Food Safety
In order to protect our food supply, we must address vulnerability gaps in our current system at any point along the distribution chain up to the consumer that would allow accidental contamination of fresh produce.
I am well aware of what they are and can provide solutions to help prevent this ongoing problem.
I spent fifteen years as an Executive Vice President for a major terminal business on the East Coast. My primary responsibility was purchasing millions of dollars in California vegetables a year, including Mexico during the winter.
I know how this works.
I notified the CDC in late 2003 that green onions were the likely source of the hepatitis A outbreak and that they were from Mexico, several days before the FDA banned the importation of green onions into the United States.
Over the years I have followed the recent contamination of tomatoes and more recently spinach. My knowledge is based on experience and facts.
Specific aspects of the industry are severely outdated.
The Federal Government must update regulation of the industry to properly empower the USDA.
I did an interview for a producer/director of film from NY on the subject of food safety issues regarding fresh produce. A local reporter contacted me to contribute to a series of articles on the subject. I spoke to local health department and the CDC during the outbreak of Hepatitis A with Green onions.....
1. Who are you and what experience do you have?
15 years in the produce industry for major terminal wholesaler on East coast. Primary responsibility was purchasing California vegetable deal, multi-millions a year, including Mexico during the winter.
2. What was your experience during the hepatitis breakout with green onions in 2003?
I have to check my notes but I think it was late October 2003 or early November when the media first reported green onions were the likely source of a hepatitis A outbreak.
After doing some research, I notified the local media and told them that green onions were responsible for the outbreak and were being shipped/pulled out of Mexico.
I strongly suspected this to be the case because I was personally responsible for purchasing green Onions out of Mexico and it was winter and during the winter deal, that's what you do.
Originally, they basically called me a crackpot.
Quote: Its people like you that blame everything on Mexico.
I contacted the local health department and the CDC. A few days later the FDA banned importation of Green Onions into the US.
3. What was your experience during the Salmonella outbreak with tomatoes in July 04?
Romas.. "Oh No"
Why are they pre-slicing Roma Tomatoes for food service distribution and not a 6x6 or a 6x7?
Cost efficiency or to meet a contract price?
I did not know that Coronet foods was forced to shut down and I'm almost positive that the FDA found no salmonella contamination in their facility.
I do know that in my experience Coronet foods was about quality and freshness. If you sold Coronet you better make sure the product was right.
Tomatoes are often put to sleep, what I mean is... they are often stored at the coldest temperatures possible without incurring damage in order to manipulate maximum life/profitability
Not shelf life but enough time to the point of sale. In some cases shelf life is short lived after the product is taken out of storage, unless you are chopping them.
You sometimes have a huge spread in pricing or you have a glut of product.
Roma tomatoes in general in my experience are not purchased and sold at the terminal wholesaler/retail level in huge bulk.
Usually when you load a solid truck of tomatoes, only a few hundred cartons are Romas unless your vendor/grower is heavy and you want to help him out, so in some cases you take more than you project you can sell, even if you end up dumping them, selling them at a discount or re-packing them.
I believe that people get sick often from eating old or decayed produce, defects that are hard to see unless you're very well versed. It's a science. Well that's another story.
I have been trying to get the truth out to the consumer and do something really positive with this. My brother is an independent producer in NY (who recently won a NY Emmy) and we talked to writers about the possibility of a series of articles, a book or a documentary on the subject. We got lots of interest but nothing concrete YET.
I think its best that I create a blog on the subject.
