Transportation has long been one of the most unregulated aspects of the food supply’s chain of custody, particularly in relation to food safety. That all changed with the passage of the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Among the key aspects of that rule are requirements for ensuring the vehicle and equipment are capable of maintaining temperatures needed for food safety, and having monitoring mechanism and written procedures and records to ensure that food is transported under adequate temperature control.

For produce, temperature is often more a factor of quality than food safety. However, there are several instances in which food safety can be impacted by out-of-spec temperatures and environmental conditions, including:

• If the produce has been subject to pathogenic contaminated in the field or during harvest (such as the 2018 E. coli contamination of romaine lettuce), higher temperatures can enable greater pathogenic growth.
• Fresh-cut, bagged or packaged produce — as well as some more perishable fresh fruits and vegetables including strawberries, lettuce, herbs and mushrooms can require temperature controls. In fact, FDA advises that consumers store these at a temperature of 40° F or below and only purchase fresh-cut, bagged or packaged produce that is refrigerated or surrounded by ice. More information is available here.

But whether the produce is susceptible to food safety risks, its quality and shelf life is dependent on environmental controls. Thus, the continuing advancement of technologies designed for temperature control, maintenance and validation throughout the food’s transport can be invaluable, from temperature sensors to remote monitoring and GPS tracking.

“Keeping fresh produce ‘fresh’ requires maintaining a careful combination of temperature and humidity,” says Dr. Jennifer McEntire, the United Fresh Produce Association vice president of food safety and technology. “Data loggers have historically been used, and the evolution of technology now allows the capture and real-time analysis of conditions to maximize the quality of the product, which means reducing shrink.” While temperature sensors, remote monitoring and GPS are not new, the continuing improvement of these technologies enables growers to gain greater control over downstream traceability for the quality and food safety of their produce. As I discuss in Chapter 10 of the upcoming book “A Chain of Linked Nuances of Food Traceability,” not only can these monitor the temperature of the product, but with GPS tracking, the trucks can be monitored for location, speed, unscheduled breaks, etc. When drivers know they are being tracked, they may tend to be more diligent, resulting in added protection for food safety and food defense as well.”

The technologies have begun to be used recently, according to Produce Marketing Association vice president of supply chain efficiencies Ed Treacy.

“Over the last three to four years, the technology has really improved with the environmental and GPS sensing,” he says. Treacy is seeing the food industry using such technologies to provide full-chain visibility of the supply chain: to tie transparency all the way through the chain.

For growers in particular, he says, it can provide a record of what occurred between loading and unloading of the produce. Not only does this help ensure the maintenance of temperature, the remote sensors can provide an assessment of the environmental conditions, monitor for issues such as shock and ethylene levels, and record GPS coordinates in near real-time.

“I’ve seen companies use that to predict freshness,” Treacy says.

When drivers know they are being tracked, they may tend to be more diligent, resulting in added protection for food safety and food defense as well.

Some of the sensing equipment also will provide alerts. The grower or receiver can select the device by entering a serial number, then set standards, such as minimum or maximum temperatures, and corresponding alerts. The alerts can be sent to one’s phone, with notifications as soon as a condition goes out of range. In some cases, the alert may even precede the driver’s knowledge of an issue and enable the grower to contact the truck and potentially save the load.

“Sensor technology is evolving very, very quickly and getting relatively cheap,” Treacy says. In fact, he says, use has become fairly standard for long-distance loads moving across the country.

The GPS-enable devices also can increase operational efficiencies through the setting of geofencing, Treacy says. That is, the setting of a virtual geographic boundary, enabling an alert when the truck enters or leaves a specific area. For example, the grower or recipient could set the device to provide an alert when the truck is 50 or 100 miles from its destination. The notification enables the customer to prepare for the delivery and the grower to know if the truck has met its appointed time — or alert the customer that the truck is off schedule. This technology, Treacy says, “helps you manage your driver and see any exceptions.”

While the use of technology in transportation can help maintain the quality and value of fresh produce, it also is critical that growers ensure that drivers are following the requirements of FSMA’s Sanitary Transportation rule as well, Treacy says. “The Sanitary Transportation Rule is the best thing for food safety.” This is particularly true for produce because it is generally unpackaged — with even the containers used for items such as mushrooms and strawberries having vent holes through which the product can be contacted. To help prevent the possibility of contamination in transportation, he says, you need to know:

• The history of the truck — what it has carried prior to picking up your load
• The truck’s cleanliness — and what was used to clean it. Some cleaners and sanitizers can contaminate food it contacts.
• If it has and does follow good transportation practices
• The way it is loaded (e.g., fresh meats or allergens should never be placed above produce)

No matter how conscientious the grower is about food safety and quality from seed to harvest, a lack of controls during transportation can reduce all that to naught. And the perishable, unpackaged nature of produce simply adds to the risk.

“For many perishable items, maintaining quality is a race against the clock, and things like GPS tracking give greater insight into how to manage resources and inventory,” McEntire says. “Embracing these technologies can help improve efficiencies of perishable products.”

With all the advances of technology, Treacy sees a continued evolution of their deployment and use.

“Now that that information is made available, there are a lot of creative ways that people are using it,” he says.

Lisa is editor of Quality Assurance & Food Safety (QA) magazine and a Food Traceability chapter author. llupo@gie.net

Photo courtesy of Melinda Knuth

Melinda Knuth spent two summers at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, but the extended stays were all about her career, not vacations.

Knuth twice accepted horticulture internships in Florida, first working with a hydroponic system at Epcot and later returning after graduation to a more managerial position in edible landscaping at Golden Oaks Resort. She went from helping grow plants for the Living with the Land boat ride to growing the vegetables chefs would use in their recipes. Sound like different experiences? That’s because they are, and intentionally so. Knuth has always valued versatility, especially as she narrows down precisely what she’ll do when she’s working full-time in the industry. An interest in owning her own floral shop uprooted Knuth from South Dakota and placed her at the University of Nebraska, where she studied horticulture with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. After the Disney internships and completing her undergraduate degree, she landed at Texas A&M, where she’s now in the third year of obtaining her doctoral degree.

“It’s a really long, winding trail to how I got to where I am,” Knuth says. “I tried to do internships to try and find, ‘What’s my niche? Where can I really fit in to this industry and find a job?’”

Knuth actively sought an opportunity at Disney and intended to stand out among her peers vying for the same internship spots. She followed up after her first Disney trip with an e-mail a week later, and when their internships were officially posted, she filed her application accordingly.

“If you can make a unique connection, as in not just introducing yourself but also having a conversation with them that you can hop back on later … anything that can make you unique from other people who are also interviewing them, that’s extremely beneficial,” Knuth says.

Now she’s studying marketing and economics in the horticulture industry with Texas A&M’s Charlie Hall and Bridget Behe at Michigan State University. Basically, they’re observing how consumers perceive a company’s messaging, whether it’s on advertisements, packaging or catalogues.

She tracks eye movement patterns at the university’s Human Behavior Lab, which just opened in July. She’s found that in horticulture, most people prefer to buy products when a lot of information is provided on the signage.

“In a lot of marketing and a lot of packaging, simplicity is king,” Knuth says. “We see that with Apple and we see that with most companies, but that’s not necessarily true for our industry. I don’t know if it’s an anomaly or because it’s a live product, people need that additional information to feel secure to buy it.”

Her ever-changing career path has always fixated on her passion for horticulture, and Knuth knows that much will remain the same. What she’s still figuring out is what she’ll do after completing her dissertation — will she work for a larger industry corporation studying data analytics, or will she find a role in academia?

It’s still unclear what job she’ll stick with, but Knuth’s confident enough in her different experiences that she can’t wait to continue the process of figuring it out.

“As an 18-year-old making plans for the next 50 years, I thought that I had it figured it out,” Knuth says. “Now that I’m a little bit older, maybe (owning a floral shop) wasn’t the ultimate plan. Who knows? Maybe in 20 years, I’ll have everything together and have an idea and eventually start my own business in the future.”

Jimmy is an assistant editor for sister publication Lawn & Landscape. jmiller@gie.net

Spring is a time of new beginnings and growth, no matter where you find yourself in the world. In April, I’ll be embarking on a new life journey as I relocate to the Houston area with my partner, who was offered a great career opportunity at his company’s location there. We’re excited for the possibilities and prospects down south, but unfortunately, it means I’ll be stepping down from my post as editor of Produce Grower.

I joined parent company GIE Media in April 2012, and have been your editor on Produce Grower for the past four years. As I reflect on my time in the produce world, I can’t help but think of the recent “10-year challenge” on several social media platforms. Users post a photo of themselves from 10 years ago alongside one from this year. While I didn’t partake in the photo challenge, I did my own “seven-year challenge” and took a trip down memory lane, reflecting on continued themes and changes in the produce industry.

I remember walking through PMA Fresh Summit in 2014 and being absolutely amazed by the new fruit and vegetable options out there — grape-flavored apples, anyone? During a keynote, PMA president Cathy Burns and then-CEO Bryan Silbermann highlighted the fact that no country has successfully lowered their obesity rate in the previous 33 years. That’s not surprising, since they also cited a study that said kids were seeing 5,500 ads for junk food per year, compared to 100 ads for healthier options. Children and adults would still benefit from incorporating more fruits and veggies into their diets in 2019, just as they would have in 2014. And we need produce growers like you to fulfill that demand.

Looking at changes, seven years ago I would avoid eating tomatoes and greens during the winter, as most of the ones you could buy at the grocery store were watery and flavorless. In recent years, several hydroponic operations have popped up in the Cleveland area and started providing delicious, fresh produce year-round — a testament to the continued growth of our industry. We’ve seen previously unpopular produce experience a renaissance; seven years ago, no one had even heard of avocado toast, Brussels sprouts were unpleasant, and a salad was made of iceberg lettuce and shredded carrots, not the fancier blends being grown now.

I could fill another 10 pages with more thoughts on produce, but suffice it to say that I’ll still be keeping up with the industry, as it interests me personally. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as your editor for the past four years and I wish you all the very best this spring and beyond. I hope our paths cross again one day!

kvarga@gie.net | (216) 393-0290
Twitter: @Karen_GIE

I started off my Sunday morning by picking up my phone, which had buzzed at me at 6:15 a.m. It wasn’t an alarm going off, but rather a text notification alerting me that my Whole Foods shopper had started working on my grocery order I’d placed the night before, with a delivery window of 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. While I enjoyed a rare moment snuggled up in my bed with coffee, reading for pleasure, someone else was doing my grocery shopping. Total bliss.

Let me start by saying that for the most part I’m a down-to-earth gal who likes to get her hands dirty and who embraces a DIY lifestyle. I’m an avid gardener who grows a lot of organic food, both outdoors and indoors. I keep chickens and bees. I place a high value on clean, healthy food. I also really like to cook. That said, I’m also a technophile who runs a busy company, with very limited time on my hands. I also hate grocery shopping. It’s not that I don’t enjoy grocery stores, but grocery shopping always feels like the sort of task I don’t really have time for. I can always think of something else more productive I could be doing with that two hours. I don’t mind spending two hours in the kitchen, but I don’t want to do the shopping beforehand. Time is my pain point.

My husband, on the other hand, loves driving around for errands and has no problem going to the grocery store for me — mostly because it scores him points and makes him think it will get him out of being assigned some other domestic task he doesn’t want to do. (You’d think after 26 years he’d realize resistance is futile.) Having spent time as a grocery stock boy, he also happens to love grocery stores. So, a few years ago I retired from going to the grocery store and we started using a shared OneNote digital notebook on our phones. I would make grocery lists, and he would head off to the store and check off the items as he got them. Easy. The only problem was, I couldn’t always get him to go to the store on my schedule. He’s since been replaced with an Amazon Prime Whole Foods shopper and delivery person. It’s $20 well spent.

I’ve been teased with many different grocery delivery programs here in Dallas over the years, all coming and going in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Every time a new service would pop up, I’d get super excited and place my first order for delivery. By the time I’d be ready to place a second order, the service was shut down. Plus, I often couldn’t get groceries from where I wanted, which specifically meant limited or no access to organic produce.

When Amazon bought Whole Foods (something I can’t say I was happy about) I was at least intrigued by the opportunity to get my organic groceries shipped and delivered. After having used the service many times now — with only a handful of small issues — I can say that I hope it sticks around. For a busy multitasker such as myself, being able to tap out a quick grocery order on my phone while I’m still working, and have it delivered to my door when I get home, is a dream.

Amazon is taking its tech a step further by outfitting brick and mortar stores with digital features that replace cashiers: automatic scanning as customers cart their selections, and automatic inventory stocking data delivered on the back end. It looks like Microsoft and Kroger are also jumping in with their own “smart stores” to compete with Amazon on that front. While I can say I love shopping digitally from my computer or phone, I do not enjoy self-checkouts at grocery stores. Inevitably, something goes awry. I think they’ll still need to make sure people have others to turn to when technology fails during a live shopping experience.

Customers also want the same digital on-demand services when it comes to their takeout. The handful of times I’ve used services such as Uber Eats, I’ve had mixed results, and even orders completely dropped. When we do get takeout, my husband usually prefers to go pick it up himself. That’s where new services such as Tyme TakeTech are coming in handy. These are cubby/locker systems installed at restaurants who use the services, that allow staff to place ready-to-go meals in temperature-controlled cubbies. The customer simply picks up their order from the cubby when they arrive. That means less time waiting around in line to pick up your order.

While part of the farmers market experience is, well, the experience of attending the market, time is still of the essence for many customers. Parking alone can be a nightmare at big city markets and is often a deterrent for me to visit in-person as often as I’d like. Come to think of it, I’d love more access to digital ordering and delivery of locally grown produce from farmers markets. Perhaps the Tyme TakeTech option, or something similar, could also work in this context.

The bottom line is that customers want access to quality produce and organic foods, but they also want their time back. If we want to encourage consumers to get back in the kitchen and spend time prepping and cooking produce, we need to cut the time it takes to acquire it.

Leslie (CPH) owns Halleck Horticultural, LLC, through which she provides horticultural consulting, business and marketing strategy, product development and branding, and content creation for green industry companies. lesliehalleck.com