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Canadian retailers make food safety key priority
Source of Article: http://thepacker.com/icms/_dtaa2/content/wrapper.asp?alink=2008-162344-245.asp&stype=topnews&fb=
By Cynthia David
(Nov. 5, 4:23 p.m.) Since no company
wants to see their name in the media associated with a foodborne
illness, the race is on to safeguard all aspects of the food chain, from
the field to the consumer.
“Today’s educated consumers don’t just want to know what they’re buying,”
said Christian Chouinard, Loblaws
director of product development for Canada, “they want to know
where it comes from and every ingredient in it.”
As a result, he said, grocery chains must become specialists, researching
how each producer grows the product they buy and how to take the extra care
required to keep it safe.
“At Loblaws, I’m the guy in Florida
in winter looking at the fields,” said Chouinard,
who’s based in Montreal.
“In summer, I’m based here to check out all the Quebec growers in terms of food safety,
quality and quantity. In the future, I’ll be involved in Ontario as well, checking every facet of
every grower’s operation.”
At Stellarton,
Nova Scotia- based Sobeys
Inc., whose IGA banner is the province’s largest, traceability has become a
watchword for all produce managers.
“We work with our national team and our HACCP department,” said Pat Calabretta, senior director of merchandising and
purchasing for Sobeys Quebec.
“You’re liable for what you sell, and we’re liable if something happens in
our stores. Though most of us grew up eating fruits and vegetables and
nobody died, today we’ve got to take it seriously.”
At Essex Continental in Montreal’s
Marche Central, food safety has been the No. 1 priority for the past three
years, said general manager Frank Ferrarelli.
“We test everything before it goes out,” he said, “and each cup contains
the julienne date, farm and room number so we can trace every mushroom.”
Sliced mushrooms are particularly susceptible to listeria,
said Ferrarelli. The outer skin of a whole
mushroom protects against the bacteria, he said, but once a mushroom is
sliced that protection disappears. To be sure its equipment is pristine, the company soaks its slicer in boiling water
for 30 minutes daily.
If any traces of listeria are found during
testing, he said, the line is stopped immediately.
“If it happens to us it might affect 300 to 400 cases from one day’s
production,” he said. “We wouldn’t wait for a second test, which could take
six days, to tell us how many parts per million are present.”
While food safety hasn’t changed the way Montreal’s biggest wholesaler, Canadawide Fruit Wholesalers Inc., does business,
president George Pitsikoulis said the company is
in the process of upgrading its computer system to enable it to track every
lot of produce it handles. “We’ll be ready to offer full traceability by
November,” he predicted.
Montreal’s foodservice
distributors also are tackling the issue of food safety, said Benoit Lecavalier, sales manager for Hector Larivee. The company imports much of its U.S.
produce through Pro-Act, a co-operative of North American produce
specialists.
The group has devised its own recall system, Lecavalier
said, and members share ideas regularly on ongoing issues concerning
bacteria and traceability.
Lecavalier added that Larivee’s
sister company, Tomapure in Laval, Quebec,
offers facilities designed with food safety in mind. It washes and packs
vegetables for foodservice, including tomatoes for the Subway sandwich
chain.
“We need to be able to give our customers full assurance that we deal only
with approved suppliers and that we can trace back any product,” Lecavalier said.
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