Food safety conference sponsored by Taco Bell

It's not a late show punch line. A news release states that the National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation will hold "Produce Safety & The Foodservice Industry: A Farm-to-Table Conference" in Monterey, Calif., March 29 to March 30, 2007. It will be sponsored by Taco Bell.

From the release:

"We are pleased to produce this conference to assist restaurant operators, retailers, suppliers, food safety experts, scientists and government partners in examining all aspects of produce safety," said Peter Kilgore, acting interim president and chief executive officer. "In light of recent E. coli and other foodborne illness outbreaks, we hope that this conference will set the stage for restaurant-industry professionals to work with suppliers and government to enhance produce safety."
Topics of discussion at the conference will include:
- The latest statistics on food-borne illness outbreaks related to produce safety
- Epidemiological investigations at the farm and supply chain levels
- Legislative and regulatory efforts to enhance product safety
- Lessons learned from the meat industry to control pathogens and reduce risk
- Steps taken by national and regional produce organizations to respond to outbreaks and improve the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables
- Farm-to-table supply-chain perspectives on produce safety
- Consumer confidence in produce safety - and how this affects restaurants
- The development of restaurant-industry requirements for produce vendors
To view the full conference agenda and register for the conference, please visit the National Restaurant Association website: http://www.restaurant.org/produceconference

TK; The last item is troubling. Is yet another initiative on food safety, another set of unique requirements, headed toward growers? Rather than layer on another set of mandates, the restaurant industry needs to support growers who comply with marketing agreement GAP/GHP standards.