 Foodservice Show Wrap-Up
The PMA Foodservice Conference wrapped up on Sunday with its one-day, 5.5 hour trade show. This year’s attendance set a record, with more than 1,500 pre-registered and still more registering on-site.
Those that came to Monterey, Calif., had the opportunity to hear from celebrity chefs and industry leaders on the biggest trends in foodservice. The words that I kept hearing were food safety, sustainable and local. There was also good news on the Foodservice 2020 program, which is already making a positive impact. Prior to the conference, PMA held a think tank for foodservice operators, distributors and suppliers to come up with ways to double the use of produce in foodservice by 2020. Keep an eye out in the print magazine for more some of these topics.
PMA Foundation for Industry Talent held its first fundraising event the show – a 5K race along the Pacific Coast. It was a great event, and I posted my best time this summer (thanks to 56º F temperatures, 30º F cooler than the last 5K I ran in Michigan). Special congratulations to everyone who did the 5K.
There are a few more shows coming up soon – PMA Fresh Summit and United Fresh Washington Public Policy Conference to name a couple. I look forward to getting a chance to interact with the various sectors of the produce industry at these events.
  
Industry Spotlight
 Jim Mann, executive director of Handwashing for Life Institute, a group committed to advancing the science of hand hygiene and reducing infections caused by poor hand hygiene in foodservice. Mann provided a public comment on the food safety measures progress by FDA, USDA Food Safety Inspection Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), advocating for a handwashing metrics in future food safety measures.
Foodborne illness prevention of pathogens like E. coli and salmonella can be prevented in part by food safety metrics during plant growth and processing, but norovirus is unique in that it is spread person-to-person, and handwashing can prevent its spread. That’s why a food safety system that includes handwashing metrics is important, Mann said.
“The only thing we know for sure is handwashing compliance is not what we want it to be,” Mann said. “Can we have a good report card without dealing with (norovirus)?”
Handwashing is a behavior change, and those are the most difficult, he said. The Handwashing for Life Institute offers retail foodservice establishments a training program for employees that trains them on handwashing and sanitizing food contact surfaces. Mann showed a 90-second video that follows a foodservice employee touching food and spreading a pathogen as a result of not washing his hands. The video has no speaking parts so employees who don’t speak English as their first language can easily understand it.
But any training is lost if the proprietor or manager doesn’t exhibit food safety measures in the kitchen.
“The worst way to waste a bunch of money is to go through all the training, then have the boss or person in charge come through and not wash their hands,” he said.
Management plays a key role in handwashing food safety as well, Mann said. The owner or manager has to reinforce the behavior and treat it as they would customer service.
“People in foodservice don’t usually lose their jobs for not washing their hands. They will for customer service,” he said.
Most foodborne illnesses are likely the result of a norovirus, Mann said, but many go unreported because the symptoms are flu-like and not as bad as other pathogens.
“Norovirus diagnostics have gotten really good in recent years, so we are getting a better handle on norovirus, but many norovirus infections still aren’t reported,” Mann said.
Mann said the CDC should encourage states to report cases of suspected norovirus, including a report of the foods, type of retail establishment and other site indicators to determine the incidence of norovirus.
Restaurants can be held responsible for a foodborne illness outbreak, and it doesn’t matter if the virus was introduced by a sick worker or a sick customer. But by using proper handwashing techniques a restaurant can reduce the spread of norovirus or other foodborne illnesses.
“In the courtroom, it’s just not important if the virus came through the front door or the back door,” Mann said.
Market Report
The Office Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is currently developing the Healthy People Objectives for 2020. The document provides goals for various agencies to meet to improve the overall health of American citizens. Food safety was part of the 2010 goals, and is being added to in the 2020 document.
Carrying over unchained from HPO2010 is the goal of improving food handler practices to reduce foodborne illnesses at retail food establishments.
Also carried over from HPO2010 but modified are the goals to:
- Reduce infections from key pathogens commonly transmitted through foods (campylobacter, E. coli O157:H7, listeria monocytogenes, salmonella, hemolytic-uremic syndrome, vibrio species and yersinia species).
- Reduce infections associated with foodborne illnesses from pathogens commonly transmitted from foods (E. coli O157:H7, Salmonell enteritidis, S. typhimurium and norovirus).
- Increase the proportion of consumers following good food safety practices.
And new to the HPO2020 is the goal reducing the number of outbreak-associated illnesses in food commodity groups, including fruits and leafy green vegetables.
In HPO2010, the goal was to have only one case of E. coli O157:H7 per 100,000 people, and in 2009 the rate was actually 0.99 cases, so that target was hit. Campylobacter was close, with a goal of 12.3 per 100,000 and an actual rate in 2009 of 13.02.
Listeria and salmonella, however, were a long way off from their targets. The goal for listeria was 0.24 per 100,000, but CDC reported a rate of 0.34. Salmonella’s goal was 6.8, according to HPO2010, but the actual rate was 15.19 per 100,000.
Product Highlight: Ocean Mist
 Ocean Mist Farms is expanding its production facility, Baja Mist, located in Mexicali Valley, Mexico, in order to accommodate sales growth for its year round program of product grown in Mexico with commodities such as green onions and Brussels sprouts, according to a statement from the company.
Ocean Mist Farms has been growing product in Mexico since 2003.
“We wanted to design, develop, and construct a state of the art green onion processing and cooling facility which integrated all aspects of food safety in an environment that allows us to create superior iceless products with extended shelf life,” said Troy Boutonnet, Ocean Mist Farms vice president of production. “Our goal is to modernize our entire facility and all of its subsystems and practices in order to create the cleanest, safest products in their class. Expansion, coupled with modernization is the starting line of our goals toward complete customer satisfaction.”
Including the new concrete and asphalt areas, process water retention areas, etc., the company is improving more than a total of 75,000 feet of the property in some capacity.
The original Baja Mist facility was 9,100 square feet; the total square footage of the upgraded area, and new construction is 17,710 square feet plus ancillary buildings that will contain, ice making, refrigeration equipment, and chiller room and an office, which adds another 6,000 square feet to the project.
Additionally, a new receiving dock will prevent washed product crossing paths with inbound field totes and two finished product shipping doors in the new cold room will ensure that cooled product never breaks cold chain compliance during the truck loading process.
“We are very proud of what we have designed and look forward to showcasing the Baja Mist facility in Mexico to our customers once it is completed,” Boutonnet said.
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