UNITED MOVES TO FORM PRODUCE COALITION FOR FOOD SAFETY

RALPH RAIOLA

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Representatives from several segments of the produce industry are expected to meet at the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association's convention here to create a more focused industry plan to deal with food safety.

The goal is to form a special coalition comprised of "all stakeholders in produce safety, including companies at each stage of the produce chain" to address some of the more congruent themes of the microbiological safety issue, according to United officials.

"We want to bring some sort of focal point to the issue," said Sarah DeLea, vice president of communications at United, Alexandria, Va.

The organizational meeting will take place Sunday, Feb. 23, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

DeLea said the produce industry, because of its diversity, has, for the most part, addressed the issues surrounding food safety on a commodity by commodity basis, and in some cases on a company by company basis.

Several agencies, including the International Fresh-Cut Produce Association, Arlington, Va., and the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, here, set up their own food-safety models for a number of grower-shippers across the country.

"But there are a lot of issues that cross over," DeLea said. "We want to bring everybody together to address the issues, and share research."

The agenda for this initial meeting is to gauge the produce industry's interest in such a coalition and to work toward pulling in useful information from the various industry sectors, as well as to identify what steps the industry is already taking to prevent contamination or learn more about microbiology in produce.

"We want to find out what research is actually needed, what research is missing," she said.

The retail role in this meeting, according to United officials, is to provide information about what retailers need from their suppliers.

"We welcome their input," DeLea said. "We want to find what they would like to see from the growers and shippers."

She added that many of the larger chains have been investigating the possibilities of setting up Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points programs in their produce operations.

Aside from the increased industry concern over food safety issues, President Clinton's announcement of his Food Safety Initiative is one of the reasons for United's interest in creating an industrywide focus on the microbiological issue.

While the president's initiative does not include produce, DeLea believes the federal government is going to target produce at some point.

"They're going to say, 'It's your turn,' " she said. To that end, United hopes the coalition will be able to form a set of guidelines to help the industry prepare itself in lieu of any governmental intervention.

Only this first meeting has been set, but United is giving itself a year to complete the project.

"This is not going to be something that is going to go on forever," DeLea said.

United officials, along with most in the industry, often rate the microbiological threat to produce as one of the larger industry concerns in the coming years.

"We believe there are tremendous lessons to be learned by sharing perspectives across the industry, and significant synergy available by working together on certain cross-cutting issues," said Tom Stenzel, United president, in a statement.