Pundit’s Pulse Of The Industry:
Del Taco’s Janet Erickson
Notre Dame’s Dan Crimmins
Here at the Pundit, we’ve done a series of Retail Pulses in which we spoke with leading retailers to see how they were dealing with different facets of the spinach situation. You can review them here, here, here and here. One of the things that has come across in the course of discussion on the […]
Playing Santa: Electronic Toys
We’ve been receiving thousands of letters and phone calls inquiring what readers can buy the Pundit for the upcoming holidays (actually that is a lie… nobody has called at all.) And we are sure that as you shop this weekend, you are worried about what the Pundit might need. (Actually that is a lie as […]
Great Deal At The
Refrigerated Foods Association Convention
Despite all the news about fresh produce, most food safety issues involve other perishable items. And the association to help people in the prepared, refrigerated food field is the Refrigerated Foods Association. We’ve written previously to urge appropriate folks to check out their conference. Now we are told about a special deal that new manufacturing […]
Spinach Crisis Summary Rewind XXXVII
With so much having been written in so short a time, thought it would be helpful to publish a sort of round-up of available material to help people understand the whole situation regarding spinach and this E. coli breakout: The Perishable Pundit itself has dealt extensively with the subject in several major pieces. On September […]
Botulism And Carrot Juice Summary XXVII
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 IX
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 has a conference planned. 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 […]
Pundit’s Mailbag —
Pundit Logic On Food Safety Regulation
After reading some responses regarding the Buyer-Led Food Safety Initiative, it’s good to hear concerns from both sides. How is my logic here? When distributors first started using HACCP programs, it was not required but gained interest with distributors as certain chains and various types of customers required it. What is wrong with a standard […]
What’s In A Name?
With all the talk about E. coli, the Pundit hopes everyone paid appropriate respects yesterday. November 29, 1857, was the birth date of none other than Theodor Escherich, a pediatrician who did pioneering work on the relationship of intestinal bacteria to the physiology of digestion in infants. The full name of E. coli is Escherichia […]
Self-Interests Play Role In
Food Safety Initiatives
As we continue our exploration of those in opposition to the Buyer-led Food Safety Initiative, we have dealt with those who felt the public nature of the effort was bad and those who felt it was the government’s job. Today we deal with a buy-side executive who thinks that self-interest is starting to play a […]
Hormel, Wal-Mart And The
Meaning Of Upscale
Wall Street Journal ran an interesting piece about Hormel. The focus was really on branding and specifically detailed Hormel’s efforts to add upscale items without alienating its customer base: In February 2004, Hormel rolled out the first of four new ethnic-themed varieties of its Refrigerated Entrees line — Hot and Spicy Szechuan-Style Beef Strips, Teriyaki […]
