ConAgra spends a fortune on advertizing - how about food safety?
ConAgra CEO thingy Gary Rodkin is on a quest
A quest to find what he calls "the big, singular insight that will drive behavior change." If he can do that, he can boost the bottom line (which was $978 million on revenue of $12.7 billion in the fiscal year ended May 31). Rodkin is using theories about buying habits--backed by $399 million a year in advertising, marketing and in-store promotions--to convince grocery stores to provide ample shelves for its 45 consumer brands, which include Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Wesson and Swiss Miss.
I have a suggestion. Don’t make people barf, with your Banquet pot pies and your peanut butter. Seriously, $399 million in advertising, and you can’t promise people they won’t barf?
And the best guest speaker you can get is me naked in New Zealand (cost to ConAgra bottom line – nothing).
Food safety for people who don't cook: stop blaming consumers
The N.Y. Times asked me to comment on the food safety feature running this morning as part of their electronic Room for Debate section.
Douglas Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University and the editor of barfblog.com, writes:
ConAgra Foods said on Nov. 14, 2007 when it reintroduced pot pies that, “… redesigned easy-to-follow cooking instructions are now in place to help eliminate any potential confusion regarding cooking times.”
I tried to them out at the time and found the instructions inadequate.
Were the new labels tested with consumers? Is there evidence from ConAgra that pot pie fans were actually following the instructions on the labels? If the company was serious about making sure the instructions worked, it should have tested the new labels with at least 100 teenagers in observational studies to prove that a target market could actually follow the instructions before introducing the product to the mass market.
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The instructions direct consumers to use a food thermometer to test the temperature. But it appears that bimetallic thermometers (traditional kitchen thermometers) are used on both the ConAgra label and in the Times video; these thermometers yield inaccurate readings. For a more accurate reading, consumers would have to use digital, tip-sensitive thermometers.
Food safety isn’t simple – it’s hard. For decades, consumers have been blamed for foodborne illnesss – with unsubstantiated statements like, “the majority of foodborne illness happens in the home.” Yet increasingly the outbreaks in foods like peanut butter, pot pies, pet food, pizza, spinach and tomatoes have little to do with how consumers handle the food.
Everyone from farm-to-fork has a food safety responsibility, but putting the onus on consumers for processed foods or fresh produce is disingenuous — especially for those who profit from the sale of these products.
Preparing pot pies and blaming consumers
The N.Y. Times repeated my year-and-a-half-old home-alone reporting and video shoot with ConAgra pot pies and other frozen thingies in a front-page feature this morning and reached the same conclusion: the cooking directions suck.
(BTW, the Times video accompanying Friday's story also sucks, and they appear to use the wrong kind of thermometer -- always be tip-sensitive)
The frozen pot pies that sickened an estimated 15,000 people with salmonella in 2007 left federal inspectors mystified. At first they suspected the turkey. Then they considered the peas, carrots and potatoes.
Threatened with a federal shutdown, the pie maker, ConAgra Foods, began spot-checking the vegetables for pathogens, but could not find the culprit. …
So ConAgra — which sold more than 100 million pot pies last year under its popular Banquet label — decided to make the consumer responsible for the kill step. The “food safety” instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: “Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.”
… attempts by The New York Times to follow the directions on several brands of frozen meals, including ConAgra’s Banquet pot pies, failed to achieve the required 165-degree temperature. Some spots in the pies heated to only 140 degrees even as parts of the crust were burnt.
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And in a staggering example of corporate arrogance coupled with blame-the-consumer, Jim Seiple, a food safety official with the Blackstone unit that makes Swanson and Hungry-Man pot pies, said pot pie instructions have built-in margins of error, and the risk to consumers depended on
“how badly they followed our directions.”
That’s assuming people can read, that they can read English, that the instructions are microbiologically validated and that the instructions are clear – meaning there has been direct or video observation of consumers attempting to cook following the instructions.
Being prudent about peanut butter thingies
“With eight dead and almost 600 sick, it’s a time to be prudent.”
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That’s what I told CNN Radio late last night in response to a question about the adverts placed by Conagra Foods Incorporated and J.M. Smucker Company in an attempt to bolster peanut butter sales, which have plunged at least 25 percent since the salmonella outbreak. Oh, and with baby Sorenne around (right, exactly as shown), anything after 9:30 p.m. is late.
“None of these companies are really coming out and saying this is what we do to ensure safety. They say, yeah, we test for salmonella. But are those tests public? They’re not. …
“If you’re a parent packing a lunch and you have all the hectic things going on in the morning, is it really realistic to say, hey, before you put that peanut snack cracker individually wrapped item into your kid’s lunch you’re going to go onto the Internet and check a Web site? I think that’s a bit much. I think it’s prudent to avoid this stuff until we see where this is going.”
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Some retailers slow to pull peanut products; test results need to be public
Shelly Awl, a clerk at a gas station on Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday,
“It’s so confusing. I wish they would communicate better what is safe and what is not.”
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At a gas station in North Fulton, Karan Singh eyed with suspicion a pile of energy bars, cookies and snacks that had been laid at the check-out counter for purchase, telling a customer,
“I don’t think I should sell these to you. These might not be good.”
While many stores — particularly major supermarkets — appear to be keeping up with the recalls, smaller stores seem to be less consistent, according to some spot checks by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The salmonella outbreak linked to a South Georgia peanut-processing plant has spawned one of the largest product recalls in American history. The list of products that are off-limits has risen to 1,550, with new names coming out daily.
However, at Publix stores, spokeswoman Brenda Reid said recall alerts from suppliers and the FDA are immediately e-mailed to stores, which then have three hours to respond that they have removed the recalled item from the shelf. If it’s not accomplished, company managers continue to contact the store and will even send a representative there. District managers also check during their visits, she said.
The recalled item is also logged into the store’s computer, so if a customer finds one, the cashier will be alerted and will not be able to ring it up, Reid said.
Kroger stores are alerting customers who have a Kroger Plus Card of any recalled purchases through automated phone calls.
And in a feature tomorrow, the Journal-Constitution reports federal food regulators describe the 2007 Peter Pan peanut butter salmonella outbreak traced to a Georgia plant in 2007 as “a wake-up call.” But that realization did not lead officials to scrutinize at least one other peanut processor: the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely.
They didn’t even know the plant made peanut butter.
The FDA first learned of possible salmonella contamination at ConAgra four years ago — two years before officials traced hundreds of illnesses to Peter Pan.
In early 2005, an anonymous tipster told the FDA that ConAgra’s internal testing had detected salmonella in a batch of peanut butter the previous October, agency records show. Company executives confirmed the test results to an FDA inspector but refused to turn over lab reports unless the agency requested them in writing. The inspector left the plant, records show, and never again requested the reports.
Congressional investigators later learned that FDA policy discouraged written document requests. Federal courts, the FDA said, had ruled that if manufacturers turned over material in response to a formal request from the government, those documents could not be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution against them.
But in the vast majority of cases, investigator David Nelson told a House subcommittee in 2007, the FDA pursues neither documents nor criminal charges. Nelson termed the agency’s actions “nonsensical.”
The FDA cited no violations following the 2005 inspection in Sylvester, said Stephanie Childs, a spokeswoman for ConAgra, which is based in Omaha, Neb. Long before the inspector arrived, Childs said, the plant had destroyed the contaminated peanut butter.
This is why when companies claim they test for Salmonella, like in this ad for Jif (upper left, thanks Barb) that ran today, it’s sorta meaningless without some sort of public disclosure or oversight.
Coffee, Conagra and consumers - talking in bed
The coffee place was just opening and as I awaited my order, a load of prepared sandwiches arrived. The first thing the staff member did was insert a tip-sensitive digital thermometer into one of the sandwiches to verify that the proper temperature had been maintained. Good on ya. The guy getting my order said it was standard operating procedure, and as we chatted it emerged he was newly arrived in Wellington from Montreal. Another Canadian buddy. Or friend.Next was a talk with ConAgra’s Food Safety Council in Omaha, Nebraska. That’s ConAgra of pot pie and peanut butter fame.
Quality experts at ConAgra Foods today will hear from a lawyer who has sued the company due to food borne illnesses and from two food safety advocates as the company stresses the need to keep its products safe.
"It's part of raising the game and listening to every expert on the food safety front," said Teresa Paulsen, ConAgra spokeswoman.
ConAgra decided to bring in Bill Marler, Barb Kowalcyk, director of food safety and co-founder of the Center for FoodBorne Illness Research and Prevention, and myself to hear what we had to say.
Marler told the Omaha World-Herald he was going to talk about fostering a culture that focuses on food safety while remaining profitable in a competitive industry, and credited ConAgra Chief Executive Gary Rodkin and other company executives for inviting him to speak.
"It says a lot for the company.”
Being in Wellington, NZ, and 17 hours ahead, provided several technological hurdles, which we sorta managed to get around. Video didn’t work, so the folks in Nebraska saw my slides and heard my disembodied voice – apparently in surround sound. I was talking into a telephone (left, exactly as shown), advancing my slides, but had no audience feedback. While awkward, I could get used to this lecturing style.
By the time I spoke with the consumer advisory group for the New Zealand Food Safety Authority later that afternoon, I had the message much more focused: here’s the top-5 factors that contribute to foodborne illness, here’s the research we do to reduce the burden of each, and here’s how we use different mediums and messages to foster a food safety culture, from farm-to-fork.
It’s been good to reflect on why we do the things we do, and it’s been great traveling in Wellington with Amy. Now it’s time for a couple of days of hanging out, catching up on news if I ever get my e-mail working again, and then its off to Melbourne on Sunday.
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Live ... From the Safe Food Café: Cooking the poop out of pot pies
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On Oct. 11, 2007, ConAgra announced it was recalling all of its frozen pot pies to fix some label discrepancies. This was two days after an outbreak of Salmonella was linked to Banquet pot pies and the company reassuringly told consumers that getting sick was their own fault and they should be more careful and cook pot pies thoroughly.In the end, at least 272 people in 35 states had trouble simply cooking the pot pies and got sick with salmonella.
As I documented before, the instructions on the pot pies weren't so great.
The old labels had statements about how easy it was to cook in the microwave. The new labels are much more explicit, saying the pot pies need to be cooked in at least a 1100 Watt microwave and that a meat thermometer should be used in several places to ensure that an endpoint temperature of 165 F has been reached.
I bought some of the new and improved pot pies and did the same cooking experiment, following what ConAgra called " redesigned easy-to-follow cooking instructions … to help eliminate any potential confusion regarding cooking times."
After four minutes in a 1150 Watt microwave, the interior of the pot pie registered at about 50F. After letting it sit for an additional three minutes -- as per label instructions - the temperature varied anywhere from 75 - 190 F.
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I decided to cook an additional two minutes.After six minutes of cooking, and the previous three minutes of resting, the pot pie had tremendous variation in temperature: anywhere from 200F down to 100F. 165 F is required to kill Salmonella.
I wouldn't want my kids popping these in the microwave after school.
ConAgra has never come clean on which various ingredients may have been the source of the Salmonella. Was it the poultry? How about the vegetables? The pie crust? ConAgra won't say.
Further, were the new labels tested with consumers? There is a lack of research examining whether safe food handling labels perceived as effective translate into actual safe food handling behavior, including the use of proper thawing and cooking techniques, the use of measures to minimize cross-contamination, and the use of meat thermometers to confirm doneness.
If I was a multi-million dollar corporation like ConAgra headed to a dance with food safety lawyer Bill Marler cause my product made people barf, I'd want some evidence that pot pie fans where actually following the instructions on the labels. I would have tested the new labels with at least 100 teenagers -- those afflicted with hormones and horniness -- before introducing it to the mass market.
Maybe they did. But that's up to ConAgra to prove.
And until they do, all products that claim to be safe in the microwave should contain nothing but fully cooked ingredients.
That's the only way to get the poop out.
Pot pies are back: new labels, same problems
Guess what I found at my local supermarket last week.ConAgra announced Nov. 14, 2007, that it was starting to manufacture Banquet pot pies again, and earlier last week, they were available for purchase.
On Oct. 11, 2007, ConAgra announced it was recalling all of its frozen pot pies to fix some label discrepancies. This was two days after an outbreak of Salmonella was linked to Banquet pot pies and the company reassuringly told consumers that getting sick was their own fault and they should be more careful and cook pot pies thoroughly.
In the end, at least 272 people in 35 states had trouble simply cooking the pot pies and got sick with salmonella.
As I documented before, the instructions on the pot pies weren't so great.
The old labels had statements about how easy it was to cook in the microwave. The new labels are much more explicit, saying the pot pies need to be cooked in at least a 1100 Watt microwave and that a meat thermometer should be used in several places to ensure that an endpoint temperature of 165 F has been reached.
The best the bureaucrats at the British and Irish food safety authorities can come up with is "piping hot" to cook an entire turkey, while American ConAgra expects teenage kids full of hormones and horniness to test pot pies with a meat thermometer in several places so they won't barf from Salmonella.It's not going to happen.
And there's a risk.
I bought some of the new and improved pot pies and did the same cooking experiment, following what ConAgra called " redesigned easy-to-follow cooking instructions … to help eliminate any potential confusion regarding cooking times."
After four minutes in a 1150 Watt microwave, the interior of the pot pie registered at about 50F. After letting it sit for an additional three minutes -- as per label instructions - the temperature varied anywhere from 75 - 190 F. I decided to cook an additional two minutes.
After six minutes of cooking, and the previous three minutes of resting, the pot pie had tremendous variation in temperature: anywhere from 200F down to 100F. 165 F is required to kill Salmonella.
I wouldn't want my kids popping these in the microwave after school.
ConAgra has never come clean on which various ingredients may have been the source of the Salmonella. Was it the poultry? How about the vegetables? The pie crust? ConAgra won't say. Further, were the new labels tested with consumers? If I was a multi-million dollar corporation like ConAgra headed to a dance with food safety lawyer Bill Marler cause my product made people barf, I'd want some evidence that pot pie fans where actually following the instructions on the labels. I would have tested the new labels with at least 100 teenagers afflicted with hormones and horniness before introducing it to the mass market.
Maybe they did. But that's up to ConAgra to prove.
And until they do, all products that claim to be safe in the microwave should contain nothing but fully cooked ingredients.
That's the only way to get the poop out.
USA Today reported on the new pot pies Monday morning.
ConAgra pot pies are back after Salmonella otbreak sickens 272
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Much rejoicing for Eric Cartmen this evening. ConAgra pot pies are coming back.The company says environmental tests of its Marshall, Missouri, plant have not shown any trace of salmonella since the Oct. 11 recall, and that lab tests showed that the tainted pot pies were produced between July 13 and July 31.
The pot pies made by ConAgra have been linked to at least 272 cases of salmonella in 35 states. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least 65 people were hospitalized as part of the outbreak, but no deaths have been linked to the pot pies.
ConAgra Foods also said on Wednesday said a recent recall of pot pies due to salmonella contamination would cost about $30 million -- or 4 cents per share, and that earnings in its trading and merchandising group would be stronger than expected and would offset the recall costs.
A company statement today notes,
redesigned easy-to-follow cooking instructions are now in place to help eliminate any potential confusion regarding cooking times.
I look forward to checking these out for myself. The directions on the previous pot pies really sucked. And didn't work.Seattle attorney William Marler, who as of today had filed five lawsuits related to the outbreak, told the Tri City Herald in Washington State today that he would continue to file lawsuits against ConAgra until it begins compensating clients for damages.
No kitty, this is my pot pie
Amy says she ate a lot of pot pies growing up in Montana and "they were always frozen in the middle."After a brief story yesterday in Idaho speculating that several local salmonella cases may be linked to undercooked chicken pot pies, and a blog this morning by uber attorney, Bill Marler, suddenly the U.S. Department of Agriculture announces this afternoon that its
"Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is investigating a Missouri establishment that on October 9 voluntarily ceased operations due to reported illnesses linked to their products. Banquet brand and generic store brand frozen not-ready-to-eat pot pie products with "P-9" printed on the side of the package may be the potential source of reported illnesses caused by Salmonella based on epidemiological evidence collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and State public health departments.
The Agency is advising consumers not to eat or to discard these chicken or turkey pot pie products until we are able to determine the source, products and potential production dates of contamination and to verify proper cooking instructions for these not-ready-to-eat products. We will provide updates as further information becomes available."
ConAgra issued its own press release, stating,
"The company reminds consumers that these products are not ready-to-eat, and must always be thoroughly cooked as instructed on the packages. The cooking instructions for these products are specifically designed to eliminate the presence of common pathogens found in many uncooked products. Microwave cooking times vary, depending on the wattage of the microwave, so carefully following all instructions is important.
"Consumers with questions regarding the cooking of Banquet pot pies may call 1-866-484-8671 or contact us online at www.conagrafoods.com/contactus. For more information on food safety, consumers may reference IFIC.org."
The most recent news has 135 people sick in 35 states, and maybe as many as 200, going back to March of this year.
Wow.
So Amy and I went to the local supermarket after dinner. We found the products in question, with the P-9 on the side, and on sale, 2-for-$1.I called the number suggested by ConAgra (see above). After listening to a recorded message, I spoke with a human, who wanted to know my name, zip code, state, and when she got to address, I said, I just want to know how to properly cook these in the microwave, cause the press release says they're safe if cooked properly.
The human hung up.
Amy and I then examined the ingredient list, which included cooked chicken, and mechanically deboned chicken -- but did not specify whether the meat was coked or not. So maybe there is raw poultry in the pot pies, which could be a source of salmonella, or maybe it's all cooked but there was a failure in reaching 165F. Don't know at this point.
And then there's the cooking instructions, which ConAgra says to follow carefully.
On the front in big capital letters, bottom left:KEEP FROZEN
COOK THOROUGHLY
On the image of the potpie:
Ready in 4 minutes
Microwaveable
On the back:
For food safety and quality, follow these cooking directions:
Microwave Oven
(fine print: Ovens vary; cooking time may need to be adjusted.)
Place tray on microwave-safe plate; slit top crust.
Microwave on High.
(Med. OR High Wattage Microwave 4 mins.
Low Wattage Microwave 6 mins).
Let Stand 3 minutes. Carefully remove as Product will be hot.
Conventional Oven
(fine print: Do not prepare in toaster oven.)
Preheat oven to 400F. Place tray on cookie sheet, slit top crust.
Bake in oven 30 to 32 minutes.
Carefully remove as Product will be hot. Let Stand 5 minutes.)
(fine print: Temperatures above 400F and/or failure to use a cookie sheet may cause damage to the paper tray, food and/or oven.)
Assuming I've got an urge for a chicken pot pie, and assuming I've read the label, I don't know the wattage of my microwave. I don't know how heat is dispersed throughout the microwave. I want to see the validation studies that verify the cooking instructions. In the meantime, the only way to verify safety is to use a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer and cook to 165F.
Or as William Keene, a state epidemiologist with the Oregon Public Health Division told the Statesman Journal this evening,
"Even though salmonella infections can be prevented by thorough cooking, the bacteria can survive undercooking or uneven cooking such as from microwaves.
'I wouldn’t want to take that chance; I’d just throw it out.'"
