Food Safety Comes Naturally to Arkansas

The Sentinel Site Program also includes provisions for random sampling of finished products, Finstad adds. “These samples are collected as a verification of the effectiveness of the program,” she points out. “Over the course of the last 17 years, we have consistently demonstrated our ability to maintain our RTE processing areas in a manner that ensures the production of safe and trusted food products.”

In addition to the Sentinel Site Program, all of Tyson’s processing locations are committed to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and maintain such certifications, Finstad says. “We extend this commitment to our supplier partners and contract manufacturers by requiring that they also achieve and maintain GFSI certification,” she relates.

The Arkansas rice industry is also committed to maintaining high food safety and quality standards, according to Kevin McGilton, vice president of government affairs for Riceland Foods, Inc., a farmer-owned cooperative based in Stuttgart, Ark. Riceland bills itself as the world’s largest miller and marketer of rice (and one of the Mid-South’s major soybean processors). The company provides marketing services for rice (and soybeans) grown by its 6,000 farmer-members in Arkansas and Missouri. Each year, its 1,500 employees receive, store, transport, process, and market more than 125 million bushels (2.5 million metric tons) of grain, says McGilton. A major rice exporter, Riceland markets rice products under the Riceland label, private labels, as ingredients, and in bulk. Riceland products are sold across the U.S. and to more than 75 foreign countries.

“Riceland rice mills are held to a high standard of quality and food protection,” McGilton emphasizes. “Facilities are registered with the FDA and are subject to the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). In addition, they must pass USDA Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) inspections and many mills have FGIS offices inside their facilities. For an even greater degree of quality and food safety, Riceland mills are also certified annually by third-party auditors for compliance to the standards of the Global Food Safety Initiative and the Safe Quality Food Institute (SQF). When implementing these well-recognized, national and international standards, SQF not only evaluates the quality and food safety of activities that go on in the rice mills, but also requires the mills to evaluate their vendors who supply them with materials and inputs.”

Arkansas is a very important agricultural state, Finstad emphasizes. “It’s home to companies engaged in all aspects of the food chain from harvest, processing/manufacturing, transportation, and retail,” she says.

The tremendous presence of the food industry, especially in the Northwest portion of the state, is a great strength of Arkansas food safety culture, says Steven Ricke, PhD, the Donald “Buddy” Wray Food Safety Endowed Chair and director of the Center for Food Safety (CFS) within the University of Arkansas (UA) System Division of Agriculture, Fayetteville.

“So many companies, from farm to fork, including retail and auxiliary partners, are based here in Arkansas,” Dr. Ricke concurs.

Razorback Backing

Arkansas food industry stakeholders find some of their best friends and strongest food safety allies at the UA.

“The university strives to be supportive of our state’s food industry,” Dr. Ricke says. “We do all we can to partner with stakeholders, bring new ones into the state, conduct relevant research to benefit the food industry, and act upon related issues as they come up.”

Dr. Ricke is especially proud of the Arkansas Security Research and Education Institute, also known as ASCENT, a collaboration with the UA College of Engineering for which he serves as a co-director. One of ASCENT’s key research initiatives is food and water security, he notes.

ASCENT’s mission is to identify and solve modern security challenges in the areas of cyber, transportation, critical infrastructure, and food/water; establish and grow partnerships with industry professionals to ensure that the security research retains significant and practical impacts, develop and support educational initiatives that continuously evolve with state-of-the-art security issues and technologies in all thrust areas; and serve as the Arkansas’ source for communication and awareness of security threats, solutions, and needs.