Frank

  • Wal-Mart Frank encourages food companies to develop food safety culture

    Posted: July 1st, 2011 - 12:45pm by Doug Powell

    Before we had lunch last month, Wal-Mart Frank told the 2011 American Meat Science Association Reciprocal Meat Conference in Manhattan (Kansas), “If you did food safety this year the way you did it last year, you’re going to lose,” and that food processors should go beyond traditional approaches to managing risk and work to develop a culture of food safety.

    Yiannas, vice president of food safety for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., said that processors must go beyond the traditional strategies based on training, inspection and microbiological testing, which the industry has employed for years. While those strategies have improved over time, it’s important for companies to take new approaches.

    “HACCP is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the final destination,” said Yiannas of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system that companies use in their food safety programs. He cited data showing that in cases of food-borne illness from 1993-1997, 37 percent were due to improper holding temperatures, 11 percent were due to inadequate cooking, and 19 percent were due to poor hygiene, noting that all of those cases were linked to human behavior.

    “Scientists often think of behavior as the soft stuff (unlike microbiology), but the soft stuff is the hard stuff,” he said, adding that scientists tend to focus on the science when they should also be looking at the organizational structure of a company.

    “Knowledge does not equal behavior change. Food safety culture is a choice,” Yiannas said. The companies who are good at it:

    Create food safety expectations;
    Educate and train their food employees;
    Communicate food safety messages frequently;
    Establish food safety goals and measurements; and
    Have consequences, including rewards, for food safety behaviors.

    “It’s a simple thing but recognizing people for doing the right thing is effective,” he said.

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    Food Safety Culture  |  0 Comments
    culture, food safety, frank, policy, Training, walmart
  • Lunch with food safety Frank, Gonzo and Amy, 4 dead pine trees removed, all in Manhattan (Kansas)

    Posted: June 21st, 2011 - 5:11pm by Doug Powell

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    Wacky and Weird  |  0 Comments
    food safety, frank, Manhattan, Sorenne, Wal-mart
  • Wal-Mart to buy more locally grown produce

    Posted: October 14th, 2010 - 12:04pm by Doug Powell

    “No other retailer has the ability to make more of a difference than Wal-Mart.”

    That’s what Wal-Mart president and chief executive Michael T. Duke said at a meeting Thursday morning, according to prepared remarks, as he announced a program that would focus on sustainable agriculture among its food suppliers, as the retail giant tries to expand its efforts to improve environmental efficiency.

    The program is intended to put more locally grown food in Wal-Mart stores in the United States, invest in training and infrastructure for small and medium-sized farmers particularly in emerging markets and begin to measure the efficiently of large suppliers in growing and getting their produce to market.

    The New York Times reports that given Wal-Mart is the world’s largest grocer, with one of the biggest food supply chains, any changes that it makes would have wide reaching implications. Wal-Mart’s decision five years ago to set sustainability goals that, among other things, increased its reliance on renewable energy and reduced packaging waste among its supplies, send broad ripples through product manufacturers. Large companies like Procter & Gamble redesigned packages that are now also carried by other retailers, while Wal-Mart’s measurements of environmental efficiency among its suppliers helped define how they needed to change.

    I don’t know anything other than what I’ve read in the media, but it’s a fair guess that food safety culture Frank is going to have a lot to do with making sure any sustainability gains are coupled with enhanced food safety.

    Michelle Mauthe Harvey, project manager for the corporate partnerships program at Environmental Defense Fund, said,

    “This is huge. Once people are asked those questions, if they haven’t been measuring, they measure more.”

    Go big or go home.

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    Food Safety Policy  |  1 Comment
    culture, food safety, frank, Local, Produce, walmart