United Fresh: Working to harmonize audits

From United Fresh this afternoon:

United Fresh Produce Association's Retail-Foodservice Board Endorses Work to Harmonize Audits

Board Encourages Industry to Participate in Food Safety Conference in April

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United Fresh Retail-Foodservice Board has endorsed the importance of efforts to harmonize produce food safety audits to reduce cost and duplication of efforts, while enhancing overall safety. At its meeting last week, the Board recommended that produce industry members throughout the supply chain participate in the new Global Conference on Produce Food Safety Standards, to be held April 24-25 immediately following the United Fresh 2009 Convention in Las Vegas.

In a joint statement on behalf of the Board, Chairman Reggie Griffin of The Kroger Company and Vice Chairman Mitch Smith of McDonalds said, "Both retail and foodservice buyers share the same goals as produce suppliers in assuring that good agricultural and handling practices are followed in production and distribution. It's important that partners throughout the supply chain work toward benchmarking and harmonization of any audits that we use to ensure the most effective food safety results with the least cost and duplication of efforts. Using multiple different audits all asking the same basic questions is not the most effective way to focus our energies in enhancing food safety."

The Retail-Foodservice Board specifically recognized the efforts thus far of the association's Food Safety and Technology Council working group on audit harmonization.

"The conference that this group is putting together in Las Vegas is an important opportunity for retailers and foodservice companies to really work with our suppliers on what is a complex issue but a critical one to solve for our industry," Griffin and Smith said.

"The endorsement of audit benchmarking and harmonization by these retail and foodservice leaders is a critical step forward," said United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel. "There's been a tremendous amount of work by the more than 75 members of the Food Safety and Technology Council and companies throughout the industry to get to this point where most industry leaders recognize the burden and cost of duplicative audits. Now, there's light at the end of the tunnel, and we have to continue working together across the supply chain to drive progress," he said.

The Global Conference on Produce Food Safety Standards will be held April 24-25, immediately following the United Fresh 2009 convention in Las Vegas. The event will bring leading retailers, foodservice companies, and produce suppliers together with government and private-sector agencies and organizations active in the area of produce auditing and standards.

"Working together all in the same room, we can begin to focus on common approaches to best assure food safety, rather than having individual interests drive needless duplication and costs throughout the supply chain," Stenzel said.

Conference registration includes free access to all three days of the United FreshTech and Fresh Marketplace trade shows, including the Food Safety Pavilion and its showcase of new university and government produce safety research, the new Produce Traceability Demo Center, and more than 20 express educational seminars right on the show floor. For maximum value, attendees can combine conference registration with an "All-Access Convention Pass" for admission to all general sessions, super sessions, workshops, receptions, and the annual awards banquet.

The United Fresh Retail-Foodservice Board is one of four market segment boards designed to give focus to needs and opportunities within different market sectors. The board consists primarily of retail and foodservice company representatives who work together to address challenges affecting the fresh produce industry in these sectors. Other market sector boards include the Grower-Shipper Board, Wholesale-Distributor Board, and the Fresh-Cut Processor Board. Together, leadership from each of these boards comes together with at-large members representing the entire produce industry, bringing a total supply chain partnership to the overall United Board of Directors.

Each market segment board will be hosting its own breakfast, networking and educational Super Session on April 23 during the convention to focus on issues most critical to their sector of the industry. All attendees are encouraged to participate in one of these sessions to meet their market segment board members, hear from speakers focused on key issues, and discuss questions or concerns in a town hall format with the board and other members in each market segment.