Professional Produce adds organics, completes food-safety initiative
Professional Produce adds organics, completes food-safety initiative
Professional Produce, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Vernon, CA, recently hired John McCormick, and is planning on handling organics, in addition to conventional produce, said President Ted Kaplan in an interview with The Produce News.
The organic program, which the company was “just starting,” will include citrus and “a few other items,” Kaplan added.
Prior to joining Professional Produce, McCormick worked for Muranaka Farms. Before that, he was with Ralph’s Grocery Stores for around 30 years.
But the biggest news for Professional Produce, Kaplan said, is the impending completion of a food-safety initiative that “will put us in the forefront of everybody in California” in the area of food safety.
Bill Rellos heads Professional Produce’s new citrus program, which was added last year.“We have been in the process of remodeling our warehouse” and implementing other components of a food-safety protocol to qualify for SQF certification under the Global Food Safety Initiative. “We are going to be approved for the highest-ranked food-safety program in the country,” he said.
“It took quite a bit of remodeling and quite a bit of new infrastructure” to meet the SQF certification requirements, he said. It also involved putting procedures in place to make everyone in the company accountable, “because everybody in your warehouse — from the people sweeping the floors to the people upstairs in accounting — has to be on board with this thing.”
It has involved a lot of employee education as well, he said. “It is a year-long process.”
Giving attention to the issue of food-safety is essential in today’s marketplace, according to Kaplan. “All your major supermarkets and processors and food distribution people need to know that you are doing the utmost possible to care for the produce you handle.”
Professional Produce is involved in growing, packing, shipping and distribution of various produce items. Increasingly, the company is investing in the farming side of the business, Kaplan said. “I’m seeing it’s a lot harder to do business in Los Angeles if you’re not involved in the growing deal. It gets tougher and tougher. Everybody is fighting for nickels and dimes.”
A citrus program was added last year. “We are importing and also repacking” a line of citrus items, Kaplan said. Bill Rellos, who was previously the director of citrus at MCL Produce, is heading the program. The citrus program consists primarily of oranges, lemons and grapefruit from various places, including California, Texas and Mexico.
