Regulatory Issues

USDA Issues Warning of Illegally Imported Myanmar Products

Published October 25, 2024

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is issuing a public health alert for various meat and poultry products that were illegally imported from the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. FSIS is continuing to investigate how these products entered the country.

The following products are subject to the public health alert, regardless of the product date. View labels in Burmese.

180-g. cans containing “BEST BEEF CURRY.”
425-g. cans containing “BEST Chicken Biryani.”
360-g. cans containing “Hti Mi Gwik Dry MoHinGa Paste.”
425-g. cans containing “BEST Myanmar Duck Blood.”
400-g. cans containing “Eain Chak MoHinGa Paste.”
160-g. vacuum sealed clear packages containing “Min Thar Gyi Dried Fish.”
400-g. cans containing “Eain Chak Coconut Soup Paste.”

The products subject to the public health alert do not bear an establishment number nor a USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to retail locations in Arizona, California, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

The problem was discovered when FSIS was performing surveillance activities at a retailer and found meat and poultry products from Myanmar that are not eligible to be exported to the United States.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a health care provider.

FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ pantries and on retailers’ shelves. Retailers who have purchased the products are urged not to sell them. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

Media and consumers with questions regarding the public health alert can contact Leo Chen, Managing Member, at 480-399-6811 or Leo251185@gmail.com.

Consumers with food safety questions can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or send a question via email to MPHotline@usda.gov. For consumers that need to report a problem with a meat, poultry, or egg product, the online Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System can be accessed 24 hours a day at https://foodcomplaint.fsis.usda.gov/eCCF/.

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Boar’s Head Issues Statement on Listeria Recall, Ends Liverwurst Line

Published September 16, 2024

On Friday, Sept. 13, Boar’s Head issued this letter to consumers:

We regret and deeply apologize for the recent Listeria monocytogenes contamination in our liverwurst product. We understand the gravity of this situation and the profound impact it has had on affected families. Comprehensive measures are being implemented to prevent such an incident from ever happening again.

Since we implemented our voluntary recall on July 25, 2024, we have been conducting an exhaustive investigation into how our liverwurst product became adulterated. We recognize you want and deserve answers, and that you wanted them quickly, but we needed to take the necessary time to conduct an in-depth review and analysis of all our processes and procedures – not just at our Jarratt, Virginia plant where our liverwurst was made, but at all of our Boar’s Head Provisions meat production facilities.

Throughout this process, we worked closely with the USDA and state government regulatory agencies, and we thank them for their oversight. We have also partnered with the industry’s leading food safety experts to oversee this investigation. They have left no stone unturned at Jarratt. We can now start to share some of their findings with you and we are committed to sharing more as our work proceeds.

First and foremost, our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility and was used only for liverwurst. With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst.

In response to the inspection records and noncompliance reports at the Jarratt plant, we will not make excuses. In the spirit of complete transparency, we are sharing with you the July 31, 2024 USDA Notice of Suspension received by our Jarratt facility here.

Given the seriousness of the outbreak, and the fact that it originated at Jarratt, we have made the difficult decision to indefinitely close this location, which has not been operational since late July 2024. It pains us to impact the livelihoods of hundreds of hard-working employees. We do not take lightly our responsibility as one of the area’s largest employers. But, under these circumstances, we feel that a plant closure is the most prudent course. We will work to assist each of our employees in the transition process.

This is a dark moment in our company’s history, but we intend to use this as an opportunity to enhance food safety programs not just for our company, but for the entire industry.

To prevent future incidents, we are immediately implementing enhanced food safety and quality measures. These measures include:

Appointing a new Chief Food Safety & Quality Assurance Officer (CFSO), reporting directly to Boar’s Head’s president. The company is recruiting now and aims to have this new executive begin as soon as possible.
Establishing a “Boar’s Head Food Safety Council” comprised of independent industry-leading food safety experts, some of whom have been assisting with the current investigation at the Jarratt facility. The Food Safety Council, which may evolve over time and as needed, will assist the company’s adoption and implementation of enhanced quality assurance (QA) programs and create a new standard for food safety in the industry. The council will serve as advisors to the new Chief Food Safety Officer and to the company as a whole.
We are pleased to announce the appointment of our founding council members: Dr. David Acheson, Dr. Mindy Brashears, Dr. Martin Wiedmann, and Frank Yiannas, MPH.

David Acheson, M.D., F.R.C.P., has a distinguished career in food safety and has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Acheson Group since founding the global food safety consulting group in 2013. Previously he served as a Partner and Managing Director of Leavitt Partners, where he founded and managed the firm’s food safety services business. Prior to his industry roles, Dr. Acheson served at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for eight years, progressing from Chief Medical Officer of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition to Associate Commissioner for Foods. His expertise in international food safety standards and risk assessment is invaluable to the council.

Mindy Brashears, Ph.D., is a leading food safety expert and academic. Dr. Brashears was the former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Food Safety and is currently a professor of Food Safety and Public Health and the Director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University. She has made significant contributions to the field of food microbiology and public health with her research on foodborne pathogens, prevention, and food safety education that have made lasting impacts on the industry and will be instrumental in guiding our council’s efforts.

Martin Wiedmann, Dr. med. vet., Ph.D., is a renowned food microbiologist and academic, who is a Cornell University Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety and the co-director of the New York State Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence. With training as both a veterinarian and food scientist, Dr. Wiedmann’s programs focus on a comprehensive and interdisciplinary farm-to-table approach to food safety and quality. He has conducted extensive research on foodborne pathogens and their prevention, with notable insights into emerging food safety threats and cutting-edge technologies that will contribute significantly to our council’s work.

Frank Yiannas, MPH, is the former Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy & Response at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Mr. Yiannas brings a wealth of experience in regulatory oversight and public health. His leadership in implementing the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has significantly improved food safety standards across the nation. A renowned food safety expert, microbiologist, and author, Mr. Yiannas has also held food safety leadership roles at Walmart and Disney. He is a past president of the International Association for Food Protection and a past vice-chairman of the Global Food Safety Initiative, as well as an adjunct Professor in the Food Safety Program at Michigan State University. Mr. Yiannas’s vast experience in building effective food safety management systems through innovative ways and his founding work on food safety culture will be pivotal in shaping our food safety programs going forward.
Creation of an enhanced companywide food safety and QA program. Our company’s goal is to develop an industry-leading program that addresses food safety standards and strengthens a culture of food safety throughout the supply chain. To be led by the Chief Food Safety Officer, this program will be developed in partnership with members of the Food Safety Council and other leading food safety experts in the field.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to our customers and to the safety and quality of our products. You have our promise that we will work tirelessly to regain your trust and ensure that all Boar’s Head products consistently meet the high standards that you deserve and expect. We are determined to learn from this experience and emerge stronger.

Sincerely,
Boar’s Head

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Food Industry Responds to Proposed ‘Price Gouging’ Ban

Published August 19, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris caught the attention of the food industry with remarks she made Aug. 15 that included a proposal to ban “price gouging” by food suppliers and grocery stores.

“Under the Biden-Harris administration, grocery prices have shot up 21 percent, part of an inflation surge that has raised overall costs by about 19 percent and soured many Americans on the economy, even as unemployment fell to historic lows,” Christopher Rugaber reported for the Associated Press. “Wages have also risen sharply since the pandemic, and have outpaced prices for more than a year. Still, surveys find Americans continue to struggle with higher costs.”

“We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed,” Harris said Friday in Raleigh, N.C., as reported by Rugaber. “But our supply chains have now improved and prices are still too high.”

“Grocery prices are still painfully high compared to four years ago,” Rugaber reported, “but they increased just 1.1 percent in July compared with a year earlier, according to the most recent inflation report. That is in line with pre-pandemic increases.”

Food Industry Association President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin decried price gouging, but denied that food retailers are to blame.

“Inflation has caused the price of many consumer goods – from gasoline to apparel – to increase. But 2024 Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers reveal that the pace of year-over-year inflation continues to moderate, and food prices actually represent a bright spot in the data,” Sarasin said in a statement. “In fact, yesterday’s July CPI placed year-over-year food-at-home inflation at 1.1 percent, which remains below the 2.9 percent increase in overall inflation.

“Food retailers’ profit margins are, and always have been, extremely tight – just 1.6 percent last year. The entire food industry works tirelessly – amidst fierce competition – to address inflation and keep prices as low as possible to meet the needs of shoppers. However, the food industry continues to face significant economic headwinds – including increases in labor costs, volatile energy prices, an uptick in climate change-related severe weather events, supply chain challenges, and an unprecedented level of regulatory burden – that increase the costs to produce food and get it to store shelves,” Sarasin said.

“It is both inaccurate and irresponsible to conflate an illegal activity like price gouging – a defined legal term in which specific violations of trade practices law occur − with inflation, which is a broad, macroeconomic measure of increases in consumer prices over time due to supply chain cost pressures. In the context of food, inflation impacts how far the dollar goes when buying groceries.

“Americans should feel confident that the food industry has zero tolerance for deceptive practices like price gouging, an illegal activity that has no place in our stores and is inconsistent with the way the food industry conducts its business of feeding American families.

“When discussing food prices, it is imperative that our conversations remain grounded in reality and data, rather than rhetoric.”

National Grocers Association President and CEO Greg Ferrara said price gouging is not the problem.

“The proposal calling for a ban on grocery price gouging is a solution in search of a problem,” he said.

“Our independent grocers, already operating on extremely thin margins, are hurting from the same inflationary pressure points as their customers. Labor, rent, swipe fees, utilities; you name it, the price has increased. But what’s really hurting our local, independent grocers, is the lack of fair competition with big box retailers, who leverage their influence in ways that your independent grocer down the street can’t, leading to increased prices for everyone else.

“We’re hoping the next Administration (and the current one) will look closely at anticompetitive behaviors, including price discrimination, that are increasing prices for independent grocers and the community members they serve,” Ferrara said.

“We firmly believe that rather than proposing new legislation far-off in the future, the government should be enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act, a key antitrust law that already exists, but has been ignored for decades as big chains unfairly wield their influence.

“If Washington is serious about helping lower prices for consumers, it can help in three important ways: lower skyrocketing swipe fees, rein in excessive and burdensome regulations, and enforce antitrust laws like the Robinson-Patman Act that enhance price competition amongst retailers, regardless of size or location,” Ferrara said.

Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts also said Harris’s proposed price gouging ban misses the mark.

“Consumers have been impacted by high prices due to inflation on everything from services to rent to automobiles, not just at the grocery store. A federal ban on price gouging does not address the real causes of inflation,” Potts said.

“The Harris campaign rhetoric unfairly targets the meat and poultry industry and does not match the facts. Food prices continue to come down from the highs of the pandemic. Prices for meat are based on supply and demand. Avian Influenza, a shortage of beef cattle and high input prices like energy and labor are all factors that determine prices at the meat case.

“Prices that livestock producers receive for their animals are also heavily influenced by supply and demand. Prices for cattle producers especially are at record highs, surpassing the 2014-2015 previous record highs. Today, well into 2024, cattle prices remain at record levels because the US has the lowest cattle inventory since Harry Truman was president,” she said.

“Major meat companies have reported losses during the Biden-Harris Administration, with some closing facilities and laying off workers.”

National Chicken Council Interim President Gary Kushner also responded to Harris’s comments.

“Americans are seeing inflation in nearly every part of their livelihoods – rent, gas, automobiles, furniture – not just in the meat case,” he said.

“Chicken prices are largely affected by supply and demand, by major input costs like corn, soybeans, energy, packaging, transportation, and by fiscal policy and burdensome government regulations. Not price gouging.

“It’s time for this administration to stop using the meat and poultry industry as a scapegoat and a distraction for the root causes of inflation and the significant challenges facing our economy.”

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