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Archive for the ‘Sourcing Safe Foods’ Category

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What’s the most cost effective action that companies of all types and sizes can take to help reduce the number of food born or airborne illnesses?

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

I was reading USA TODAY (I do this every day). I love their Snapshots at the bottom of each section. Today’s front page USA TODAY Snapshot was titled Has news coverage on airborne/foodborne illnesses prompted you to wash your hands more by Rachel Huggins and Veronica Bravo.  The snapshot sites Bradley Corps Healthy Hand Washing Survey and indicates that 54% of those surveyed said NO and 46% said YES.

Personally I find these results disturbing. Just think about how often you shake someone’s hand and then think about what they were doing in the 15 minutes before you met. Maybe Howie Mandel has it right by just doing the fist bump.

If the answer to this survey were 100%, it would be interesting to see what the impact on these types’ illnesses would be. As a result, this author will continue to write about food safety and strategies that companies can take to reduce them

Go wash your hands.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products

Are you developing sustainable strategies with your office supplies purchases?

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Toner products are a great example of an opportunity to use a sustainable resource. At present, you are probably just buying toner products because you need them. Have you actually taken the time to look at more environmentally focused toner solutions?  

It’s a safe bet that your company is using laser printers. You may even have a thoughtful blue paper recycling container near the copier or even near every printer. You may even use recycled paper. The next step is a logical one; use environmentally friendly soy based ink for your laser printers.

SafeSourcing’s opinion is that the two best environmental reasons to use soy based ink are as follows. One, soy ink does not emit VOCs or volatile organic compounds. Two, soy ink is not petroleum based.  In a nut shell, you will be replacing a product based on a non sustainable source with one that is.

If you still need more reasons to switch? Assuming that you are already recycling paper, you will be glad to learn that soy based ink is said to make recycling the paper quicker and easier. Also, this option opens you up to new sources of supply. The next time you run an e-procurement event for toner, you will have more options, greater price compression and another notch in your environmentally friendly tool belt.

Once done with this project, you need to brag about it so that other companies take notice and follow your lead. If you have implemented the full array of green printing mentioned in this blog, you have earned the right. Your customers will be happy to hear that you have made the right choices.

If you would like to learn more about environmentally friendly practices for your business, please visit www.SafeSourcing.com and check out our blog archives and our sourcing wiki both full of useful information. 

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products

How do your buyers and category managers keep up with all of the product and safety recalls?

Friday, September 16th, 2011

The amount of information we are all required to be aware of today is simply mind boggling. As such a simple and effective tool that looks at the many sites providing this information and consolidating it in one location is your best bet to event try and stays aware of this information.

Most organizations like the USDA, FDA, EcoLogo, Kosher Council and the Consumer Product Safety Commission all offer RSS feeds of their most recent recalls and alerts. At SafeSourcing we consolidate over 50 of those companies so that you don’t have to. When you reach our site, the RSS fed alerts and recall section is located in the top right hand corner of the page. If you had been logged on to our system today you would already know that the listeria outbreak associated with cantaloupes has already killed four people and has spread to multiple states. What is listeria you ask? Visit the SafeSourcing Wiki to learn about many procurement related terms.

Are you aware of the Tylenol recall?

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in E-supply Chain, Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products

ECOLI!! “There is a lot more to an article than just its title.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

In most of my reading I try to relate the article to what else is going on in the world and try to understand how those pressures apply to the article I’m reading.

As a case in point; I was reading the USA TODAY MONEY section where the main article was titled “Only 1 deadly strain of E.coli is illegal” by Elizabeth Weise. As was the case for this author, I’m sure you are trying to figure out what the article is about, because shouldn’t all E.coli or more accurately conditions that cause E.coli to spread be illegal?

In any case according to the article there are a half dozen or so potentially deadly strains of E.coli but in the Untied States, companies are only required to test for one. That one is E.coli 0157:H7.

How we fix this issue is a real conundrum since the United States legislature does not seem to have this (food safety) as a significant issue, but then again they don’t seem to be able to agree on anything lately other than arguing with each other and wasting time.

At least we know now that 17% of the E.coli that could kill us is tested for. I’ll leave it to you as to whether or not that’s a good batting average.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Safe Foods

How socially focused or responsible is your company.

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Well if that’s the case why not apply for B Corporation certification. In essence this would be putting your money where your mouth is. At this point there are no real hard financial incentives for a company to do this. At least four states  have passed or proposed B Corp legislation, but it is pretty clear that all will in the future.

So just what is a B CORP? I’m glad you asked. If you visit the Certified B Corporation website you’ll learn that Certified B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.  B Corps are unlike traditional businesses because they:
        • Meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental    performance standards;
        • Meet higher legal accountability standards;
        • Build business constituency for good business

SafeSourcing is going to add B Corporation certification to our database of supplier certifications and ask companies our customers’ partner with what their plans are to achieve B Corp Certification as part of their current or future CSR initiatives. We do the same for over 30 other certifications today such as Eco Logo, SQF and LEED.

If we do a small part and our customers do a small part and their suppliers do a small part, the parts will add up. Pay it forward and do your part.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Ron Southard CEO SafeSourcing

Posted in Business Sourcing, E-supply Chain, Green eProcurement Practices, Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products, Sourcing Strategy

Health Canada, a tool for buyers in Canada that costs little yet contains a lot.

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

In Canada, it’s as simple as visiting the Health Canada Website. According to Wikipedia Health Canada (French: Santé Canada) is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for national public health. Here you can find news releases, speeches, media notices and research a variety of data related to health and food safety within Canada.

Just as yesterdays post  “Buyers; Do you need a great place to research product quality and recall issues” that talked about The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission  the Canadian Government has many tools that buyers can use that also cost nothing. You just have to spend a little time on their site.

Sometimes the best tools are the ones you don’t have to pay for.

We look forward to and appreciates your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products, Sourcing Strategy

Buyers; Do you need a great place to research product quality and recall issues?

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

 Recalls and Product Safety News can be found at the CPSC’s website and can be searched using a number of categories, dates and other criteria such as those below.

1. Recall Number
2. Company
3. Product Type
4. Product Description
5. Hazard
6. Country/Administrative Area of Manufacture
7. Recall Date
8. UPC

You don’t always have to buy something in order to get your job done. Sometimes just knowing where to find the information can be the hardest part of your job. Now you have one fewer places to look.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in B2b Supply Chain, Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products, Supply Chain Procurement

How difficult is food safety?

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

You can’t open up your browser or turn a page in a local or national newspaper without reading about some food borne illness issue followed by some official saying we have to get a handle on this. Most of these illnesses are lumped into the food poisoning category. Some are bacterial and others virus related.

The bacteria and viruses most frequently associated with food poisoning cases in the United States are Salmonella, Botulism, Norovirus,Vibrio Infections, Listeria, Hepatitis A, B.cereus, E.coli and Campylobacter. To this author all of these names are pretty scary and many have resulted in death.

There are dozens of trade organizations, programs within those organizations, standards and governments focused on Food Safety. And we still end up with outbreaks like we are seeing in Europe.  

If I were to try and define food safety, a simple definition would be that it is a scientific discipline describing the handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food borne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. Food can transmit disease from person to person as well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

Isn’t too bad it’s not that easy. Unfortunately, Food Safety seems to be proverbial camel     created by a committee trying to design a horse.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products

Understanding the complexity of food born illness!

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Food born illness has had a lot of recent press, there are however more than 160 foods that can cause serious allergic reactions that also require procurement professionals awareness and education.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) there are more than 160 foods that can cause allergic reactions in people with food allergies, the law identifies the eight most common allergenic foods. These foods account for 90 percent of food allergic reactions, and are the food sources from which many other ingredients are derived. Some of these products have been in the news recently for other issues in the food safety area.

The law requires that the following eight foods be indentified as allergenic.
 
Milk
Eggs
Fish (e.g., bass, flounder, cod)
Crustacean shellfish (e.g. crab, lobster, shrimp)
Tree nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans)
Peanuts
Wheat
Soybeans
 
These eight foods, and any ingredient that contains protein derived from one or more of them, are designated as “major food allergens” by the law.

The law also requires that food labels identify the food source of all major food allergens. It must be included in one of two ways. The name of the food source of a major food allergen must appear in parentheses following the name of the ingredient. By example, “lecithin (soy),” “flour (wheat),” and “whey (milk)” or immediately after or next to the list of ingredients in a “contains” statement. By example, “Contains Wheat, Milk, and Soy.”

The symptoms of food allergies can appear within a few minutes or up to two hours after a person has eaten the food to which he or she is allergic. Some of these symptoms can be similar to food poisoning or food born illness symptoms.

Hives
Flushed skin or rash
Tingling or itchy sensation in the mouth
Face, tongue, or lip swelling
Vomiting and/or diarrhea
Abdominal cramps
Coughing or wheezing
Dizziness and/or lightheadedness
Swelling of the throat and vocal cords
Difficulty breathing
Loss of consciousness
 
It’s important to read the food labeling if you are sensitive to these or other food groups and avoid those allergens in question.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments

Posted in Sourcing Safe Foods

A cold cut or a burnt at the steak. This sounds more like a Knight’s tale than a food safety initiative.

Friday, May 6th, 2011

There was an article in today’s MONEY section of USA TODAY by Elizabeth Weise titled “CDC: Over 50? Heat those cold cuts to 165º”. The sub title indicated the Goal is to cut the risk of listeria bacteria. Without getting into the article which contains some great educaional content, these are the recommendations of the CDC and have been for some time.

This author used to love fried bologna sandwiches with yellow mustard as a kid and when I lived in St. Louis I would buy a hot salami sandwich from a deli on The Hill. However, I ate them on the spot. Have you ever friend bologna and then put it in a sandwich to take to work or have your child take to school. Does the word hockey puck or shoe leather or jerky mean anything to you?

The idea behind a cold cut is that it is cold. How about figuring out a way to eliminate the risk of Listeria in cold cuts instead of changing the way the product has been used since its inception.  In yesterdays post “What is the financial impact of food-borne illnesses”   Listeria was one of the top 10 pathogens that collectively cost us $8B a year.

When I used to visit New York City on business, I loved to eat at Katz’s Deli and still do and will continue to. Above the counter hung a sign that read “Send a salami to your boy in the army” I was told this was from World War II but is still done today. I guess they are going to have to add something to the sign now that says cook before shipping so this can be used as a baseball bat.

Come On. Let’s figure out how to fix the problem without ruining the product.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Posted in Sourcing Safe Foods, Sourcing Safe Products, Uncategorized

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