• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Food Safety in Latin America

Mike

Well-known member
News and Public InformationPress Release
Food Safety Experts Agree Plan to Improve Food Safety in the Americas and Caribbean
San Jose, Costa Rica, December 9, 2005 (WHO/FAO)—Urgent measures are needed across Latin America and the Caribbean to improve food safety and the availability of food, both to reduce the level of disease and death and also to make it easier to export the region's numerous food products to the rest of the world, 200 regional food-safety experts and regulators agreed today.

At least 6000 outbreaks of a number of different foodborne diseases occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1993 and 2002, according to figures announced here by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Such outbreaks, as well as the greater burden of the many single cases of foodborne disease, resulted in an estimated 57,000 deaths in the region from food- and waterborne diarrhoea in 2004. However, even this estimated disease burden is considered to be greatly underestimating the true scope of the foodborne disease occurrence in the Region, the meeting, organized by FAO and WHO, and hosted by the Government of Costa Rica, heard. The meeting ran from 6 to 9 December.

The experts, representing government food regulatory authorities, food producers, consumer associations and international organizations, agreed on a comprehensive plan to improve the safety and quality of food both for the peoples of the region and for export.

Measures to be taken include assuring safety throughout the entire food chain, with science-based regulations and the application of risk analysis guiding at which critical points in the food chain government authorities should concentrate their efforts to support producers; and improved coordination both among countries in the Region, and between food regulators and food producers in each country.

Currently, despite some success, multiple agencies with fragmented responsibilities, combined with a lack of human and financial resources, are making efforts to achieve uniform high standards across the region difficult.

For example, not all countries in the Region currently harmonize their food legislation entirely with Codex Alimentarius standards. This makes exporting food to the rest of the world, which uses Codex standards as the reference for safe and quality food, more difficult. Codex Alimentarius is the FAO/WHO body setting food safety and quality standards for consumer health protection and facilitation of domestic and international trade.

Food legislation is currently enforced by a number of ministries, including, depending on the country, those for agriculture, health, economy and tourism. With more than one implementing agency, there is often the danger that their regulations overlap. Moreover, the regulations are sometimes out-dated and not science-based.

Moreover, food safety and quality reference laboratories do not exist in all countries in the Region. The 200 experts cited the necessity of ensuring that all countries in the Region have food-testing facilities, or access to them.

Food exports from the region are worth some US$66 billion, or 12% of the world's total food trade, and this figure could increase rapidly over the coming decades if food safety and quality in the region is improved, according to FAO and WHO. However, food safety problems are causing costly rejections of products from the region by importing countries.

"Without adequate food safety frameworks and mechanisms, the people of Latin America and the Caribbean will continue to suffer millions of cases of food-borne illness and their food exports will always run the risk of being rejected," said Dr Jorgen Schlundt, WHO's Director for Food Safety.

"We therefore welcome and will do everything we can to support the development of strong food safety authorities in all the countries of the region, including strengthened food-borne disease surveillance, in order to know where to put increased efforts to lower the disease burden," he added.

Dr Kraisid Tontisirin, FAO's Director of Food and Nutrition, said: "Food safety is the bedrock for everything else in the area of nutrition and food security, and for trading food internationally. For example, FAO is actively working with Member countries in the region to assure the safety of fresh fruits and vegetable and the safety and quality of coffee. In so doing, we are enhancing the food security of the region and its ability to export its food. Ensuring safe and nutritious food is an important precondition of food security, and helps countries in the region in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals."
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
I've got a great idea. Let's set up free trade agreements with these folks so they can send as much product here as they can, put a USDA stamp on all of it without even looking at 90% of it, and then not label it so that people have no idea this product didn't come from the US.

Oh, wait, somebody already thought of that.......
 

William Kanitz

Well-known member
Dr Kraisid Tontisirin, FAO's Director of Food and Nutrition, said: "Food safety is the bedrock for everything else in the area of nutrition and food security, and for trading food internationally. For example, FAO is actively working with Member countries in the region to assure the safety of fresh fruits and vegetable and the safety and quality of coffee.

We just added produce with help from ORISA and the USAID for the countrys of central America.The need traceback records to ship to the US, SK ,Japan and the EU.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
All the rest of the so called traceability companys are in the ice age when it comes to recordkeeping ; Here is a link to ScoringAg site for news:
Letter from the President

Summer 2006

To: All ScoringSystem, Inc. Team Members



Update for the Summer of 2006
This is our first Letter of the President for 2006, at long last. As you should be aware by now, late in 2005 we began keeping our representatives and our customer contacts updated via email using our new contact management database. We have been so busy getting the word out on new developments on an almost daily basis that the Letter of the President had to wait until now. Our list of available websites and services is growing constantly, along with new and exciting developments on the sales front. We will continue to keep you updated routinely via email, and will capture the highlights in the Letter of the President.

Development News

ScoringContainers.com is Up, Running and Ready to Sell
www.ScoringContainers.com is finished and ready to work hand-in-hand with ScoringAg.com to provide complete traceback on containers as well as their contents. Container pages can be bought from the ScoringAg page for the agriculture industry, and www.ScoringContainers.com will provide a complete traceback for all containers and their contents.

The worldwide container industry is looking for more security, as well as Departments of Homeland Security in every country around the world. ScoringContainers.com can help increase container security by providing complete, tamper-proof records of every container and its contents.

You can use the records in every industry where container sanitation is important, especially when it is important to keep the containers from contaminating another product or the environment. ScoringContainers.com can keep track of inventory, kind, size, and style of each container at each location, along with what container is made of, how it's cleaned, its composition, its treatments, and what it can carry around the world. In addition, ScoringContainers.com can record the age of the container, its condition, if it has carried prohibited material that can't be used in the food industry, who loaded the containers, the storage temperature and humidity. If the container is sent to retirement to never be used again, this information can be in the record as well, insuring that the container cannot be mistakenly reused.

Containers can be tracked by RFID, barcode, serial number, or other codes. The system is easy to use and inexpensive. Starting an account costs as little as US-$10. Each record costs only $.55, and can be reused up to 220 times, meaning that you can have a complete traceback on every container for just a fraction of a cent per container. The records available at ScoringContainers.com meet FDA, EU, and other worldwide requirements.

ScoringContainers.com users can streamline their recordkeeping, meet government requirements, and increase the security of their containers at a very low cost. On the home page, click on Resources, then take a look at the sample records to see just how much ScoringContainers can help your customers.

New Uses for RFID Developed by ScoringAg

RFID Boluses for High Value Trees

ScoringAg has been working with a palm tree farm near our headquarters to test RFID boluses buried in the root ball for source verification and warranty.

RFID Boluses for Vegetable Farms

Buried RFID boluses in the field help make the labels to go on the boxes and pallets as a crop is harvested.
The labels are made from raw labeling stock as needed to verify which vegetable came from which portion of the field.
Hardware needed: Boluses, reader, computer, printer.
Please ask for details.

ScoringSystem in the Press
Google

ScoringSystem and ScoringAg.com have been enjoying a lot of press worldwide. It's easy to show your customers the attention our system is getting. Simply go to Google.com (or your country's Google search) and enter "ScoringAg". At the moment, we are getting around 830 entries.

Activities in the United States
Our system has been gaining so much attention lately that I have had several invitations to speak to significant groups across the country about the FDA requirements for recordkeeping traceback.

2006 Sweet Potato Conference

On March 9, I was invited by Mississippi State University to Pittsboro, Mississippi to address the sweet potato farmers from the southern region of the United States about the FDA recordkeeping and traceback regulations. Many of these farmers are also involved with exporting sweet potatoes to Europe.

While I was there, I met with our Representative Tulon McKee to train him on our system. He is selling our recordkeeping system to all the sweet potato contacts in the area. The processors have to keep all the records from the farms where they are buying the potatoes. He'll be very busy.

The 2006 Midwest Hay Business Conference & Expo

The Hay Expo was held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on March 14 and 15. I was invited to speak at this conference regarding the Bio Terrorism Act and how to use ScoringAg to satisfy FDA rules as well as its impact on hay producers. See the full article in Hay & Forage Grower at http://hayandforage.com/mag/farming_bioterrorism_rules_hit/.

Many of the hay growers opened an account in ScoringAg to comply with the FDA and found that they can keep records for the whole farm, including machinery, and not just for hay. We distributed the leads from this conference to our representatives in the area.

Florida Watermelon Association Annual Convention

ScoringSystem was an exhibitor at the Florida Watermelon Association's Annual Convention, March 31 through April 2. Melon growers were very interested to learn more about the ease of use of our complete traceback system, which traces the melons from the field anywhere in the world to retail, as a whole melon sold in the store or bottled with other fruit. Our SSI-EID traceback code created in the record and printed on the label is an easy and inexpensive way to provide a complete traceback in seconds. Some larger companies found that this is also brand assurance, as it builds consumer confidence in the product when they know exactly where it came from.

University of South Florida

On April 3rd, I addressed a group at the International Center for Business at the University of South Florida in Tampa. This group was comprised of students and professors interested in international trade, and different traceback laws and how our system handles them all.

University of Georgia

The Georgia Extension Service invited ScoringSystem to Baxley, Georgia to explain to their members the FDA recordkeeping and traceback requirements. There were more than 40 participants from Appling County. Our Representative in north Florida, who also works in south Georgia, Roger Harmelink, participated in this meeting and is working with this office and selling ScoringAg records to the participants.

Brookside Convention
Michigan
Was the speaker to ag consultant industry on how every farm needs to keep records for the new FDA laws that are coming in Dec.2006.

Businesswoman of the Year

ScoringSystem's Chief Executive Officer, Brunhilde Merker, has once again been awarded the distinguished title of Businesswoman of the Year for Florida 2005 by the Business Advisory Council. Mrs. Merker earned this title for 2003 for her entrepreneurship and work with the Council as a committee member. Her continued efforts earned her this honor once again. She was invited to attend a special dinner with President Bush in March, but was unable to attend since we are so busy here at headquarters. Nonetheless, the Advisory Council extended her their thanks. Congratulations, Mrs. Merker.

Activities in Europe
Juergen Nierich and Joachim Mueller attended BioFach in Germany, February 15 through February 18, as representatives of ScoringSystem. BioFach, the World Organic Trade Fair, is distinguished by its vigor, internationality, and innovative power. It brings together a good 2,000 exhibitors - two thirds from abroad - and 33,000 trade visitors from some 100 countries of the world to Nürnberg every year in February. This year was a record year for attendance. Mr. Nierich and Mr. Mueller made important contacts to cerifiying companies.

Activities in South America
Ecuador

Eduardo Morzán and our Manager Giovanny Mosquera were invited to make a presentation on ScoringAg by the traceback committee of the Government of Ecuador. Eduardo already has a reputation as a traceback expert in Central and South America. Together with Giovanny, he attended several meetings and conferences. They made important contacts with the Chamber of Commerce and Industries for France-Ecuador, who allowed Giovanny to use their name in his promotions. They also made contacts to large fruit exporters and packing houses. Giovanny and his team are already working with different companies who have not been able to find any other comparable system.

Eduardo and Giovanny met with a representative of the Department of Agriculture and will be pursuing further meetings with that agency. In addition, they met with representatives from CORPEI, Export Promoter of Ecuador, who said they urgently need traceback for Ecuador companies. Our traceback labels add a lot of value to any product.

They also met with the Mango Foundation, who agree that they need a system such as ours, and have already asked for a proposal using our system for all mango growers and mango handlers.

Mexico

Eduardo Morzán and our Manager Bernardo Gomez were invited to present our complete Point-to-Point Traceback ™ system to the Minister of Agriculture and to high-level industry executives in Mexico in January. They worked on presentations to SENASICA, the agency responsible for traceback regulations in Mexico. They were all impressed with the ScoringAg system, and agreed it is the best system they have seen. Bernardo is continuing to meet with Senasica to help get them started in ScoringAg.

Eduardo and Bernardo also met with the Avocado Association APEAM and EMEX (Mango Exporter Association, which inclues 60 Mexican mango exporters) in Mexico. Both Associations agree that ScoringAg will meet their traceback needs and are discussing the system with the SENASICA members. They also met with Mexico Calidad Suprema, an association whose members are the main Mexican food export companies (fruit, vegetables, meat, pork, fish, etc.). They liked our system and are very interested in using it.

Bermard has made several other contacts, and is currently working with many large agencies and organizations, including a second meeting with EMEX, and meetings with Confederación de Porcicultores Mexicanos, SAGARPA, ASERCA, Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas, ANETIF, CANAINCA, the Cámara de la Industria Alimenticia de Jalisco and many others.

Columbia

In February Eduardo Morzán helped TRAZAG de Colombia, led by Dougla Votello and Ivan Colmenares in top-level meetings with FEDEGAN, The National Milkman Town Council, and SGS DE COLOMBIA CORP. The TRAZAG team members have already had sales meeting with the coffee, honey, cattle, tobacco, and flower industries.

Visitors to Headquarters
Arquimed, Chile

Eugenia Lisboa, ScoringAg Traceback Manager for Arquimed, and Gema Pallavicini, ScoringAg Traceback Assistant Manager for Arquimed in Chile, joined us at corporate headquarters in February for training and found out how easy the system is to use. They also were impressed to see in a meat plant near our headquarters how an animal ID is kept during the slaughter process and a traceback label is created and printed.





Back in Chile they have already made contacts to the wine, fish, and restaurant industries. Please take a look at their excellent advertising, which are attached along with this Letter of the President.

Brazil

Jefferson Michaelis of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in Tampa, Florida visited our office with a rancher from Matto Grasso de Sol, Brazil who represents 150 farmers in his area. The large packing plants in Brazil are paying less and less for cattle, and the ranchers are looking for a way to make their own branded product. They were both surprised to see how easy and inexpensive microbranding can be with ScoringAg traceback labels (see our labels at https://www.scoringag.com/Public/traceback_labels_and_sign.pdf
Fernando Silva, our manager in Brazil, gave a presentation to this of group of farmers two weeks ago. The farmers were all impressed with our system, and will be signing up for accounts of their own.

Brazil - Soccer

Fernando Silva is the owner of BWA ticket service for the soccer stadiums, and is responsible for the security, as there have been serious problems with hooligans. Our www.ScoringSoccer.com database for fan and player management i n connection with ID cards, printed directly from the database, helps him provide the security required by the government, for the visitors and the stadium owners while enjoying soccer games.

Please ask for details if you know about similar problems in your area.

Sales Support
Customer Contacts

We have had several requests for a list of existing customers that potential customers can contact to discuss our system. ScoringSystem believes in protecting our customers' privacy. This is one of the reasons our system is so popular. Giving out contact information on our current customers would invade their privacy, and cause them to have to spend enormous amounts of their time taking phone calls, as our system is drawing a great deal of interest. If you have a customer who would like to have their information or comments posted on our website, we would be happy to do it, but would need a signed, written statement from your customer



New Sales Team Members
We have been quite busy this year expanding our sales team. We would like to welcome them all:

USA

Hugh Bertmaring, Business Manager of Alaska Quality Seafood in Alaska, a certifying agency for the State of Alaska
Joe Hall in Arizona, Consultant for Terravita Organic, and also works with organic farmers in California.
Dr. Leroy Coffman, DVM in Florida. He was the State Veterinarian for the States of Oregon and Florida. He is now a Consultant for the livestock and food industry.
Eddie Daniel in Florida, worldwide Consultant for the organic industry, mainly shrimp, but also for crops and livestock.
Roberto Gomez in Florida, who works especially with nurseries and the tree industry.
Peter Gallagher in Illinois, who works in the meat and processing industry for equipment and ingredients.
Matthew Kreps in Minnesota, who started as a customer and was so excited at how easy to use our system is, he decided to become a sales rep. He also has his own family farm where he raises natural food products.
Eddie Toms in Minnesota, who works in bailer twine sales and with small farm stores and Case International.
Dan Komo in Missouri, owner of MeatBooks, a software program for HACCP. MeatBooks and ScoringAg have decided to work together to help lockers and meat processors to stay in business while complying with the FDA and FSIS rules.
Dr. Chris Rolf, DVM in Missouri, who has his own veterinary clinic.
Mark Berning in Ohio, who has his own retail store for manure spreading equipments.
Dr. Michael Fanning of Agrilogic in Texas. AgriLogic provides state-of-the-art risk management tools and solutions that preserve, promote and protect the food and fiber sector.
Ken Vickers in Texas, horse breeder, farmer and farm equipment dealer who has opened his own office for recordkeeping and data entry service for ScoringAg

South America - Colombia

Billy Prada, Christhian Votello, Daniel Jaramillo, Jeimy Leguizamon, Mario Arcos, Marisol Diaz, Martha Silva, Mauricio Perez, Myriam Prieto, and Thil Votella
This team is very active and has already made excellent sales contacts to all different types of food and pharma industries.

South America - Chile

Eugenia Lisboa, ScoringAg Traceback Manager for Arquimed working the wine and beef industry in Chile
Gema Pallavicini, ScoringAg Traceback Assistant Manager for Arquimed in RFID cattle tags
South America - Panama
Idalia Villavicencio, Agriculture Engineer
Humberto Bermudez, Agriculture Engineer, working especially with OIRSA and Lee Babcock from VOCA.
We thank all our Sales Team Members and Business Partners for your efforts in making ScoringSystem so successful .

William Kanitz

President, ScoringSystem, Inc.
 

William Kanitz

Well-known member
Thanks Porker for calling in,we know everyone will understand your joy of selling ScoringAg ,he has just got to get clearence for internal press.
 
Top