Fresh Cut Magazine

A Traveling Man

The past two months found me in Palm Springs, Calif., for United FreshTech and Chicago for United Fresh Marketplace. The two shows were as different as night and day, but both were extremely beneficial in their own way. At FreshTech, I was able to sit in on many great education sessions, with noted speakers presenting the latest research and information on timely topics like E. coli O157:H7 and new packaging materials. The expo portion of the show was laid back, with large pieces of processing equipment taking floor space. I had the chance to speak with many of our readers, and quite a few stopped by the Fresh Cut booth to sign up for a chance to win an iPod. Fresh Marketplace was at first overwhelming, with two levels of Chicago’s McCormick Place dedicated to the combined FMI, All Things Organic, Fancy Foods and Fresh Marketplace.…  » Read more

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Produce can learn from the beef industry

Bo Reagan sees the produce industry asking some of the same questions the beef industry started asking in 1993. He should know. As executive director of research and technical services for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, he’s been working with the beef industry since an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak from contaminated meat served at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants killed four children in 1993. Shortly after the outbreak, the beef industry formed the Blue Ribbon Task Force on O157:H7. A united industry research plan was formulated, and ranchers and processors agreed at the time that food safety was a non-competitive issue. “We wanted to look at the knowns and unknowns of E. coli O157:H7,” Reagan said. But after eight months, “our list of knowns was not too long.” Reagan said the industry – because it had few clues about where the contamination was entering the system – decided to focus its…  » Read more

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Marketing with Newsletters

Business marketing today encompasses so much more than just 20 years ago. Your customer is inundated with information as never before. How can you stand out and get your message through? In our last two articles in this series, we discussed how to use your company Web site to your advantage and examined trade advertising. Here is a look at a third marketing tool, one that is underused: newsletters. There are two types of newsletters commonly used by businesses: the old-fashioned print-and-mail type and the newer electronic versions. Each has distinct advantages and disadvantages. In today’s business environment, it makes sense to use newsletters as a key communication tool between your company and your stakeholders. Advantage: Electronic Newsletters For many reasons, consider using an electronic version over the printed kind. First, printing costs alone can run you hundreds of dollars each time you publish. Then…  » Read more

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Dole invests in RFID to track produce from the field

Dole Fresh Vegetable launched a produce quality pilot program in March 2006 to see if radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags could improve the quality of leafy green products in the supply chain. Less than six months later, Dole was hit with reports of a spinach outbreak involving Dole-branded products. Lessons learned in the quality pilot program are now being implemented to provide better traceability and food safety information for the fruit and vegetable company. The RFID tag system is the next step in Dole’s traceability program, increasing the accuracy and decreasing the time to find the field that sourced contaminated produce. The company is not going to compete on food safety, said Eric Schwartz, president of Salinas-based Dole Fresh Vegetables. The company opened up a Soledad, Calif., field operation and processing facility in early May to members of the media to increase the visibility and transparency of the…  » Read more

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City wouldn’t let processor stay or go

B&P Packing Company was between a rock and a hard place. On the one side was the city of Soledad, which wanted the processor to move from its downtown location to a 7-acre parcel outside of the downtown area that was being revitalized. On the other side also stood the city of Soledad, which enacted a building moratorium midway through B&P’s move, because unforeseen residential growth had put too much stress on the city’s sewer system. Soledad, a “small, sleepy town” of about 27,000 (including the population of a local correctional facility), didn’t even have a big box store. But the community has been experiencing about 8 percent growth for the last five years, mostly in residential housing. According to U.S. census information, the population of the central California town more than doubled between 2000 and 2005. Its proximity to Salinas (25 miles), King City (20…  » Read more

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