Fresh Cut Magazine

College students drive change in university foodservice

Colleges and universities make up about 2 percent of total foodservice spending, but the trends in university foodservice could indicate changes to come. For instance, college students today have more interest in organic produce and sustainable agriculture. “Today’s college students really have more of an interest in the social consciousness things,” said David Henkes, senior principle for the foodservice research firm Technomic. The trends that universities are seeing coincide with some of the overall foodservice trends that Technomic is seeing, Henkes said. There is a general trend toward health and wellness, and more people looking for “fresh” products. This generation of college students have also been raised on fast food, so they’re not going to suddenly begin cooking. They instead will look for more healthful options at restaurants and on campus. The University of California Berkeley has been on the leading edge of university foodservice with innovative…  » Read more

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Lack of pre-planning can make small event a nationwide disaster

On Sept. 14, the U.S. public woke up to images of TV news anchors holding up bags of fresh-cut spinach and telling them to throw it all away. Newspapers picked up the story the next day, splashing headlines with terms like “tainted,” “threat,” “scare” and “agonize.” Within hours, a crisis communications machine in the form of five industry groups was already working with the media to keep the public informed about the ongoing situation. United Fresh Produce Association (United Fresh), Produce Marketing Association (PM), Western Growers Association (WGA), the Grower Shipper Association of Central California and the Alliance for Food and Farming mobilized quickly as the spokespersons for the industry. United Fresh instituted its crisis plan, described by Amy Philpott, vice president of marketing and industry relations, as “more of a process plan” that’s not specific to a situation but serves as an organizational starting…  » Read more

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Fresh Focus: Third-Party Audits Can Improve Safety

There has never been a better time to focus on a third-party food-safety audit – and there are several reasons. First, the recent spinach outbreak has shone a spotlight on our industry, leading more customers to update their requirements to include mandatory audits. Second, regulators will be formulating new guidelines or, worse, new regulations that will require action by the industry. And third, the industry will be looking to calm consumer fears about one of the healthiest food categories available, and an audit is a sure tool to begin that process. If you haven’t already had a third-party audit, you are probably wondering where to start to get ready for one. My advice is to create a game plan and timeline with the end goal being the audit. If you currently have an annual audit, there may be additional steps you can take to go beyond…  » Read more

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Safe and Healthy

I never realized how many products I eat have spinach in them until it was pulled out of the market in September. If you were to ask me, I would probably say that I rarely eat spinach, but this outbreak has shown me how pervasive spinach is. The evening following the FDA advisory, my wife and I ate out at a quick-casual restaurant. When the food was dropped off at our table, we were notified that the meal usually included spinach, but the restaurant’s supply of spinach had been recalled. I also noticed empty shelves in the produce section at our local grocery store. All of the salad blends that I was accustomed to eating, which I buy for convenience and taste, were no longer available. But just two days after the outbreak hit the airwaves, I walked into a restaurant and nonchalantly ordered a slice of spinach…  » Read more

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Industry slowly recovering after E. coli outbreak

As the investigation into the nationwide outbreak of E. coli in spinach focuses on a small area in California, processors and industry groups nationwide are working to rebuild the spinach segment of the market. The FDA, with the State of California, USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, traced the contaminated spinach to four fields in California. On Oct. 12, FDA announced it had found the same strain of E. coli in cattle feces in a nearby field. Despite the attention that the outbreak has received, fresh-cut spinach has a relatively safe record. There have been no outbreaks associated with fresh-cut spinach in the eight years that USDA has tracked the value-added product. Despite its track record, growers, processors and trade associations are working together to make sure no such outbreak occurs again. The Investigation On Sept. 14, FDA made a broad advisory to U.S.…  » Read more

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When the Outbreak Hit

You know how some people remember exactly what they were doing at certain moments in history – when Princess Diana died, when JFK Jr. was shot, when the man walked on the moon? That’s kind of how it was with me on that fateful September day when the news of the E.coli outbreak in fresh spinach broke. I was just sitting down with a cup of tea to grab a peek at the news. And there it was: A reporter holding up a random bag of spinach at the grocery store saying to throw it away if you have any at home – it could kill you. Was this a little too sensational for my journalism tastes? Maybe. But it made its point – and it did inform consumers of a potential danger. I flipped the channel, and I heard words such as “threat” and “lurking”…  » Read more

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