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.

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One thing we have learned or at least taken a step towards understanding is the financial impact of these types of events. The Emerging Pathogens Institute of the University of Florida has issued a Report that indentifies the top 10 pathogen-food combinations that cause illness in the U.S. annually as well as their financial impact. Salmonella is the leading pathogen and the culprit in the recent tomato recall costing $3B per year. According to the report the top 10 pathogens cost us $8B per year.

This author believes you could actually triple those numbers as most cases of simple diarrhea and vomiting never make there way to the hospital or other medical centers, but do in fact cause loss of work, productivity and wages. $24B is a big number.

The lesson hear is that we have still not solved the food-borne issue illness or the farm to fork issue that requires a supply chain that is traceable to it’s original source. Until we do, what goes around will continue to come around and the costs will continue to go up.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

Yesterday Taylor Farms Pacific, Inc., a California-based food supplier for a number of retail companies announced the recall of grape tomatoes produced by one of their growers based on a possible salmonella contamination.

Here’s the title of a post from three years ago on cherry tomatoes which are basically the same product, “I say Tomato, and you say Tomah to. I ate some last night”!

So the question is what have we learned and how has it been applied to these products. Food recalls cost money. They create lost revenue for retailers and lost work hours for consumers affected by the illness they cause.

If you are a retailer or a supplier affected by these recalls and you want to improve performance, give SafeSourcing a call.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

I watched a commercial on T.V. the other night where a dad organized the local Easter egg hunt. He went to the store and purchased black and green paint and then individually painted the eggs in a camouflage pattern before hiding them. It was hilarious watching the kids wander around looking for the eggs. I think one egg was actually found by accident. The guy’s wife was not very happy with him. Depending on how you look at it, maybe the father did the kids a favor.

After all, he did use real eggs because he knew that he could not confirm that the plastic ones he first looked at did not contain BPA or Bisphenol A.  So, he moved on tot the local grocery store and bought fresh eggs. He had heard of BPA, but had never been exposed to Salmonella and was not aware of the number of recalls in the recent past of fresh eggs.

I guess the point is I could go on and write about paint products, pesticides on the lawn, multiple kids picking up the same egg or a variety of other issues confronting parents today that we just did not think about 40 or 50 years ago. It’s a shame.

The above does however point out the diligence required by sourcing professionals when buying for resale products and how these products cross paths and interact as well as impact the consumer. We are making progress but not enough for me to eat one of those eggs anymore. At least until I’ve washed it.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.