RALEY'S HAS A THIRD PARTY CERTIFY SAFETY OF ITS SEAFOOD

ERIC THORSEN

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Many retailers may claim their seafood departments follow strict food-safety procedures, but Raley's Supermarkets and its Bel Air Markets, based here, have developed a strategy to guarantee it.

Raley's, attempting to take its existing food-safety program to the next level, retained a third-party certification firm to help devise, implement and monitor a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point safety program in each of its seafood departments.

The initiative -- organized for the retailer by Scientific Certification Systems, Oakland, Calif. -- covers 70 Raley's units, as well as 17 stores operating under the Bel Air banner, said officials.

"We put a tremendous amount of time and resources in training our employees in food safety and proper sanitation," said Michael Teel, president and chief executive officer of Raley's, in a prepared statement. He declined to comment further on the new program.

According to Rade Jankovic, director of food-protection programs for SCS, Raley's installment of a third-party certification program has reinforced its commitment to food safety.

"You can call any retail chain in the country and talk to their [quality-control] personnel, and everybody will say, 'Oh, we have a great sanitation program,' or some will say, 'We have an HACCP program in place,' " he said. "What a third-party certification brings is a new dimension, where you have a neutral observer certify what you say you have in place, is in fact, in place."

Raley's joins a growing list of large operators around the country who implement government-recognized food-safety programs like HACCP. Others who have established similar procedures in their seafood departments include Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y., and Harry's Farmers Market, Atlanta.

"A lot of the industry is slowly introducing the HACCP idea in their operations, but very few have been able to actually implement and maintain it," said Jankovic. "At Raley's and Bel Air, we ensure that the program is part of the daily routine, [that] their seafood departments' daily operations revolve around HACCP procedures."

The new certification can play a legitimate role in merchandising seafood in each Raley's and Bel Air unit, since consumers in general are expressing increasing concern about the integrity of perishables like fish, as well as meat and produce, said Jankovic.

"[The certification program] ensures that what the retailer may advertise to the public is in fact true," he said. "And, the customer recognizes the value of the third-party certification."

Of all the components that embody the program, Jankovic explained that training the employees is by far the most important.

Jankovic said that all Raley's and Bel Air's managers are certified under ServSafe, a nationally recognized 10-week college-level course developed by the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association, based in Chicago. Under ServSafe, managers complete a number of projects and have to pass a final exam to become certified.

Using that as a foundation, the retailer's seafood employees take a four-hour, off-site basic food-handling course, complemented with hands-on training within their own departments, he said. In this case, the employees received the department training from Raley's managers and Raley's corporate-level, ServSafe-certified trainers, he said.

With this schooling, employees learned proper sanitation methods, as well as ways to monitor and control food-safety hazards, he said. Both full-time and part-time employees are required to participate in order to prevent any lapses in food-safety procedures, said Jankovic.

"In a way, we empower all employees by giving them the knowledge to take corrective action that is necessary," said Jankovic. "The seafood manager cannot be there 24 hours a day."

Another prerequisite of SCS's HACCP program is the certification of Raley's distribution center, as well as the four other distributors it buys from, said Jankovic. He said all five facilities were approved by SCS inspectors prior to certifying Raley's.

In-store, the certification assures that Raley's and Bel Air adhere to a list of set rules. These require that the retailer:

Sell only live shellfish harvested from government-approved waters.

Sell only seafood purchased from SCS-certified distributors.

Check seafood shipments upon delivery to ensure correct temperature conditions.

Store products at set temperatures monitored and documented throughout the day.

As part of the agreement, SCS conducts unannounced audits, examining each seafood department's product handling, record keeping and the facilities themselves, including standard sanitation operating procedures and critical control point management.

Raley's employees are also spot-interviewed by SCS food inspectors during the routine audits, said Jankovic.

"We question employees about various procedures and we make sure they understand the program and understand what they are supposed to if there is a problem; how they are supposed to react to a problem," he said.

To protect its own credibility, SCS follows a standard set of rules that all third-party certifiers must adhere to.

First, third-party certifiers are prohibited from having any financial, managerial or ownership ties with the company that they are certifying. They are required to document and publish findings, regardless of whether the retailer passes or fails any aspect of the program, or if they withdraw from it.

The certifier must also adhere to internationally set standards or, in the absence of such standards, have guidelines reviewed by peers.

Lastly, the firm must document that the retailer is certified through non-misleading statements, that clearly define the company or product, as well as the terms of the contract between the company and the certifying agent.