Industry United Over Concerns of Safety of Lettuce, Leafy Greens

Leaders of several produce industry organizations have joined together to respond to concerns over the safety of lettuce products.

Included in the group are the International Fresh-cut Produce Association (IFPA), United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association (United), Produce Marketing Association (PMA), Western Growers, Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, the Alliance for Food and Farming and the California Lettuce Research Board, according to a release from United. Though it has no formal name, the group is informally being called a coalition for food safety of lettuce and leafy greens, according to Jim Gorny, vice president of quality assurance and technology for United.

“Basically, it’s unprecedented that all these trade groups are working together to address this issue on lettuce,” Gorny said. “It’s simply that important.”

In its first act, a group of more than 40 industry executives met with Bob Brackett, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center (FDA) for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. In addition, Jeff Farrar of the California Department of Health Services and officials from the California Department of Food and Agriculture attended the meeting.

The meeting stemmed from a letter sent Nov. 4 by the FDA to the California lettuce and leafy greens industry concerning the importance of maintaining a safe supply chain.

In the letter, FDA said, “because these products are commonly consumed in their raw state without processing to reduce or eliminate pathogens, the manner in which they are grown, harvested, packed, processed and distributed is crucial to ensuring that microbial contamination is minimized, thereby reducing the risk of illness to consumers.”

The group of lettuce industry representatives met with Brackett in November to discuss the letter and talk about measures the industry would take to address the issue of food safety in lettuce.

“The meeting was (about) clearing the air for one and also to demonstrate that we did have a game plan in mind to address some of the concerns they had,” said Jerry Welcome, president of IFPA. “I think we’ve demonstrated to the state and federal government that we do take this issue very seriously and we’re working on it and we’re going to continue to do that.”

Following this meeting, the lettuce industry worked together to develop a strategic food safety action plan with four main areas of activity: improved communications within the industry; development of commodity specific guidance documentation on lettuce and leafy greens; development of a research agenda; and educational outreach.

“We developed an action agenda and sat down and shared it openly and honestly,” Gorny said. “It’s a plan developed in partnership with the industry and regulators that provides us with a road map to success. It puts lettuce growers, shippers, processors on vanguard.”

In its effort to improve communications, the coalition has set up a partnership among industry and regulators to meet quarterly in teleconference with the FDA and California Department of Food and Health to keep updated on what’s going on with various aspects of the strategic plan as well as current issues affecting the lettuce industry and food safety, Gorny said.

Currently, the group is working to develop commodity-specific guidance documents for the lettuce industry. Gorny said they hope to have the documents out by the end of the first quarter of 2006. IFPA is taking the lead on the fresh-cut portion of the document, Western Growers Association is the lead on the production and post-harvest issues and PMA is leading in the area related to end users, including retailers, foodservice and consumers. Gorny is serving as editor-in-chief of the project. The document will cover every aspect of the supply chain from farm to table, Gorny said.

The research portion of the action plan will be a long-term program that involves looking at what research is going on now, what needs to be researched and where to find the funding, Welcome said.

“This is unprecedented collaboration along the entire continuum to drive more research so we understand what the issues are and how we can solve them,” Gorny said.

The coalition also will be looking at educational research and getting the information out to growers, shippers, processors, retailers and handlers, Gorny said.

The goals of the coalition are both short-term and long-term. There will continue to be collaboration, as the guidance documents are living documents that will be revised as research is done and new issues arise. The research portion might be the longest term because it takes a while to guarantee funding and to carry out the research.

“You will continue to see an effort on the part of all the major produce groups to work together on issues like this,” Welcome said. “We can’t operate independently anymore.”

Welcome said he thinks the information put together by this coalition will help reiterate the importance of following stringent food safety guidelines.

“It’s important that all of our companies go back and look at their food safety practices,” Welcome said. “You constantly need to be working on that. You constantly need to be improving on internal food safety operations.

“It’s one of those issues that isn’t going to go away, and we’re going to continue working on it and we’re going to find out where the problems exist.”



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