SafeSourcing Blog

Many of our supermarket chains and other retailers that sell fresh eggs are huge companies with thousands of locations. In order to support their customers their perishable inventory turnover has to be fast and efficient and come from multiple sources. Tracing the product to the original sources is one thing. It is entirely another thing to ensure safety and to understand not only where the product comes from but how that source conducts their business. This can and should include supplier visits and audits as well as a well structured set of questions that a farmer or distributor should be required to answer before a product goes on your shelf.

If you can’t answer some of the questions listed below, you are not being fair to your consumer or your company.

1. What type of egg farm do your eggs come from?
2. What’s the hen population of each farm?
3. What are hen living conditions such as size of cage?
4. What’s the average laying life of the hens at your source?
5. How much living space does each hen have?
6. How and what are the hens fed?
7. Do you know where the feed comes from to its original source?
8. What safety tests are conducted regularly as part of the farms business?
9. Are tests for multiple strains of salmonella conducted?
10. Has one of your supplier’s farms ever tested positive for salmonella?
11. What happens when a positive test occurs?
12. How does your farm monitor or ensure air quality for their hen population?
13. How long does it take from the time an egg is laid until it reaches the supermarket shelf?
14. How long are eggs stored prior to shipping and at what temperature?
15. What cleaning processes are used once eggs are laid?
16. Are hens caged or cage free?
17. How many inspections are conducted at the farm annually, and by whom?
18. Have any of your farms ever failed an inspection? If so why?
19. What is done to keep hens’ disease free?
20. What type of waste removal system does the farm employ?
21. Does the farm have any bio control practices in place?
22. Has the farm or farms that you source from won any awards?
23. Do the farms you source from maintain any regularly reviewed certifications?

These questions can be reworked for just about any farming environment and retail buyers that source these products should be able to do it with very little help. How much better would your company feel if they had positive responses to these questions on record for each farm in your supply chain that was regularly updated?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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The reason I post on these issues is because whatever the industry or the government is doing or more than likely not doing has to be fixed. We and by we I mean the procurement professionals of the world can fix it, but we have to hold suppliers accountable along all aspects of the supply chain. That means from raw materials, feeds and so on until the consumer uses the product safely.

How do I know that we are not learning and not applying tools that are available or asking for tools that should be available? It’s pretty simple.

Here’s an example. E.coli outbreak in beef puts focus on tougher oversight. That title comes from the September 4th 2010 edition of the Arizona Republic by Matiga Lohn of the United Press. On June 16th of 2008 this author published the following post.What’s your risk associated with the sale of tainted food? Who’s Culpable?  That post e began with I was reading the Sunday June 15th 2008 issue of The Arizona Republic and found a short article in the week in review section titled Girl’s tainted-food death brings $13 mil settlement.

Here’s the deal, I may have found this in the same newspaper some 27 months a part, but the companies involved in both cases are subsidiaries of the same conglomerate. The new article says that this incident is prompting a fresh look at tougher regulations to protect the nation’s meat supply and the undersecretary of the USDA has signaled interest in expanding federal oversight of meat beyond the most prevalent strain of e.coli. She goes on to say that our policies need to evolve to address a broader range of these pathogens. Come on. The Same Company is involved, both are similar issues and the government response is the same. So hindsight is not 20/20.

If this was an employee, it would be simple. You are fired. You did not learn from your last mistake. Please remember we have elections in the fall and a supplier that does not do their job properly can also be fired.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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This author has posted recently regarding the issue of food safety in particular as it regards the recent egg recall for Salmonella outbreak. A much larger question we need ot begin asking is if we can’t control eggs in our own country how in the world we can control something as potentially dangerous as drugs. Many of these counterfeit drugs have the wrong ingredients, not enough ingredients, or are just outright fakes and tracking and tracing them from the manufacturer to the pharmacy is incredibly difficult

In the U.S.  Counterfeit drugs are being intermingled with the legitimate drugs According to the World Health Organization as much as 30 percent of prescription drugs in developing countries are counterfeit and, in developed countries, counterfeit drugs make up as much as 1 percent of the market.

As more of these products enter our market the tracking and tracing of them has to become a priority of the FDA.

There are a number of tools being considered in the area of packing alternatives inspection alternatives and RFID tagging.

As much as we pressure the FDA to do their job, and they have received additional funding for inspectors over the last several years, manufacturers also have to implement significant tracking and tracing of their products as the move along the supply chain down to the unit or container level.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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This author offered the following post during September of 2008.  The Food and Drug Administration fills 1300 positions. Are consumers safer?” If we were to answer that question today based on the most recent egg recall the answer would be obviously not.

So, I’m reading the Arizona Republic this past Saturday the 28th of August and come across the following article by Mary Clare Jalonick of the Associated Press. FDA to look at egg farms. The sub title was Official: Recall spurring action. You have to be kidding me. The article goes on to say that the Obama administration official says that inspectors will visit 600 large egg farms responsible for production of up to 80% of the nation’s eggs. This should be accomplished by the end of next year. Yes we mean the end of 2012. Snicker ;-(. Well I guess we are safer now.

The question this all begs is what won’t we be looking at while we are so focused on eggs. If we were really concerned, why would we not hire a bunch of new inspectors between now and the end of September of this year and train the during October of this year and then finish the project by the end of this year.. This author bets that you could find enough qualified job seekers to fill and carry out this task. I mean they are going to be following a check list relative to things like refrigeration, sanitation and standard practices. This is not brain surgery.

Hindsight is supposed to always be 20/20. If we visit wiki answers, the statement is defined as meaning that you can look in the past (hindsight) and see what you did wrong. Perfect vision is 20/20. So as you look back, you’re able to see “perfectly” what you should have done. So why does our government keep getting it wrong.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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To this author it does not really matter. What does matter is that you have to be able to trace where the egg came from, what you fed your hens or fertilized your crops with and how the consumable was processed.

 There has been any number of efforts in food industry traceability during the last decade that has resulted in a number of silly naming conventions. You may have heard of a few of them. I guess this means because we have a naming convention that progress is being made.

1. From the farm to the table.
2. From the farm to the fork.
3. From the field to the fork.

In light of the most recent egg recall what on gods green earth is the government doing about building a sustainable and traceable food system. We have this conversation to often and not much happens until the next occurrence.

Product traceability that works would improve the efficiency and speed of response time following a food safety event like our most recent salmonella case. It would also contribute in a significant way to the protection of our public health and help consumer confidence following such an incident. Historically field investigators have been slowed by having to sort through paper reports and documents at numerous locations that are responsible for handing, packing and distributing these products.

Make sure that your procurement solutions provider has a good response relative to how they can help you support traceability in your procurement process.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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When I was growing up the choices were not so difficult. My grandfather actually owned a dairy and poultry farm. When I visited the farms there were thousands of laying hens that my dad and grandfather owned. All of the eggs were brown and sometimes dirty before they were processed.

With the most recent salmonella outbreak, it is important to be aware of what you are buying as a consumer and as a retail buyer as well as whom you are buying them from.

There are three grades of eggs sold for the US mass market and each comes in a number of sizes.

1. U. S. Grade AA Eggs are practically free from defects and have firm yolks, thick whites, and clean and unbroken shells.
2. U.S. Grade A Eggs are practically free from defects with fairly thick whites, firm yolks, and clean and unbroken shells.
3. U.S. Grade B Eggs have thinner whites and larger, flatter yolks. The shells cannot be cracked, but they may be stained.

There are however many small farmers in the country that offer their eggs to the local neighborhoods where they live. If I were going to buy eggs from these farmers I would want to visit the farm the see the conditions the chickens live in. If I were a retail buyer, I would absolutely want to do the same thing. This author bets that one is far cleaner than the other.

Make sure your e-procurement provider supports from the farm to the table traceability.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

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