Produce Promotions - Dec. 4 through Dec. 9

Here are selected suburban Kansas City produce promotions the week of Dec. 4 through Dec. 9:


Price Chopper
Head lettuce: 69 cents/each
Dole Jumbo pineapple: $3.99/each
Fresh blueberries: two 4.4 ounce containers for $5
Pom Wonderful pomegranates: 2/$3
Hot House bell peppers: red orange or yellow $2.99/lb
Large Hass avocado: $1.19 each
Hot House tomatoes: $1.99/lb
Jumbo sweet onions: 89 cents/lb
Green Giant baby portabella mushrooms: 2/$4
Caliman strawberry papayas: 2 doe $3
Washington Granny Smith apples: $1.19/lb
Large baking potatoes: 69 cents/lb

HyVee
Pacific Rose or Jazz appels: $1.48/lb
Korean pears: $2.48 each
Apsaragus: $2.77/lb
Pro Health 4 count baking potatoes: $2.99

Aldi
Red seedless grapes: 99 cents/lb
Indian River grapefruit: 25 cents each
California navel oranges: $1.99/4-pound bag
Yellow onions: 99 cents/3 lb bag
Mushrooms: 99 cents per pack

Hen House
Bahama Star jumbo grapefruit: 99 cents each
Large fresh pomegranates: 2 for $4
Caliman strawberry papaya: 2 for $3

Aldi - Dec. 1 slideshow

A visit to suburban area Aldi in Kansas City:

Consumers Union - the FDA needs a complete overhaul

Consumers Union statement on the FDA's self assessment of its Food Protection Plan:



While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new report on its current food safety activities shows some progress, it is not enough to adequately protect the American food supply. While it is positive that they are establishing five offices in foreign countries, the discovery last week that melamine is contaminating infant formula in the U.S. as well as in China indicates that much more action is needed. FDA should immediate ask companies to recall the contaminated batches of formula.

The FDA needs a complete overhaul, including but not limited to vastly increased funding, far greater staff and much more frequent inspections of both domestic and foreign food processors. While FDA’s progress report states that the agency has inspected 5,930 domestic food establishments during Fiscal Year 2008, a January 2008 GAO report analyzing the Food Protection Plan states that there are 65,520 domestic food production facilities in the U.S. This means that FDA is still inspecting U.S. food production facilities only once every 10 years. At this rate, we would not be surprised to see more problems like the salmonella that was found in peanut butter manufactured at a Georgia processing facility in 2007.

Further, FDA struggled for four months during the summer of 2008 to locate the source of a salmonella outbreak that sickened over 1,000 people. This outbreak shows that FDA should immediately implement electronic record keeping and unique identifiers for products, in order to make traceback quicker and easier.

FDA must also become more proactive and precautionary, rather than reactive. The recent findings of melamine and cyanuric acid in infant formula – revealed to the public not by FDA but by a Freedom of Information Act request by reporters – demonstrates the agency’s failure to exercise adequate precaution. If these two chemicals are combined—a possibility FDA is not so far considering— they can be extremely hazardous to infants. Despite this hazard, and despite the fact that the agency has known about the melamine in milk products from China since September, FDA has not yet requested any recalls of contaminated batches of the formula. Consumers Union calls on FDA to request a company recall of any formula with melamine or cyanuric acid.

DeLauro - "so called reforms" of FDA

From the office of Rep. Rosa DeLauro, sliding across the inbox today:

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) issued the following statement following the release of a report by the Food and Drug Administration on its implementation of the Food Protection Plan, which was announced in November 2007.

“While the FDA will contend that they are making progress on food safety, it is progress based on an outdated system and an outdated regulatory structure. Unfortunately, the recent situation involving melamine in baby formula demonstrates that significant work remains for the FDA.

“The long-term viability of these so-called reforms remains in doubt given that food safety will constantly be competing for attention and resources with medical product safety under the FDA.

“In order to achieve any real progress in protecting our food supply, the food safety responsibilities under the current FDA need to be detached and made a separate agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. It is only through this restructuring that the regulatory system will be provided with the expertise, management and resources focused exclusively on food safety to make legitimate reforms possible.”

FDA meeting Traceability transcript - Oct. 16

Here is a link to a transcript of the Oct. 16 traceability hearing. The document is 148 pages long.....

You will find this document quite illuminating...

Here is one official with FDA talking about challenges in sharing information with industry:


One of the things that we’ve encountered in almost all of the traceback is being able to share information with industry and how do we legally go about doing that. And I think that was talked about at the 50 state meeting. And I think it’s an issue that we’ll be addressing and hopefully make some new ground, although it may take some time.

Traceregister - FDA hearing

"It's not my fault and I can prove it"

Thoughtful testimony at the Nov. 13 traceability hearing in Oakland from Richard Ross of Tracegains Inc.....



FDA Product Tracing Systems for Fresh Produce
Oakland, California
November 13, 2008

Let me introduce myself. I’m Richard Ross and I’ve been in the agricultural commodity business for thirty years and managed 14 food businesses while with Archer Daniels Midland and ConAgra. I’ve been through recalls and I know your pain.

I have listened to FDA inspectors after each of these high-profile food recalls, and what they hear from grower-packer-shippers is “it’s not my fault.” Wouldn’t these same FDA inspectors like to hear “it’s not my fault and I can prove it!”? The grower-packer-shipper community has within their grasp the ability to make this type of “get out of jail free” comment. Given today’s technology, this goal isn’t out of reach, and I’ll get to that in a moment.

I brought this spinach from my hotel kitchen. I asked the person responsible for receiving shipments into the kitchen what box it came from and who delivered it. The response was, “I don’t know”. I asked, how many deliveries of vegetables the hotel got a week and he said every day, but he didn’t know which day this spinach was delivered. With multiple deliveries, unmarked boxes, comingling and the anonymity of the grower-packer-shipper, we have in place a dangerous, slippery slope. One way to get more traction is to really enforce the Bioterrorism Act. Really enforce the requirement that each member of the supply chain be able to know with certainty from where they received a specific product. The ability to truly understand this information is available today using the services of private companies such as mine, TraceGains.

How is that achieved you ask? Our solution is unique in three distinct ways:
1. You know that traceability is more than slapping a label on a box. You can track and trace rework, repack and reboxing. These are the main difficulties of the investigation of the tomatoes and peppers this summer costing an estimated $150,000,000 or more to the Florida growers.
2. Second our software has the ability to make traceability not only pay for itself, but add profits to the grower-packer-shipper. Traceability must be a profit center, not a cost.
3. And most importantly, you could have answers in seconds. As you have discovered, produce is not a supply chain, it is a supply network. The interoperability of TraceGains would allow you to traceback quickly, letting you save time, money and potentially lives.

Speedy, complete traceback, making more money and allowing companies that have full traceability systems to stay in commerce, that’s the best answer I’ve heard.

“It’s not my fault and I can prove it!”
Would you be interested in accomplishing your work doing something like this?

Richard Ross
Director of Industry Relations
Tracegains Inc.

Tracetracker - FDA traceability hearing

Infratab - FDA traceability hearing

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.

FDA Testimony - Northrop Grumman

FDA testimony - Traceability hearing

Fighter brands and the Aldi response

Here is an interesting read about Tesco's response to Aldi, which now includes a "fighter" brand approach. From the Branding Strategy Website:

The marketer who is bored with the world's 4th largest retailer is bored with life. If you have been into a Tesco store recently, you will already have seen a new line gracing its aisles. The 'discount brands at Tesco' range has been hailed by chief executive Terry Leahy as the biggest change in the brand's offering in more than a decade.

The range includes 34 brands across 400 categories. Among them are Country Barn cornflakes, Mermaid Buy fish fingers, Gold Sun vitamins and Shanghai Garden sauces. According to commercial director Richard Brasher, Tesco has seen 'an opportunity between the various levels to make sure there is a different proposition for consumers'.

In the 'good, better, best' own-label triptych that Tesco made famous, the discount range is priced above its Value line, but below branded offerings.

The products look more Aldi than Tesco. The German retailer has traditionally avoided using its own brand name on any of its products, instead using a house of brands architecture featuring two-dimensional brand names such as Tundra Bleach and Golden Nectar Honey, which it invents with the help of the major manufacturers who supply the products.

This approach is typical in Germany, where the name of the store is rarely used on private-label goods. The array of brand names also helps foster the illusion of choice in a store that usually contains fewer than 1000 stock-keeping units, of which 95% are Aldi own labels.

Tesco's traditional approach has been very different from Aldi's. Like most British retailers, it has used a branded house architecture, using the Tesco name on everything from its Value line to its Finest offering. However, the supermarket's latest line is clearly a fighter brand range designed specific-ally to replicate and compete with Aldi.

This is a remarkable turn of events because the standard line on fighter brands - those created at a different price point to target a particular competitor - is that they almost always fail.

TK: Check out the rest of the column when you follow the link. It will be interesting to see if the produce aisle sees more evidence of "value branding" in the year ahead.

Consumer spending - Black Friday and beyond

What is the initial report about spending on Black Friday? I can report I did not spend a dime on Friday, as I content to eat Thanksgiving leftovers, watch football, play Wii and driveway basketball at my brother's house. Hopefully the rest of you kept our economy going...
Here is a link talking about how retailers did Friday and what is to come. From the CNN report:

Sales over the Thanksgiving long weekend were surprisingly strong. The National Retail Federation estimated that consumers spent $372.57 on average, an increase from 7.2% from a year ago.

But the NRF is predicting just a 2.2% increase in holiday shopping sales this year, which would be the smallest increase since 2002. Even that forecast is considered too rosy by many other industry experts.

After all, the healthy sales on Friday may merely be yet another reflection of how weak the economy is: i.e. people rushed out to find the best bargains but may now retreat once the sales are over.

Other headlines about consumer spending, the stimulus plan and the recession

Black Friday takes a hit from the economy

Squeezing the most from the stimulus plan

President-elect Barack Obama has not stated what the stimulus plan might cost, though Congressional leaders have cited figures of $500 billion and higher. Mr. Obama has given a hint, though. He speaks of a recovery that would generate 2.5 million jobs in the first two years of his administration. That would require not just zero economic growth, but a fairly robust expansion — a swing in effect from the present 4 percent contraction to a growth rate of 2.5 to 3 percent a year.

A not so gray Black Friday

Sales the day after Thanksgiving rose to $10.6 billion, according to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. Last year, shoppers spent about $10.3 billion the day after Thanksgiving.

PMA presenttion at FDA hearing - traceability

Progress report - Food protection plan

The FDA has issued a news release giving a self assessment of its progress in implement the Food Protection Plan. Find the link here.
From the FDA:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today released a report on its implementation of the Food Protection Plan that was launched a year ago to protect both domestic and imported food from accidental and intentional contamination. The Plan, which outlines strategies for prevention, intervention and response, is designed to address food safety and food defense for both domestic and imported products and covers the full lifecycle of food, by encouraging the building of safety into every step of the food supply chain.

"Science and 21st century technologies help drive the FDA's efforts to transform our food safety efforts from the Food Protection Plan into a reality," said Commissioner of Food and Drugs Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D. "Every day, the FDA is working with foreign countries, state and local governments, regulated industry and consumer groups to ensure the safety of the food supply. We also continue to work with members of Congress to achieve new authorities requested in the Food Protection Plan."

Listed below are the highlights of the agency's accomplishments in implementing the Food Protection Plan's three core strategies: The prevention of outbreaks of food-borne disease, and intervention and response if they occur:

PREVENTION

• The FDA is establishing offices in five regions that export food and other FDA-regulated products to the United States: China, India, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. The FDA has already hired staff for its offices in China and India.
• The FDA was part of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) delegation to China to address food safety issues in both countries and to share ideas to address global food safety. U.S. and Chinese government officials discussed recent outbreak of foodborne illness in the United States related to fresh produce as well as the melamine contamination of dairy products in China.
• The FDA released the CARVER self-assessment tool for industry, to minimize the risk of intentional contamination of food, and conducted training seminars for industry on how to use the tool.
• The FDA held a meeting of with more than 200 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners to address the challenges of protecting the nation's food supply.
• The FDA is hiring an International Notification Coordinator to manage enhanced information exchanges between the agency and foreign counterpart regulatory authorities.
• The FDA approved the use of irradiation of iceberg lettuce and spinach for the control of pathogens, such as Escherichia. coli, in or on those foods.
• The FDA developed methods to detect melamine and cyanuric acid in feed and feed ingredients.
• The FDA is using genetic analysis to identify hundreds of Salmonella strains from seafood imports. The analysis provides information to trace outbreaks of Salmonella outbreaks and implement surveillance programs to ensure food safety.

INTERVENTION

• The FDA completed inspections of 5,930 high-risk domestic food establishments during the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008.
• The FDA piloted the program for inspection and sampling of high-risk companies in Denver and Minneapolis during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
• A targeted, risk-based inspection of a canning facility in 2008 identified cans with viable Clostridium botulinum spores and a recall was initiated. The FDA initiated this inspection, along with inspections of other Low Acid Canned Food (LACF) manufacturers, following four cases of botulism in consumers in 2007. The FDA increased inspection efforts to ensure that manufacturers of all types of LACF products are adhering to applicable FDA requirements. These actions illustrate the need for companies to operate under adequate preventive control systems.
• The FDA issued "Draft Guidance for Industry on Voluntary Third-Party Certification Programs for Food and Feed." Docket FDA-2008-D-0381 is available for viewing at www.regulations.gov.
• The FDA has developed a rapid detection method that uses flow cytometry to identify E. coli and Salmonella in food, now in use in poultry-processing facilities to detect and prevent bacterial contamination during food processing.
• The FDA is expanding its database of adverse drug events to include adverse feed events, which will allow the agency to respond faster to outbreaks of feedborne disease in animals, contamination episodes, and/or product defects.
• The FDA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection jointly issued a final rule on Prior Notice of Imported Food Shipments, and an accompanying Compliance Policy Guide (CPG) on Oct. 31, 2008; the rule and CPG were published in the Federal Register on Nov. 7, 2008.

RESPONSE

• The FDA is working with industry and the public to identify best practices for tracing fresh produce throughout the supply chain.
• The FDA has enhanced the agency's ability to coordinate a comprehensive response to foodborne illness events by authoring tools used to track emergency response resources and other locations of interest.
• The FDA hired two emergency /complaint-response coordinators to improve its response to emergencies that involve animal feed, including pet food.
• Following the detection of melamine in infant formula and milk products from China, the FDA worked with its state and local counterparts to rapidly canvas over 2,100 vendors of Asian products to remove any Chinese infant formula from the market and to sample milk-derived Chinese products to check for melamine contamination. The FDA also provided regular updates on its Web site, advising consumers which products to avoid because of melamine contamination.
• The FDA held regular briefing calls for consumer organizations during the outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul in the summer of 2008, and regularly updated a Web page that provided information on the investigation into the outbreak, and advised consumers how they could protect themselves and their families.
• The FDA has signed cooperative agreements with six U.S. states to form a Rapid Response Team to develop, implement, exercise, and integrate an all-hazards response capability for food and foodborne illness responses, to react more rapidly react to potential threats to our food supply.
• After reports from China of melamine-contaminated infant formula, the FDA worked with its state and local counterparts to quickly canvas over 2,100 Asian markets to remove any infant formula from China that might be available and to sample milk-derived products to check for melamine contamination.

The entire One-Year Summary of Progress under the Food Protection Plan is posted at www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/food/progressreport1108.html, and the Food Protection Plan is available at www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/food/plan.html.

The Food Protection Plan complements the Action Plan on Import Safety the President's Working Group On Import Safety unveiled one year ago to improve the safety of all imported products. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt heads The Working Group. For additional information on the FDA's activities under the Action Plan for Import Safety, please visit: www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/imports/activities.html.

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Farm prices swoon in November

The deflation in the commodities market was reflected in the USDA's agricultural prices report:

November Farm Prices Received Index Declined 12 Points

The preliminary All Farm Products Index of Prices Received by Farmers in November, at 139 percent, based on 1990-92=100, decreased 12 points (7.9 percent) from October. The Crop Index is down 16 points (9.5 percent) and the Livestock Index decreased 2 points (1.6 percent). Producers received lower prices for soybeans, corn, lettuce, and hogs and higher prices for tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, and cantaloups. In addition to prices, the overall index is also affected by the seasonal change based on a 3-year average mix of commodities producers sell. Increased monthly marketings of milk, cattle, cotton, and cottonseed offset decreased marketings of soybeans, potatoes, peanuts, and lettuce.

The preliminary All Farm Products Index is down 2 points (1.4 percent) from November 2007. The Food Commodities Index, at 140, decreased 9 points (6.0 percent) from last month and decreased 5 points (3.4 percent) from November 2007.

Prices Paid Index Down 4 Points

The November Index of Prices Paid for Commodities and Services, Interest,Taxes, and Farm Wage Rates (PPITW) is 183 percent of the 1990-92 average The index is down 4 points (2.1 percent) from October but 18 points (11 percent) above November 2007. Lower prices in November for diesel fuel, feed concentrates, complete feeds, and gasoline more than offset higher prices for feeder pigs, mixed fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides.