G. Michael McCartney of Naturipe Farms - Electronic Produce Passport

More testimony from the FDA's traceability hearing of Nov. 13, this from
G. Michael McCartney of Naturipe Farms.


Public Meetings about Product Tracing Systems for Fresh Produce
Docket No. FDA-2008-N-0513
November 13, 2008
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building
Edward Roybal Auditorium
1301 Clay St.
Oakland, CA 94612

G. Michael McCartney
Vice President of Operations
Local:
Naturipe Farms
2365 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA 94966
(239) 552-4470

Corporate:
999 Vanderbilt Beach Rd., Suite 102
Naples, FL 34108

Outline of Oral Presentation

Company Profile:

Naturipe Farms is one of the largest privately held berry companies in the world, providing nutritious blueberries, black and red raspberries, and strawberries all year. We have farms in over 60 different growing regions in the United States, and in Canada, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico. We supply the highest quality fruit to nearly every major market in the world, including Europe and Asia. See;
http://www.naturipefarmstrade.com/monthly_maps/growing_regions.aspx

Presenter: Mr. G. Michael McCartney, Vice President Operations, in charge of global food safety and global operations

Headquarters; Naples, Florida

Outline: The Produce Passport -The Need for Electronic Records of Important Trace Back Documents

Food Safety needs to include Good Agricultural Practices, HACCP plans, and industry specific best practices.

• These best practices need to follow commodity specific practices, at a minimum 2 classes one for vegetables and one for fruit.
• In each class the leading trade associations need to participate through a voluntary advisory panel made up of the industry food safety experts who can guide the development of trace back approaches

The Produce Traceability Initiative represents a unified global system that will allow product to be tracked throughout the distribution chain

• It is supported by nearly every major retailer, wholesaler, food service and grower shipper in the United States
• It is based on using the GS1 bar code standard for identifying pallets, SSCC and cases, GTIN.
• It includes a timetable and milestones that will enable trace back to occur on all inbound and outbound cases not later than 2012

At Naturipe Farms we support this initiative and strongly encourage the FDA and related Federal agencies to extend a similar GS1 approach to item level tracking of packaged produce.

• This would include clamshells and all bagged products whether they are fruit or vegetable.

In addition, we believe that when it comes to the public health and safety, the timeliness and accuracy of information are the two key elements in gaining and maintaining the public’s trust and confidence in the nutritious foods we provide.

• The key area of concern in establishing food assurance is being able to electronically submit the critical documents on any commodity as it moves through the supply chain form field to fork
• From a farming perspective that would include a standardized risk assessment and a record confirming the condition and the handling of the product as it moves throughout the cold chain to the point of sale.
• At each point the data collected would be captured and recorded in an electronic produce passport that would follow the product throughout the supply chain.
• At each point of custody the receiver would validate the information received from the sender until the product reached the end point of its journey.

The Electronic Produce Passport would enable all participants to immediately trace forward and trace back any product.

• This would greatly assist the FDA and all parties to discover the root cause of the issue and to identify quickly whether any case is an isolated incident or a public health issue.
• The Advisory Panels could guide the adoption and make commodity specific recommendations.