Author: pundit

Trust But Verify

As large handlers try to persuade retailers and other buyers to restrict their supply chain to only those who have signed on to the California Marketing Agreement, it is easy to suppose that the main issue is standards. Indeed, we’ve written, sympathetically, regarding the notion that the standards Fresh Express allowed to be published in […]

Botulism And Carrot Juice
Summary LVXVXII

We’ve been asked to make available in one place our coverage of the recall by Wm. Bolthouse Farms of certain 100% carrot juice products and the broader implications of this issue for food safety. This piece is updated regularly and will be re-run to include new coverage of this outbreak and issue. We initiated our […]

Buyer-led Food Safety Initiative
Recap LVIX

There is an ad hoc group that started it all. The National Restaurant Association has its group working on a program and the Food Marketing Institute held a conference. All these buyer-led initiatives can get confusing, so to assist the trade in keeping track of them all, we are publishing this recap of coverage all […]

A Tip Of The Hat For Stenzel

The industry owes a Thank You to United Fresh’s Tom Stenzel. As CEO of one of our trade organizations, part of Tom’s job is to give speeches and testify before various governmental bodies. Normally, all our association CEOs should get medals for doing this simply because it is typically such a bore. The Pundit actually […]

Getting ‘Locally Grown’ Up To Standard

We received a message from a smaller independent chain in the Midwest looking to find ways to make sure its local growers, which only supply seasonally and are mostly very small, are doing the right thing as far as food safety goes. It is not an easy challenge because these small growers have neither the […]

Pundit Rewind LXVXVXII

The Pundit originally ran the Pundit Rewind on September 21, 2006. We continuously update it in order to keep everyone organized with respect to reference material on this subject; we have updated it with new items and run it again today. Spinach Crisis Summary With so much having been written in so short a time, […]

Pundit’s Mailbag —
GAPs Are Living Documents

One of the undercurrents playing in the food safety debate is the dissatisfaction of many organic growers with the direction things are going. Some of this is a matter of values clashing, as environmental concerns, such as maintaining riparian areas near rivers conflict with the food safety interests of eliminating wildlife from the fields. In […]

An Open Letter To The Board Of Directors Of The National Restaurant Association

To: Chairman — Edward R. Tinsley III, Tinsley Hospitality Group LLC, Santa Fe, New Mexico Vice Chairman — Richard E. Rivera, Rubicon Enterprises LLC, Sarasota, Florida Treasurer — Michael Kaufman, Pond Hill Ventures, Chappaqua, New York Acting Interim President & Chief Executive Officer — Peter G. Kilgore, National Restaurant Assoc Washington, DC Robert A. Antignano, […]

Buyer-led Food Safety Initiative
Recap LVIII

There is an ad hoc group that started it all. The National Restaurant Association has its group working on a program and the Food Marketing Institute held a conference. All these buyer-led initiatives can get confusing, so to assist the trade in keeping track of them all, we are publishing this recap of coverage all […]