SafeSourcing Blog

Today’s post is by Danielle Begley, Account Manager at SafeSourcing.

Recently, Coca Cola announced they found traces of a fungicide in their orange juice imported from Brazil.  While the fungicide is used by farmers in Brazil, its use is not permitted in the US.  Although the traces are insignificant, it made me think how heavily we rely on imported food and wonder how safe is it really? 

According to USA Today, the FDA only inspects about 1% of all imported food, which is significantly down from the number inspected 20 years ago when imported food was not as prevalent.  What is more concerning is that the FDA does not require exporting countries to carry the same safety requirements as the US.  As the number of foods imported increases the FDA simply does not have adequate resources.  As a consumer it is somewhat staggering that we have such stringent guidelines required by the FDA in our own country, however other countries of which we are heavily reliant are not held to the same standards.  What can the average consumer or better yet the local retail outlet do to be less reliant on the seemingly uninspected imported food?

Alternative sources of supply are quite useful for this concern.  Local farmers are the best source as they are held to the same safety regulations.  As a retail outlet, buying local or at least importing within the country is the way to maintain safety.  Above all, if the issue of food safety is important to your company, it is your responsibility to make it part of your corporate social responsibility.

For more information on food safety and sourcing, please contact a Customer Service Representative for more information.

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On page 3 section A of the January 10th edition of USA TODAY there was a news post titled USDA cutbacks to reach 46 states and further mentioned that this inluded 259 offices, labs and other facilities. These comments were  attributed to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

What impact will these cuts have on Food Safety only time will tell? But certainly the jobs added to address food safety are certainly not safe.

The USDA focus on food safety and at a minimum drives efforts focused on Food Handling, Food Recalls, Food Irradiation, Foodborne Illnesses, through a number of Food Safety Resources. At the beginning of our current presidents last term, he committed to focusing on the safe food issue. Now that he needs to get re-elected maybe not so much.

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By now this is a classic company resolution. But now is the time to act on your good intentions. This is a great resolution and this author sincerely hopes that you can make this work, even if only in a small way.

If we really consider going green, it is easy to see the benefits of and get caught up in the big areas. We might want to reduce our carbon footprint by limiting corporate travel or replacing our equipment and office supplies with the green versions of the same. These are certainly great aspirations. While you determine which of the major green projects you can implement, I would suggest you step back and make a smaller change as well.

One way to implement an environmentally friendly purchasing process is to enlist help from your strategic sourcing partner. Ask your provider to limit your vendor selections to only include vendors that hold at least one environmental certification. This would ensure that as you go about your business of purchasing the items and services that you already need, you will also be supporting a green initiative.

This may seem like a small step, but every small step we take is a step in the right direction.

In tomorrow’s New Year post, we will take a look at another annual procurement issue; evergreen contracts.

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According to Wikipedia the chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” To ancient philosophers, the question about the first chicken or egg also evoked the questions of how life and the universe in general began. One might add today that it evokes how we might protect and preserve it .

I received a call today with a question relative to yesterdays post, asking if we had any additional sources on humane treatment of farm animals. We discussed a few suggestions or areas where they might look in order to begin to understand and develop humane sourcing procedures.

We actually discussed the subject in some length. At least in more detail than I can cover in this post, but I suggested for starters that they visit www.americanhumane.org. American Humane Certified protects farm animals by working with producers through the groundbreaking American Humane Certified™ farm animal program (formerly known as the Free Farmed program). American Humane Certified guarantees consumers that the products they select are from animals that were raised and treated humanely.

This site goes well beyond the humane treatment of just farm animals and is a great educational resource for procurement professionals and other associates as well that are interested in humane treatment in general.

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A lot has evolved in animal safety, and chickens don’t wear sunglasses any more, but go back three quarters of a century when my grandfather owned one the largest chicken farms in the northeast and they did and it was also to keep them safe.

According to the Optical Vision Site. – Sunglasses for Chickens! They were invented in 1939 to control cannibalistic behavior of chickens. According to blame it on the voices the sunglasses were held on the chicken’s beak with a cotter pin through the nostrils of the bird.  Chickens are provoked by the sight of blood and will peck at each other, eventually killing off much of the flock. These red lenses prevented chickens from seeing the red blood and calmed their behavior. These have not been manufactured for many years and we do not have any available for sale. These glasses are now considered a collector’s item.

If you want to learn more about the Good Egg Project please visit their website.

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Food Alliance provides comprehensive third-party certification for social and environmental responsibility in agriculture and the food industry.

Today, there are more than 320 Food Alliance Certified operations, and over six million acres managed by Food Alliance Certified producers throughout North America.

Food Alliance Certified products include meats, eggs, dairy, mushrooms, grains, legumes, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and prepared products made with these certified ingredients.

With clear standards and criteria, Food Alliance certification is a practical, credible, and effective way for farmers, ranchers, and food companies to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability in agricultural practices and facilities management.

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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.

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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.

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