US plays it fast and loose
07 November 2006 17:05 | Permalink
Chris White
You better believe it: food safety is right back on the agenda in an even bigger way than before. It seems that we have a few California-based producers of spinach to thank for food safety’s simultaneous reappearance in red ink at the top of consumers’ shopping lists and the fresh fruit and vegetable trade’s ‘to do’ list.
In recent weeks, e-coli contamination of bags of fresh spinach have cost the lives of three Americans and rendered very seriously ill more than 200 of their fellow citizens. This would be bad news anywhere in the world, but it’s especially bad for a society which has updated its constitutional principles to include life, liberty and the pursuit of the next meal.
No surprise therefore that spinach sales in the US should have fallen through the floor, with bagged salad sales also hit hard, down by some 30 per cent, say news reports. Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as goons from the FBI have been drafted in to hunt down the source of the contamination which, even if the full results of their investigations have yet to be concluded, is widely thought to sit in a pile of cattle manure in a field in central California.
America’s ongoing struggle with the safety of its fresh spinach comes at a time of great growth for its bagged salads sector. The industry in the US is the world’s largest, worth more than US$4.5bn in annual sales and growing by some 10 per cent per annum. Salads are now the third-fastest growing segment in US supermarkets, with sales climbing by some US$200m every year. A total of eight out of 10 US households now regularly buy packaged salads.
Two brands dominate the bagged salads business in the US, accounting for nearly three-quarters of sales: Fresh Express, which was acquired last year by Chiquita Brands, launched the industry in 1989 and is now market leader with some 41 per cent; Dole is its nearest rival with a 31 per cent share of the market .
When it comes to the safety of produce marketed in the US it seems that things are different. Although processing plants in the US are checked by the FDA and the large companies have developed their own protocols, for many growers it seems that food safety is actually fairly low on the list of priorities they assign for themselves.
How different things are in Europe, where the leading supermarkets have spent much of the past decade spearheading a campaign for food safety from the top to the bottom of the supply chain. In the UK alone, the Salmonella and BSE crises have certainly focused minds. In the light of recent events in the US, their championing of good agricultural practice through standards such as EurepGAP should now be seen as a godsend for suppliers.
Not only does it mean that a food scare of this kind in some of Europe’s leading markets is rather less likely, but it also means that the consequences of any outbreak are bound to be rather easier to manage.
Back in the US, the fresh produce business is now searching for answers to the questions raised by the e-coli crisis. At both United and PMA not to mention among the many opinion-formers in the business and trade media, the search is on for a way out of this current food crisis. The lessons are being learned.
The US could do worse than look across the Atlantic for a solution. They ought to invite their own food retail industry jointly to develop a common set of robust and enforceable food safety standards that will prevent this kind of thing happening again. It’s just too much to expect the cavalry to turn up and save them at the last minute.
You better believe it: food safety is right back on the agenda in an even bigger way than before. It seems that we have a few California-based producers of spinach to thank for food safety’s simultaneous reappearance in red ink at the top of consumers’ shopping lists and the fresh fruit and vegetable trade’s ‘to do’ list.
In recent weeks, e-coli contamination of bags of fresh spinach have cost the lives of three Americans and rendered very seriously ill more than 200 of their fellow citizens. This would be bad news anywhere in the world, but it’s especially bad for a society which has updated its constitutional principles to include life, liberty and the pursuit of the next meal.
No surprise therefore that spinach sales in the US should have fallen through the floor, with bagged salad sales also hit hard, down by some 30 per cent, say news reports. Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as goons from the FBI have been drafted in to hunt down the source of the contamination which, even if the full results of their investigations have yet to be concluded, is widely thought to sit in a pile of cattle manure in a field in central California.
America’s ongoing struggle with the safety of its fresh spinach comes at a time of great growth for its bagged salads sector. The industry in the US is the world’s largest, worth more than US$4.5bn in annual sales and growing by some 10 per cent per annum. Salads are now the third-fastest growing segment in US supermarkets, with sales climbing by some US$200m every year. A total of eight out of 10 US households now regularly buy packaged salads.
Two brands dominate the bagged salads business in the US, accounting for nearly three-quarters of sales: Fresh Express, which was acquired last year by Chiquita Brands, launched the industry in 1989 and is now market leader with some 41 per cent; Dole is its nearest rival with a 31 per cent share of the market .
When it comes to the safety of produce marketed in the US it seems that things are different. Although processing plants in the US are checked by the FDA and the large companies have developed their own protocols, for many growers it seems that food safety is actually fairly low on the list of priorities they assign for themselves.
How different things are in Europe, where the leading supermarkets have spent much of the past decade spearheading a campaign for food safety from the top to the bottom of the supply chain. In the UK alone, the Salmonella and BSE crises have certainly focused minds. In the light of recent events in the US, their championing of good agricultural practice through standards such as EurepGAP should now be seen as a godsend for suppliers.
Not only does it mean that a food scare of this kind in some of Europe’s leading markets is rather less likely, but it also means that the consequences of any outbreak are bound to be rather easier to manage.
Back in the US, the fresh produce business is now searching for answers to the questions raised by the e-coli crisis. At both United and PMA not to mention among the many opinion-formers in the business and trade media, the search is on for a way out of this current food crisis. The lessons are being learned.
The US could do worse than look across the Atlantic for a solution. They ought to invite their own food retail industry jointly to develop a common set of robust and enforceable food safety standards that will prevent this kind of thing happening again. It’s just too much to expect the cavalry to turn up and save them at the last minute.
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