Baking & Snack - July 2016 - 14

Inspector General blasts FDA's recall process
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not have "an efficient and effective food recall initiation process that helps ensure
the safety of the nation's food supply," according to an audit published by the Office of Inspector General within the Department
of Health and Human Services. This inefficiency puts consumers
at risk, the department said.
In a letter to Robert M. Califf, commissioner of food and drugs
for FDA, Daniel R. Levinson, inspector general, said FDA "did not
have policies and procedures to ensure that firms or responsible
parties initiated voluntary food recalls promptly."
"This issue is a significant matter and requires FDA's immediate
attention," Mr. Levinson said.
The audit contained the preliminary findings of a review of 30
voluntary food recalls reported to FDA between October 2012 and
May 2015. Mr. Levinson wrote that after FDA first became aware
that an adulterated or misbranded product could be in the food
supply chain, the agency did not prescribe a timeline for each company to initiate a recall.
"For two recalls, the firms did not initiate the recall of all potentially harmful products until 165 days and 81 days after FDA became aware of the potential contaminations," Mr. Levinson wrote.

"The delays in the firms' recalls may have occurred because FDA
did not have policies and procedures that instruct its recall staff to
establish set timeframes for 1) FDA to request that firms voluntarily recall their products and 2) firms to initiate voluntary food
recalls. As a result, consumers remained at risk of illness or death
for several weeks after FDA knew of potentially hazardous food."
For example, Mr. Levinson cited a recall in the audit involving
nut butter in which at least 14 people became ill with a strain of
Salmonella. He said 165 days passed between the identification of
the potentially adulterated product and the date the company initiated a voluntary food recall.
"This alert should serve as a wakeup call for FDA to make recalls quicker and more effective," said Sandra Eskin, director of
food safety at the Pew Charitable Trust, a non-governmental organization whose public policy areas include the environment, state
policy, economic policy and health and human services.
Most often FDA works with companies for voluntary recalls.
The Food Safety Modernization Act empowers the agency to
act to cease distribution and recall a product that it is unsafe.
Enforcement tools of the act include mandatory recall.
- Max Sosland, Milling & Baking News

Flat sales spur creativity for in-store bakery bread
While the in-store bakery and the perimeter of the grocery store
may be seeing an overall surge in sales, fresh bread in this area is
not, according to data presented at the International Dairy-DeliBakery Association (IDDBA)'s Dairy-Deli-Bake Seminar and
Expo, held June 5-7 in Houston.
In the Ed Talk session "New ways to win with ISB bread," Eric
Richard, education coordinator, IDDBA, said fresh bread isn't
keeping pace with the rest of the fresh food offered in the perimeter of the supermarket. While flatbreads and sandwich bread are
growing, fresh bread in the in-store bakery is experiencing flat or
declining sales.
Mr. Richard and Scott Fox, bakery operations director, Dorothy
Lane Markets, Dayton, OH, offered in-store bakery operators ways
to promote the sales of fresh bread, most notably through proactive shopper engagement targeting younger demographics of millennials and Generation Z.
"Reaching these demographics is a whole different animal," Mr.
Fox said.
Proactive shopper engagement may come in the form of demos
or educating shoppers of how to use fresh bread and pair it
with other finds in the store's perimeters. Gonnella Baking Co.,
Schamburg, IL, an in-store bakery supplier, is doing just that with
a new program the bakery is developing aimed at engaging sandwich builders and grocery store commissaries.
"We want to create an interest in bread, recipe development and
getting consumers to think of bread in new and creative ways," said
Tom Marcucci, Gonnella's vice-president of sales and marketing.

14 Baking & Snack July 2016 / www.bakingandsnack.com

Gonnella is looking to engage with young, edgy chefs around
the country to create a series of videos of them using Gonnella
bread in creative ways.
"This isn't a celebrity endorsement," Mr. Marcucci said.
"Millennials are smarter than that."
These videos are a way for Gonnella to engage and educate consumers at the same time, an opportunity for the company to get
consumers excited about using fresh bread and illustrate the creativity that can go along with it.
While sandwich builders and grocery store commissaries may
be the intended targets for the videos, Gonnella hopes the excitement and creativity will trickle down to the shopper.

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Baking & Snack - July 2016

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