Have you ever thought that what you see is sometimes different from what you are really seeing?
The famous Arcimboldo's "Vegetables In A Bowl Or The Gardener" painting is a clear example ....
The head of Germany's national disease control center said investigators have determined that locally-grown vegetable sprouts are the cause of the European E. coli outbreak that has killed 29 and sickened nearly 3,000.Robert Koch Institute's president, Reinhard Burger, told reporters Friday that even though no tests of the sprouts from a farm in Lower Saxony had come back positive, the epidemiological investigation of the pattern of the outbreak had produced enough evidence to draw the conclusion."It is the sprouts," Burger said.Burger said the institute is lifting its warning against eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce but keeping the warning in place for the sprouts.
The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA) along with the US Chamber of Commerce and other parties are calling for the US government to improve inter-agency cooperation and staffing in order to reduce bottlenecks of commercial shipments at the US-Mexico border.The two key recommendations, announced in a new report, focus on data sharing and increasing Customs & Border Protection staffing as a means to minimizing crossing times.The in-depth report, titled ‘Steps to a 21st Century US-Mexico Border’, aims to create a concise outline on the importance of the US-Mexico relationship that could be easily provided to policy leaders and the general public.“Customs and Border Protection needs all the tools at their disposal, including not just technology but also adequate levels of personnel to facilitate the legal crossing of goods and people,” said Jaime Chamberlain, FPAA chairman and president of J-C Distributing in Nogales, Arizona.Lance Jungmeyer, president of FPAA, said the recipe for success is to ensure that Ports of Entry are effectively staffed to the needs desired to efficiently move goods and people across the border. “The US has the responsibility to live up to its obligations to provide free and fair trade to NAFTA partners. When Customs is understaffed, that is an effective barrier to trade,” he explained.Source: Fruitnet
US-based discount retailer Family Dollar has signed a five-year contract worth $39 million for the use of Iverify’s third party video monitoring systems at 529 stores nationwide.
Family Dollar believes this new system will save the company money by reducing shrinkage and replacing guard services, as each Iverify deployment is customized to the specific store location.Family Dollar is using a robust application that uses Cernium analytics for location-based risk assessment that triggers local announcements in the vicinity of high-shrink products. Further, with sophisticated time-based analysis, it then escalates the risk profile and engages a live intervention from a protection specialist.
The 15,000 sq ft outlet features between 11,000-12,000 items, around 70% of which consisted of grocery items.More information on this week's edition of FOODSline.If you don't receive it, please ask to be added to our mailing list @ info@foods-line.info
Nestle's head of procurement, Kevin Petrie, said factors including weather, speculators and oil prices are fueling "unprecedented rises in the price of commodities" in nominal terms. He also said volatility is up, with an average monthly price swing of 16.4% between 2006 and 2010, up from 12.4% from 2000 to 2005.Source: GMA
Crop production may be rising but not enough to bring down high and volatile agricultural commodity prices this year, according to the latest analysis from the FAO.The high pricing is also likely to remain into 2012, said the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).Abdolreza Abbassian, FAO grain analyst said: “It all comes down to supply and demand and the supply situation, as good as it may seem, is barely meeting demand and therefore prices remain at these stubbornly high levels. They have been like this for almost six months and the prospects… for the new season, for 2011-2012, seem to suggest that the same situation may prevail for still some time.”The report highlights a sharp rundown on inventories and only modest overall production increases for the majority of crops as reasons for continuing strong prices.Maize and wheat yields in Europe and North America face the threat of poor weather conditions, so the next few months will be critical in determining how the major crops will fare this year, the report states.The FAO said that global wheat output is expected to be 3.2% up from last year's reduced crop, mostly reflecting improved yields in the Russian Federation.Likewise, sugar is expected to surpass consumption for the first time since 2007-2008.
Salmonella infections have not decreased during the past 15 years in the US and have instead increased by 10%, according to “Vital Signs,” a report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During the same period, the report noted, illnesses caused by pathogens such as E. coli O157 have declined nearly 50% and the overall rates of six food-borne infections have been reduced by 23%.In 2010, FoodNet sites, which include about 15% of the American population, reported nearly 20,000 illnesses, 4,200 hospitalizations and 68 deaths from nine food-borne infections. Of those, Salmonella caused more than 8,200 infections, nearly 2,300 hospitalizations and 29 deaths (54% of the total hospitalizations and 43% of the total deaths reported through FoodNet). The C.D.C. estimated there are 29 infections for every lab-confirmed Salmonella infection.The rate of E. coli O157 cases reported by FoodNet sites was 2 cases per 100,000 people in 1997 and, by 2010, had decreased to 0.9 cases per 100,000 people. The nearly 50% reduction in E. coli O157 incidence is considered significant when compared to the lack of change in Salmonella incidence.The full report is available @ www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/
Speaking in Luxembourg at an emergency meeting of EU agriculture ministers, the European farmers association Copa argued EU producers and agricultural cooperatives had suffered enormously by this outbreak."Losses reach up to $580 million per week in eight member states, with some farmers and cooperatives already forced out of business. EU fruit and vegetable prices have plummeted and consumption has fallen dramatically. In some regions of the EU, 100% of cucumbers produced were destroyed last week, whilst 80% of total vegetable production is being destroyed because there is no outlet for it on the market.”In the meantime, the European Commission's $220 million compensation package for farmers hit by the E. coli scandal in Europe has been considered too low by the EU-wide farming union Copa-Cogeca.So, yesterday, EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has increased a proposed aid package for vegetable producers harmed by Germany's E. coli outbreak. Ciolos has offered $307 million. The new offer meant that The European Commission would raise the amount of compensation to 50% of the average selling price between 2007 and 2010. The earlier proposal equated to 30% of prices over that period, but nine EU countries including Spain, France and Germany insisted compensation should amount to 100% of losses.The so-called super toxic strain of E. coli has killed 22 people and sickened thousands, but officials have yet to find the source of the outbreak.
According to manufacturer participants in Kantar Retail’s 2011 Category Leadership Benchmarking study, Kroger, Wal-Mart and Target have maintained their positions as the top three retailers in terms of category management best practices.Retailer respondents ranked Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods and PepsiCo as the top manufacturers in terms of having the most helpful consumer/shopper insights and category management. Many cited P&G's and Kraft’s use of unbiased shopper insights.
The Dutch retailer announced that in the first quarter of 2011 its sales climbed up 5.9% on the same period of 2010, coming in at $13.6 billion, or growth of 6% at constant exchange rates.In the US, sales were up 7.4% to $7.6 billion, with identical sales up 5%t and operating income standing at US$350 million. The company’s operating margins in the US rose 40 basis points, to 4.6%."In the US we had particularly strong sales and margins, partially due to the timing of Easter. In the Netherlands margins were impacted by increasing inflation which was not fully passed on to customers. We will continue to manage the balance between sales and margins in a challenging environment of inflation and intense promotional activity, especially in the United States," noted CEO Dick Boer.
The head of Germany's national disease control center said investigators have determined that locally-grown vegetable sprouts are the cause of the European E. coli outbreak that has killed 29 and sickened nearly 3,000.
