Cultivating An Appealing Packaging Operation

Although food safety issues may be the lead headlines of evening news programs with highlights about Congress’ consideration of several proposals to reform the food safety system, including creation of a single food safety agency, food industry professionals are no strangers to the ongoing discussion about food safety and food safety standards.

“Nowadays with all the problems with food safety issues, we have to meet grade standards and inspections from different organizations,” says Ed Sobiech, third generation onion grower/packager, and president of Green Valley Onion in New Hampton, NY.

There are at least a dozen federal agencies that share responsibility for keeping America's food safe; and “the challenge of keeping food safe has become more daunting, in part due to global sourcing,” wrote Randy blank of CFO magazine, citing the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast that the that the United States imported a record $70 billion of agricultural products in the fiscal year 2007, up from $64 billion in fiscal 2006 and $41 billion as recently as fiscal 2002.