NEWARK, Del. — Produce Marketing Association members here made significant contributions to support the association's food safety initiatives last month.
As of Dec. 15, 372 PMA member companies each donated $1,000 to the “Gold Circle: Campaign for Food Safety” program, in addition to the members' annual association membership dues. The Gold Circle program supports PMA's global food safety initiatives in four primary areas: research, consumer education, industry outreach and training, and communications.
“Food Lion is a strongly customer-focused company, and one way that we safeguard the trust that our customers place in us is through our strong commitment to food safety,” Jim Corby, vice president of produce merchandising for Food Lion, Salisbury, N.C., said in a release. “We are proud to support PMA's Gold Circle and the food safety work it funds, so our customers can have a great produce experience with confidence every bite, every time.”
In addition to supporting the Partnership for Food Safety Education's “Be Food Safe” consumer education program, the Gold Circle program also funds produce-specific food safety research at the new Center for Produce Safety at the University of California, Davis.
CPS was created in 2007 by founding contributions from PMA and Gold Circle contributor Taylor Farms. CPS began sponsoring produce-specific food safety research in 2008, and as of July 2009 has issued $1.1 million in research grants to fund 11 produce-specific projects.
CPS will host an international symposium in June 2010 to report findings to date.