Food safety guidelines for tomatoes

By some quirk known only to the computer gods, a news release I was looking for from the United Fresh Produce Association was assigned to my Outlook spam folder. I retrieved the document and publish an excerpt below. The most important sentence is the last:

"The California Tomato Farmers and Florida Tomato Exchange have indicated that they support the Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Fresh Tomatoes Supply Chain, 2^nd Edition as the basis for mandatory national food safety standards for the fresh tomato industry."

From the release:

United Fresh Produce Association (United Fresh) and the North American Tomato Trade Work Group (NATTWG) have published the second edition of the Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Fresh Tomatoes Supply Chain for use throughout the fresh tomato industry. This document provides the latest food safety guidelines related to water, workers and soil factors, and it includes components for all companies along the supply chain, including retailers and foodservice distributors.

United Fresh and NATTWG initiated the year-long effort to revise the first edition guidance document in order to incorporate new scientific learnings and to include the perspectives of a broader scope of contributors than was included in the first edition.

Over the past 12 months, more than 40 scientists and industry experts from academia, government and the fresh tomato industry have reviewed the latest food safety research findings and industry practices in order to revise the first edition of the guidance document, which was published in 2006 by NATTWG.

“Significant efforts were made to involve as many associations, agencies, companies and individuals with expertise in food safety practices for one or more steps in the fresh tomato supply chain as possible,” said Dr. David Gombas, senior vice president of food safety and technology at United Fresh. “We wanted everyone’s input on this so we could be as thorough as possible.”

“In the two years since the first document, we’ve learned more about potential risks and control measures at all points in the fresh tomato supply chain,” said Reggie Brown, chairman of NATTWG. “The second edition of the guidelines represents current understanding of conditions and controls that should be considered by every company in the tomato supply chain.” NATTWG is a consortium consisting of fresh field and greenhouse tomato organizations within the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The California Tomato Farmers and Florida Tomato Exchange have indicated that they support the Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Fresh Tomatoes Supply Chain, 2^nd Edition as the basis for mandatory national food safety standards for the fresh tomato industry.

Demand for organic food in Russia

When I visited Russia earlier this year, I found that demand for organic produce is growing in Moscow but still lags substantially in comparison to markets in western Europe and the U.S. What's more, the lack of a certification scheme was limiting buyer interest. Here is a USDA FAS report describing the evolution of Russia's market for organic food. From the report:


Grunwald is Moscow’s only all-organic store. Eighty percent of people who shop at Grunwald do so specifically because the products are organic. Grunwald carries a wide variety of goods, including produce, meat, handmade chocolates, packaged grocery items, and beauty products. This sector has tremendous growth potential in Russia. Berlin, for example, has a population of three million that supports 360 all-organic stores. By contrast, Moscow is the largest city in Europe with a population of 10.47 million (according to official statistics)3 and has just one such store.

Later.....


While the Russian government recently created a national organic standard, there is not yet a domestic organic -certification process. Currently, Russian producers can be voluntarilycertified by Western inspection companies on the basis of other countries’ standards. They may elect to be certified under E.U., U.S., or Japanese standards, depending on the intended export market. If Russia creates national certification bodies, the domestic and export markets for Russian organics may profoundly change.

UTEP finds pepper problems

This link found by Doug Powell and the Food Safety Network reveals this story about UTEP researchers and Mexican peppers. From the ABC-7 TV reporter Martin Bartlett:

NEAR CASETA, Chihuahua - For a group of local researchers, the recent scare over the safety of jalapeno peppers grown in Chihuahua is no big surprise.

On Friday, the Chihuahua State Health Department announced they found a pepper contaminated with salmonella near Camargo, and urged diners to avoid all jalapenos grown in the state.

A group of University of Texas at El Paso researchers spent much of this summer documenting the working conditions of jalapeno farm workers in Chihuahua.

"The students did find an unhealthy environment," said UTEP School of Nursing Dean Dr. Robert Anders. "There weren't bathroom facilities for them, there wasn't potable water, so if the workers wanted to wash their hands there wasn't anything that allowed them to do such."

Anders says the peppers could easily be contaminated through contact with human waste or unwashed hands. The problem of agricultural contamination isn't new to Mexico and it isn't all that far from your dinner plate, either.

In the farming communities downstream from Juarez, the canals are filled with "las aguas negras" - the black waters - and they have a very pungent odor: similar to that of motor oil and human waste. That's why local farmers said non-food crops like cotton have become king in the Juarez valley; they say the nearest jalapeno production is near Palomas in northwest Chihuahua.

Since salmonella lives on the skin of a plant and not inside it, Anders said a thorough washing should clean salmonella off any produce. If you want to be extra careful he says eat jalapenos that have been cooked, pickled, or pealed.

TK: A troubling report, perhaps, but far too many unanswered questions. Who were these researchers? Why is the dean of the School of Nursing providing comment for the story? What is a "pealed" pepper?

WTO - Never been so close to an agreement

This just slid across the inbox from the WTO. Sounds like hope for a WTO agreement is hard to kill. From the WTO:

Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his remarks at the opening of the “Global Partnership for Development” conference in New Delhi on 12 August 2008, said that at the end of the Geneva talks last month “members told us very clearly that the negotiations should not be abandoned ... too much has been achieved now to simply leave it aside”. This is what he said:

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends. I wish to start by congratulating Pradeep Mehta for his perfect sense of timing. It would be difficult to think of a better time for this Conference to take place — and I am particularly grateful to CUTS for the invitation and for opportunity to come to India at this stage.

Before entering into the subject of “Global Partnership for Development”, I wish to share with you what we were told by the WTO Members last month, two days after the ministers failed to reach an agreement on the Agricultural and industrial pillar of the Doha Round modalities: we have never been so close to an agreement. This is not rhetoric. This is the truth of where we stand: what Ministers and senior officials managed to achieve in the week they spent in Geneva late July is absolutely remarkable.

In fact, in purely technical terms, the issues already agreed by the group of Ministers with whom I was holding the most intensive consultations — and whose countries represent more than 80% of world trade — would be sufficient for the drafting of schedules of commitments in Agriculture and NAMA.

The political reality, nonetheless, is that we must wrap up a few remaining issues, and build consensus amongst all Members, before we can start the scheduling process, which would lead to the conclusion of the Round.

Among these few remaining issues, the most difficult one is the question of the Agricultural Special Safeguard Mechanism for developing countries. There are two diverging views on the so-called SSM, which proved to be impossible to reconcile during the meeting in July.

One view is that developing countries need to have a safety net against import surges of agricultural products, in order to be able to protect their farming systems, and that this safeguard should be easy to use.

Another view is that, like all safeguards in the GATT and WTO, the SSM should be subject to certain conditions and limitations, in order to ensure that that it does not hamper normal trade flows and that it should not be abused.

In spite of these differences, what Members told us very clearly during the plenary meetings held at the end of the talks, is that the negotiations should not be abandoned at this point. In the view of our Members, too much has been achieved now, to simply leave it aside.

If I say this, it is because I remain convinced that the WTO's mandate regarding the gradual removal of obstacles to trade, framed with multilateral trading rules, constitutes an essential contribution to development and to the improvement of collective well-being. Trade is a development tool. A successful conclusion of the Round, by addressing obstacles to trade which today penalize particularly developing countries, can be a powerful instrument to fight for development in the hands of countries.

Let me give you one figure: if the Round is successfully concluded, the world would reduce by half the amount of imports tariffs paid today. There would be savings in the order to US 150 billion in tariffs. Developing countries would contribute to 1/3 of the savings, and would benefit from 2/3 of it. Developed countries would contribute with 2/3 of the savings. So, at the end of the day, developing countries would benefit from 2/3 of the increased market access resulting from the Round, and developed countries would benefit 1/3. This is truly a development Round.

This is just a snapshot of what could be saved but it does not say how much more trade would grow with the reduction of barriers. A lot of studies have been published with result varying depending on the assumptions made.

It also does not tell us how the gains from trade would be shared within each country. This is in the hands of each government and depends largely on domestic policies which span beyond the WTO reach.

Let me give you another example: if the Round is concluded with success, the US could see the amount of trade distorting subsidies reduced to US 14.5 billion. True, this is more than the US currently spends. But if this ceiling is not set, the US will be able to spend much more than that in trade distorting subsidies as soon as food prices decline. In fact it has done so in 8 of the last 10 years. True also that this figure is still high and that many of you would think that the amount would be zero. But let me clear, without the Round the amount could reach US 48 billion.

To come back to the WTO, the basic underlying philosophy shared by all WTO members is that gradual market opening is good. At the same time, we know that market opening is not, in itself, sufficient to create and ensure development. I cannot overstress this point: opening up of trade will only deliver real benefits if it is accompanied by other policies, which allow for flexibility and job security: education policy, employment policy, research or innovation policy to name a few.

Some of these must be implemented at national level while others are effective only if applied internationally through the joint-action of specialized agencies. And this is where a discussion on Global Partnership comes in.

Coherence between the various international public policies — and they are eminently complementary — is absolutely essential.

Harnessing globalization and ensuring global partnerships for development presupposes balanced international cooperation across the board. The best trade policy cannot alone promote growth and development. Sound macro-economic policies must be supplemented by structural policies.

The WTO favours trade openness as playing a vital role in members' growth and development. But as I said, this is only part of the task. An open economy is not a panacea for all the challenges of development, neither is it necessarily easy to accomplish, nor in many circumstances can it be effective unless it is embedded in a supportive economic, social and political context and in a coherent multi-faceted policy framework. And this is also about international coherence.

To use a phrase crafted by our Appellate Body, the WTO does not live in “clinical isolation”. Global problems require global replies — and the WTO must be part of the process of finding such replies.

Let's take the example of the Food Price Crisis. The negotiations in the WTO on agriculture subsidies and market access are part of the medium and long term solution to the food shortage. We know that we need to increase agriculture production in developing countries and one of the reasons why their production and exports have been discouraged is because of trade distorting subsidies and high tariffs in rich countries. Trade can play the role of better connecting supply and demand. This is true locally, regionally and world wide.

In this field, as in many others, the WTO is in constant dialogue with other international organisations and indeed gives legal weight to norms developed by them, as evidenced on many occasions by decisions made under the WTO's Dispute Settlement Understanding.

In practice, there are day-to-day exchanges that take place amongst secretariats of international organizations — UNCTAD, FAO, UNEP, World Bank, IMF, regional development banks, World Customs Organisation, OECD etc. Cooperation in global economic policy-making goes much beyond the WTO's formal and specific arrangements.

Trying to find solutions through global partnerships also helps reinforce more global governance, which I believe is needed if we want the world we live in to be less violent, be it social, political, economic or environmental violence, and more peaceful, plentiful and prosperous. Stable and updated trade rules, and a strong WTO, reinforced by a successful conclusion of the DDA, would be a key step in that direction.

I know that CUTS share this view and acts, through its various programmes, as an interface between civil society, government and international organisations, which is why we are very glad to see its presence reinforced with the opening of a new office in Geneva.

In these turbulent times, at a moment when multilateralism and international cooperation are challenged on many fronts, we need more organisations like CUTS to help us all build the necessary bridges.

August crop production report - Apples up slightly

The August USDA Crop Production report was released today. Find it here.

The USDA reports the initial apple production forecast at 9.17 billion pounds, slightly more than the 2007 crop and down 7% from 2006. Production in the Western states is forecast at 5.99 billion pounds, up 4 percent from 2007 but down 3 percent from 2006. Washington production, which makes up 59 percent of the U.S. total, is forecast at 5.40 billion pounds, up 4 percent from 2007 but down 3 percent from 2006. the USDA said the late spring may delay maturity and reduce sizing of red delicious and gala varieties.
Production in the Eastern states is forecast at 2.29 billion pounds, down 4 percent from 2007 and down 6 percent from 2006. The apple forecast in New York, at 1.15 billion pounds, is 12 percent less than the 2007 estimate and down 9 percent from 2006.
The production forecast for the Central States is set at 884 million pounds, a decrease of 7 percent from 2007 and 30 percent below 2006. Michigan's production forecast is 540 million pounds, down 30 percent from 2007 and 39 percent below 2006.

Tuesday headline roundup - Top headlines

Here are a few headlines of note for Aug. 12...

Junk bond defaults rise as economy slows From Investors Business Daily:

U.S. corporate bond defaults are already on the rise. Moody's on Aug. 7 reported a sharp rise in July defaults and now expects the global default rate to climb over 6% over the next year. That's up from less than 1% in late 2007.
Standard & Poor's predicts that 4.9% of all speculative grade borrowers will default over the next 12 months. And there is a chance — estimated at 20% — that things could get much worse, with over 8% defaulting. Default, of course, sets the stage for bankruptcy court. "Default typically precedes Chapter 11," said Diane Vazza, head of global fixed income at Standard & Poor's.

Critics blast Wal-Mart for lobbying against carbon offset guidelines From U.S. News

Wal-Mart is one of the largest consumers of electricity in the United States and presides over one of the largest truck fleets in the world. And for these reasons, even the little steps the company takes to go greener—such as selling sustainable products or local produce—make a big difference, and the company has been commended for them.
Despite this, critics from Wal-Mart Watch, a group that tracks the company's growth and influence, re
port that the company is lobbying against defining and standardizing carbon offsets for proposed cap-and-trade programs—a move some deem hypocritical in light of the company's public campaign to cut its footprint.


U.S. may not be in recession, but 170 metro areas could be From The Modesto Bee;


Using June data, Moody's estimates that 170 metro areas are in recession. Together they make up about 43 percent of metropolitan employment nationwide. That's up from 142 metropolitan areas in May.
Moody's research suggests that 116 metro areas are at risk of recession, about 25 percent of metropolitan employment nationwide. That leaves roughly 32 percent of the nation's biggest metro areas, 94 of them, with expanding economies. In May, 106 metropolitan communities were expanding.
The biggest losers include industrial Midwestern states such as Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin. Deep problems in auto manufacturing, exacerbated by bad bets on SUV production as gasoline prices rose, have hurt those states. The housing crunch has made a bad situation worse.
"Michigan is either the weakest or second weakest economy, mostly due to the misfortunes of the auto industry," said Mark Vitner, senior economist for Wachovia, the big national bank based in Charlotte, N.C. "Aside from Michigan, the rest of the Midwest is generally struggling with weakness in the auto sector and other consumer durable goods."
Other obvious losers include Florida, Nevada and Arizona, states that are experiencing the biggest collapse in home prices after the biggest run-up in prices during the boom of 2001 to 2005. Their turnarounds will depend largely on when the housing freefall bottoms out.

GOP hits Dems on access to power

Obesity may be contagious

Nebraska group aims for immigration policy

Wal-Mart, retailers may gain on reports

Why not? Display health inspection scores

In a world where consumers expect more information rather than less and disclosure rather than concealment, the Center for Science in the Public Interest makes a compelling argument for public disclosure of health inspection reports at restaurants. From the CSPI Web site and a release dated Aug. 7:

WASHINGTON—In Atlanta, chicken salad stored at a balmy 50 degrees. Inadequate hand washing in Boston. Mouse droppings in a Minneapolis ice machine. A live roach scampers across a Pittsburgh cutting board. These are some of the gory details uncovered in an analysis by the Center for Science in the Public Interest of 539 restaurant inspection reports from 20 cities. Two-thirds of restaurants had these and other high-risk food safety violations.
Today CSPI, the nonprofit nutrition and food-safety watchdog group, is calling on state and local governments to require restaurants to display food safety letter grades in their front windows. Letter grades have been used in Los Angeles county restaurants for the past 10 years, and that popular measure is credited with reducing the number of hospitalizations due to foodborne illness. Las Vegas and St. Louis have adopted similar measures recently.
Over 40 percent of the outbreaks of foodborne illness were linked to restaurant foods, while only 22 percent were linked to food prepared in private homes, according to CSPI’s Outbreak Alert! database. CSPI’s new review of restaurant inspection reports—which typically covered 6- or 12-month periods—found that 26 percent of restaurants surveyed had contaminated food contact surfaces; 22 percent had improper food holding temperatures, and 16 percent had inadequate hand-washing by employees. Thirteen percent of restaurants had rodent or insect activity documented in their inspection reports.
"A letter grade in the window has proven to be one of the most powerful incentives for restaurants to perform well on inspections," said CSPI staff attorney Sarah A. Klein. "Who wants to eat at a 'C' restaurant if a restaurant next door gets an 'A'? Unfortunately, in many of the cities we looked at, not only are there are no letter grades, but the actual inspection reports are nearly impossible for citizens to obtain or understand."
In Pittsburgh and Washington, DC, restaurant inspection reports are only made available when consumers lodge written requests under those jurisdictions' Freedom of Information Acts. In some cases, CSPI researchers had to make several requests, by mail and telephone, and wait six months to receive the requested reports. In Atlanta and San Francisco, restaurateurs are at least required to keep the most recent inspection report on hand and show it to anyone who asks. Boston, Chicago, Denver, and Philadelphia are beginning to post inspection reports or scores online, but few consumers dig down into their city or county health department’s web site before going out for a sandwich.

"The results of our grading system in Los Angeles have been very positive, with improved restaurant sanitary practices, reduced rates of severe food-borne illness, and high consumer confidence in this key public health regulatory system," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County. "We appreciate the work of CSPI to encourage greater adoption of this important food safety improvement that can benefit everybody who eats out."
Besides recommending that cities and states adopt the posting of inspection grades, CSPI says the Food and Drug Administration should revise its model food code to include easy-to-understand inspection forms and grading cards. State and local governments use the model food code as the basis for their restaurant inspection practices.

TK: One could argue that posting a negative health inspection score on the door of a restaurant is a kiss of death the already fragile industry could do without. Yet, that same knife hanging over the head of operators could be a powerful incentive to perform well in food handling and preparation. And if consumer health is a top priority for the foodservice industry, there is no credible reason why the public should be denied access to the results of inspection reports.