Step aside

Here is more from Rep. Rosa DeLauro on a now familiar topic, food safety:

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3), chairwoman of the House Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement about Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt requesting additional authority to allow the Food and Drug Administration with explicit extraterritorial jurisdiction for criminal conduct occurring outside the United States that threatens the health and safety of U.S. consumers. "For the Administration to finally recognize that the laws governing the safety of imported food and drugs need strengthening represents the early arrival of April Fool's Day. "The problems plaguing the safety of imported products have been known for years, and go far beyond foreign firms denying U.S. officials access to their facilities. There are other major issues that could have been addressed by the Administration, such as mandatory recall authority and equivalency standards, but were repeatedly dismissed and ignored. The recommendations in their import plan last year were either completely inadequate or included common sense initiatives that could have been easily implemented five years ago. "The Administration lacks the credibility to weigh-in on improving food and drug safety laws. They should step aside and allow those of us in Congress who have been trying to resolve these problems for years to move these issues forward."

FDA Fresh-Cut Guidance

PMA provides the link to the FDA's final guidance for fresh cut fruits and vegetables. A report from PMA indicates that the Feb. 25 Federal Register will contain the final guidance on "Minimizing Microbial Food Safety Hazards of Fresh-cut Fruits and Vegetables. Here is a mouthful, from the FDA document:

This guidance covers fresh-cut fruits and vegetables that have been minimally processed (e.g., no lethal kill step), and altered in form, by peeling, slicing, chopping, shredding, coring, or trimming, with or without washing or other treatment, prior to being packaged for use by the consumer or a retail establishment. Examples of fresh-cut products are shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, salad mixes (raw vegetable salads), peeled baby carrots, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, cut celery stalks, shredded cabbage, cut melon, sliced pineapple, and sectioned grapefruit.⁽²⁾ Fresh-cut produce does not require additional preparation, processing, or cooking before consumption, with the possible exception of washing⁽³⁾ or the addition of salad dressing, seasoning, or other accompaniments. As the fresh-cut produce market continues to evolve, the scope of this guidance may need to be modified to address new or novel types of products.

Brian Regan on foods and labels

Given that is Friday afternoon, here is another light-hearted diversion for Fresh Talk readers. This comic is coming to KC this weekend, and in this bit you will hear about food labels, serving sizes and the "cran-man." Very funny.

Stompin Tom Connors

Lance Jungmeyer chiming in ...

Country music is corny, a lot of people think.

Well this Canadian country music is downright "spudtacular." According to some comments on YouTube, Stompin Tom Connors is quite the celebrity in Canada, that people will pay good money to buy the slabs of wood that he stomps on while onstage. I don't believe it, but if you're looking for a Friday afternoon break from the action, this might be it.



Stompin Tom evidently has a thing for potatoes. In another song, he sings "Ketchup loves potatoes" as he gives a shout-out to Prince Edward Island potatoes and Leamington, Ontario, tomato producers. I will not vouch for this music, but it's worth a laugh.

Banana box retailers

Guest blogger Lance Jungmeyer chiming in ....

We have banana republics, banana boats, banana splits ... but today was the first time I had heard of banana box retailers.

A banana box retailer is a small retailer of distressed or out of date grocery items. As this WSJ online article explains, these grocers come by their name honestly.

"Many smaller salvage grocers buy goods from so-called reclamation centers. Reclamation centers collect goods that conventional food retailers have received from manufacturers but deemed unsuitable for sale, often because they are damaged. Some reclamation centers then sell these goods to brokers, which hawk them to small salvage stores. The goods are typically contained in boxes that once carried bananas, so these smaller operations are often called banana-box grocers."

I doubt you'll see much fresh produce for sale at banana box grocers. After all, their stock and trade is food that's nearing the end of the life cycle or is otherwise unsaleable. But this trend could point to a change in the way people shop. If people are apt to get their consumer packaged goods items from a salvage grocer, will they take the time to visit a traditional supermarket and stock up on fruits and veggies? They may be content with their dented boxes of Hamburger Helper. Does the trend bode well for mom & pop grocers that carry produce? Or might it mean good things for some smaller in-and-out operations like Trader Joes?

It's too early to say, in my mind. As we traverse through 2008 and the recession that everyone says is coming, we will learn more.

Wal-Mart vs. Target

As consumers shift their spending habits in the face of economic uncertainty, there may be a resurgence for Wal-Mart and its everyday low price strategy, and that may have ill-effects at Target.

A discussion group on RetailWire (registration required) alludes to that, and I'll post some of the responses below.

"There are so many reasons and possibilities for why Wal-Mart does better than Target in a sluggish economy but for one, the Target consumer tends to be a young trendy consumer that might have less individual spending power or disposable income right now at this present time." - David Biernbaum, David Beirnbaum Associates.

"Wal-Mart has an inherent advantage in tough economic times--Supercenters! These one-stop shops in a large portion of the US give shoppers the opportunity to buy food for home economically and also reinforce the low prices on apparel and hard goods. One-stop also means less gas to buy. Target is not positioned to do this except in a limited area where Super Targets exist. Target should consider a change in its advertising strategy to move from subliminal suggestion to a more hard sell, featuring price and variety to survive the current economic climate." - J. Peter Deeb, Deeb and MacDonald Associates

"I love this! For years Wal-Mart has been drooling after Target's customers and straying from their brand positioning with often disastrous results. Now Wal-Mart has found its way back to EDLP and the core values that its customers count on at the same time economic downturn favors its approach. Great timing for Wal-Mart and lucky for them they're not sitting on more skinny jeans in this climate. I liked the comment about assortment--it's true, Target truly curates the assortment (number of brands and numbers of sizes) available to consumers and I think they may find they have been overly selective. Consumers like choice--they'll sacrifice it for a great deal (hello, Costco!) but Target now has the problem of not being as upscale as Costco nor as cost conscious as Wal-Mart. Target has several problems to address: they don't move the same volumes as Wal-Mart, they don't have the same operational efficiency and yet they want to be priced competitively." - Lisa Bradner, Forrester Research

What do you think? Most of the above comments relate to general merchandise. Is Wal-Mart positioned to rise above other food retailers in these tougher times?

No agreement until next week?

Washington sources say it may not be until next week until House and Senate negotiators have settled on a number for the farm bill, but it appears to be setting up as $9 billion over baseline for a 10-year farm bill. Even so, Administration support for the $9 billion number remains in question at this point....

Cook avocado ppt

While a little dated, this powerpoint provides great context to the industry and the insights of UC Davis economist Roberta Cook.

The latest on preventing E. coli on food

While other commodities, biofuel and rural development received more attention in general at the USDA Outlook Forum (as usual), there was some light directed at fruit and vegetable issues. Here is a link to a presentation, "Preventing E. coli Contamination of Food” by Robert E. Mandrell, Ph.D., Research Leader, Produce Safety and Microbiology Research Unit USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Center. The 28 page pdf concludes with this summary page:

Pre-harvest approaches
– Maintain water quality
– Minimize exposure of produce to wild animals, flooding, dust
– Treat livestock: vaccines, feed, novel antimicrobials
– Observe/inspect, common sense
• Post-harvest approaches
– Sampling and testing product, processing water
– Effective “kill step” (new sanitizers, irradiation)
• No major outbreaks in 2007 associated with leafy vegetables!

TK: While the meat industry has had a bad run lately, Mandrell notes that fresh produce growers and marketers have had a much better food safety track record of late. How will this lack of trouble in foodborne illness outbreaks translate into momentum for further food safety efforts - particularly a national marketing agreement or order for leafy greens? My take is that it will detract some of the impetus to move forward, particularly by growers in other states.

A link and Wegmans conclusions about product recalls

Here is the link to the USDA Outlook Forum page for speeches and presentations. There you will find the video of Tom Stenzel's speech yesterday and other presentations from the first day of the Outlook Forum.

One of the presentations that I think you might enjoy looking at this one by Jeanne Colleluori, communications specialist for Wegmans Food Markets. Called "Anatomy of a Recall:A Retailer’s Perspective" the pdf file goes over some findings from Wegmans about research that sheds light on how consumers like to be notified in the event of a product recall.

From her summary page:

Customers want Personal Communication about recalls
- 84% of survey respondents wanted to be contacted personally
Customers want personal communication at Home…
Customers prefer to be contacted at Home via:
- Home – Email (87% rated 4 or 5)
- Home – Phone (49% rated 4 or 5)
- Home – Post Card (39% rated 4 or 5)
Due to the number of methods of communications available, customers can benefit by having a choice in the best way to contact them.