Fresh Produce Discussion Blog

Created by The Packer's National Editor Tom Karst

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Showing up to work on Monday - Bring the box of donuts, please: April 2-8 Produce Promotions

I'm amazed at the work ethic of some of you who voted in the Fresh Talk poll. The question was framed as such: If you won $50 million in the lottery/powerball, would you A) Walk away from your job immediately, not letting the screen door smack you on the way out B) Take an extended vacation but eventually come back C) Show up to work on Monday like usual. Five of 23, or 21%, say they would show up on Monday like usual. If you won $50 million over the weekend, brother, you'd better bring the box of donuts, pay for lunch and buy a round for everyone after work.

Here are some April 2-8 produce promotions in the KC area this week. We are getting into berries in a big way, it seems.

Hen House
Driscoll's strawberries (1-lb) or blueberries (4.4 oz): 2 for $4
Asparagus: $1.99/lb
Premium baker Russet potatoes: 3 lbs for 99 cents

Price Chopper
Navel oranges: 4 lb bag: $1.49
Asparagus: $1.99/lb
Washington Pink Lady apples: $1.49/lb

Aldi
Cantaloupe: 99 cents each
Red or green seedless grapes: 99 cents/lb
Red delicious apples: $1.29/3 lb bag
Large eating apples: 25 cents each

Hy Vee
Sunrise Growers strawberries: $1.48/1 lb package
Dole Classic salad or cole slaw: 16 oz package 88 cents
Stemilt Apple Sweets: 10 for $10 (5 or 6 oz package)
Fresh green beans: 99 cents/lb


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Headed to California for PMA Solutions event


Hi! I'm Dan Galbraith, sections editor for The Packer, and I'm pleased I'll be covering the Produce Marketing Association's Produce Solutions Conference for The Packer and for Fresh Talk later this week. I'm looking forward to going on the foodservice tour on Thursday while David Babcock, of The Packer's sister publication, Produce Merchandising magazine, goes on the retail tour. I'm working with David today to coordinate our coverage for all of our news outlets. I'm also looking forward to meeting the likes of Scott Horsfall, chief executive officer of the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement, Bonnie Fernandez, the new executive director of the Center for Produce Safety at the University of California at Davis, and Dr. Robert Whitaker, new chief scientific officer at PMA, among others. By the way, I also have my own blog at http://dangalbraith.blogspot.com/ and there, you will find some of my previous Packer columns and stories, among other interesting things. I'll blog back in to Fresh Talk after I make some progress in California.

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Grape commission wins a big court case

Here is a press release that just slid across my inbox:


Grape Commission Found Constitutional
Federal Court Rules in Favor of Commission on Multiple Grounds
FRESNO, California – The law establishing the California Table Grape Commission and authorizing its programs is constitutional, according to a Federal District Court ruling. In a 194-page decision, United States District Court Judge Oliver Wanger rejected a First Amendment challenge to the commission’s programs because it concluded that the speech of the commission, a creation of the state legislature, is that of the government and therefore immune from constitutional challenge.
In addition, Judge Wanger reviewed the wide range of research, market access, issue management and education programs conducted by the commission and concluded that the commission’s advertising program, which the plaintiffs alleged was unconstitutional, is part of the commission’s broader efforts to increase demand for California table grapes and is therefore constitutional.
“This is an important victory for California’s fresh grape industry,” said commission President Kathleen Nave. “Since 1967, the clear majority of California’s fresh grape farmers have voted every five years to continue funding the commission. This decision affirms their right to work together for the benefit of not just the entire industry but the entire state of California.”
The commission is funded with assessments on each box of commercially produced grapes shipped in California. The ruling in favor of the commission is a critical decision in litigation that began in the fall of 1996.
“Legally, the plaintiffs now have the right to appeal this decision and continue the litigation,” said commission legal counsel Seth Waxman. “As a practical matter, however, this is a comprehensive and well-reasoned decision that rules in the commission’s favor on multiple grounds.”
The California Table Grape Commission was created by the California legislature in 1967 to increase worldwide demand for fresh California grapes through a variety of research and promotional programs.

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Looking for clues in Honduras

Sebastian Cianci reports that the team of FDA and CDC officials are on the ground in Honduras, but have no report yet. Cianci said to check the FDA's Cantaloupe Resource Web page (noted in an earlier post) for updates from that team. Interestingly, Cianci said researchers don't yet know definitively if the pathogen was on the outside of the melon or the inside. Could salmonella be absorbed through the rind in a wash water tank, for example, or through the roots from irrigation water? Those are some of the questions that researchers will attempt to resolve. More later...

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Traceback vs. traceability

Here is an intelligent thoughtful piece, if driven by a little self interest. From the PR news release on Newswire Today:


Bradenton, FL, United States, 04/01/2008 - The fresh melon industry in Honduras and Costa Rica was effectively shut down within 24 hours of word hitting the wire that Salmonella Litchfield – said to be as hard on the human digestive system as E. coli O157:H7 – had been detected by officials.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) first found the problem in Quebec, followed quickly by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).This is not merely a cautionary tale. Many people are sick and have been hospitalized. Still, the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, ate a Honduran melon on CNN, attempting to show it was safe, and tried to reverse the onus by arguing American officials should prove the seriousness of the problem rather than force Honduras to disprove the problem.This reveals a complete lack of understanding of the most basic principles of food safety on the president’s part. Even if eating these melons has a lower risk of illness than getting struck by lightning, the big question is why couldn’t Honduran and Costa Rican officials isolate the problem. Don’t they have the ability to trace product back to its field of origin?This is a case where merely identifying the country of origin and knowing the rough date of harvest doesn’t cut it. Consumers have little “appetite” for risk. Building confidence in the food we eat, just like building a brand, is the sole responsibility of the seller.That’s why corporations and governments the world over speak loftily of the need for food “traceability” which can enable a food recall based on a lot numbering system and an audit trail. The idea is to limit exposure to risk by isolating problems. The more accurate the traceability, the less the exposure. A lot of taxpayer money is being poured into improving the traceability standards of modern food-exporting economies.But how does traceability differ from the related but distinct concept of traceback that was developed by William Kanitz and his staff at ScoringAg and ScoringContainers, divisions of ScoringSystem Inc.Traceability, in theory and in practice, is a first step towa the much more accurate and beneficial full traceback system. Arcane food companies and food-exporting countries that lack accurate lot numbering should get with the times and develop a traceability system before it’s too late or their tardiness will eventually result in a recall like the one above. But should one then go beyond this first step?Think of it like this. If you think you’re merely susceptible to food safety issues, then basic traceability might do the trick; but if you’re vulnerable to such issues, full traceback becomes essential.Honduras and Costa Rica had Eurogap certification, which includes strict and highly bureaucratic traceability standards. They also had certification from private certifiers which required third-party verification that their traceability was at least functioning. And yet they couldn’t isolate the source of the contamination, which meant a full-blown recall was necessary. The problem could have been as simple as a single employee failing to wash his hands, but for lack of full traceback, two national economies will suffer.Traceability means you’re at least trying, while traceback means you can. ScoringAg and ScoringContainers works in seconds through a fully automated, global-locating, real-time audit trail that resides on a secure database, accessible anywhere in the world through the internet. Traceback results from embracing traceability, not merely as a bureaucratic regulatory requirement, but as an investment in your company brand or national reputation. It goes to the limits of technology and provides item-level traceability right down to every package, or in this case, every box of melons, from the retail store back to the producer, covering all warehousing, shipping, storage, harvest and employee data in between.There are many traceability “solutions” available in the world today, but only ScoringAg allows for the uncomplicated accounting of all information pertinent to the integrity of food destined for human consumption.The fact of the matter is that even the FDA doesn’t have the manpower to dive into manual audit trails, even when such trails are supported by electronic audit trails on computers in the country of origin. Many companies grappling with traceability dream of reducing their sample-recall time from days to hours, but ScoringAg reduces it to minutes, even in the case of actual-recall time.Is testing a solution? Not after the fact it isn’t. There’s a lot of demand to start testing value-added crops such as certified organic in order to prevent fraud and negligence (go to isitorganic.ca for more info). Nothing’s worse than paying extra for something and wondering if you’re really getting what you’re paying for. But the case above isn’t about value-added food; just regular, everyday products that anyone might buy.While random, unannounced, quality control testing should be part of a company’s, or a nation’s, traceback system, it can’t prevent what happened in Honduras and Costa Rica. In short, even with a hundred times the manpower, the CFIA and FDA had no choice but to play it safe and recall all the melons. And now the hard-working farmers of Honduras and Costa Rica will pay a very dear price.Conclusion: Traceability is a buzzword. Traceback is the ideal.Sound expensive? It’s only pennies per data entry. For more information visit ScoringAg or ScoringContainers.
Written by Mischa Popoff, B.A. (Hon.) Osoyoos, BC Canada

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McDonald's is going organic !

From the Health Food maven FitSugar comes this post:

I took a double take when I saw this commercial on TV last night. McDonald's is going organic? It's like an oxymoron, right? But it's true. They will be ditching their conventional veggies and serving only organic lettuce and tomato on their organic grass-fed beef burgers. Their French fries will be made with organic taters, and they'll even have packets of organic ketchup to dip them in.
They're also expanding their menu to include heart healthy veggie burgers made with tofu and soy cheese. Want to see a sample of their new menu? Then read more.
April Fool's! You were right if you thought this sounded too good to be true. Oh well, a girl can dream . . .


One reader wrote:
You got me!! Well, it IS true that KFC is changing to Kentucky GRILLED Chicken, or that they're at least testing it out. That's why I believed this

Another said:
Haha! The first that went through my head was, "Well, there goes their dollar menu!

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Phew! Pausing for breath at Fresh & Easy

Here is the link to the Fresh & Easy blog. The March 26 post by Simon Uwins describes the moment:

Phew!,We've opened 31 stores in 66 days so far this year...now we're pausing for breath.We've been delighted with the openings. There's always been a line of customers waiting for each store to open. Indeed at some, such as Long Beach pictured above, the lines were almost too long, they took hours to clear - I'm sorry if anyone was inconvenienced.And every week, we attract more customers in our existing stores.However, after opening our first 50, we planned to have a 3 month break from openings, and other than a couple more in Phoenix, we're taking it (albeit, in our usual fashion, with 59 stores already open).Why?Quite simply, to allow the business we've created to settle down.In 9 months, we've gone from a project team of 200 people to a business employing nearly 2500 people - and in another 9 months, it'll be over 5000.In a little over 4 months, we've gone from a business with no stores to one with 59 - with hundreds more in the pipeline.We've learnt a huge amount about running the operation, and talked to thousands of customers about what they like about fresh&easy, and where they'd like us to improve.So we've given ourselves a little bit of time to kick the tires, smooth out any wrinkles, and make some improvements that customers have asked for.Of course, improving the operation and the shopping trip is what we do every day. I've always been a believer in continuous and never-ending improvement - ever since listening to Tony Robbins on the subject many, many years ago (more than I care to remember!).And today, our stores are better than they were last month, which were already better than the month before, and so on - our recent move to accept Amex as well as Visa & Mastercard is one small example of that.But the next 3 months will allow us to accelerate this process, before we restart what's been described as an opening program on steroids. Our customers now, and in the future, will be the beneficiaries of this, and that, of course, is how it should be.....

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Naive money and the coming bust

Is there a commodity bubble? Luis of the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group links to this video from Barron's about analysis of the naive money involved in commodities futures speculation and the coming day of reckoning.

Here is the Barron's story: "Commodities: Who's behind the boom?"
From the story:

Here's the problem: The speculators' bullishness may be way overdone, in the process lifting prices far above fair value. If the speculators were to follow the commercial players -- the farmers, the food processors, the energy producers and others who trade daily in the physical commodities -- they'd be heading for the exits. For right now, the commercial players are betting on price declines more heavily than ever before, says independent analyst Steve Briese.

For example, in the 17 commodities that make up the Continuous Commodity Index, net short positions by the commercials have been running more than 30% higher than their previous net-short record, in March 2004.

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Trucker strike headlines

Googling trucker strike this morning, this is what I found. This strike won't shut down the country, but it is bound to make the news at 11 tonight.


Truckers planning rally at statehouse (Indy)

Truckers' strike expected today (Fla.)

Independent truckers may go for strike (Fla.)

WNC truckers may join diesel price protest


Trucker strike may lack traction (Colo)

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