Lock Out Food Supply Threats

Earlier this year, the company tested the procedure by staging a mock product recall. “We had to identify a specific ingredient in a cup,” Kiene says, and they were able to do so in an eight-hour shift. “We knew exactly where the product came from.”

A key to Homemade Baby’s success is its insistence that vendors have complete records showing the production history of their products. “If you can’t provide that documentation, then don’t call us,” Kiene says.

What You See vs. What You Get

Every season, officials at Homemade Baby pay a visit to their Washington State-based apple and pear supplier. What they see on the trees is what they know they’re going to get, because the grower has set aside a plot of land specifically for Homemade Baby, Kiene says. “We’re not only getting wonderful quality products, but we also understand what’s been going on at that plot of land. We’ve seen it, we know where it is, and we know the farmers. And they have documentation about that piece of land from the time it was planted with a seedling to when it was harvested. We know about anything that’s happened to that fruit, that raw material, before it gets to us.”

If only it were that simple for everyone in the food processing industry. According to Doyle, America continues to import increasing numbers of overseas products: 15% of all food consumed in the United States annually comes from outside the country, a figure expected to double within the next 10 years. Meanwhile, FDA inspections are at an all-time low, totaling less than 1% of all incoming foods.

“You don’t really need to look at every single box of foodstuff that comes in, but you do need to be looking at enough of them so that the people who are sending in food believe that there’s a pretty good probability they’ll be caught if they do something wrong,” Nestle says. “Right now, if you’re trying to pass something through, the odds are 99 in 100 that you can get away with anything you want.”

Glowka says food safety needs to start with a company’s suppliers. “By the time it’s at your door, it’s way too late. You have to start analyzing and backpedaling to find out where it, and all its components, came from, whether it was properly handled and was healthy and safe… . You need to think a little bit ahead and over the horizon to see where the real food safety and security starts.”

Naditz is a freelance writer based on the West Coast; reach him at (916) 681-2057 or [email protected].