Everyone Needs To Do A Little Bit
On more than one occasion on the industry conference calls to discuss the spinach crisis, Bryan Silbermann, President of the Produce Marketing Association, mentioned the many crises he had gone through with the produce industry, going all the way back to Alar on apples and cyanide in Chilean grapes. I know of what he speaks, […]
Primary And Secondary Suppliers
One of the lessons of the spinach/E. coli situation is that buyers need to dig a lot deeper in selecting primary and secondary suppliers. Most buyers of size don’t want to be 100% in the pocket of any one supplier. Reasons are many, but include making sure that the buyer has an established business relationship […]
Notes On Natural Selection:
It Could Happen To You
Among the many growers in Salinas who have been hurt by the whole spinach/E. coli situation, there is more than a little bitterness toward Natural Selection Foods. There is an overall assumption that this could have been prevented or handled better. Perhaps. But among its competitors, I’ve sensed little but a “…there but for the […]
In Defense Of Salinas
Now that the recommendation not to eat spinach has been lifted, the mood in the Salinas Valley is turning from fear to outrage. Talk with John R. Baillie of the Jack T. Baillie Co., Baillie Family Farms and Tri-County Packing, and you can hear in the cadence of his voice the fierce pride of a […]
Spinach Crisis Summary Rewind VII
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 […]
How Committed Is The Produce Industry
To Broad/National Food Safety Programs?
Does the produce industry actually believe there is a lesson to be learned from the spinach E. coli outbreak? My sense is that the answer is no. The industry is committing to do this “Fresh Start” program — referenced in an earlier pundit — because this is the price the FDA demanded to reopen the […]
Questions For Western Growers
Tom Nassif, President and CEO of Western Growers Association, is a tireless and effective defender of the interests of his constituency. Thus, it was not surprising when in the midst of all the efforts to get the spinach market going again, he raised the issue of what the Federal government was going to do to […]
Collateral Damage vs. Assumption Of The Risk
I’m reminded of a late night conversation I had with Joe Nucci of Mann Packing many years ago. Joe had been meeting with some equipment vendors, and there was a potential food safety issue with a process that was being considered. The specifics of the issue are lost in the shrouds of memory, but I […]
Action Plan To Regain Consumer Confidence
“The spinach that is going to come on to the market next week, or whenever, is going to be as safe as it was before this outbreak, but … there are some longer-term issues that need to be addressed.” It was with this fuzzy language that Dr. David Acheson, Chief Medical Officer of the FDA’s […]
Spinach Crisis Summary Rewind VI
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 […]
