010524 Food Safety a Challenge for Grocers

Chicago - Hy-Vee Inc., a Midwestern supermarket chain, experienced every grocer's nightmare when one person died and several others were sickened by contaminated deli meat sold at one of its Minnesota stores.

Now Hy-Vee and other supermarkets are looking at all sorts of ways to avoid similar incidents, cutting down on in-store meat handling, buying specially treated equipment and training employees in safe-handling practices. Some have started selling irradiated products, an idea consumers so far seem reluctant to accept.

“There are many things we need to do, we have to do,” Hy-Vee's chief executive, Ron Pearson, told supermarket executives at their industry trade show. “Irradiation has to be one of the answers.”

Pearson is incoming chairman of the industry's Food Marketing Institute.

About 76 million cases of food-borne illness are diagnosed nationwide each year, resulting in 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

To avoid contaminating ground beef, grocers have started buying meat prepackaged by the packer rather than grinding it in the store. That eliminates employee handling that can spread germs. Wal-Mart, one of the nation's largest retailers, is shifting all its stores to “case-ready” meat.

Grocery chains are also inspecting handling practices of produce suppliers.

Hobart Corp., which makes commercial food equipment, used the trade show to demonstrate a new line of meat cutters that have plastic parts with an anti-bacterial technology developed by Microban Products Co. Microban developed a plastic additive that inhibits bacteria growth. Hobart expects to eventually put the plastics in other equipment it makes.

For many in the food industry, however, irradiation is the closest thing to a magic bullet when it comes to preventing food-borne illnesses. Food can be irradiated by brief exposure to either radioactive material or an electronic beam.

The government approved the use of irradiation on meat last year and is expected to decide soon whether to allow it for luncheon meats, hot dogs and other precooked meat products.

Just in time for the summer barbecue season, the Surebeam Corp. is launching a television and print advertising campaign in the Midwest to promote its electronic irradiation system. The theme: “Your favorite foods. Made better.”

At this week's food show, Surebeam officials tried to generate interest among grocers by grilling irradiated hamburgers and handing out slices of irradiated papaya, along with grim statistics about food- borne illnesses.

“We don't want to scare anybody, but we want them to know there is a challenge,” said Andrew Hyncik, Surebeam's director of marketing.

The challenge is to convince the grocers' customers.

Two women who work in marketing for a Buffalo, N.Y., food company sampled Surebeam's papaya slices, then blanched when a reporter told them the fruit had been irradiated.

“Is this going to make us glow in the dark?” asked Kathy Krarick.

Papayas are irradiated to prevent fruit fly larvae from reaching the mainland United States. The fruit is ordinarily treated with heat.

A small placard that appears with the fruit wasn't much help, the women said. The label reads, “Treated by irradiation using Surebeam electronic pasteurization process.”

“I wouldn't know whether this was a good thing for me or a bad thing for me,” said Darcy Schlee.

Surebeam officials concede that irradiation has an image problem but express optimism about its future.

Hy-Vee, which has 186 stores in seven Midwestern states, offers irradiated frozen hamburger patties, the same Huisken brand offered up at the food show. So far, sales have been slow, said spokeswoman Ruth Mitchell.

But Hy-Vee, based in West Des Moines, Iowa, has told meatpackers it's willing to test-market fresh, irradiated ground beef as soon as it is available, she said.

Neither Hy-Vee nor state investigators ever pinpointed the cause of the 1999 listeria poisoning in Rochester, Minn. Hy-Vee adopted a food-safety training manual for employees five years ago, in 1996. After the incident, Hy-Vee reinforced “the importance of following our store procedures,” Mitchell said.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com