Check out the title of this ?BPA? post from November of 2008!

A site this author uses quite regularly is saferproducts.gov which is a site that was driven by the Consumer Products Safety Act of 2008 called saferproducts.gov. This site provided all sorts of information and reports relative to products and product recalls that consumers and business can use. It also allows one to enter information that they would like to share relative to product safety concerns they have encountered.

It?s interesting that my BPA post was from 2008 as was the act that created a need for this database and that we continue to not have an adequate answer in the United State relative to BPA.

My recommendation. If you don?t like it, write your congress person and get out and vote.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

And this is just another example of why the U.S. government is so screwed up.

Here are the first two sentences of this post from 2008.”What is the status of bisphenol A in the United States”? “Should procurement professionals be cautious”? “Canada declares this chemical toxic, bans bottles with it”.

I’m sure that almost everyone will look at this post and say so what, we have bigger fish to fry. That’s true, but if you don’t start attacking issues and making decisions at some point, there may just be too many fish to control. If you don’t believe me, just goggle Asian carp and ask any one in the great lakes region if they wish they nipped this issue in the bud years ago.

Here’s the issue I have. This post was almost four years ago and we the U.S. government has made no progress on the issue of BPA. Canada has, in fact they acted over four years ago. Japan has, and so have many other countries. The U.S. has not and it is just another symptom of way to much government and lack of action.

Here’s the current status, in an April 3rd article in Time Science titled “BPA Gets a Reprieve — for Now” by Bryan Walsh, stated that on March 30, the FDA announced that it was rejecting a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to ban BPA from food packaging. The entire article is pretty interesting relative to toxicology and today’s science versus historical science.

In a nut shell, the government did not do any thing again. And we wonder why we have the mess we have today.

If you want to make sure you are sourcing safe products, contact a SafeSourcing representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

And this is just another example of why the U.S. government is so screwed up.

Here are the first two sentences of this post from 2008.?What is the status of bisphenol A in the United States?? ?Should procurement professionals be cautious?? ?Canada declares this chemical toxic, bans bottles with it?.

I?m sure that almost everyone will look at this post and say so what, we have bigger fish to fry. That?s true, but if you don?t start attacking issues and making decisions at some point, there may just be too many fish to control. If you don?t believe me, just goggle Asian carp and ask any one in the great lakes region if they wish they nipped this issue in the bud years ago.

Here?s the issue I have. This post was almost four years ago and we the U.S. government has made no progress on the issue of BPA. Canada has, in fact they acted over four years ago. Japan has, and so have many other countries. The U.S. has not and it is just another symptom of way to much government and lack of action.

Here?s the current status, in an April 3rd article in Time Science titled ?BPA Gets a Reprieve ? for Now? by Bryan Walsh, stated that on March 30, the FDA announced that it was rejecting a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to ban BPA from food packaging. The entire article is pretty interesting relative to toxicology and today?s science versus historical science.

In a nut shell, the government did not do any thing again. And we wonder why we have the mess we have today.

If you want to make sure you are sourcing safe products, contact a SafeSourcing representative.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.

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.

We look forward to and appreciate your comments.