Last week via Fruitnet, I read about a new initiative from Freshfel Europe that uses a new public website aimed at children, parents, and teachers, focused solely a on spreading the message of enjoying fresh produce. The new site provides entertaining and educational games and activities for kids, along with special sections for parents and teachers to assist children in bringing closer the enjoyment of eating fresh produce. Parents will get first-hand suggestions on how to encourage fruits and vegetables in a child’s diet, but also on how to ‘Enjoy Fresh’ with tips for storage and handling and an exhaustive recipe list.

In a press statement, Freshfel Europe general delegate Philippe Binard stated: “As consumption continues to stagnate and even decline across Europe, it is important that Freshfel takes the lead to boost knowledge and image of the category. Freshfel will present this initiative also to DG SANCO of the European Commission as a commitment of the sector to the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, further trying to boost the School Fruit Scheme.”

Freshfel plans to add additional content in the coming months to the site; you can learn more about their work thus far. Once the site has been up and running for a while, I’ll be curious to see how Freshfel is able to measure the site’s messaging, programs, and resources and connect those to increased fresh fruit and vegetable consumption in Europe.

Here in the U.S. we have a number of resources focused on increasing kids’ fruit and vegetable consumption. The kids’ section of Fruits and Veggies More Matters has a number of resources, including the FoodChamps.org site. In addition, a number of PMA members have invested in kids’ content on their own websites.

PMA’s consumer research from last year found that 40 percent of respondents said their spouse has a lot of influence on fresh fruit and vegetable purchases while one quarter mentioned their children as strong purchase influencers.

And as a parent, my daughter has definitely influenced our produce purchases, which are both good for business and good for health.

What do you think about consumption efforts like these? Share your thoughts in the Increasing Consumption Community on PMA Xchange.

Recently I read an article from the Chicago Sun-Times which examined the partnership between the Chicago Transit Authority and Fresh Moves, a non-profit whose mission is to bring fruits and vegetables to Chicago’s South Side food deserts. (On a related food desert note, Philadelphia is planning to help turn corner stores into green grocers.)

Earlier this year, I wrote about the Fresh Moves bus (painted red with fresh fruit and vegetable designs) program. The bus contains shelves with built-in produce bins, with aisles wide enough for customers with wheelchairs to fit through to shop. Product assortment includes up to 30 to 40 different items, some local or organic, including different varieties of leafy greens, tomatoes, grapes, sweet potatoes and mangoes.

According to the Sun-Times, a second Fresh Moves bus will begin operating this fall – thanks to a $45,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The extra vehicle is expected to help Fresh Moves increase its customer base to 17,000. The Chicago Transit Authority is donating the second bus, as well as an unlimited supply of spare parts for repairs. Fresh Moves, which gets much of its food from local growers and distributors, also is using a state grant to offer shoppers who use food stamps via the LINK program a 50 percent discount on fresh produce.

Are there programs or stories like these (e.g. alternate distribution channels to increase produce sales and consumption) in your community? Is your business involved in supporting them? If so, visit the Increasing Consumption Community on PMA Xchange and tell your story there.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 5-3 decision about an Arizona immigration law returns the spotlight to federal immigration reform as it struck down most provisions of the state-level law. A federal solution that provides for sufficient labor to plant, harvest, pack, and ship specialty crops has long been embodied in AgJOBS (the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act), which PMA and the specialty crop industry have supported. The Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform (of which we’re a member) details some of the benefits of reform through AgJOBS, including preserving U.S. farms, saving jobs, impact on food quality and safety, border security, and solving the farm labor crisis.

The media is full of stories about this crisis, including crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvest labor, growers’ choices to plant crops that are not labor-intense (i.e. not fresh fruits and vegetables), impacts on rural communities and other businesses, decisions to move production outside the United States, and more. PMA members throughout the supply chain are directly affected by this, as are consumers.

It’s an election year, and conventional wisdom says nothing will happen before the trip to the polls in November. The realities of political expediency are juxtaposed with the realities of fresh produce businesses. In the first case, there is concern that action will jeopardize a legislator’s future. In the second, it is inaction that puts our industry in jeopardy.

Even if reform is unlikely in the near term, keep talking to your legislators about the issue, about its impact on your business and the businesses and community your company support. Just because it’s unpopular right now doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.

In today’s Federal Register, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced it will create a new Plant Protection and Quarantine Web site that will provide stakeholders with information about the commodity import approval process for plants and plant products and give them the opportunity to consult with APHIS on risk assessments as they are being drafted.

In the notice, APHIS states that the new site is being created in response to stakeholder interest in knowing more about the commodity import approval process and participating at an earlier stage in the development of risk assessments as they are being drafted. Specifically, the site will describe each major step in the commodity import approval process, including a general description of the following: determination of the import status of a commodity, submission of a request by a national plant protection organization, initiation and drafting of risk assessment and risk management documents, completion of an environmental review, and publication and implementation of new requirements, as applicable.

Stakeholders wishing to consult with PPQ on draft risk assessments will need to subscribe to the APHIS stakeholder registry and submit an email address, which will be used to send an alert whenever a draft risk assessment becomes available for comment. APHIS notes it will post the draft risk assessment on its website for 30 days to give stakeholders an opportunity to review the draft and provide comments via e-mail.

Once the new site is available, we will add it to the APHIS section of our navigating government agencies resource page that contains brief overviews of USDA, FDA, and Customs programs connected to the produce industry. If you have thoughts about the new APHIS site, let’s hear about those in the Global Trade Community on PMA Xchange.

Don’t let the title from a new Produce for Better Health Foundation report fool you. Though it sounds a bit like college class reading, Behavioral Economics and the Psychology of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: A Scientific Overview, 2012 is chock full of marketing/merchandising advice.

According to the report: “Drawing from principles associated with behavior economics and psychology, a new consumer behavior theory is becoming more widely accepted across the social sciences…. Leveraging this new theory, research has shown that the use of certain marketing displays, tools, incentives, and promotions can make it easier for consumers to make fruit and vegetable consumption decisions that support long-term health.” In other words, they’ve figured out that certain marketing and merchandising efforts sell more produce at retail and foodservice and increase consumption in homes. Tips include:

• Display and setting tools
• Incentive and price tools
• Planning and habit tools
• Messaging tools

The report explains human behavior and how marketers can tap that knowledge to boost sales and consumption. The tips include making fruits and vegetables more visible and convenient, social and monetary incentives for kids (where was that when I was young?), repetition, commitment tools, and promoting nutrition and “naturalness.” For example: “Because people make so many choices with minimal thought or effort, making fruit and vegetables prominent at the point of purchase is one of the most important strategies for increasing their consumption.” Another example: “Supermarket customers who received price discounts purchased more fruit and vegetables over the intervention period, and much of this increase in consumption was still present 6 months later.”

So check out the report from PBH and use the information to boost your sales. Then let us know what’s working for you  in the Increasing Consumption Community on PMA Xchange.

In April, PMA held “Brazil and the World: A Fresh Perspective,” our first industry networking event in Sao Paulo at the headquarters of APAS (the supermarket association of the state of Sao Paulo). During this event, industry leaders learned about business opportunities and challenges in the global produce industry. One of the sessions focused on opportunities for fresh produce in China. Highlights from that session included:

• China’s emerging and growing middle class is shopping more at modern retail and demanding quality and variety. They prefer imported products and will drive demand for products which have clean, healthy and upmarket ‘image.’
• Food safety is an important issue (especially for processed food products) although less so for fresh produce.
• China is constrained by limited arable land which may contribute to higher costs in the future.
• China’s labor intensive agricultural model will be affected by rising labor costs and migrating workers although slight reversal in the near term due to closures of export-oriented factories.
• For exports into China, expect very high quality demands, uniformity of pack sizes, large fruit/berry size, color-specific, and taste/brix requirements.
• Produce sales are moving away from wet markets, with supermarkets gradually becoming the main fruit sales channel. Also, China’s fruit market is changing to be more centralized.
• To initiate trade with China, it is best to start in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing, and then move to Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenyang, Changsha, Chengdu, and Chongqing.

To view other presentations from this event, visit the PMA website. You can also join the Global Trade Community on PMA Xchange. Also, to help our members better understand emerging opportunities in China, we have hired an in-country consultant who has detailed knowledge of the Chinese produce supply chain as part of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service office in Shanghai.

On Tuesday, I attended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s public meeting to discuss the agency’s plan to build and expand various capacities of foreign governments and their respective food industries in countries that export foods to the U.S. This international capacity-building plan is part of the FDA’s mandate to implement Title III of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

It was an interesting meeting, with widespread attendance from various private sector and food industry groups. Here are some observations I had during the day-long session:

• FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods Mike Taylor noted that “the FSMA recognizes the private sector’s responsibility on the safety of foods, thereby shifting FDA’s role to one of ensuring importers are meeting responsibilities to manage their supply chains.” This was a recurring theme. Later in the day, another FDA representative said “FSMA provides the tools to shift from a focus on port-of-entry interventions to a systems approach with supply chain accountability.”
• The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service stated that “trade has increased along all product lines; a 250% increase over the past 10 years. By 2021, global agricultural trade will top $1 trillion.” The FAS facilitates capacity building through needs assessments, facilities audits, hands-on training, technical exchanges, and train the trainer programs.
• The World Bank has co-founded the Global Food Safety Partnership to immediately deliver food safety training and capacity building at the food control system, organization, and individual levels via a five-year work plan.
• The main barriers to implementing FSMA/building a global food safety network are financing and resources (specifically finding the people that can deliver training to build international capacity). It was said that “this is more than just a FDA budget issue.”
• Training of foreign food producers/governments on U.S. requirements for safe food – and the most effective ways to deliver that training – emerged as a key theme/need from the stakeholder reaction panel during the afternoon sessions.
• FDA-regulated products originate from more than 150 countries, representing 130,000 importers and 300,000 foreign facilities. The distinction between domestic and imported products is obsolete, with 10 to 15% of all foods consumed by U.S. are imported and 60 percent of fresh produce imported.

To meet the challenges of a global food safety supply, FDA created the Office of Global Regulatory Operations and Policy to ensure integration of its domestic and international programs. Also, it established many foreign offices, increased foreign inspections, hired a dedicated cadre of foreign inspectors, developed the PREDICT program on import screening, and is working on bilateral and multilateral efforts. One outcome of this is that foreign inspections have increased 135 percent since 2008.

When it comes to implementing Title III of the FSMA, a couple of examples were given to illustrate how the import provisions connect: Accredited third-parties (section 307) issue facility certifications (section 302) and food certifications (section 303). Or foreign supplier verification (section 301) may be demonstrated through the aforementioned third-party certifications or other means.

In all, it was a thought-provoking session and it became clear that the enormity of the FSMA import mandates will present challenges to FDA and its global partners, even more so since a report to Congress is due January 4, 2013 on the agency’s international capacity building plan. PMA will continue to monitor this topic and update you as we learn more about FDA’s plan (and other FSMA proposals) as information becomes available.

In the meantime, we welcome you to join the FSMA Community on PMA Xchange.

Yesterday the Alliance for Food and Farming released a new report titled “Scared Fat: Are Consumers Being Scared Away from Healthy Foods?” that illustrates how negative and misleading statements about the safety of fruits and vegetables is impacting consumption and undermining public health campaigns targeted toward improving diets and reducing obesity rates in the U.S. The report features results of recent consumer research as well as an analysis of that research by scientists with expertise in nutrition, consumer behavior and farming. It found that:

• Consumers tend to be generally concerned about the safety of produce. Results show that 53 percent of the respondents listed their concerns as very high (7, 8 or 9). For low-income consumers, the level of concern was slightly higher with 58 percent expressing concern at the highest levels.
• Safety is an important factor in purchase decisions. The four most frequently cited safety concerns by consumers are: ‘Safety from contamination or foodborne illness,’ ‘The cost of the product,’ ‘Free from chemical pesticide residues,’ and ‘Whether it’s grown in the US or imported’ and ‘nutritional value.’
• At most, only about 20 percent of consumers are meeting the USDA’s ‘half your plate’ recommendation when it comes to eating fruits and vegetables. The mean percentage among all respondents reported that fruits and vegetables comprised 26.3 percent of their purchases. For low-income it was a bit higher at 31 percent.
• When consumers hear activist-generated messages about pesticide residues their concerns about the safety of fruits and vegetables are increased. After hearing some sample messages in the 10-minute survey, respondents reported a significant increase in their level of concern about produce safety.
• Negative messaging about pesticide residues and bioengineered varieties that could be used in conventional farming may increase sales of organic products among some populations, but could have an opposite effect on purchase and consumption of fruits and vegetables for others. Negative messaging caused almost 10 percent of low income consumers to say they would reduce their consumption of fruits and vegetables.

These are just some of the topline highlights from the study. If you’ve ever been concerned about how alarmist messaging affects fruit and vegetable consumption, I encourage you to check out the full report (available via the Alliance for Food and Farming website).

As you know, PMA is a longstanding supporter of the Alliance and we applaud its latest research offering. Let’s hear your thoughts about the study in the Increasing Consumption Community on PMA Xchange.

Today I’m attending the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s public meeting to discuss FDA’s plan to build and expand various capacities of foreign governments and their respective food industries in countries that export foods to the United States. This meeting is part of the agency’s work in implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act, specifically Section 305.

I’ll have an update from today’s meeting within the next day or so here on Field to Fork, but in the meantime, I wanted to let you know about some new additions to FDA’s comprehensive frequently asked questions document on FSMA. Focused on food facility registration processes, these questions are:

• What form do I use to renew a food facility registration? Registrants must use Form 3537 to register, update, or renew a registration. Form 3537 is being updated to meet registration renewal needs. The next registration renewal cycle begins October 1, 2012. Facilities may register online, which operates during business hours from 7:00 am to 11:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time.
• Am I required to renew a food facility registration online? No. Registrants can renew food facility registrations online or submit the paper Form 3537 by mail or fax. A business with multiple facilities may also register on a CD-ROM by mail. FDA encourages online registration as the least costly, quickest, and most efficient means for food facility registration. With online registration, a food facility must enter all of the required information before the system will accept the submission. After all required information has been entered, a registrant will receive confirmation of registration and a registration number.
• Why wait until October 1, 2012 to start the registration renewal process? The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act mandates that all food facilities that are required to register must renew their registrations every other year during the period beginning on October 1 and ending on December 31 of each even-numbered year. The first registration renewal cycle will occur from October 1 to December 31, 2012.

As I’ve mentioned previously, in advance of the release of several proposed FSMA rules, PMA has already created several resources for our members – specifically a FSMA Community on PMA Xchange where you can ask questions of PMA staff experts and engage other members in FSMA discussions, as well as an updated FSMA resource page that now includes FAQs on the law, PMA’s comments on rules, FDA resources, and more.

Building off of a conversation already underway on PMA Xchange, according to the 2012 Cone Communications Year of the Dad Trend Tracker, more than one-in-three moms admit dads have had more influence on grocery store purchases over the last few years; 52 percent of dads now say they are the primary grocery shopper in the household.

The study also found that dads prepare before going into the supermarket. Sixty-three percent said they create a detailed shopping list; 56 percent said they collect coupons or read circulars; 52 percent said they plan meals for the week ahead of time; and 24 percent said they conduct background research on grocery products.

When asked about their typical grocery shopping experience, nearly one-third of dads said they get in and out as fast as possible buying only what they came for, compared to just 21 percent of moms. However, 38 percent of dads said they walk up and down each aisle to look at all their options or comparison shop. And while nearly one-in-five dads said they can finish their shopping in fewer than 30 minutes, the majority (58 percent) said they spend up to an hour in the store.

I completely agree with the sentiment to “get in and out as fast as possible.” Speed has become such a priority for me that I only shop at grocery stores with self-checkout lanes. Thankfully in my area all but two stores offer this service.

The top three channels dads use to gather product- and other grocery-related information are in-store promotions (57 percent), advertising (50 percent) and traditional media like newspapers, magazines and television (40 percent). Yet marketers should pay attention to online media, too. When looking at all online channels together, it turns out 44 percent of dads seek out online sources – online media, product websites, and social networks – for information.

In my household, I’d guess I’m the primary grocery shopper half of the time. It’s turned out that my wife and daughter will go to the farmer’s market down the road from us and I’ll hit the grocery store for everything else – though this is more of a “divide and conquer” strategy, especially with a very active little one. The farmer’s market provides my daughter more of an entertaining environment - due to free fruit samples, mostly - whereas the traditional store just doesn’t engage her (or my wife).

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there’s already a conversation started in the Increasing Consumption Community on PMA Xchange. To join the discussion, log in to Xchange, enter the Increasing Consumption Community, and look for the thread “The Changing ‘Face’ of the Primary Shopper.”