbuy purchasing arm for the UK-based Compass Group. 6/10/2008
Deborah Busemeyer
spokesperson
New Mexico Department of Health
Santa Fe, New Mexico
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, New Mexico, Busemeyer, epidemiology,
department of health
New Mexico Health Department Takes Lead In Tomato/Salmonella Outbreak
Information excerpts a conversation between Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott and
New Mexico Department of Health spokesperson Deborah Busemeyer on
New Mexico’s efforts to help identify the source of the salmonella
outbreak and inform the public. 6/6/2008
Lola Russell
spokesperson
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
Atlanta, Georgia
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, Mexico, outbreak, illnesses, sick, Russell, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, CDC
CDC Stays Mum On Release Of Tomato/Salmonella Data emphasized that
there is something wrong with CDC trying to maintain a monopoly on
information in a situation such as this. We asked Mira Slott, Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to find out more from Lola
Russell, spokesperson for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
in Atlanta. 6/6/2008
Ed Beckman
President
California Tomato Farmers
Fresno, California
Trevor Suslow
Ph.D., Extension Research Specialist
Postharvest Quality and Safety
Department of Plant Sciences
University of California, Davis
TAGS: tomatoes, FDA, salmonella, food
safety, California, Mexico, outbreak, Beckman, Suslow
Salmonella And Tomatoes Linked In New Mexico reports the
tranquility of your weekend may have been disturbed by an e-mail from
PMA, United or both as they dispatched an announcement referencing an
Alert by the New Mexico Department of Health that an outbreak of
Salmonella was linked to tomatoes. We communicated with officials at
FDA and in New Mexico, but they had little additional information to
add. We also spoke with Ed Beckman, President of the California Tomato
Farmers with whom we also discussed tomatoes and food safety
here. Finally, we reached out to Dr. Trevor Suslow, Extension
Postharvest Specialist for the Department of Plant Science at UC Davis
for a scientific perception on the situation. Here is the conversation
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott had with Ed
Beckman and Dr. Suslow. 6/3/2008
Dr. Jeff Barach
Vice President and Center Director
Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)
Washington, D.C.
Member, Executive Committee
Creating Sustainable Outcomes for Agriculture
The Keystone Center
Keystone, Colorado
TAGS: Keystone, Barach, sustainable,
sustainability, initiative, social responsibility, GMA, standards
The Keystone Center’s Sustainability Initiative Provides Insights For
Produce discussed another approach being moderated in the industry
by The Keystone Center called Creating Sustainable Outcomes for
Agriculture. Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira
Slott spoke with Member of the Executive Committee, Dr. Jeff Barach,
who is also Vice President and Center Director of the Grocery
Manufacturers Association. He lays out a guideline for the produce
industry to get involved with this effort and warned of the
consequences if the industry does not. 5/30/2008
Ed Kelly
General Manager, Air Cargo
Transportation Security Administration
(TSA), Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C.
TAGS: plane, cargo, Kelly, TSA,
Transportation Security Administration, Homeland Security, screening,
security, inspection, Certified Cargo Screening Program, CCSP, CCSF
Passenger-Plane Cargo Soon To Be Inspected By The Individual Box
extends a hat tip to Nick Kukulan, President of Paramount Export
Company headquartered in Oakland, California. He brought to our
attention that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has
been charged by the US Congress with the implementation of strict new
rules regarding the inspection of cargo that is to be loaded on
passenger airlines. In order to understand precisely what these
regulations entail and the implications of these rules for the
industry, we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to find out more from Ed Kelly, General Manager of Air
Cargo at the Transportation Security Administration in the Department
of Homeland Security. 5/23/2008
Robert Evans
Consumer Analyst
Execution Ltd
London, England
Martin Dolan
Head of Equity Research
Execution Ltd.,
London, UK
TAGS: Fresh and easy, Tesco, research,
Evans, Dolan, report, Financial Times, Execution Ltd,
While Research Company Tries To Keep Details Under Wraps, Pundit
Subjects Report To In-Depth Analysis revealed new consumer
research on Fresh & Easy conducted by a company called “Execution
Research,” has piqued a lot of interest. Using terminology such as
“the new cult retailer” and giving out superlatives liberally —the
news report was filled with shocking revelations. Mira Slott, Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor, spoke to two people in
Execution’s London headquarters to learn more. 5/19/2008
Jeff Dlott
President and CEO
SureHarvest
Soquel, California
TAGS: sustainability, environmental,
program, California, water, sustainable, Dlott, SureHarvest, Social
Responsibility, organic
Sustainability Expert Provides Insights To A Similar Industry
offers an analysis of how best to incorporate sustainable principles
from another industry. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more about the California
Sustainable Winegrowing Program from Jeff Dlott, President and CEO of
SureHarvest in Soquel, California. 5/2/2008
M. Thomas Nadeau
Administrator, Division of Environmental Health
Guam Department of Public Health
Mangilao, Guam
TAGS: grower, product, recall, Honduras,
cantaloupe, import alert, FDA, outbreak, salmonella, testing, Guam,
Pay-Less, Health, Nadeau
Cantaloupe ‘Alert’ Reaches Guam; What’s An Island To Do? explains
that when there is a food safety issue such as the recent “import
alert”, it reverberates around the world. We received a note that in
distant Guam, the Department of Public Health & Social Services
learned that cantaloupes from Agropecuaria Montelibano had found their
way there and so issued a public health warning. In order to get close
to the consumer, we wanted to speak with a retailer. Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott did some digging
and found the largest retail chain on Guam and spoke with General
Manager Mike Benito, and Produce Category Manager Tom Rhodes, for
Pay-Less Supermarkets. It is interesting that even so far away, the
issues are so often the same: locally grown, food safety, private
label, health marketing, and even in Guam, maybe especially in Guam, a
boy and girl still fall in love and the guy winds up in the family
business building it for the next generation. It is a beautiful thing.
4/30/2008
Christine M. Humphrey, Esq.
Fuerst, Humphrey, Ittleman
Miami, Florida
Mitchell Fuerst, Esq.
Fuerst, Humphrey, Ittleman
Miami, Florida
TAGS: import, Humphrey, alerts, importer,
safety, recall, Fuerst, cantaloupe, FDA, grower
Fix Suggested For FDA’s Vigilante System Of Banning Product Through
Import Alerts reviewed a Law Review article entitled,
The Food and Drug Administration’s Import Alerts Appear to Be
“Misbranded”, which was published in 2003 in the Food and Drug Law
Journal, and written by Christine M. Humphrey. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to get an update
from Christine and discuss the applicability of the thesis to the
“import alert” associated with the cantaloupes from Honduras.
4/16/2008
Dr. Arlin Torbett
Ph.D., Founder/Chairman/CEO
AgriWorld Exchange
Menlo Park, California
TAGS: Torbett, AgriWorld, growers,
buyers, market, food, safety, supply, technology
AgriWorld Takes On More Customers noticed there recently has been
an avalanche of press releases announcing various company
relationships with an organization called AgriWorld Exchange, which
calls itself, the “Premier Online Agricultural Marketplace.” What is
this all about? Does it herald the return of the dot-coms? We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from Dr. Arlin Torbett, Ph.D., Founder, Chairman and CEO of
AgriWorld Exchange. 4/4/2008
Sebastian Cianci
spokesperson
FDA
Washington D.C.
TAGS: grower, product, recall, Honduras,
cantaloupe, import alert, FDA, outbreak, salmonella, testing, sample,
Cianci
Positive Test On Cantaloupes Causes More Confusion reports that
the FDA has a positive test result for salmonella on some cantaloupes
produced by Agropecuaria Montelibano. The results are from samples the
FDA had taken for testing at a border crossing on March 12. The
finding of salmonella is interesting because the serotype found was
Salmonella Freetown, which is different from the Salmonella Litchfield
strain that supposedly sickened 50 people. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more
from FDA spokesperson Sebastian Cianci. 4/1/2008
William (Bill) Goldfield
Communications Manager
Dole Food Company
Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
TAGS: grower, product, recall, Honduras,
cantaloupe, import alert, FDA, outbreak, Dole, media, Goldfield
Media Misinformation And Confusion Over Cantaloupe ‘Alert’
recounts Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott’s
conversation with William (Bill) Goldfield, Communications Manager for
Dole Food Company Fresh Fruit and Vegetables, as to why plenty of
consumer media outlets wound up reporting a Dole recall that was
actually done in 2007! 3/28/2008
Alicia Rockwell
Director of Communications
Save Mart
Modesto, California
TAGS: grower, product, recall, Honduras,
cantaloupe, import alert, FDA, outbreak, consumer, Rockwell, Save Mart
How Save Mart Was Affected By Cantaloupe ‘Alert’ shared Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott’s conversation
with Alicia Rockwell, Director of Communications at Save Mart in
Modesto, California, to get a sense of how retailers reacted to the
events surrounding the FDA “import alert”. 3/28/2008
Sebastian Cianci
Spokesperson
FDA
Washington, D.C.
TAGS: grower, product, recall, Honduras,
cantaloupe, import alert, FDA, outbreak, Cianci, testing, strain
FDA Responds To Cantaloupe ‘Alert’ Questions sought a better
understanding of what the FDA was doing with this “import alert” that
implicated cantaloupe produced by Agropecuaria Montelibano. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to show FDA
spokesperson Sebastian Cianci the statement issued by the grower and
elicit a reaction. 3/28/2008
Michael Warren
President
Central American Produce
Pompano Beach, Florida
TAGS: grower, product, recall, Honduras,
cantaloupe, import alert, FDA, Agropecuaria, Warren
Central American’s Warren Speaks Out About Cantaloupe ‘Alert’
inquired as to how Michael Warren, President of Central American
Produce, one of the long established and largest importing families
that has a relationship with Agropecuaria Montelibano, was holding up
under this difficult situation. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with him, and she
discovered that there is a certain arrogance in the way FDA operates
that has to be dealt with. 3/28/2008
Dr. Michael Doyle
Regents Professor of Food Microbiology, Director Center for Food
Safety
Dept. of Food Science & Technology
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
TAGS: cantaloupe, salmonella, outbreak,
food safety, contamination, science, University of Georgia, Doyle,
epidemiology
Science Behind Cantaloupe ‘Alert’ examined the science that
surrounds this “import alert” from a conversation between Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott and Dr. Michael
Doyle, Regents Professor of Food Microbiology at the Director Center
for Food Safety, at the University of Georgia. The Professor’s
explanation of the science is intriguing, but on the points specific
to this alert, they still leave many questions unanswered. 3/28/2008
George Manos
President
T.M. Kovacevich International
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TAGS: Kovacevich, Manos, melons, grower,
cantaloupe, Honduras, Salmonella, Philadelphia, recall
Why The Delay? … delved into the questions the FDA never answers
is why it is so slow at getting information out. These delays might
endanger people’s lives. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from George Manos,
President of T.M. Kovacevich International, which released its own
voluntary recall on March 25, and submitted its press release to the
FDA, who didn’t distribute it until March 27, 3/28/2008
Michael Simonetta
Chairman, PMA Australia-New Zealand Country Council
Chief Executive Officer
Perfection Fresh
Sydney, Australia
TAGS: food safety, Australia, New
Zealand, PMA, Country Council, retailers, consumers, Simonetta
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Perfection Fresh’s Michael Simonetta
recalls that when we ran our piece,
PMA Convenes First Country Council, we pointed out that Michael
Simonetta of Perfection Fresh in Australia had been named Chairman of
the PMA Australia-New Zealand Country Council. Our coverage prompted
David Marguleas, Senior Vice President at
Sun World to write us a note to say the PMA Country Councils
depend a great deal on motivated local leaders who believe in the
industry, believe in a tie with North America and believe in a tie
with PMA. What kind of leaders are these? What makes them tick? What
motivates them in their local industry and what do they relish about
the tie with PMA? We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to speak with Michael and find out. 3/14/2008
Scott Horsfall
CEO
California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement
Sacramento, California
Joe Pezzini
Chairman, California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement
Vice President of Operations
Ocean Mist Farms
Castroville, California
TAGS: hearing, senator, Florez,
California, food safety, leafy, greens, Horsfall, Pezzini, board
Grandstanding Senator To Grill Leafy Greens Board remembers it was
almost exactly a year ago when State Senator Dean Florez grilled
United’s Tom Stenzel at a hearing in California. Now we have word that
Senator Florez is once again holding a hearing. This time it seems he
has found two other industry leaders to be the targets of his abuse.
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott spoke with
both today: Scott Horsfall, CEO of the California Leafy Greens
Marketing Agreement and Joe Pezzini, Chairman of the LGMA and Vice
President of Operations at Ocean Mist Farms. We wish Scott and Joe
good luck and extend our condolences on having to waste their valuable
time with people seeking headlines rather than to improve food safety.
3/12/2008
Pat Davis
President
North American Perishable Agricultural Receivers
Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives
Food Marketing Institute (FMI)
Arlington, Virginia
Barry Bedwell
President
California Grape & Tree Fruit League
Fresno, California
Tom Oliveri
Director of Trade Practices and Commodity Services
Western Growers Association
Irvine, California
Matthew D’Arrigo
Owner
D’Arrigo Brothers
New York
Kathleen Nave
President
California Table Grape Commission
Fresno, California
TAGS: D’Arrigo, Nave, Davis, Bedwell,
Oliveri, WGA, Grape & Tree, FMI, Table Grape, grapes, shatter,
defects, grower, allowance, berries, retailers, USDA, standards,
consumer, North American Perishable Agricultural Receivers
Grape Shatter Issue Hits Wholesalers Hardest debates how growers
of table grapes point out that when grapes are marketed in bags or
clamshells, retailers get paid for the loose grapes, or shatter.
Therefore growers seek changes in shatter allowances for grapes sold
in bags or clamshells. Major retailers mostly seem unconcerned, the
wholesale sector, lacking the market power of supermarkets to set
standards independently, is in an uproar about these changes. We asked
Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to find
out more from this wide selection of trade representatives and
participants. 3/12/2008
Mike Dennis
Analyst
Piper Jaffray
London, UK
TAGS: Fresh and Easy, Tesco, Piper
Jaffray, performance, sales, Dennis, estimate
In London, Pessimism Spreads Over Fresh & Easy read this week in
London, Mike Dennis, an analyst with Piper Jaffray came out with a
report that grabbed much attention, claiming: “the 50 Fresh & Easy
stores opened so far are averaging sales of only $170,000 (£86,500) a
week.” We think Tesco executives would be doing a jig on the rooftop
of the California distribution center if they were doing $170,000 a
week per store. Since that number is so dramatically different from
what we have estimated, as well as what independent analysts have
found as we discussed in
Pundit Analysis Buttressed: Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Sales Only 25% Of
Plan, Says Willard Bishop Report, we wanted to find out more. So
we sent Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott for
an explanation of the discrepancy. 2/29/2008
Tim York
President
Markon Cooperative
Salinas, California
Terry Richardson
President
ProPacific Fresh
Durham, California
TAGS: Richardson, York, Amrkon,
ProPacific, food safety, chains, California, spinach, member,
cooperative, suppliers
Markon Looks To Produce Specialist ProPacific Fresh To Increase
Service shares the announcement that Markon Cooperative has added
ProPacific Fresh as Markon’s first California member and the first
produce specialist to join the cooperative. Because Tim York and
Markon have been so integral to the trade’s food safety efforts since
the spinach crisis, we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Tim York, President of Markon
Cooperative and Terry Richardson, President of ProPacific Fresh.
2/22/2008
Benjamin Eng
Chief Executive Officer
Giant South Asia, (Vietnam) Ltd., local arm of Dairy Farm
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
TAGS: Vietnam, Dairy Farm, Citimart, Eng,
Retail, supermarket, hypermarket, Asia
Vietnam Retailer Gives Glimpse Of Future Opportunities points out
that if one wants to fall behind in business, a good strategy is to
only pay attention to what one actually needs to know. So we have been
paying attention to Vietnam and, particularly to the efforts of Dairy
Farm International to set up an operation there. In light of both the
potential of the market and the connection between the US and Vietnam,
it seemed as if there would be pointed interest in what is going on in
our industry in Vietnam today. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more from Benjamin Eng,
Chief Executive Officer of Giant South Asia, (Vietnam) Ltd., the local
arm of Dairy Farm. 2/15/2008
Ray Habelman
Vice President
Habelman Brothers Company
Tomah, Wisconsin
TAGS: Ocean Spray, cranberry,
cranberries, Habelman, volume, fresh, co-op
Ocean Spray Loses Its Biggest Fresh Cranberry Shipper observes
that the cranberry industry has been anything but quiet; in fact, the
fresh cranberry business has experienced what can only be described as
an earthquake. Habelman Brothers Company, Ocean Spray’s largest fresh
cranberry grower, has left the co-op and is striking out on its own.
Losing almost half of its fresh supply, in one fell swoop, is
certainly no cause for rejoicing at Ocean Spray headquarters. What
exactly is going on? How will Habelman market its fresh volume? We
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
find out more from Ray Habelman, Vice President
Habelman Brothers Company. 2/12/2008
Catherine Francois
Senior Manager Food Safety
CIES-The Food Business Forum
Paris, France
TAGS: Wal-Mart, France, Paris, Francois,
Global Food Safety Initiative, CIES, food safety, GFSI, retailers,
suppliers, standards, audits, Tesco, GlobalGAP
Wal-Mart Uses New Food Safety Initiative As A Marketing Tool
assessed a statement Wal-Mart recently issued requiring all
perishables suppliers to be certified by Global Food Safety Initiative
(GFSI) standards. Since few people in the industry know very much
about CIES and less still about the Global Food Safety Initiative, we
thought we should help out by getting more information. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott to see
what we could learn from Catherine Francois, Senior Manager of Food
Safety at CIES-The Food Business Forum. Duplicative audits are
expensive and if we can really move to one world, one standard, it
will reduce costs for producers, retailers and consumers. Still, there
are a lot of unanswered questions. 2/8/2008
Auke Heins
Senior Project Manager
Holland Produce Promotion
Netherlands
TAGS: pilot, vending machine, school,
fruits, vegetables, program, Netherlands, Heins, Holland Produce,
consumption, logistics
Pilot Project On Vending-Machine Produce Shows Promise In New Channel
Of Sales pinpoints one area where produce is very weak is in
vending machines. The vending market in the United States is estimated
at in excess of $30 billion dollars a year. If the produce industry
could figure out a way to get the same share of market of food sales
in vending machines as it has in supermarkets, it would constitute a
very substantial market. This is big stuff and has interested big
players. Back in February of 2007, we ran a piece entitled,
Dole Introduces Unique Vending Machine Concept, now, Holland
Produce Promotion is involved in a similar project in the Netherlands.
We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott,
to find out more from Auke Heins, Senior Project Manager with Holland
Produce Promotion. 1/31/2008
Barbara Mainster
Executive Director
Redlands Christian Migrant Association
Immokalee, Florida
TAGS: tomato, immigrant, migrant,
housing, Florida, growers, farm, children, families, childcare,
penny-a-pound, Redlands Christian
Redlands Christian Migrant Association Is An Organization Worth
Replicating Nationwide after our article,
Florida Tomato Growers Reject Penny-A-Pound Initiative At The
Industry’s Peril, we heard from industry members about various
organizations that they felt reflected positively on the industry. One
is a charity that is supported by many of the growers, so we asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out
more from Barbara Mainster, Executive Director of the Redlands
Christian Migrant Association. It is terrific — and smart — for
Florida growers to support the organization. From a moral standpoint,
it is often difficult to make the world what we might like it to be,
but we can do what we can, and supporting groups such as the Redlands
Christian Migrant Association is a practical way to do the right
thing. 1/17/2008
Alberto Martinez
Top Line Specialty Produce
Los Angeles, California
TAGS: basil, grower, growers, broker,
border, Martinez, Top Line, FDA, recall, import, Primus
Importer Of Recalled Basil Sheds More Light On FDA Handling our
piece,
Fresh Basil Recall Brings Additional Concerns About FDA’s Safety
Procedures, brought attention from around the world. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to follow
up with Alberto Martinez of Top Line Specialty Produce to find out how
things have proceeded with the FDA since the recall. When you talk to
Alberto Martinez, you feel he is a victim, in fact, twice a victim. On
the one hand, he is a victim of the FDA. Stories such as Alberto tells
us make us question the readiness of the FDA to handle regulation of
these perishable products. We also see Alberto as a victim of his
customers. How is it possible that over a year after the spinach
outbreak of the fall of 2006, none of Alberto’s domestic customers
were demanding any certifications? And on herbs — an item identified
by the FDA as high risk. 1/16/2008
Randy Fields
CEO
Park City Group
Park City Utah
TAGS: category management, technology,
retailer, Fresh Market Manager, Fields, Park City Group, market,
supplier
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Park City Group’s Randy Fields
admits the world is filled with tools to help retailers and their
vendors operate more efficiently and effectively. A particular product
that is designed to help this process along is Fresh Market Manager.
This system is developed by a company headed up by none other than
Mrs. Debbi Fields’ — of Mrs. Fields cookie fame — husband, Randy
Fields. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira
Slott to find out more from Randy Fields, CEO of Park City Group.
1/11/2008
2007
Jeff See
Executive Director
OCIA International
Lincoln, Nebraska
TAGS: organic, China, Chinese, standards,
water, waste, inspectors, OCIA, See, Japan, certification, pollution
Too Many Concerns Still Exist Over Organic Certification In China
highlights an important issue that we’ve have dealt with this year:
food safety and China. A frequent question we receive from the buying
end of the industry has been for information on the quality of Chinese
organic certification. Many retailers tell us quietly that they have
stopped importing fresh produce from China. They are not overly
concerned about Chinese food safety, but the items — especially in
produce — that are imported are so minimal, they don’t view it as
worth any risk. We wanted to learn about organic certification in
China, so we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to talk with one of the U.S. firms handling organic
certification in China: OCIA International. Yet, the interview is
unlikely to reassure those with doubts about the true nature of
Chinese organics. 12/21/2007
Chris Boyles
Technical Director of Retail, Food Safety Division
Steritech Group
Charlotte, North Carolina
TAGS: retail, audits, Steritech, food
safety, auditing, temperature, training, cold chain, supermarket,
Boyles, WGA, Western Growers
A Closer Look At Retail Safety Audits reports that when
Western Growers Association issued an
announcement challenging the Food Safety Leadership Council and
its demands for different food safety standards, it also pointed out:
“the consortium has not provided the fresh produce industry with its
own set of good handling practices that demonstrate that consortium
members are properly handling fresh produce after receipt of produce
from fresh produce suppliers.” We were alerted to a third-party
company named Steritech that has been performing these temperature
audits and were obviously interested to learn more about their
program, so we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor,
Mira Slott, to speak with this company and learn more about what it
offers the trade from Chris Boyles, Technical Director of Retail in
the Food Safety Division of Steritech Group. 12/19/2007
Tanios Viviani
President Global Innovation and Emerging Markets and Chief Marketing
Officer
Chiquita Brands International
Salinas, California
TAGS: Viviani, Chiquita, Fresh Express,
innovation, salad, merchandising, consumer, technology, supply chain
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Chiquita’s Tanios Viviani reports
Chiquita has had a
tough year and has decided to reorganize. We’ve been talking to
Tanios Viviani, who was President of Chiquita’s subsidiary company,
Fresh Express, since the spinach crisis. He was the key man to decide
that Fresh Express
would not join the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement and
then the key man to decide that it
would. Tanios was also one of our Single Step Award winners. We
asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to
check back in with Tanios — both to learn more about changes in his
specific role as a result of the restructuring and to help the broader
industry wrestle with the business issue of how a company can
optimally organize to obtain its goals. 12/14/2007
Abraham Barno
Agricultural Attaché
Kenya High Commission
London, United Kingdom
Michael Mandu
Trade Officer
Kenya High Commission
London, United Kingdom
TAGS: food miles, Kenya, carbon,
emissions, air-freighted, Barno, Mandu, High Commission, soil
association
Misperceptions Of Food Miles Affect Countries Like Kenya Hardest
mentions we have written before about “Food Miles” and the notion that
air freight of fresh produce is a pernicious contributor to global
warming. There are two immediately obvious problems with both food
miles and the anti-airfreight movement: First, plucking out any
particular link in the supply chain is meaningless. Second, even if it
was established that air-freighted product resulted in higher carbon
output than locally grown product, that hardly seems determinative.
Developing countries depend on the export of agricultural products to
sustain people. Are they simply to be dispensed with to obtain some
hypothetical slowdown on global warming? We asked Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to see what we could learn
from the Kenya High Commission’s Agricultural Attaché Abraham Barno,
and Trade Officer Michael Mandu. 11/21/2007
Michael Batycki
Senior Business Manager, Fresh Produce
Woolworths
Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia
Luke Dunkerley
General Manager Marketing
Woolworths
Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia
TAGS: Australia, Woolworths, Kids,
commercials, campaign, consumption, Fresh Food Kids, ads, Dunkerley,
Batycki
Woolworths Supermarkets In Australia Promotes Kids’ Produce
Consumption reports that a series of TV commercials is running in
Australia promoting increased childhood consumption of fresh foods.
The commercials also reinforce the positioning of Australian
supermarket chain, Woolworths, who billed themselves as ‘The Fresh
Food People’. When we heard about the TV campaign, and its focus on
kids and fresh foods, we asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to see what else we could learn. Mira first
spoke with Michael Batycki, Senior Business Manager, Fresh Produce at
Woolworths. Michael was kind enough to introduce us to the key contact
on the Woolworths Fresh Foods Kids initiative, and Mira discussed the
program with him, Luke Dunkerley, General Manager Marketing at
Woolworths. 11/2/2007
Guy Witney
Director of Industry Affairs
California Avocado Commission
Irvine, California
Dave Kranz
Manager Media Services
California Farm Bureau Federation
Sacramento, California
Eric Larsen
Executive Director
San Diego County Farm Bureau
Escondido, California
Dan Legard
Director of Research
California Strawberry Commission
Watsonville, California
Michael Spinazzola
President
Diversified Restaurant Systems (DRS)
San Diego, California
TAGS: avocado, California, fire, damage,
crop, San Diego, growers, acres, strawberry, Spinazzola, Legard,
Larsen, Kranz, Witney
California Fires Hit Avocados Hardest; Lush Avocado Acreage A
Firebreak Spares County From Worse Damage comments that it is
always difficult to gauge the impact on the industry in the midst of a
natural disaster, so we’ve been standing by for more clarity. Then,
the Associated Press came out with a bizarre report exaggerating the
possible damage to the avocado crop. According to Guy Witney, Director
of Industry Affairs at the California Avocado Commission, the AP
report that 20,000 acres lost is not accurate. He says there are
24,000 acres total in the county, unimaginable that the loss was 80
percent of total. Likely 10 to 20 percent, perhaps 5,000 to maybe
8,000 acres are damaged on the high side. In order to gain some
clarity, we asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor, to speak with several individuals who could help provide
insight as to what the situation really is. 10/26/2007
Tim York
President
Markon Group
Salinas, California
TAGS: food safety, growers, buyers,
tomato, spinach, Markon, leafy, marketing, buyer-led, York, outbreak
Single Step Award Winner — Tim York of Markon shares this, the
final piece in our series of interviews with the winners of the
Perishable Pundit’s Single Step Award. We mentioned in our
announcement of the winners that the award was inspired by the
well-known quote from Lao-Tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles begins
with a single step.” The award applauds the efforts the winners have
made in beginning the trade’s effort to recover from the spinach
crisis of 2006. We asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, to speak with a man who took the weapon of “buyer
power” and made it a tool used in service of the trade’s efforts on
food safety: Tim York, President of Markon Group. 10/24/2007
Tanios Viviani
President
Fresh Express
Salinas, California
TAGS: food safety, California Leafy
Greens Marketing Agreement, spinach, Fresh Express, standards
Single Step Award Winner — Tanios Viviani Of Fresh Express details
how we have been running a series of interviews with the winners of
the Perishable Pundit’s Single Step Award. We mentioned in our
announcement of the winners that the award was inspired by the
well-known quote from Lao-Tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles begins
with a single step.” The award applauds the efforts the winners have
made in beginning the trade’s effort to recover from the spinach
crisis of 2006. We asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, to speak with a man who, though a relative newcomer
to the produce trade, held the decisive card in the prospects for a
successful roll-out of the California Marketing Agreement: Tanios
Viviani, President of Fresh Express. 10/19/2007
Bruce Taylor
Founder, Chairman, and CEO
Taylor Farms
Salinas, California
TAGS: Food Safety, foodservice, spinach,
retailers, farms, Salinas, Taylor,
Single Step Award Winner — Bruce Taylor Of Taylor Farms our
ongoing series of interviews with the winners of the Perishable
Pundit’s Single Step Award continues. As we mentioned in our
announcement of the award, the award was inspired by the
well-known quote from Lao-Tzu — “A journey of a thousand miles begins
with a single step” and it applauds the efforts the winners have made
in beginning the trade’s effort to recover from the spinach crisis of
2006. Today, Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor, spoke with a man who was born to the industry but has built
things his grandfather could scarcely imagine: Bruce Taylor, Founder,
Chairman, and CEO of Taylor Farms. 10/18/2007
Jim Nowlin
Assistant Director, Citrus Fruit and Vegetable Division
Arizona Department of Agriculture
Phoenix, Arizona
Shelly Tunis
Legal Consultant/Attorney representing
Yuma Fresh Vegetables Association
Yuma, Arizona
Matt McInerny
Executive Vice President
Western Growers Association
Irvine, California
AnnaMarie Knorr
Arizona Government Affairs Analyst
Western Growers Association
Irvine, California
Scott Horsfall
CEO
California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement
Sacramento, California
Joe Pezzini
Vice President Operations
Ocean Mist Farms
Chairman
California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement
Castroville, California
Eric Schwartz
President
Dole Fresh Vegetables
newly elected Committee member Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing
Agreement
Salinas, California
TAGS: Arizona, California, California
Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, standards, metrics, growers,
shippers, signatories
Arizona Marketing Agreement One Step Closer To National Leafy Green
Standard explains that before the California Leafy Greens
Agreement was even authorized, it was obvious that only the inclusion
of nearby Arizona would create the possibility of it being acceptable
to many consumer advocates. Now, the plan that Western Growers
Association has promoted, to start with a marketing agreement in
California, then add Arizona and then — as we discussed
here — expand to a national marketing agreement, is moving onto
the Arizona implementation stage. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to speak with a range of people
involved in development of what is officially entitled the Arizona
Leafy Greens Products Shippers Marketing Agreement Marketing
Committee. 10/18/2007
Eric Schwartz
President
Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc.
Salinas, California
TAGS: food safety, Dole, Schwartz,
spinach, California Marketing Agreement, leafy, greens,
Single Step Award Winner — Eric Schwartz Of Dole Vegetables
continues our ongoing series of interviews with winners of the
Perishable Pundit’s Single Step Award. The award was inspired by the
well-known quote from Lao-Tzu — “A journey of a thousand miles begins
with a single step.” — and recognizes the efforts the winners have
made in beginning the trade’s effort to recover from the spinach
crisis of 2006. Today, Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, spoke with a man for whom the spinach crisis was not
just an “industry” problem, Eric Schwartz, President of Dole Fresh
Vegetables. 10/12/2007
Jane Proctor
Director of Industry Technology and Standardization
CPMA
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Tom Stenzel
President
United Fresh Produce Association
Washington, D.C.
Bruce Peterson
President & CEO
Naturipe Farms LLC
Naples, Florida
Bryan Silbermann
President
Produce Marketing Association
Newark, Delaware
TAGS: PMA, CPMA, traceability,
technology, initiative, supply chain, standards, food safety,
marketing, Proctor, Silbermann, Peterson, Stenzel
PMA, CPMA And United Form Traceability Initiative the issue of
traceability has been a top priority for the industry ever since the
spinach crisis, when the urgency of food safety concerns was added to
the long term interest in traceability for supply chain management,
efficiencies, best practices, etc. Now, in a rare joint announcement,
Bryan Silbermann, President of PMA, will use the occasion of his
annual presentation to issue a major call to action on traceability.
In order to find out more about this important step we asked Mira
Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to talk with
some of the key players in bringing this about. 10/12/2007
Joe Pezzini
Chairman, California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Board
Vice President of Operations
Ocean Mist Farms
Castroville, California
TAGS: Standards, agreement, chairman,
marketing, leafy greens, food safety, Ocean Mist
Single Step Award Winner — Joe Pezzini of Ocean Mist Farms
continues our series of interviews with winners of the Perishable
Pundit’s Single Step Award. We were pleased to
announce the winners here of the Perishable Pundit’s Single Step
Award. It was inspired by the well-known quote from Lao-Tzu: “A
journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and
acknowledges the efforts the winners made in beginning the trade’s
effort to recover from the spinach crisis of 2006. Today, Mira Slott,
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, spoke with a man who,
by virtue of position, had an opportunity to become a leader on food
safety — and he seized that opportunity: Joe Pezzini, Vice President
of Operations at Ocean Mist Farms and Chairman of the California Leafy
Greens Marketing Agreement Board. 10/10/2007
Bob Keeney
Deputy Administrator for Fruit and Vegetable Programs
Agricultural Marketing Service
Washington D.C.
Jimmie Turner
Public Relations Specialist Fruit & Vegetable Programs
Agricultural Marketing Service
Washington D.C.
TAGS: marketing, order, agreement,
California, greens, leafy, food safety, growers, Keeney, Turner, AMS,
USDA
USDA Explores Possible National Marketing Order For Leafy Greens… But
Are We Ready? revisits how last July we ran a piece entitled,
Pundit’s Mailbag — National Marketing Orders And Agreements, in
which we discussed differences between marketing agreements and
marketing orders and the difference between both of these approaches
and mandatory regulation.
We reached out to USDA officials for additional
information. Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira
Slott spoke with Bob Keeney, Deputy Administrator for Fruit and
Vegetable Programs, Ag Marketing Service (AMS) to get some details.
10/5/2007
Dave Corsi
Vice President Produce
Wegmans Food Markets
Rochester, New York
TAGS: food safety, spinach, greens,
marketing, Wegmans, Corsi,
Single Step Award Winner — Dave Corsi Of Wegmans Food Markets
kicks off our interviews with the winners of the Pundit’s
“Single Step” Award, by asking Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to speak with our first honoree
(alphabetically): Dave Corsi, Vice President of Produce for Wegmans
Food Markets. Congratulations to Dave, and thank you for taking the
“single step” to help the industry get started on the road to a bright
future that includes the safest fresh produce possible. 10/5/2007
Pam Peri
Executive Vice President
Peri & Sons Farms
Yerington, Nevada
Tim Cummings
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Peri & Sons Farms
Yerington, Nevada
Russell Wedlake
General Manager and Safety and Training Officer
Silverado Ranch Supply
Yerington, Nevada
Ed Foster
Regional Manager, Plant Industry Division
Nevada Department of Agriculture
Sparks Nevada
TAGS: media, safety, workers, chemical,
fumigant, gas, chloropicrin, Peri, lettuce
Peri & Sons Talks To Pundit About Ag Chemical Incident laments how
one minute Peri & Sons Farms is celebrating its ability to grow 150
acres of different lettuces in Nevada’s Mason Valley. Next thing you
know, the company suddenly finds itself the focus of headlines: “Field
Gas Irritates 125 Farm Workers”. These were H2A guest workers and part
of a very large guest worker program at Peri & Sons. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to learn more and
find that the lessons for the broader industry are clear: the
importance of emergency planning and reminds us that we cannot expect
that others — rescue workers, the media, etc., — will have an
understanding of agriculture unless we make it our job to educate
them. There is little point in blaming the media. 10/4/2007
Eric Schwartz
President
Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc.
Salinas, California
TAGS: Dole, recall, CFIA, Canada, E.
coli, lettuce, leafy, salad, Schwartz
Dole’s Schwartz Sheds More Light On Recent Recall learned that
recently the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had identified E. coli
0157:H7 on “Dole Hearts Delight” salad mix. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to again speak
with Eric Schwartz, President of Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc., in order
to gain more perspective on the situation. We yearn for a “kill-step”
yet Eric Schwartz says irradiation is not ready and, even if it was,
it is problematic. We think we need to accelerate research in this
area. 9/21/2007
Eric Schwartz
President
Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc.
Salinas, California
TAGS: Dole, recall, California, Canada,
E. coli, lettuce, leafy, salad, Schwartz
Dole Hit With Another Recall remarks that just after we reminded
ourselves of the one-year mark since the Spinach Crisis began — noted
in
Spinach Crisis, One Year Later — we get a knot in the stomach and
a sense of déjà vu when we learned about a problem with a Dole brand
blend of romaine, green leaf and butter lettuces in Canada. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak
with Eric Schwartz, President of
Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. We spoke with Eric late in the evening
Monday night. That conversation followed a long line of events, which
we detail here. It is too early to say too much for certain, but we
have some initial observations. 9/18/2007
Dr. Mansour Samadpour
Founder, Principal
IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group
Lake Forest Park, Washington
TAGS: testing, food safety, Samadpour,
recalls, E. coli, salmonella, E. coli O157, spinach, IEH Laboratories
A Closer Look At Finished Product Testing thinks few issues are
more contentious… or more important to the industry than finished
product testing and we’ve received many responses lately in regards to
our recent coverage of this issue. Clearly any recalls because of
presumptive positives are a real problem for the industry. Yet many
food safety experts and companies known for stringent food safety
protocols are concerned about testing. To learn more about the
subject, we asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor to speak to a microbiologist and founder of a food safety
company who became well known to many in the produce trade when, in
the aftermath of the Fall 2006 spinach crisis, Natural Selection Foods
turned to him for assistance in revising its food safety program: Dr.
Mansour Samadpour, Founder and Principal with IEH Laboratories &
Consulting Group. 9/7/2007
Fremont Lawrence
Communications Manager
Windward Islands Banana Development and Exporting Company
Windward Islands
Dr. Marshall Hall
Chairman
Banana Export Company of Jamaica
Director
Jamaica Producers Group
Kingston, Jamaica
TAGS: banana, Jamaica, hurricane, Dean,
damage, Fairtrade, Hall, Banana Export Company of Jamaica, Caribbean,
Windward Islands
Hurricane Dean Wreaks Havoc On Banana-Producing Islands explains
we’ve typically discussed the Caribbean banana trade in reference to
Fairtrade — the movement to pay a “social premium” to growers in one
place. Sainsbury’s in the UK is 100% Fairtrade on bananas, and many of
those come from St. Lucia and Dominica, both hard hit by Hurricane
Dean. Now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Dean, there is homelessness
and human suffering, a banana industry producing a fraction of what it
once did, with an even more uncertain future. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to find out more
from Dr. Marshall Hall, Chairman of the Banana Export Company of
Jamaica and Director of the Jamaica Producers Group and Fremont
Lawrence, Communications Manager with the Windward Islands Banana
Development and Exporting Company. 8/31/2007
Bob Hana
CEO
Los Angeles Salad Company
City of Industry, California
John Shaughnessy
Quality Assurance and Food Safety Manager
Los Angeles Salad Company
City of Industry, California
TAGS: Shaughnessy, Hana, food safety,
recall, testing, audits, Los Angeles Salad Company
Lessons From Carrot Recall: Los Angeles Salad Company Execs Share
Their Experience our piece,
Costco Recalls Mexican Grown, U.S. Packed Baby Carrots From Canadian
Stores, was written as the Shigella outbreak was just being
reported. In the confusion, we incorrectly stated that the carrots
were grown in Mexico and packed in the U.S. In fact, they were both
grown and packed in Mexico. To understand what happened and to see if
there are broader industry lessons to be learned, we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more
from Bob Hana, CEO, and John Shaughnessy, Quality Assurance and Food
Safety Manager at Los Angeles Salad Company. Los Angeles Salad is a
serious company, with a serious food safety program. Although the
promise to increase testing and other efforts are valued, we see a few
other key points. 8/31/2007
Unnamed Spokesperson
FDA
Washington D.C.
TAGS: FDA, recall, Metz fresh, sick,
testing, salmonella,
FDA Official Reveals Agency’s Role In Food Safety Recall once word
of the Metz Fresh recall on spinach broke, press reaction was
predictable. One article quoted Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy
initiatives at the Consumers Union, as faulting the produce industry
for resisting mandatory government regulations. We are not sure who
Jean Halloran thinks is resisting mandatory regulation, since both
United and PMA have
endorsed mandatory regulation. However, since it is not here yet,
we thought it sensible to analyze the exact role the FDA actually
plays in this type of food safety issue. We asked Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to try and learn more. Our
source at the FDA asked to be identified simply as “spokesperson” in
accordance with FDA protocol. The bottom line is that now that United
and PMA have endorsed mandatory regulation, we better do something
about it because the FDA’s comments make it clear that the agency is
not prepared to preemptively protect the health of Americans.
8/31/2007
Greg Larsen
Spokesperson
Metz Fresh
King City, California
TAGS: recall, positive, spinach,
salmonella, test, Metz Fresh, testing, Larsen, bagged
Recall Of Metz Fresh Spinach Shows Lessons Still Not Learned
laments that just when it looked like the Salinas spinach season might
pass without incident, we
received notice of a problem: Metz Fresh announced a voluntary
recall of spinach after tests showed the presence of Salmonella. We
immediately asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira
Slott to learn more. Greg Larsen, a spokesperson for Metz Fresh was
working late into the night. When we first heard of the recall, we
thought we could point to it as a sign of progress. After all, the
industry is now catching these things itself, not waiting for sick
customers to speak from hospital beds. Yet now we are not so sure.
8/30/2007
Richard Waycott
President and CEO
Almond Board of California
Modesto, California
Mark Kastel
Senior Farm Policy Analyst
Cornucopia Institute
Cornucopia, Wisconsin
Will Fantle
Research Director
Cornucopia Institute
Cornucopia, Wisconsin
TAGS: almonds, California,
pasteurization, food safety, USDA, steam, Waycott, Kastel, Fantle,
Cornucopia, Board
Point/Counterpoint: Raw Foods Advocates Get Steamed About Pasteurized
Almonds our piece,
Pundit Pulse Of the Industry: California Almond Board, was run as
part of our series on how food safety is playing out beyond leafy
greens. It’s a case study in how an industry can use a marketing order
to impose mandatory food safety requirements — in this case the
imposition of mandatory pasteurization of almonds. Consumer awareness
of the plan has grown as the implementation date has approached,
leading “raw food” advocates to object it. An advocacy group, the
Cornucopia Institute, has been particularly outspoken. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak to Mark
Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst and Will Fantle, Research Director
with the Cornucopia Institute and Richard Waycott, President and CEO
of the Almond Board of California to help us better understand the
controversy. 8/23/2007
Dr. Ron Voss
Former Extension Vegetable Specialist and Manager, Specialty Crops
Research Program
University of California
Davis, California
TAGS: Chinese, China, garlic, food
safety, testing, organic, retailer, problems, Voss, UC Davis
Expert On Chinese Garlic Weighs In On Food Safety Issue reports
that as we got deeper into the controversy regarding produce from
China and, specifically, garlic from China, we were appreciative when
Jim Provost, of I Love Produce, suggested we could get some truly
independent insight into the issue by speaking with Dr. Ron Voss,
Extension Vegetable Specialist Emeritus and Manager of the Specialty
Crops Research Program at the University of California, Davis. Jim
describes Dr. Voss as the “leading garlic expert in the world,” having
worked both extensively with the California industry and producers
around the world, including China. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to see if Dr. Voss could help us
get to the bottom of the controversy over Chinese produce and garlic.
8/16/2007
Dr. Lorelei DiSogra, EdD, R.D.
Vice President, Nutrition and Health
United Fresh
Washington, D.C.
TAGS: program, school, kids, health,
nutrition, DiSogra, United, snack, fruits, vegetables
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — United’s Lorelei DiSogra
describes Lorelei DiSogra, VP of Nutrition and Health at United Fresh
as a woman with a mission: to carry the torch of good health through
increased produce consumption during the long marathon of building
support in the public health and education communities, the
journalistic, policy and regulatory communities and the legislature.
With the recent passage of a bill to expand the USDA Fruit and
Vegetable Snack Program to all 50 states on a pilot basis, her career
stands at a pinnacle and the dream she has nurtured for a generation
appears within reach. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with Lorelei at this crucial
moment in both her career and in the use of produce as part of a
public health initiative. 8/2/2007
Michael McCartney
Founder and Principal
QLM Consulting
Sausalito, California
TAGS: traceability, retailer, data,
standards, produce, safety, McCartney, QLM, FDA
Getting A Better Grasp On Traceability discusses how our piece,
Bruce Peterson Focuses On Traceability detailed this basic point:
that the produce industry is more likely to reduce the negative impact
of food safety problems by enhancing traceability than through any
other single measure. To find out how we might make this happen, we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to
speak with Michael McCartney Founder and Principal of QLM Consulting
so we could better understand the collaboration between Bruce and
Michael and so we could fill in the details about the challenges
ahead. 7/19/2007
Bob Keeney
Deputy Administrator for Fruit and Vegetable Programs
Agricultural Marketing Service
Washington D.C.
Jimmie Turner
Public Relations Specialist Fruit & Vegetable Programs
Agricultural Marketing Service
Washington D.C.
TAGS: marketing order, agreement,
California, greens, leafy, food safety, growers, Keeney, Turner, AMS,
USDA
Pundit’s Mailbag — National Marketing Orders And Agreements
reminds that our correspondent today has written to us before. Today,
however, Dan Cohen raises an important issue on which there has been
much confusion. What is the next food safety step for the industry
after the California Marketing Agreement? Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor Mira Slott spoke with Bob Keeney, Deputy
Administrator for Fruit and Vegetable Programs, for the USDA Ag
Marketing Service (AMS) as well as Jimmie Turner, Public Relations
Specialist Fruit & Vegetable Programs, for additional information.
7/18/2007
Mark Arney
CEO, Executive Director
National Watermelon Promotion Board
Orlando, FL
Leslie Coleman
Director of Communications
National Watermelon Promotion Board
Orlando, Florida
TAGS: Watermelon, marketing order, food
safety, consumers, Arney, Coleman, regulation, commodity
Watermelon Industry Creates Food Safety And Crisis Management
Guidelines covers how we’ve been running a project here at the
Pundit to learn what different commodity groups and geographical
sectors are doing to enhance food safety. Now we try something
different… we look at the watermelon industry, which, almost uniquely,
has a national association and a national marketing order. To learn
how this industry is addressing the issue of food safety, we asked
Pundit Investigator and special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to see
what we could learn from Mark Arney, CEO and Executive Director and
Leslie Coleman, Director of Communications at the National Watermelon
Promotion Board. 7/12/2007
Kaarin Goodburn
Secretary General
Chilled Food Association (CFA)
Kettering, UK
TAGS: food safety, Goodburn, chilled food
association, retailers, standards, audits, traceability, E. coli
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Chilled Food Association’s Kaarin
Goodburn comments how we here at the Pundit have scoured the world
looking to learn what we can about food safety from other countries.
Now we have asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira
Slott to speak with Kaarin Goodburn, Secretary General of the
U.K.-based Chilled Food Association, who offers some insight into the
UK’s built-in traceability, irradiation and organics. 7/4/2007
Richard Waycott
President and CEO
Almond Board of California
Modesto, California
TAGS: almonds, pasteurization, food
safety, California, Waycott, salmonella, kill step, spinach
Pundit Pulse Of The Industry: California Almond Board asks that,
with so much effort expended on California lettuce and leafy greens,
an obvious question has been what can various segments of the industry
do to get ahead of the game. We’ve run a project here at the Pundit to
look at what different commodity groups and geographical sectors are
doing to enhance food safety. Now we turn to almonds, a particularly
intriguing exploration because the Almond Board of California is using
a marketing order to impose mandatory regulation. We wanted to see
what was behind it and how it would work, so we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to see if she
could find out more from Richard Waycott, President and CEO of the
Almond Board of California. 6/22/2007
Bruce Axtman
President and CEO
The Perishables Group
Chicago, Illinois
TAGS: category, data, consumer,
retailers, management, Axtman, Perishables Group, byerly’s,
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: The Perishables Group’s Bruce Axtman
recalls that at the United Fresh show in Chicago, we were intrigued by
a panel moderated by Steve Lutz of the Perishables Group that was
focused on how consumers perceive organics sold in conventional
grocery stores. You can read the piece we wrote about the workshop
here. We thought it would be worthwhile to learn more about the
kind of work the Perishables Group is doing. It has long been a leader
in category management in the fresh foods arena, benefiting
significantly from an alliance with AC Nielsen. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to learn more from
Bruce Axtman President and CEO of The Perishables Group. 6/20/2007
Bruce Peterson
President
Peterson Insights and former Senior VP Perishables, Wal-Mart
Bentonville, Arkansas
TAGS: Traceability, Peterson, spinach,
food safety, marketing, growers, foodservice, retailer, E. coli,
Peterson Insights
Bruce Peterson Focuses On Traceability when the press release
arrived advising that Bruce Peterson had entered into a collaboration
with Michael McCartney, Principal of QLM Consulting, to promote a
traceback effort for the produce industry, we wanted to find out more.
We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott,
to speak with Bruce. What is nice about this interview is to learn
that Bruce, after having left Wal-Mart, still continues to focus on
industry-wide initiatives. 6/8/2007
Robin Abodeely
School Nurse
Dr. Norman W. Crisp Elementary School
Nashua, New Hampshire
TAGS: school, kids, produce, children,
nutrition, healthy, Abodeely
School Nutrition Success Cries For Research our piece,
Getting Kids To Choose Healthy Snacks, detailed the interaction of
two generations of the Hunt family with issues surrounding getting
children to eat fresh produce. It also brought a note from Dave Parker
of Fruit Patch Sales, LLC, who described meeting an award winner at
the Produce For Better Health meeting and who he thought had a story
worth hearing about her work in helping children make healthy food
choices. Well, a recommendation from Dave Parker is good enough for
this Pundit. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to give Robin Abodeely, School Nurse at Dr. Norman W. Crisp
Elementary School, a call so we could catch up on this program.
6/6/2007
John Baillie
President
Jack T. Baillie Co., Baillie Family Farms and Tri-County Packing
Salinas, California
TAGS: spraying, Monterey, pesticide,
Baillie, farmland, drift, California
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Jack T. Baillie’s John Baillie
mentions that we first ran
Pesticide Spraying Gets More Attention and that was followed by
Pundit’s Mailbag — Green Acres Is The Place To Be?!? These pieces
were both focused on pesticides, not so much as an issue on produce
but an issue related to the movement of people to rural areas and the
intersections between people and farms. After we ran those pieces,
John Baillie called to let us know how California had been wrestling
with these issues. We’ve spoken to John numerous times before,
including
this piece that focused on food safety and, in the midst of the
spinach crisis, a poignant piece we called
In Defense Of Salinas. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with John about pesticide drift
and the issue of residential encroachment on farmland. 6/5/2007
Stacia Levenfeld
Spokesperson
Albertson’s LLC
Boise, Idaho
David Baldwin
Vice President Sales & Marketing
PakSense
Boise, Idaho
TAGS: PakSense, temperature, technology,
monitoring, Albertson’s, food safety, label, Levenfeld, Baldwin
Albertson’s LLC Experiments With New Temperature Monitoring Technology
received a release pointing out that Albertsons LLC is still out there
and doing some interesting things, including requiring temperature
monitoring devices on all inbound produce to its distribution centers,
with the preferred monitor being PakSense TXi™ Smart Labels by
PakSense, Inc. To learn about this program, we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with both
Stacia Levenfeld, a spokesperson for Albertson’s LLC, and David
Baldwin, Vice President Sales & Marketing for PakSense, the creator
and marketer of the device. 5/25/2007
Mark Degner
President and CEO
FreshLook Marketing Group
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
June Fenzel
Vice President of Product Management
IRI
Chicago, Illinois
TAGS: retailers, category management,
perishables, data, consumers, marketing, IRI, Freshlook, Degner
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: FreshLook’s Mark Degner And IRI’s June
Fenzel in our piece
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Willard Bishop Consulting’s Bill
Bishop, Bill Bishop described IRI and FreshLook Marketing Group as
doing some interesting things with category management, including
perishables. A little competition amongst these players is good for
the soul, so if IRI and FreshLook Marketing Group are becoming more
active, we wanted to see what they had to say to the industry. We
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to
speak with Mark Degner, President and CEO of FreshLook Marketing Group
and June Fenzel, Vice President of Product Management with IRI so we
could understand better what they are attempting to do in the
perishables arena. 5/24/2007
Thom Blischok
President, Retail Solutions North America & Strategic Consulting
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI)
Atlanta, Georgia
TAGS: Category management, retailers,
vendors, IRI, segmentation, localization, organic, merchandising,
consumer, A&P, Blischok, Retail Solutions North America
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Information Resources’ Thom Blischok
our piece
Willard Bishop Consulting’s Bill Bishop included this quote from
Bill Bishop: “…for some period of time AC Nielsen was out in front by
itself in category management including perishables. Now, there is a
strong initiative on the part of IRI to win a piece of that business.”
We wanted to learn more about IRI’s interest in this field and
thoughts on category management and retailing, so we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with Thom
Blischok, President of Retail Solutions North America & Strategic
Consulting, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), to find out more. Thom
certainly has his arms around many of the hot buttons in retailing
today. We take a few points to be especially valuable. 5/23/2007
Bill Bishop
Founder and Former President now Chairman
Willard Bishop Consulting
Barrington, Illinois
TAGS: category management, Willard
Bishop, retailers, producers, software, sustainability, Bishop
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Willard Bishop Consulting’s Bill
Bishop heard that earlier this year Willard Bishop, well known as
a food industry consultancy,
announced a management transition in which Bill Bishop was giving
up day-to-day managerial tasks to focus on providing strategic
guidance and thought leadership for the firm’s clients and the
industry at large. Bill Bishop has really been an institution in the
industry, and we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor, Mira Slott, to find out more from Bill himself, the Founder
and Former President now Chairman of Willard Bishop Consulting. Bill
is always intriguing and from this brief interview we take five key
points. 5/22/2007
Rob Robson
CEO
OneHarvest
Carole Park, QLD, Australia
Felicity Robson
Corporate Marketing Manager
Carole Park, QLD, Australia
Paul Jackson
Site Technical Manager
Carole Park, QLD, Australia
David Rigby
Microbiologist
Carole Park, QLD, Australia
Charlene Binder
Site Technical Manager
Carole Park, QLD, Australia
TAGS: food safety, standards, testing,
Australia, retailers, growers, Woolworths, E. coli, OneHarvest,
Robson, Jackson, Rigby, Binder
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — OneHarvest’s Rob Robson And His Food
Safety Team remarks how as an industry, we need to be relentless
in our search for solutions. Most food safety experts believe the
answer to food safety concerns is more likely to be found in a limited
number of processing plants than in thousands of farms all across the
world. So today, we travel ‘down under’ to speak to the largest
fresh-cut processor in Australia, OneHarvest. With OneHarvest dealing
with customers as stringent on food safety as Woolworth’s every day,
we asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
see what we could learn from OneHarvest’s CEO, Rob Robson, who
gathered some of the key people on his food safety team for a round
table discussion on food safety. 5/11/2007
David Murdock
Chairman and CEO
Dole Food Company
Westlake Village, California
TAGS: Dole, research, North Carolina,
fresh-cut, salad, Dole Nutrition Institute, E. coli, University of
North Carolina, Duke University, Murdock
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Dole Food Company’s David Murdock
reports that last month Dole launched its $54 million East Coast
processing and distribution facility in Bessemer City, North Carolina.
But another major development close by and close to Chairman and CEO
David Murdock’s heart is also underway. It is the Dole Nutrition
Institute at the North Carolina Research Campus, a life sciences hub
in Kannapolis, North Carolina. At the salad packaging plant opening,
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott had the
opportunity to sit down with David Murdock to learn more about his
vision for The Dole Nutrition Institute, and especially its associated
research laboratory. 5/10/2007
Robert Guenther
Senior VP Public Policy
United Fresh Produce Association
Washington, D.C.
Dave Gombas, PhD
VP Scientific & Technical Affairs
United Fresh Produce Association
Washington, D.C.
Benjamin Blount, PhD
Chief, VOC and Perchlorate Laboratory
National Center for Environmental Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Washington, D.C.
Charles Sanchez
Director and Professor of Soil
Water and Environmental Sciences
University of Arizona Yuma Ag Extension Service
Yuma, Arizona
TAGS: perchlorate, iodine, water,
thyroid, women, health, exposure, Boxer, Feinstein, bill,
contamination, E. coli Guenther, Gombas, Blount, Sanchez, University
of Arizona CDC, United
Perchlorate Issue Is Percolating writes that in January of this
year, U.S. Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer introduced two
bills that aim to set standards for perchlorate, a chemical used
widely in a variety of industrial processes and found in water
supplies nationwide. The first bill requires EPA to establish a health
advisory and a standard for perchlorate contamination in drinking
water supplies by the end of the year. The second bill requires
drinking water to be tested for perchlorate and mandates public notice
if the chemical is found. We sent Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott out to get an update from several key
industry figures and learn more about how this issue impacts the
produce industry. 5/4/2007
Jo McDonald
Technical Services Manager
British Retail Consortium
London, UK
TAGS: standards, McDonald, retailers,
food safety, British, spinach, E. coli, British Retail Consortium
Would British Retail Consortium Standards Have Prevented The Spinach
Crisis? highlights the British Retail Consortium, a rough
equivalent to the Food Marketing Institute in the U.S., has a well
known post-harvest food safety protocol that has been adopted by all
major British retailers and by many retailers around the world. How
did this come about? Why have retailers been so aggressive in the
United Kingdom and so hesitant to act in the United States? Most were
not even willing to restrict their supply chains to signatories of the
California Marketing Agreement. To find out more we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with Jo
McDonald at the British Retail Consortium. 4/13/2007
Craig Delaney
Executive Vice President-Chief Financial Officer
Ready Pac Foods
Irwindale, California
TAGS: Bayside, Univeg, capital,
investment, Ready Pac, letter of intent, LOI, Delaney
Ready Pac/Bayside Deal Leaves One Wondering What Happened To Univeg
describes how one of the wackiest deals in the produce industry keeps
getting wackier. After months of negotiations, Univeg announced at
Fruit Logistica in Berlin that it had signed a letter of intent to buy
Ready Pac, an event we analyzed
here. Typically these types of announcements are made jointly, but
Ready Pac was stone silent for weeks. We actually sat on the story for
a week until we could find someone from Ready Pac to confirm the
letter of intent existed. Now Ready Pac issues a statement without
mentioning the Letter of Intent or Univeg and says it has received an
investment from a private equity firm named Bayside Capital. We wanted
to find out more, so we asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor, to get clarification from Craig Delaney,
Executive Vice President-Chief Financial Officer at Ready Pac Foods.
4/12/2007
Ed Beckman
President
California Tomato Farmers
Fresno, California
TAGS: food safety, California, standards,
tomato, farmers, regulation, growers, buyers, marketing, Beckman,
California Tomato Farmers
Moving Food Safety On To Other Commodities: California Tomato Farmers
Raise The Bar discusses how since the California Leafy Greens
Marketing Agreement has taken effect, there is a danger the industry
will relax on food safety. Even if the Marketing Agreement is
successful at solving the problem for leafy greens, it still covers
just one state’s commodity group. Tomatoes have long been an area of
regulatory concern with food safety and one of the more proactive
groups has been the tomato industry. Recently a group comprised of the
largest California tomato growers announced the establishment of a
group called California Tomato Farmers. To learn more, we asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to interview Ed
Beckman, President of California Tomato Farmers, an industry veteran
who goes back decades with the tomato industry and who is serving as
President of this new initiative. 4/4/2007
Dr. Laurence Swan
Managing Director for R&D
Fyffes
Dublin, Ireland
TAGS: program, children, vegetables,
fruit, schools, Ireland, consumption, government, Food Dudes, Swan,
Fyffes
Pundit Pulse Of The Industry: Fyffes’ Dr. Laurence Swan reports
the Produce for Better Health Foundation has
launched its Fruits & Veggies — More Matters campaign with a
special focus on mothers and that the PMA has
dedicated $500,000 in support. The PBH and PMA efforts are
important, but they are just pieces of the puzzle and, as an industry,
we need to be searching for other efforts that might make a
difference. One of the most interesting of these programs is called
Food Dudes and it has been so successful in pilot projects that the
government of Ireland has elected to roll it out nationally. We asked
Pundit investigative reporter and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott
to interview an influential player on the supply side: Dr. Laurence
Swan, Managing Director for R&D at Fyffes, and
advocate in bringing the Food Dudes program to fruition in
Ireland. 3/22/2007
Terrance Powell
Director
Los Angeles County Department of Environmental Health
TAGS: food safety, retail, market,
wholesale, water, inspection, 7th Street Market, Powell,
Los Angeles County
Lessons From Los Angeles: Food Safety And Security Are Everyone’s
Problem explains that ever since an NBC affiliate in Los Angeles
produced a segment on the horrible conditions at LA’s 7th
Street Market, we’ve carefully monitored the story and tried to learn
more. There is a tremendous temptation to dismiss a story like this if
your company is not directly involved. That would be a mistake. To use
the horror story of the 7th Street Market as an
instructional aid for the whole industry, we asked Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to speak with the governmental
official in LA responsible for public health, Terrance Powell,
Director for the Los Angeles County Department of Environmental
Health. 3/20/2007
Fergus Lowe
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, co-founder of the Food Dude Programme
University of Wales
Bangor, UK
Michael Maloney
Director of Horticulture and Quality
Board Bia (The Irish Food Board)
Dublin, Ireland
TAGS: program, children, vegetables,
fruit, schools, Ireland, consumption, Food Dudes, Lowe, University of
Wales, Maloney, Board Bia
Food Dudes Beat Junk Punks And Kids Eat More Produce an
interesting and important program is now rolling out in every school
in Ireland with the goal of increasing produce consumption in
children. The program is called Food Dudes and it is not your
conventional promotional program. In fact, the Irish government
decided to stop a three-year pilot that the Irish produce industry was
contributing to — mid-way — and roll it out nationally because the
research was so convincing that this program was working. We asked
Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor to learn
more about this exciting program from Fergus Lowe, Deputy
Vice-Chancellor at the University of Wales, Bangor, and co-founder of
the Food Dudes Programme, and Michael Maloney, Director of
Horticulture and Quality at Board Bia (The Irish Food Board), who took
the lead in building the program at primary schools across the
country. 3/7/2007
Lee Frankel
President
Fresh Produce Association of the Americas
Nogales, Arizona
TAGS: CDFA, California, Mexican,
inspection, avocados, border, USDA-APHIS, shipment, Frankel, Fresh
Produce Association
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Fresh Produce Association Of The
Americas’ Lee Frankel finds the Fresh Produce Association of the
Americas is pretty riled up over the attitude of the California
Department of Food and Agriculture toward many Mexican produce items,
releasing a statement titled: “California Ag Agency Causing Trade
Disruptions”, citing inspection errors and inconsistencies at border
stations. What is really going on? Is this protectionism or is this
bureaucratic ineptitude? We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to learn more from Lee Frankel, President
of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. 3/2/2007
Kix McGinnis Nystrom
Vice President of Kitchen Operations
The Cheesecake Factory Restaurants
Calabasas Hills, California
Jack McShane
CEO, Founder
Everclean Services
Atoura, California
TAGS: food safety, training, restaurant,
compensation, chain, audit, Nystrom, Cheesecake Factory, McShane,
Everclean
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Cheesecake Factory’s Kix McGinnis
Nystron Everclean Services’ Jack McShane writes that today we are
pleased to continue our series on procedures at foodservice operators
with a different perspective. Food safety discussions in the industry
have tended to stop in the processing plant. Yet food safety
challenges continue right up to when the product is consumed. So we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
speak with Kix McGinnis Nystrom, whose position at the Cheesecake
Factory is not Buyer or Quality Assurance but Vice President of
Kitchen Operations. Mira also spoke with Jack McShane, CEO and Founder
of Everclean Services, which acts as an independent auditor and
trainer for The Cheesecake Factory. 2/28/2007
Marty Ordman
Vice President Marketing and Communications
Dole Food Company
Westlake Village, California
Chip Goodman
Chief Executive Officer
School Link Technologies (SL-Tech)
Santa Monica, California
TAGS: school, vending, Dole, kids,
children, fruit, technology, consumption, Ordman, Goodman, School Link
Technologies, SL-Tech
Dole Introduces Unique Vending Machine Concept finds that many
times we assume that to increase consumption of fresh produce the key
is marketing, but substantive improvements in a product also can help
build demand. Produce industry people often don’t think this way
because they perceive “new products” as “new varieties” and out of
their control, but the product that the consumer buys is surrounded by
services, and an improvement in those services can be as important and
as substantive an improvement in the consumer offer as a new fruit or
vegetable. So we were excited when Dole announced a pilot program to
make healthy food more accessible to children with a unique vending
machine concept. To learn more about the program, Pundit Investigator
and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott spoke with several key players:
Marty Ordman, VP of Marketing and Communications for Dole Food Company
and Chip Goodman, CEO for School Link Technologies. 2/21/2007
Eric Schwartz
President
Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc.
Salinas, California
TAGS: Dole, plant, salad, testing,
bagged, food safety, E. coli, Leafy Green Marketing Agreement,
Schwartz
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Dole Vegetables’ Eric Schwartz in
this time when everyone keeps saying that bagged salad demand is
depressed, Dole sent an
announcement that it is expanding, announcing the opening of a new
bagged salad plant in North Carolina. To learn more about the plant
and where it fits into the larger role Dole plays in the industry —
especially Dole’s food safety program, in light of its announcement
that it had signed the
California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement for spinach, lettuce
and other leafy greens — we asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor Mira Slott to learn more from Eric Schwartz, President
of Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. in Salinas, California. 2/9/2007
Dale Hollingsworth
Corporate Produce Buyer
Costco
Issaquah, Washington
TAGS: spinach, Costco, testing, vendors,
food safety, cold storage, Hollingsworth
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Costco’s Dale Hollingsworth our
piece
Consumer Studies On Spinach Reviewed… And Costco’s Proactive Approach
included a reference to a USA Today article in which Costco publicized
its insistence that suppliers product test spinach. To better
understand Costco’s product testing regimen, we asked Mira Slott,
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to find out more from
Dale Hollingsworth, Corporate Produce Buyer for Costco. Dale
identifies one of the key problems as space to store all of this
product while it is being tested, one wonders, though, if a good
logistics approach couldn’t significantly ameliorate the problem.
2/8/2007
Joanne Torres
Sales & Marketing Vice President
Pacifica Farms
Los Angeles, California
TAGS: fresh, flowers, freeze, perishable,
California, production, floral, Valentine’s Torres, Pacifica
Pundit’s Mailbag — Fresh Flowers And The Freeze reports we’ve been
getting some requests for information on how the freeze may affect
fresh flowers in California. The Pundit is pleased to report that
Valentine’s Day will arrive on schedule. To get the lowdown, we asked
Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to speak
to the people at the California Cut Flower Commission. 2/2/2007
Mark Newton
Managing Director
Florette UK
Staffordshire, UK
TAGS: food safety, watercress, standards,
market, standards, testing, salmonella, Newton, Florette
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Florette UK’s Mark Newton ran a
piece once we learned American-grown watercress, marketed under
the Florette brand, had been recalled in Ireland due to suspected
Salmonella. It is our policy to not leave things hanging too long, so
we spoke to the folks who market under the Florette label to gain more
insight into what happened and get a little background on their
operation. Food safety is a sensitive topic, so much credit is due to
the people at Florette for being willing to speak forthrightly. In
doing so, they show themselves to be good corporate citizens willing
to help the whole industry advance in this crucial area. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to obtain
some additional information from Mark Newton, Managing Director of
Florette UK. 2/2/2007
Reggie Brown
Manager
Florida Tomato Committee
Executive Vice President
Florida Tomato Exchange & Florida Tomato Growers Exchange
Maitland, Florida
TAGS: food safety, regional, tomato,
Florida, research, marketing, order, research, Brown, Tomato Exchange
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Florida Tomato Committee’s Reggie
Brown explains that the Florida Tomato Committee lost its battle
to restrict sales of UglyRipe Brand tomatoes, but a more important
long-term battle is to assure trade buyers and consumers safe product
and, on that score, the industry is working hard to succeed. This
interview, conducted by Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor Mira Slott, is part of a continuing series highlighting food
safety efforts made by regional groups such as the New Jersey
Department of Agriculture and commodity-specific groups such as the
California Strawberry Commission. Today we hear from Reggie Brown,
Manager of the Florida Tomato Committee and Executive Vice President
of the Florida Tomato Exchange & Florida Tomato Growers Exchange.
1/23/2007
Joe Procacci
CEO
Procacci Brothers
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TAGS: Procacci, tomato, UglyRipe,
marketing, shape, Florida, Identity Preservation Program
UglyRipe Tomatoes Now Available Year-Round the Pundit has been
writing about the saga regarding the UglyRipe brand tomato for over
two years now. Now comes word that the UglyRipe is to be available
year round. A new USDA rule amends the Florida Tomato Marketing Order
to exempt the UglyRipe from the shape portion of the USDA grade
standards as long as the UglyRipe is grown, packed, and distributed
under USDA’s Identity Preservation Program (IPP). The IPP uses the
unique genetic fingerprint of a produce variety to assure that it is
in fact the product claimed by its grower. The industry owes a big
debt to Joe Procacci, not only for developing a tomato that addresses
consumer complaints about tasteless fruit but for having the
intestinal fortitude to stand up to a mostly very status quo-oriented
industry. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor
Mira Slott to speak with Joe Procacci about the IPP. 1/23/2007
James “Bo” Reagan, Ph.D.
Chairman
Beef Industry Food Safety Council (BIFSCO)
Centennial, Colorado
TAGS: E. coli, beef, food safety, BIFSCO,
processing, produce, research, Reagan
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Beef Industry Food Safety Council’s
James “Bo” Reagan points out the
Buyer-led Food Safety Initiative is endorsed by a substantial
number of important buying organizations and is driving a great deal
of food safety activity across the produce trade. Recently, it
identified an organization outside the produce industry that was doing
what it wanted to see done in produce. Yet most in the produce
industry know little if anything about BIFSCO. What is it? How did it
come about? How does it help the beef industry? To learn more, we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
find out what we could about the organization and its relevancy to
enhancing food safety in the produce industry from James “Bo” Reagan,
Ph.D., Chairman of the Beef Industry Food Safety Council. 1/22/2007
Carolyn O’Donnell
Issues and Food Safety Manager
California Strawberry Commission
Watsonville, California
Bob Blakely
Director of Grower Services
California Citrus Mutual
Exeter, California
Claire Smith
Director of Corporate Communications
Sunkist Growers
Sherman Oaks, California
Bob Martin
General Manager
Rio Farms
King City, California
TAGS: fruit, freeze, crop, California,
damage, citrus, Sunkist, O’Donnell, Blakely, Smith, Martin, Rio Farms,
California Citrus, California Strawberry Commission
Freeze Report explains the freeze is bad news for many in the
produce industry and we’ll be analyzing it as the situation clarifies.
The key with freezes is that you can lose some crop and as long as you
still have a significant amount to sell, the crop losses can be
ameliorated with higher prices. This assumes of course that no foreign
producer is ready to zoom in and prevent tremendous price increases.
We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott
to gather some information as to the extent of the damage from Carolyn
O’Donnell, Issues and Food Safety Manager with the California
Strawberry Commission; Bob Blakely, Director of Grower Services at
California Citrus Mutual; Claire Smith, Director of Corporate
Communications at Sunkist Growers and Bob Martin, General Manager of
Rio Farms 1/17/2007
Mark Murai
President
California Strawberry Commission
Watsonville, California
TAGS: food safety, California,
strawberry, commission, irradiated, outbreaks, Murai
California Strawberry Industry Moves To Make Food Safe the
California Strawberry Commission was already running hard on food
safety, and created a new Issues and Food Safety Committee to build on
its pre-existing Food Safety Program. We asked Pundit Investigator and
Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to find out more from Mark Murai,
President of the California Strawberry Commission. Efforts such as
theirs will make food safer. Many in the industry think the world
really won’t find any outbreaks acceptable and so they endorse “kill
steps,” such as irradiation. 1/12/2007
Charity Schneider
Account Manager
Tosca Ltd
Green Bay, Wisconsin
TAGS: spinach, curly, leaf, consumers,
savoy, baby leaf, FDA, Schneider, Tosca
Making The Case For Curly Spinach admits the Pundit has never
understood why the FDA included curly leaf, or savoy, spinach in its
recommendation not to consume when it is a distinctly different
product than the baby leaf bagged spinach that was implicated. Clearly
others also think it is important to develop an independent identity
for this product as there is a new consortium that has come out with a
new website for consumers:
www.curlyleafspinach.com. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to learn more from Charity Schneider,
Account Manager with Tosca Ltd. In an act of enlightened
self-interest, Tosca, which supplies “industry-specific, returnable
containers,” recognized it could help its customers and itself at the
same time. 1/10/2007
Al Murray
Director of the Division of Marketing and Development.
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture
Trenton, New Jersey
TAGS: food safety, spinach, standards,
growers, Produce Safety Task Force, New Jersey, Murray, Department of
Agriculture
Pundit Pulse — New Jersey Dept of Ag’s Al Murray exemplifies New
Jersey as one of the most proactive states for food safety
initiatives. Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira
Slott, found that the New Jersey Department of Agriculture and the New
Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services announced formation of
a Produce Safety Task Force “to protect New Jersey consumers and help
local producers adapt to anticipated new produce-safety standards in
the wake of several recent outbreaks of food-borne illness.” One
central aspect is how food safety standards could be linked to use of
the Jersey Fresh marketing campaign. Al Murray, NJDA Director of the
Division of Marketing and Development said: “One of the things we feel
is that while new standards and protocols may be coming down from the
federal government, locally grown has been a huge byproduct of what
happened with recent outbreak events. We see linking food safety to
Jersey Fresh marketing as an opportunity for our growers. We want to
help shape policy.” 1/10/2007
Rick Johnson
Senior Vice President of Supply Systems
Ruby Tuesday
Maryville, Tennessee
TAGS: food safety, suppliers, outbreaks,
spinach, E. coli, Johnson, Ruby Tuesday
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry — Ruby Tuesday’s Rick Johnson
writes that as part of our effort to better understand food safety
procedures at foodservice operators we’ve run a series of Pundit
Pulses. Now Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor, interviews Rick Johnson, Senior Vice President of Supply
Systems with Ruby Tuesday for our first “grill and bar” concept. With
a more diverse menu than a quick-service restaurant and a large scale,
with company stores and franchises, Ruby Tuesday faces a range of food
safety challenges. 1/4/2007
2006
Maurice Totty
Senior Procurement Manager Produce
Foodbuy/ Compass Group
Charlotte, North Carolina
TAGS: food safety, foodservice, chain,
suppliers, distributors, retail, government, outbreak, Totty, Foodbuy,
Compass
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Foodbuy’s Maurice Totty points out
that foodservice operators are a difficult bunch for the produce
industry to get in sync with. The problem is that while retailers have
dedicated produce personnel, foodservice operators tend to buy many
products, more often being general food and beverage buyers. One
exception to that rule is Maurice Totty of Foodbuy, the purchasing arm
of the Compass Group. Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor,
Mira Slott, spoke with Maurice as part of our series of Foodservice
Pundit Pulses. We’ve reached out to foodservice because the general
perception in the industry is that with an ability to focus on a
limited number of items and an aligned supply chain driven by
contracted produce; foodservice operators do a better job on food
safety than do retailers. 12/21/2006
Curtis Granger
Program Manager
Public Health Institute (PHI)
Oakland, California
TAGS: health, program, produce,
consumption, public, 5-a-day, nutrition, Granger, Public Health
Institute
Increasing Produce Consumption At The Worksite extends
congratulations to Curtis Granger, most recently with Ripe ‘N Ready
Tree Fruit, as he has accepted a new position as Program Manager at
the Public Health Institute (PHI), Oakland, California. We asked
Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to talk
with Curtis and the interview is very intriguing. The public health
approach to boosting produce consumption that Granger is now
championing combines a very specific effort to change behavior with a
recognition that the public health benefits of increased produce
consumption are not randomly distributed through the population. We
can get better bang for the buck and help people more by focusing on
certain “at risk” groups. 12/20/2006
Samantha Cabaluna
Senior Manager of Communications
Natural Selection Foods
San Juan Bautista, California
R.C. “Buddy” McEntire, Jr.
President and Owner
McEntire Produce
Columbia, South Carolina
TAGS: food safety, testing, water,
lettuce, spinach, E. coli, field, Cabaluna, Natural Selection,
McEntire
Pundit Special Science Report: Part 3 — Product Testing At Natural
Selection Foods & McEntire Produce recognizes that the first two
parts of this report covered the subject of product testing, so we
asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to
get “real world” application of product testing from the folks at the
epicenter of the spinach/E. coli crisis, Natural Selection Foods,
which now tests product as it comes in from the farm. Mira spoke with
Samantha Cabaluna, Senior Manager of Communications at Natural
Selection Foods. And we finish our Pundit Special Science Report with
insights into another processor’s program for product testing. In the
first part of our Special Report, Yuma Post-Harvest Specialist
Jorge Fonseca referenced a long-established program at McEntire
Produce in Columbia, South Carolina. Mira touched base with R.C.
“Buddy” McEntire, Jr., and got him to give us a little background on
his food safety efforts. 12/15/2006
Charles Sanchez
Director and Professor of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences
University of Arizona, Yuma Ag Extension Service
Yuma, Arizona
TAGS: water, testing, irrigation, food
safety, Salinas, Arizona, growers, perchlorate, Sanchez, University of
Arizona
Pundit Special Science Report: Part 2 — The Science Of Waterborne
Bacteria in addition to exploring the differences in environmental
conditions and growing practices between Salinas and Yuma, we still
wanted to know more about Yuma and particularly water issues there, so
Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, spoke
with Charles Sanchez of the Yuma Ag Extension Service and Director and
Professor of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences at the University
of Arizona, Trevor Suslow of UC Davis and Richard Smith of the
Cooperative Extension in Monterey County, California. 12/15/2006
Jorge Fonseca
Post-Harvest Specialist
University of Arizona, Yuma Agriculture Extension Service
Yuma, AZ
TAGS: Salinas, Yuma, irrigation, spinach,
E. coli, food safety, water, outbreaks, Arizona, Fonseca, University
of Arizona
Pundit Special Science Report: Part 1 — Food Safety Vulnerabilities In
Yuma And Salinas asks what do we really know about E. coli and the
growing end of the business? With everyone focused on green onions,
it’s worth noting that we do not fully understand the cause of the
spinach/E. coli outbreak. There was a lot of attention paid to Salinas
and possible problems with that growing area. Now that production has
shifted to Yuma, we wanted to assess the vulnerabilities in the region
and visit with academic researchers in Yuma as well as Salinas working
to understand the horticultural roots of foodborne illness outbreaks.
To kick off the effort, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor, Mira Slott, spoke to Jorge Fonseca Post-Harvest Specialist at
the University of Arizona, Yuma Agriculture Extension Service.
12/15/2006
Jon Austin
Senior Vice President
Fleishman-Hillard
St. Louis, Missouri
Brian Dixon
Vice President of Marketing
Taco John’s
Cheyenne, Wyoming
TAGS: food safety, outbreak, lettuce, E.
coli, taco, Austin, Fleishman-Hillard, Dixon
Taco John’s Drops Its Produce Vendor Too mentions we haven’t
written about a separate E. coli outbreak that has been going on in
the Midwest at Taco John’s, or its decision to drop its produce
vendor, Bix Produce Company. Despite the oddity of two taco chains
having outbreaks at the same time, the testing indicates they are
different outbreak strains. In order to understand the story better,
we had Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott,
talk to both Jon Austin, Senior Vice President, Fleishman-Hillard, a
PR agency brought in specifically to deal with the situation for Bix
Produce and a Brian Dixon, Vice President of Marketing at Taco John’s,
who shared the following information. This business of dumping one’s
produce vendor the minute there is an outbreak is getting bizarre.
12/15/2006
Joel Ippolito
President
Ippolito Fruit and Produce
Burlington, Ontario
TAGS: Salmonella, spinach, testing,
safety, CPMA, curly, recall, Ippolito
Spinach Take Two — This time It’s Salmonella thinks a salmonella
finding on a small sample of Texas-grown, Canadian packed Queen
Victoria brand curly spinach at one retail store in Atlantic Canada
wouldn’t be news if it wasn’t for the hyper-sensitivity to foodborne
illness and spinach that we are living in right now. We asked Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, to get the full
story. She spoke to both a representative of the processor and the
Canadian Produce Marketing Association, Joel Ippolito, President of
Ippolito Fruit and Produce, Burlington, Ontario. 12/14/2006
Michael Spinazzola
President
Diversified Restaurant Systems
San Diego, California
TAGS: Foodservice, food safety, spinach,
Subway, auditing, distributor, Spinazzola, Diversified Restaurant
Systems
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Michael Spinazzola Diversified
Restaurant Systems to better understand the elements of effective
food safety programs, we are running a series of Pundit Pulses focused
on foodservice operators as the industry consensus is that foodservice
is ahead of retail in the quality of food safety programs. Today’s
interviewee, Michael Spinazzola of Diversified Restaurant Systems,
represents a larger organization as his company supplies the Subway
chain. He also has a PMA connection, serving on the foodservice board
of PMA.
Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, spoke to Michael about food safety. The Pundit
extends much appreciation to Michael for helping the industry by
giving some insight into his thoughts on food safety. We take away
three big concepts. 12/6/2006
Michele Payne-Salomon
President and Founder
Extreme Health
Walnuut Creek, California
Robert Schueller
Director of Public Relations
Melissa’s/World Variety
Los Angeles, California
Karen Caplan
President and CEO
Frieda’s
Los Angeles, California
TAGS: Goji, berries, Dole, Costco,
health, Tibet, Payne-Salomon, Schueller, Melissa’s, Extreme Health,
Frieda’s, Caplan
Are Goji Berries The Next Health Craze? received an astonishing
number of inquiries about Goji berries lately— some from consumers
looking for where to buy them, a few from retailers looking for where
to buy them, and many just looking for information. Upon investigation
we found Dole recently put its brand on dried Goji berries,
interesting because Dole brand opens the door to generalized retail
distribution. We sent Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor,
Mira Slott, out to learn more. Dole wasn’t saying much about its dried
Goji berry venture, so she spoke to various people involved in some
way with Goji: Michele Payne-Salomon, President and Founder of Extreme
Health; Robert Schueller, Director of Public Relations at
Melissa’s/World Variety and Karen Caplan, President and CEO of
Frieda’s. 12/5/2006
Janet Erickson
Vice President of Purchasing and Quality Assurance
PMA Executive Committee Chairman
Del Taco
Lake Forest, California
Daniel Crimmins
Purchasing Manager
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Indiana
TAGS: Foodservice, buyer, buyer-led, Food
Safety, spinach, Erickson, Crimmins, Notre Dame, PMA
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Del Taco’s Janet Erickson Notre Dame’s
Dan Crimmins revisits our series of Retail Pulses in which we
spoke with leading retailers to see how they were dealing with
different facets of the spinach situation. One of the things that has
come across in the course of discussion on the
Buyer-led Food Safety Initiative is that most shippers think the
foodservice industry is light years ahead of retail on food safety. We
thought we would conduct a Foodservice Operator Pulse to see what
foodservice operators think. As such Pundit Investigator and Special
Projects Editor, Mira Slott, spoke with Janet Erickson, Vice President
of Purchasing and Quality Assurance for Del Taco and PMA Executive
Committee Chairman and also Daniel Crimmins, Purchasing Manager at the
University of Notre Dame. 12/1/2006
Tim York
President
Markon Cooperative
Salinas, CA
TAGS: Buyer, buyer-led, food safety,
retail, spinach, PMA, York, Markon
Tim York Takes Leadership Role In Food Safety Crisis reports that
we’ve been dealing
extensively with the Buyer-led Food Safety Initiative. Growing out
of initial conversations between Dave Corsi of Wegmans and Tim York of
the Markon Cooperative, the Buyer-Led Food Safety Initiative was
quickly endorsed by nine important buying organizations, now another
10 important retailers have added their signatures to the letter, all
of whom we list here. Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor,
Mira Slott, talked to Tim York to get an update on the progress of the
Buyer-Led Food Safety Initiative. 11/21/2006
Ed Adamczyk
Produce Manager
Westborn Markets
Dearborn, Michigan
John Clark
Senior Produce Manager
Westborn Markets
Dearborn, Michigan
Mike O’Brien
Vice President of Produce and Floral
Schnucks Markets
St. Louis, Missouri
Bruce Peterson
Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager of Perishables
Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Arkansas
TAGS: spinach, outbreak, E. coli, retail,
sales, O’Brien, promotion, signage, merchandising, Schnucks, Wal-Mart,
Adamczyk, Clark, Peterson, Wal-Mart, Schnucks, Westborn
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Westborn Markets, Schnucks, Wal-Mart
in response to industry inquiries, we launched a Pundit Pulse series
to ascertain the way the spinach crisis is impacting sales at retail.
Mira Slott, Special Investigator and Special Projects Editor for the
Pundit, went to work. Are sales recovering? How fast? Are other
produce items benefiting? What are people doing that works? As always
the Pundit expresses great appreciation to those retailers willing to
share their experiences with the whole trade. In today’s Pundit Pulse,
we reached a store-level manager at Westborn Markets in Dearborn,
Michigan. Every so often we like to go to the store level where so
many things VPs think are happening, don’t happen. In this case we
found a problem with outdated store-level signage. 11/15/2006
Lawrence C. Edwards
Director Food Safety Programs
Food Marketing Institute
Washington, D.C.
Bill Greer
Director of Communications
Food Marketing Institute
Washington, D.C.
TAGS: FMI, buyers, produce, food safety,
initiative, outbreak, E. coli, Edwards, Greer
FMI Steps Into The Food Safety Fray comments that here at the
Pundit, we’ve been focused quite heavily on the role buyers can play
in helping the industry produce safer produce. Now FMI is stepping
into the game, organizing a food safety conference on December 5,
2006. We sent Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira
Slott to find out more from Lawrence C. Edwards, Director Food Safety
Programs, and Bill Greer, Director of Communications, at the Food
Marketing Institute. One super big mistake: Media have been banned
from the conference. If the goal is to build public confidence in the
process the industry is going through, you not only open it to media,
you send a velvet invitation to the big consumer media groups.
11/10/2006
Marvin Lyons
Produce Director
Bigg’s division of Supervalu
Milford, OH
TAGS: Bigg’s, Supervalu, spinach, salads,
merchandising, sales, FDA, Lyons
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry: Bigg’s Marvin Lyons received a
call recently from Bruce McEvoy, Director of Global Affairs for Seald
Sweet. Bruce was interested in knowing about how sales at retail are
progressing on spinach, bagged salads and other items in light of the
food safety issues the industry has been facing. In response, we are
going to run a series, starting here, of Pundit Pulses. These are
interviews conducted by Pundit Investigator and Special Projects
Editor, Mira Slott, focused on exactly this issue. The first one is
with Marvin Lyons, produce director, of the Bigg’s division of
Supervalu. 11/9/2006
Dr. Donna Garren
VP Health and Safety Regulatory Affairs
National Restaurant Association
Washington, D.C.
TAGS: National Restaurant Association,
tomatoes, Salmonella, outbreak, buyer, leafy, Garren
NRA Forms Produce Safety Working Group The National Restaurant
Association has formed something called the Produce Safety Working
Group, whose purpose is to develop new food safety standards for both
growers and distributors who supply fresh produce to restaurants. NRA
is being secretive and doesn’t want to identify the names of the 20
foodservice operators contributing staff to this effort. Pundit
Investigator and Special Projects Editor, Mira Slott, interviewed Dr.
Donna Garren, VP of Health and Safety Regulatory Affairs for the
National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C. What we should
have learned from the FDA loss of confidence in the industry is that
food safety is not something that we negotiate over. It has to be
driven by the best scientific knowledge we have. This initiative seems
a way to move in that direction. 11/7/2006
Dr. Wences Arvelo
EIS Medical Officer
CDC Foodborne Illness Division
Atlanta, GA
TAGS: Salmonella, CDC,
Pulsenet, DNA, outbreak, Arvelo
Salmonella Update: CDC Still Searching reveals the Centers for
Disease Control are continuing to investigate the Salmonella outbreak.
Although the authorities are comfortable saying it is produce-related,
they are uncertain of the exact cause — although they report many
patients reporting eating “red brown tomatoes.” We asked Pundit
Investigator Mira Slott to speak with Dr. Wences Arvelo, EIS Medical
Officer in the CDC Foodborne Illness Division and try to learn more.
Here we cover a few key points. 11/2/2006
Peter Gerner-Smidt M.D., Ph.D.
Acting Chief, Enteric Diseases Laboratory Response Branch
Center for Disease Control & Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia
TAGS: PulseNet, spinach, CDC, illness,
outbreaks, foodborne, Gerner-Smidt, Center for Disease Control
PulseNet Explains Why It Doesn’t Work Weekends details how we’ve
been exploring the story both
here and
here that PulseNet, which is the major mechanism for identifying
foodborne illness outbreaks, closes on the weekend. In the spinach
crisis, the key report connecting the dots of people getting sick and
their consumption of bagged spinach was sent to PulseNet after 5 pm on
Friday, when PulseNet was closed for the weekend. It is possible that
people got sick, because that important data sat unlooked at until
Monday morning. Here we link to the LA Times article that
establishes the timeline. Pundit Investigator Mira Slott was able to
get a comment from Peter Gerner-Smidt M.D., Ph.D., Acting Chief of
Enteric Diseases in the Laboratory Response Branch at the Center for
Disease Control & Prevention. 10/18/2006
Lee Frankel
President of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas
Nogales, Arizona
TAGS: protectionist, lettuce, Mexico,
recall, trade barrier, ban, Frankel, Fresh Produce Association
Is Mexico Giving U.S. A Taste Of Its Own Medicine? following up on
our piece Lettuce Ban: Is Mexico Protecting Health Or Practicing
Protectionism, which you can read
here, Pundit Investigator Mira Slott interviewed Lee Frankel,
President of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas — an
association of Mexican-produce importers and distributors — to get his
take on this perplexing situation in which Mexico is banning imports
of all U.S. lettuce. 10/12/2006
Erich Kuss
Senior Agricultural Attaché
Embassy of the United States
Mexico
TAGS: protectionist, lettuce, Mexico,
recall, trade barrier, ban, Kuss, Embassy
Lettuce Ban: Is Mexico Protecting Health Or Practicing Protectionism?
reports that this morning we were greeted by an announcement that
Mexico had banned the import of U.S. lettuce. At least from a public
safety standpoint, to ban all U.S. lettuce imports made no sense. We
searched for more answers and Pundit Investigator Mira Slott found
some in her interview with Erich Kuss, Senior Agricultural Attaché,
Embassy of the United States, Mexico. 10/11/2006
Jim Goeser
Owner
Jim’s Market and Locker, Inc.
Harlan, Iowa
TAGS: E. coli O157:H7, ground beef, USDA,
FSIS, Goeser, Jim’s Market
Beef Recall Smacks Of Incompetence got a notice from the USDA Food
Safety and Inspection Service with a recall of 5,226 pounds of ground
beef possibly containing E. coli O157:H7 that came from Jim’s Market
and Locker, Inc. which seemed very odd. The release said the products
were produced on August 31st and September 1st,
and the recall was issued on October 6, well over a month after this
product was produced. Why would the USDA suddenly get microbiological
tests back on 35-day-old product? Jim’s owner Jim Goeser said tests
have negated the government’s claim that his meat may have the same E.
coli strain responsible in the recent spinach outbreak. Goeser said he
doesn’t expect many returns, since the meat had a 25-day window for
consumption that ended last month, and he elaborates in an interview
here with Pundit Investigator Mira Slott. 10/10/2006
Danny Dempster
President
Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Heather Holland
Senior Technical Manager, Food Safety and Government Relations
Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
TAGS: spinach, outbreak, FDA, CFIA, CPMA,
phytosanitary, Dempster, Holland, Canadian
U.S. Spinach Still Banned in Canada identifies an area that has
shown severe weakness is the relationship between the FDA and the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency. As an American, it is easy to blast
the CFIA, but other countries are not obligated to parrot whatever the
FDA says and, if anything, the CFIA is guilty of taking what the FDA
says more seriously than the FDA does. One day the FDA is saying that
nobody should eat spinach from anywhere — a week later everything is
safe, although nothing has changed. How does the CFIA know that the
FDA didn’t bow to political pressure and there isn’t still danger? To
understand better the exact situation in Canada, Mira Slott, our ace
reporter and Special Projects Editor here at the Pundit, interviewed
Danny Dempster, President of the Canadian Produce Marketing
Association (CPMA), and Heather Holland, CPMA’s Senior Technical
Manager, Food Safety and Government Relations. 10/5/2006
Woody Johnson
VP Sales and Marketing
Growers Express
Salinas, California
TAGS: spinach, E. coli, retail, outbreak,
food safety, FDA, Johnson, Growers Express
Bailando Juntos (Dancing Together) presents a new name brought
into the spinach fiasco by the execution of the search warrants in
Salinas is Growers Express. Pundit Investigator Mira Slott spoke with
Woody Johnson, VP Sales and Marketing for Growers Express, who was
kind enough to share his take with the industry. One of the Growers
Express technical programs is called “Bailando Juntos”, which
translates into “Dancing Together”, and they define the program as
“Sharing expertise to drive excellence.” With news reports still
coming out every day, the industry will be dancing together for some
time. 10/5/2006
Robert DiPiazza
Senior Vice President and General Merchandising Manager for Fresh
Sam’s Club
Bentonville, Arkansas
Jerry Hull
Senior Produce Buyer
Sam’s Club
Bentonville, Arkansas
Bob Harding
Produce Buyer
Westborn Markets
Berkley, Michigan
Don Harris
Vice President Produce/Floral
Wild Oats
Boulder, Colorado
Jeff Lyons
Senior Vice President of Fresh Foods
Costco
Issaquah, Washington
Mike O’Brien
Vice President of Produce
Schnucks Markets
St. Louis, Missouri
TAGS: spinach, E. coli, retail, outbreak,
food safety, FDA, DiPiazza, Hull, Harding, Harris, Lyons, O’Brien,
Sam’s, Westborn, Wild Oats, Costco, Schnucks
Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry wonders what has it been like on
the front lines during this spinach/E. coli crisis. The Pundit asked
Mira Slott, ace Special Projects Editor to reach out and capture the
pulse of the industry at retail. We thus present the first in a new
series in which we collect opinions and insights from different
industry sectors on different subjects. Our Pundit Panel of the day
includes: Robert DiPiazza, Senior Vice President and General
Merchandising Manager for Fresh, and Jerry Hull, Senior Produce Buyer,
Sam’s Club; Bob Harding, Produce Buyer, Westborn Markets; Don Harris,
Vice President Produce/Floral, Wild Oats; Jeff Lyons, Senior Vice
President of Fresh Foods, Costco; and Mike O’Brien, Vice President of
Produce, with Schnuck Markets. 9/25/2006
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