Spinach issue explored again at WGA annual meeting
Spinach issue explored again at WGA annual meeting
As the spinach crisis nears the two-month mark, retail sales continue to suffer and the produce industry continues to move ahead looking for the root cause of the original contamination and is trying to reduce the risk of something similar happening again.
These were the salient points that came from a well-attended workshop session devoted to the crisis at the 81st annual meeting of Western Growers Association in Las Vegas Nov. 6 and 7. An overflow-crowd packed a large meeting room and listened to a familiar cast of characters discuss the issue once again. WGA President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Nassif, United Fresh Produce Association President Tom Stenzel, Produce Marketing Association President Bryan Silbermann and Growers Shipper Association of Central California General Counsel and CEO Jim Bogart dissected the crisis just as they have at various other venues over the last two months. Joining them on the dais this time was Tom Russell, president of Salinas-based Pacific International Marketing, who provided a grower's perspective of the food-safety issue.
Though a good portion of the session was devoted to going over the genesis of the crisis, the benefit of hindsight has led to a better understanding of what happened and how it happened. Mr. Stenzel, for example, does not find fault in the Food & Drug Administration's initial advisory on Sept. 14. However, he does believe that the advisory should have been altered in very short order -- as quickly as 24 hours later. He said that when the FDA made its original decision to recommend that consumers not eat spinach regardless of origin, officials were faced with dozens of illnesses and seemingly no common point of origin. But he said that the source was quickly narrowed and it was just plain wrong that the advisory did not reflect this until more than a week later. Mr. Stenzel does believe that the FDA learned a lesson from its action, which resulted in a much more conservative approach to the carrot juice and salmonella issues that surfaced in the ensuing weeks.
Mr. Silbermann revealed the results of scan data that showed that consumers have significantly reduced their consumption of spinach, salads with spinach ingredients and the entire bagged salad category. He said that packaged salad sales are down 15 percent, packaged spinach is down 75 percent and sales of the entire category are down 20 percent. He believes it will take six to 12 months before sales return to pre-contamination levels.
On the positive side, the PMA executive also revealed that consumer attitudes about the category improved quite significantly from mid-September -- shortly after the story broke -- to mid-October. The number of consumers who said they would buy spinach again is climbing, and the perception of spinach being a safe product has also risen quite a bit since the early days of the scare. A solid majority of consumers also trusts both the FDA and the industry to safeguard the food supply. Mr. Silbermann said that it also resonates well with consumers when a company voluntarily recalls product because of a potential problem, as did The Nunes Co. in early October.
Mr. Bogart discussed the efforts underway to fill the "gaps in the" Good Agricultural Practices. He said that the associations are all working together and are on a very tight timeline to enhance the commodity-specific guidelines on which they have been working for the past six months or longer. He said that the various representatives of the associations are meeting often with other stakeholders -- including growers, processors, academics and government officials -- to finish the process by mid- December. Mr. Bogart admitted that the tight deadline is, at least in part, being driven by the desire to get something done before the California Legislature reconvenes in January. Members of the California Legislature have indicated that they will introduce new food-safety regulations when they reconvene. The fresh produce industry is hoping to preempt that eventuality by imposing its own regulations based on sound science.
It is this same concept that led Western Growers Association to propose a food safety California Marketing Agreement & Marketing Order (see The Produce News, Nov. 6, page 1). Mr. Nassif spent much of his time explaining the marketing order concept and the reasoning behind it that led the WGA board of directors to endorse this solution to the food safety issue.
Tom Russell was the most animated of the speakers as he used "sailor's language" to express the growers' view of the issue and potential solutions. In fact, Mr. Russell believes the produce industry must adopt a "kill step" in its processing facilities. He said it is unrealistic to believe that there will be no further outbreaks unless there is a kill step. He advocates the use of irradiation, though he refused to call it by that name. Mr. Russell was clearly frustrated by the actions of the FDA that shut down the entire spinach industry because of a localized issue. He said that growers in every community do 10 times more than they did 10 years ago in the area of food safety and still this problem arose. "We can't do it," he said of any plan that would attempt to guarantee no future outbreaks. "We need a kill step."
A significant element of this session was the audience, which was heavily production-oriented and clearly unhappy with FDA. There was also a lot of frustration aimed at the buyer community. John D'Arrigo of D'Arrigo Bros. of California specifically challenged PMA to get the retailers in the country to adopt stricter food safety standards at the end of the distribution line. He said that he has been in many stores where his own product is not handled properly.
A couple of comments were also made by both the audience and the panelists about the buyer food-safety initiative that was released two weeks ago (see The Produce News, Nov. 6, page 1). Mr. Stenzel seemed to sum up the view of most when he stated that the buyer initiative was the work of relatively few people and set some deadlines that the association's do not feel compelled to follow. However, he added that the initiative shows that the buyer community is also frustrated with the situation and is very concerned. As such, its input in the ultimate solution is very much welcome.
The WGA annual meeting convened Monday, Nov. 6, with a golf tournament prior to the beginning of the educational part of the meeting Nov. 7. One of the highlights was the association 35th annual political action breakfast, which featured former California Sen. Jim Brulte, who handicapped that day's election. Speaking to the heavily Republican crowd, Sen. Brulte, also a Republican, suspected that they would not be too happy when the day came to a close. He laid out many different scenarios as to how the day could break for one side or the other, but he predicted that the Democrats would pick up enough seats to carry the House and possibly to gain control of the Senate.
These were the salient points that came from a well-attended workshop session devoted to the crisis at the 81st annual meeting of Western Growers Association in Las Vegas Nov. 6 and 7. An overflow-crowd packed a large meeting room and listened to a familiar cast of characters discuss the issue once again. WGA President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Nassif, United Fresh Produce Association President Tom Stenzel, Produce Marketing Association President Bryan Silbermann and Growers Shipper Association of Central California General Counsel and CEO Jim Bogart dissected the crisis just as they have at various other venues over the last two months. Joining them on the dais this time was Tom Russell, president of Salinas-based Pacific International Marketing, who provided a grower's perspective of the food-safety issue.
Though a good portion of the session was devoted to going over the genesis of the crisis, the benefit of hindsight has led to a better understanding of what happened and how it happened. Mr. Stenzel, for example, does not find fault in the Food & Drug Administration's initial advisory on Sept. 14. However, he does believe that the advisory should have been altered in very short order -- as quickly as 24 hours later. He said that when the FDA made its original decision to recommend that consumers not eat spinach regardless of origin, officials were faced with dozens of illnesses and seemingly no common point of origin. But he said that the source was quickly narrowed and it was just plain wrong that the advisory did not reflect this until more than a week later. Mr. Stenzel does believe that the FDA learned a lesson from its action, which resulted in a much more conservative approach to the carrot juice and salmonella issues that surfaced in the ensuing weeks.
Mr. Silbermann revealed the results of scan data that showed that consumers have significantly reduced their consumption of spinach, salads with spinach ingredients and the entire bagged salad category. He said that packaged salad sales are down 15 percent, packaged spinach is down 75 percent and sales of the entire category are down 20 percent. He believes it will take six to 12 months before sales return to pre-contamination levels.
On the positive side, the PMA executive also revealed that consumer attitudes about the category improved quite significantly from mid-September -- shortly after the story broke -- to mid-October. The number of consumers who said they would buy spinach again is climbing, and the perception of spinach being a safe product has also risen quite a bit since the early days of the scare. A solid majority of consumers also trusts both the FDA and the industry to safeguard the food supply. Mr. Silbermann said that it also resonates well with consumers when a company voluntarily recalls product because of a potential problem, as did The Nunes Co. in early October.
Mr. Bogart discussed the efforts underway to fill the "gaps in the" Good Agricultural Practices. He said that the associations are all working together and are on a very tight timeline to enhance the commodity-specific guidelines on which they have been working for the past six months or longer. He said that the various representatives of the associations are meeting often with other stakeholders -- including growers, processors, academics and government officials -- to finish the process by mid- December. Mr. Bogart admitted that the tight deadline is, at least in part, being driven by the desire to get something done before the California Legislature reconvenes in January. Members of the California Legislature have indicated that they will introduce new food-safety regulations when they reconvene. The fresh produce industry is hoping to preempt that eventuality by imposing its own regulations based on sound science.
It is this same concept that led Western Growers Association to propose a food safety California Marketing Agreement & Marketing Order (see The Produce News, Nov. 6, page 1). Mr. Nassif spent much of his time explaining the marketing order concept and the reasoning behind it that led the WGA board of directors to endorse this solution to the food safety issue.
Tom Russell was the most animated of the speakers as he used "sailor's language" to express the growers' view of the issue and potential solutions. In fact, Mr. Russell believes the produce industry must adopt a "kill step" in its processing facilities. He said it is unrealistic to believe that there will be no further outbreaks unless there is a kill step. He advocates the use of irradiation, though he refused to call it by that name. Mr. Russell was clearly frustrated by the actions of the FDA that shut down the entire spinach industry because of a localized issue. He said that growers in every community do 10 times more than they did 10 years ago in the area of food safety and still this problem arose. "We can't do it," he said of any plan that would attempt to guarantee no future outbreaks. "We need a kill step."
A significant element of this session was the audience, which was heavily production-oriented and clearly unhappy with FDA. There was also a lot of frustration aimed at the buyer community. John D'Arrigo of D'Arrigo Bros. of California specifically challenged PMA to get the retailers in the country to adopt stricter food safety standards at the end of the distribution line. He said that he has been in many stores where his own product is not handled properly.
A couple of comments were also made by both the audience and the panelists about the buyer food-safety initiative that was released two weeks ago (see The Produce News, Nov. 6, page 1). Mr. Stenzel seemed to sum up the view of most when he stated that the buyer initiative was the work of relatively few people and set some deadlines that the association's do not feel compelled to follow. However, he added that the initiative shows that the buyer community is also frustrated with the situation and is very concerned. As such, its input in the ultimate solution is very much welcome.
The WGA annual meeting convened Monday, Nov. 6, with a golf tournament prior to the beginning of the educational part of the meeting Nov. 7. One of the highlights was the association 35th annual political action breakfast, which featured former California Sen. Jim Brulte, who handicapped that day's election. Speaking to the heavily Republican crowd, Sen. Brulte, also a Republican, suspected that they would not be too happy when the day came to a close. He laid out many different scenarios as to how the day could break for one side or the other, but he predicted that the Democrats would pick up enough seats to carry the House and possibly to gain control of the Senate.
