Earthbound Farm opens up on food safety
Daniels made the announcement during his speech at the Food Safety Summit May 1. Event organizers said about 1,500 people registered for the three-day event.
Before revealing the plans to share with competitors the food safety procedures in place at the company, Daniels outlined what Earthbound Farm went through during the 2006 spinach-related E. coli outbreak.
“As one whose food injured more than 200 people and killed three, I am here to tell you enough is enough,” Daniels said.
He described the investigation carried out by the FDA. He also said he was shocked that legal advisers seemed to advocate providing the investigation with the minimum required paperwork.
“As a regulator myself I thought, ‘Wow. That’s not going to be very helpful,’ ” Daniels said.
Daniels said money was at the root of this problem. Retailers still wanted rock-bottom prices to attract consumers, he said.
We often lose business to those with lesser programs because of cost,” Daniels said.
But he has seen a paradigm shift since 2006, which he attributes to senior management in companies realising food safety related expenses are,in fact, investments.
“We need to stop relying on liability insurance to protect us and instead take action so we don’t need to rely on it,” Daniels said.
Source: foodsafetymagazine.com
