Douglas Powell: Part II

More on my Q and A with Kansas State University food safety professor Doug Powell. The full version will appear in The Packer.
As we pick up the conversation, Powell had just said that third party inspections are little more than the equivalent to annual department of health inspections of restaurants. What is needed is a culture change among growers and processors.

Q. How will that culture change?
All these systems and plans are great. But it’s not going to change until someone starts marketing the stuff. Why can you buy lettuce and tomatoes, and there is all sorts of investment about the earthy images, all this natural stuff, why not market based on coliform count?

Q. Doesn't that go against the common conviction that you can‘t be successful marketing food safety?
I’m saying that enough has gone on. After 20 outbreaks in lettuce and spinach, it’s time to market on food safety. Everyone says (that you can’t market food safety) but what do you think is going on day in and day out in the huge food industry?
Why do people buy organics? If you look at the marketing of organics, health is the number one reason.
How many times did you hear the line (last fall), “It is local so it’s safe.”
You had New Jersey and Texas saying our greens are safe because the aren't (from) California.
They had no microbiological basis to say that.
The company that figures out how to market this stuff on real data will find a very hungry public ready to buy their produce.

TK: The latest reports show 90% participation in the leafy greens marketing agreement. That would tend to dispel the notion that companies are trying to use food safety as competitive positioning. Powell certainly doesn't mince his words and a lot of what he says makes senses. Food safety must be embraced by growers or it won't work, and neither government oversight nor third party audits are be all, end all solutions.