Industry news roundup: The latest from around the fresh-cut industry
Check out these latest developments from around the fresh-cut produce industry. Scroll down to read about what's new from 3M Food Safety, Key Technology, Ampac, Birko, Colorful Harvest, the Center for Produce Safety, the Global Cold Chain Alliance, GS1's new global product recall standards, Ready Pac, Multivac, Harris Teeter's school salad bar efforts, PMA's new Implementation Guide for Fresh Produce Data Standards and Synchronization, Kronen, Tenrit, Naturipe Farms, C.H. Robinson and Intelleflex.
3M salmonella assay
gets AOAC-PTM OK
3M Food Safety’s new 3M Molecular Detection Assay – Salmonella has received AOAC-PTM Certification from the AOAC Research Institute’s Performance Tested Methods Program.
The system was first introduced in December 2011 as a combination of two technologies – isothermal DNA amplification and bioluminescence detection – that offers a reliable and rapid qualitative method of pathogen detection in enriched food, feed and food process environmental samples.
Key announces
appointments
Key Technology has named Marco Azzaretti to the position of Optical Product Manager. Azzaretti is responsible for managing activities that support the development and sales of Key’s laser/camera sorting systems including Manta, Tegra, Optyx and Veo, which identify and remove defects and foreign material.
In addition, Govert van Drunen has been appointed EMEIA Sales Manager at Key Technology BV, the company’s European operation. Van Drunen is responsible for sales and channel development in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. He will manage sales activities around Key’s automated inspection, specialized conveying, and product preparation systems.
Key has also appointed Prime International to be its exclusive sales representative in Argentina. Prime is responsible for developing sales and providing service for Key’s automated inspection and sorting systems, specialized conveying and processing equipment to customers in Argentina that produce a variety of products including fresh and processed fruits and vegetables.
Ampac wins IFT
Innovation Award
Ampac’s recyclable No.2 Pouch garnered a 2012 IFT Food Expo Innovation Award from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).
Made from a coextruded HDPE blend that yields a pouch with stiffness and strength, it can be produced with a clear, opaque or matte finish. It is also approved for post-consumer recycling with plastic retail shopping bags and is resealable.
Birko introduces
new newsletter
Birko has launched a free quarterly newsletter for the food processing industry.
Food Safety Update will offer insights from on interventions, effective chemicals and equipment and related topics. To receive a free copy, sign up at http://www.birkocorp.com/newsevents/newsletter-sign-up/
Burris joins
Colorful Harvest
Colorful Harvest of Salinas, Calif., has appointed Jeremy Burris as its new Florida division vice president for sales & sourcing.
Burris brings more than 10 years of strawberry industry experience as the former vice president of sales for Wish Farms of Florida, in addition a master’s degree in business administration from Southeastern University, Lakeland, Fla.
CPS announces
new board members
The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) Advisory Board welcomes four new board members.
They include: Jennifer Biringer, South Coast project director, The Nature Conservancy; Christopher R. Braden, M.D., captain USPHS, director of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jorge Hernandez, senior vice president, Food Safety and Quality, US Foods; and Jim Lemke, senior vice president, Sourcing, C.H. Robinson.
Retiring from the board are Rob Atwill, director, Western Institute for Food Safety and Security, University of California, Davis; Edo Chalutz, executive director, US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund; Belinda Morris, regional director, Center for Conservation Incentives, Environmental Defense Fund; Bennie Osburn, dean emeritus, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis; and Liz Spence, associate project director, North Coast region, The Nature Conservancy.
A complete list of board members may be found on the CPS website.
Alliance publishes
Cold Chain Guide
The Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) has published the 2012-2013 Global Cold Chain Directory.
The directory includes 464 pages of listings of providers in categories that include warehouses, transportation, construction, research and education and cold chain products and services. They are members of the Core Partners of GCCA, which represent all major industries engaged in temperature-controlled logistics.
The Global Cold Chain Directory is available free to food manufacturers, grocers, food service employees, trucking companies, libraries, associations, trade press, and government bodies. To learn more or to request a copy, visit www.gcca.org or call GCCA International Headquarters at 703-373-4300.
GS1 announces
new recall standard
GS1 has announced ratification of a new global product recall standard, along with an implementation guide for multi-jurisdictional recall notifications.
The new standard is designed to serve as “a common-sense blueprint” allowing all supply chain stakeholders to implement more effective product recall processes and notifications. The standard defines, standardizes and harmonizes the critical attributes to be captured and shared among trading parties and regulators during a product recall alerting and messaging process.
“The GS1 Product Recall Standard will enable manufacturers, retailers and suppliers to work more closely together,” said Procter & Gamble Market Logistics Leader Daniel Triot. “By leveraging a system of global supply chain standards that we all know and use today, product recall will become a function that is embedded into all our global supply chains.”
Close to three years of industry-driven work has lead to the standard, which identifies the key principles of traceability and demonstrates how to apply them for effective product recall.
“Traditional 1:1 notifications from supplier to receiver have no standards,” said Jon Mellor, GS1 director of external communications, in an email. “This means that the receiver (retailer, wholesaler, etc.) must contend with a variety of recall communications at least as numerous as its variety of suppliers.”
Mellor offered a scenario in which a product recall notification comes via fax or email, but either omits a GS1 identifying number or lists it incorrectly.
“Unfortunately, product names are inefficient for supply-chain operations, including recalls,” Mellor said. “There’s a lot of ambiguity due to flavor names, regular vs. fat-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free, plus different packaging types, regional production lines, etc.
“Use of the GS1 Product Recall Standard means that recall notices will follow some basic guidelines, so the people working for those receivers will spend less time pinpointing the exact product that must be taken off the shelf. This both protects the consumer and limits the amount of product that must be removed.”
GS1 is a non-profit organization that designs and manages a global system of supply chain standards. The Product Recall standard is applicable to companies in all industries using GS1 standards.
For more information, visit www.gs1.org or www.rapidrecallexchange.org.
One company's approach
to achieving sustainability
Ready Pac is seeing results from its corporate sustainability efforts.
The Irwindale, Calif.-based firm reports that its recycling program converts trash hauling into a revenue-generating operation that helps the company maintain competitive pricing.
Ready Pac started by focusing on the reduction of trash being sent to landfills and now converts more than 8,600 tons of cardboard and plastics annually. Between savings and income generation, Ready Pac’s recycling program contributes more than $1 million each year, and now includes cardboard, plastics, paper and metals, according to the company.
In addition, the company sells its fruit and vegetable byproducts to local dairy farmers —more than 110 million pounds last year alone.
In the plant, the company’s centralized production scheduling system has enabled consolidated production runs, reducing days of operation where needed, along with utility consumption. Decreases in water usage have been particularly significant.
All of Ready Pac’s products use recycled materials in their corrugated packaging, and its Bistro Bowl salad bowls use 70 percent post-consumer PET. Salad inserts are made from recycled 500ML drink bottles, and the bowls are produced in a plant that operates using 50 percent solar energy.
The company employs natural gas co-generators to produce electricity and reduces energy usage through energy-efficient lighting. Its transportation fleet is equipped with particulate matter filters to limit air pollution, and the company employs teleconferencing to minimize travel.
The company also donates useable product that it cannot sell to local food banks and community charities.
Multivac launches
new business unit
Multivac, Inc. has launched a new business unit for high-end, value-added packaging films. The debut offerings are DuPont Teijin’s Mylar® COOK and BAKE films, sold exclusively through Multivac as thermoformable packaging materials.
The company has appointed packaging industry veteran Frank Barel to head the new business unit as national sales manager. Barel comes to Multivac from Printpack, Inc. where he served as a global market development manager.
Chain supports
school salad bars
Harris Teeter is joining with the United Fresh Produce Association Foundation, a founding partner of Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, Fresh Express and nine additional produce suppliers to donate salad bars to at least 10 schools.
Harris Teeter shoppers will also have the opportunity to bring salad bars to schools thru a “Text-to-Donate” campaign. Shoppers can donate $5 by texting “SALAD” to 80077 or they can visit www.SaladBars2Schools.org to give online through Oct. 11, 2012. Fresh Express will match shopper donations up to $15,000.
Supply chain guide
available for download
A new guide created by Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) Supply Chain Efficiencies Committee is designed to help companies in the fresh produce industry implement electronic data interchange (EDI).
The “Implementation Guide for Fresh Produce Data Standards and Synchronization” uses globally-accepted terminology and best practices to identify fresh produce items as well as business locations – and it’s available free on PMA’s website, www.pma.com.
Key chooses
Prime International
Key Technology has appointed Prime International as its exclusive sales representative in Argentina.
Prime is responsible for developing sales and providing service for Key’s automated inspection and sorting systems, specialized conveying, and processing equipment to customers in Argentina that produce food products such as fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, among others.
Kronen, Tenrit
form partnership
Kronen and Tenrit are finding there is strength in numbers.
A global supplier of machines and systems, Kronen’s focus has been on fruit, vegetable and salad processing. Tenrit’s strength has been in developing peeling equipment. Combining marketing forces, the companies have formed a sales partnership, working together in the United States, South America and France.
The two shared a booth at this year’s United Fresh trade show in Dallas and expect to continue that type of joint marketing.
For more information, visit www.tenrit.de or www.kronen.eu.
Johnson named to
food safety post
Naturipe Farms has appointed Donna Lynn Johnson as its director of food safety and social responsibility.
Based in Salinas, Calif., Johnson is responsible for assuring that the essential elements of the company’s products are monitored. That includes social responsibility, food quality, food safety, food security, GAP farm practices and customer food safety compliance.
Johnson has worked in a variety of food safety and quality assurance positions at companies that include Safeway, Dole and Greenline Foods. Most recently, she was an independent food safety consultant to clients in the U.S. and Mexico including Taylor Farms, River Point Farms and Herb Thyme.
She holds a bachelor of science degree in microbiology from California State Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo and is active in several produce industry associations and task forces including the Harmonized GAP working group, United Fresh’s Food Safety and Technology Committee and the Produce Safety Alliance.
C.H. Robinson Europe
expands to Rotterdam
C.H. Robinson Europe has opened a new office on Rotterdam to focus on providing temperature-controlled logistics services.
The new office will facilitate expansion of temperature-controlled logistics services, one of the fastest-growing business segments for C.H. Robinson in Europe.
The company currently has 34 offices in Europe, some with a strong presence in refrigerated transportation. However, the Rotterdam location is the company’s first in Europe focusing specifically on the service.
Intelleflex opens
Brussels-based office
Intelleflex has launched a new Europe, Middle East and Africa regional office based in Brussels, Belgium.
Erik Cotman, formerly of PHI DATA, will lead the office as general manager. With nearly 20 years of experience and channel management and business development background, within the RFID industry and emerging markets, Cotman will lead Intelleflex’s channel and sales efforts throughout the region.
The company opened the office to support growing demand for its XC3 Technology RFID readers and tags.
