Dole

  • If FedEx can track letters, can growers track lettuce?

    Posted: October 20th, 2010 - 9:10am by Doug Powell

    Inside a Silicon Valley company's windowless vault, massive servers silently monitor millions of heads of lettuce from the time they are plucked from the dirt to the moment the bagged salad is scanned at the grocery checkout counter.

    That trail can be traced in seconds, thanks to tiny high-tech labels, software programs and hand-held hardware. Such tools make it easier for farmers to locate possible problems -- a leaky fertilizer bin, an unexpected pathogen in the water, unwashed hands on a factory floor -- and more quickly halt the spread of contaminated food.

    The Los Angeles Times reports this Dole Food Co. project and similar efforts across the country represent a fundamental shift in the way that food is tracked from field to table. The change is slow but steady as a number of industry leaders and smaller players adopt these tools.

    Much of the farming community has yet to follow suit, and federal food-safety legislation is stalled in Congress. But proponents of this digital transformation said it was inevitable given public outrage over the recent egg contamination scandal. They said technology could simplify the nation's complex food-safety system, helping prevent or contain the harm caused by recalled food.

    Trace-back systems are similar to how FedEx tracks its packages. On the farm, animals and crop sections are given a "smart" label with a unique identifying number. The label is attached to a bin, crate or container used for transport.

    Workers then use a hand-held computer or smart phone to scan the labels and record key information, such as date, time, location, workplace temperature and which truck hauled the food. The information is usually uploaded to a database, where it is stored and can be accessed via the Web.

    Each time the food moves or is handled by someone new, the data can be updated.
     

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    Dole, fedex, Lettuce, Traceability, tracking
  • Canadian E. coli O157:H7 find prompts Dole to recall Hearts Delight salad in U.S.

    Posted: September 17th, 2007 - 8:22pm by Doug Powell

    Dole Fresh Vegetables is voluntarily recalling all salad bearing the label "Dole Hearts Delight" sold in the U.S. and Canada with a "best if used by (BIUB)" date of September 19, 2007, and a production code of "A24924A" or "A24924B" stamped on the package.  The "best if use by (BIUB)" code date can be located in the upper right hand corner of the front of the bag.  The salad was sold in plastic bags of 227 grams in Canada and one-half pound in the U.S., with UPC code 071430-01038.

    To date, Dole has received no reports that anyone has become sick from eating these products.  The recall is occurring because a sample in a grocery store in Canada was found through random screening to contain E. coli O157:H7.  No other Dole salad products are involved.

    This product was sold in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces in Canada and in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and neighboring states in the U.S.  Consumers can call the Dole Consumer Center toll-free at 800-356-3111. Consumers are reminded that products should not be consumed after the "best if used by" date.

    Rene Cardinal, national manager of the fresh fruit and vegetable program at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told the Ottawa Citizen,

    Don't play Russian roulette. If you have it in your home, destroy it," and that not all bags are necessarily contaminated, "but don't take any chances."

    Marty Ordman, a Dole spokesman, told the Associated Press that the romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts that went into the blend were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio, then processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio on Sept. 6.



    California Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness called on the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, A.G. Kawamura, to provide his office with details on the latest recall of leafy greens grown in the United States, and to inform the committee immediately whether or not the lettuce in question was grown in California and, if so, whether or not the grower was a signatory to the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement proposed by industry as a self-regulatory approach to food safety.
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  • Dole lettuce from U.S. found with E. coli O157:H7 in Canada

    Posted: September 17th, 2007 - 1:50pm by Doug Powell

    The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) warned the Canadian public at about 2 a.m. Monday not to consume Dole brand Hearts Delight lettuce salad (Ready to eat blend of romaine, green leaf & butter lettuce hearts) because it may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, stating,


    "The affected product, Dole brand Hearts Delight lettuce salad (Ready to eat blend of romaine, green leaf & butter lettuce hearts), produce of USA, is sold in 227 g packages bearing UPC 0 71430 01038 9, BIUB (Best If Used By) date 07SE19 and lot code A24924B. This product may have been distributed nationally.

    "There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product."

    The quotes above are from the third version of the press release sent out since early Monday morning. And since CFIA always holds information close, iFSN called CFIA and was told the contaminated product was detected during routine CFIA surveillance at retail. CFIA could not tell us where the sampled product was purchased, or where the lettuces were grown.
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