Cooperating operators join up to fight food contamination

Nation's Restaurant News,  Nov 12, 2007  by Robin Lee Allen,  Peter Romeo

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- "Collaboration" was the oft-repeated mantra of nearly 50 industry professionals gathered to discuss food safety trends and best practices at the recent Food Safety Symposium held here.

Sponsored by Ecolab Inc. and produced by Nation's Restaurant News, the three-day, invitationonly event allowed officials from a wide variety of restaurant companies to share their insights on such pressing topics as norovirus and produce safety as well as examine the growing importance of their collaboration with suppliers, local health officials, other departments within their firms, franchisees and even competitors.

"You need to have multifunctional collaboration from the farm to the fork," said Deborah Page, executive director of quality assurance and technical services for Applebee's International Inc., during a panel discussion titled "Supply Chain Management."

She noted that effective collaboration depends on well-communicated strategies between numerous parties, including members of the supply chain and company officials from many departments, well-defined product specifications, and well-developed vendor relations.

Page recounted how collaboration helped the 1,947-unit casualdining chain avert a sales disaster when spinach was implicated in a foodborne-illness outbreak during the fall of 2006.

"The spinach recall occurred during our general manager conference," Page said, "and four days after the conference we were supposed to have a spinach promotion."

The Overland Park, Kan.-based company immediately delayed the upcoming promotion to regroup and instructed managers at all locations to immediately discard all spinach--at that point Applebee's had more than 65,000 pounds of spinach on the road and in warehouses and kitchens.

Representatives from departments ranging from culinary and training to communications and legal developed a replacement salad based on arugula, created food safety specifications, modified television and print advertising, and developed training related to the new promotion, she said.

While Page noted that much is likely to change at Applebee's in coming months, given its pending acquisition by IHOP Corp., the company was able to react so quickly last fall because a few years earlier it had restructured its supply chain and purchasing practices, moving away from a system that was price-focused to one that concentrated on food safety, supply integrity and cost management.

More money was put into quality assurance, or QA, and one individual assumed responsibility for QA and purchasing, Page said. Applebee's officials in purchasing and technical services also began working more closely together.

In a similar vein, purchasing, product development and QA officials work in tandem at Lebanon, Tenn.-based Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores, said Bob Doyle, vice president of product development and quality assurance for the 562-unit family-dining chain. All three specialties have a say in selecting suppliers, although no product can be purchased until all QA requirements are met, he said. So while purchasing is always seeking lower-cost alternatives, QA makes sure that those alternatives comply with existing specifications and pass the chain's testing protocol, he said.

"The breadth of the issues facing the restaurant industry shows why collaboration is so important," said Donna Garren, vice president of health and safety regulatory affairs for the National Restaurant Association, during a keynote presentation to the group.

Along with nutrition issues, such as menu labeling and transfat bans, and the imminent release of the 2007 model food code, operators also need to worry about widespread food allergies, the increasing threat of viruses, and the safety of produce, seafood and imports.

Noting that leafy greens have always posed a food safety threat--there were 72 foodborne illness outbreaks from 1996 to 2006 associated with produce--she said the guidelines developed by the agriculture industry to ensure produce safety are insufficient.

"We believe voluntary programs are no longer enough," she said. "We need a stronger regulatory framework."

She also noted that President Bush had formed a senior-level interagency task force to address import safety. The group's recommendations are expected in November.

During a panel called "Fresh Produce Safeguards: What is Practical?" operators discussed the steps they are taking to ensure the produce they deliver to the growing number of customers requesting it is safe.

All of the panel participants agreed that working with reputable produce suppliers who are committed to food safety is critical. At the nearly 500-unit Golden Corral family-dining chain, growers are required have in place programs promoting good agricultural practices, or GAP, HACCP and traceability, said Mikel Weber, vice president of purchasing and distribution for the Raleigh, N.C.-based company.