Article featuring Linda Bryan of Tamlin Software discussing how food manufacturers and process can use specific software products to safely address bioterrorism risks and recall requirements.

1. FOOD SECURITY
identify vulnerabilities nd assesspo- '
a
Safeguarding tential mitigation strategies in the
food supply chain.
the Food Chain There are a number of building
blocks that should be in place to pre-
pare for any recall, said Rosanna
Wade of Tamlin Software Developers,
Retailers take leading role in efforts
the systems integrator that co-spon-
to thwart bioterrorism sored the seminar with the Texas
Manufacturing Assistance Center.
BY DAVID P. SCHULZ First and foremost is traceability -
backward and forward - in the sup-
etailers are heavily involved in efforts to protect the nation's ply chain. Equally important, said
food supply from a bioterrorism attack. Wade, are a first-rate inventory man-
Food processors and manufacturers, importers and distribu- agement system and highly accurate
tors are working to meet deadlines (the first is next month) for accounting procedures.
assuring traceability of everyday items found on grocery shelves, from
jars and cans to prepared foods and produce. Tighter tracking
If a product had been poisoned or
Retailers are participating in the ef- suppliers in Fort Worth, Texas,Dennis otherwise compromised at the point of
fort on two fronts: many own process- E. Baker, Southwest regional director manufacture, that batch could be iden-
ing plants and manufacturing facilities for the FDA, described the Strategic tified, traced through the canning/bot-
that supply their stores, and the stores Partnership Program - Agroterrorism tling/packagingprocessand tracked all
themselves are the interface between (SPPA) initiative in which the FDA the way though the distribution
consumers and any food product that joinedwith the Departmentsof Agri- process. If direct store delivery (DSD)
may have been contaminated. culture and Homeland Security and was involved,that is similarlytracked.
Speaking at a recent bioterrorism the FBIto work with volunteer indus- In past food recalls, much product
compliance seminar for retailers and try groups and trade associations to had to be removed from shelves be-
causelot numbers and other identifying
information could not be accurately
traced; most retailers would, if any-
W hile the bioterrorism compliance deadlines were fixed in
federal legislation adopted three years ago, the process
thing, err on the side of caution. The re-
sult was a shelf-clearingeffortthat was ,,~.
was moving below consumers' radar until outgoing Health and more widespread than it needed to be,
Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson raised the issue. resulting both in lost sales and in-
"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have creasedlabor costs. Spoilage,shrinkage
not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," and consumer concern were also
Thompson said last December during a news conference
greater than necessary.
announcing his resignation. Shortly thereafter, the FDA
In addition to the new FDA guide-
issued regulations for tighter tracking of food and for traci
the source of contamination in the event of a bioterrorism
lines, the Federal Anti-Tampering Act
attack. makes it a crime to tamper with or
taint a consumer product, to attempt,
threaten or conspire to do so or to
make a falsestatement about doing so.
Though the bioterrorism standards
are intended primarily for food
processors and manufacturers - the
10 largest of which account for ap-
proximately half of all the goods on
grocer'sshelves retailersareinclud-
-
ing themselves in the responsibility,
said Linda Bryan, CEO of Dallas-
based Tamlin.
"Retailers are taking the attitude
STORES / NOVEMBER 2005 LPI 19

2. FOOD SECURITY
that if something negative were to oc- A key step is "comparing the informa- operators within stores, such as sushi
cur, it's 'our customers in our stores,'" tion available with the information vendors; and truck drivers.
Bryan said. that's needed and fix what's missing." On another front, retailers could
William Fry, vice president of quali- H.E.B. has designed, built and is playa significant role in a public
ty assurance and environmental af- maintaining an information retrieval health emergency created by a bioter-
fairs for the San Antonio-based H.E.B. system that will cover such areas as rorism attack on the food supply, ac-
supermarket chain, said his company DSD deliveries; in-store facilities like cording to a report being prepared by
is charting all supply chain processes. bakeries and delicatessens;franchised researchers at the Center for Biosecu-
rity at the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center.
Retailers'role
"Retailers from the grocery and
wholesale [club] industry have re-
sources and expertise to help ease the
burdens placed on municipalities,"
reads a summary of the report, which
is expected to be published in an aca-
demic journal early next year.
Entitled "Getting Medicine to Mil-
lions in a Public Health Emergency:
Can Retailers Playa Role?" the study
Dependable! notes that grocery stores and whole-
productive! attentive
sale clubs vaccinate millions of cus-
to customer needs? tomers annually, primarily against in-
fluenza. "In fact, approximately 25 to
30 million doses, or one-third of the
Unreliable!
nation's flu vaccine supply,is adminis-
counter-productive! tered in retail stores and other com-
poor service attitude? munity settings," the study reports.
The research was conducted among
retailers in all parts of the country who
had been identified as participating in
flu vaccine distribution or flu vaccina-
tion programs. For the most part, the
study participants were involvedin the
retailers' pharmacy operations.
When asked whether their compa-
nies would be interested in partici-
pating in a potential response to a
bioterrorism attack, "They were all
interested, unanimously," said Onora
Lien, an analyst at the Center for
Biosecurity and the lead writer on the
report. Some said they could provide
-PEARSON
--
Performance Solutions
space in their stores for clinics to dis-
pense medication or administer shots,
while others said they could provide
www.pearsonps.com
pharmacists to assist at off-premises
locations. Still others said they could
888-446-8765 use their logistics infrastructures to
help move vaccines or other medicines
and supplies from manufacturers or
government storage facilities. a
LPI 20 STORES I NOVEMBER 2005 WWW.LPINFORMATION.COM
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