Courtesy Photo | Spec. Tiffany Bryant, a medical food inspector from the U.S. Army Veterinary Service,...... read more read more
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By Kevin L. Robinson,
DeCA public affairs specialist
FORT LEE, Va. – Food recalls often seem like a routine occurrence on the news. However, there is nothing ordinary about what military commissary personnel do once a recall is announced.
September is Food Safety Month, and commissary patrons can rest assured yearlong that their store has a team of dedicated professionals protecting the safety of their groceries, said Army Col. Michael A. Buley, director of the Defense Commissary Agency’s public health and safety directorate.
“Once a recall alert goes out, we quickly close the loop with our stores to ensure any recalled products are promptly removed from the sales floor,” Buley said. “We are part of a food safety network, a wall if you will, that stands guard against various foodborne illnesses, undeclared allergens and substances and processing defects.”
The wall that DeCA’s health and safety team mans can get busy when you consider in 2014 alone there were 552 food recalls managed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and another 94 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service.
Buley and his public health staff are linked in their food safety vigilance by medical food inspectors from the U.S. Army Veterinary Service and U.S. Air Force Public Health. At commissaries, the food inspectors join DeCA’s store-level sanitation coordinators, vendors and store workers to ensure the products sold in a commissary are safe.
“When a recall is announced, our first priority is to see if our commissaries carry the product,” said Chris Wicker, a public health adviser at DeCA headquarters. “We know the clock is ticking for us to alert our stores, remove the recalled product and put the word out to our patrons.”
DeCA’s process for recalls goes like this:
•Recall alert. The agency receives a recall alert either from the FDA, USDA, an ALFOODACT from the Defense Logistics Agency or a vendor/supplier.
•Investigate and notify. The agency’s public health staff forwards the recall alert to DeCA’s sales directorate to determine whether the agency has the recalled product in its inventory. The sales directorate is responsible for procuring and monitoring all products sold in commissaries. If it’s confirmed the recalled product is in DeCA’s inventory, the recall is sent out DeCA-wide.
•Segregate product. If DeCA carries the product, the public health staff provides instructions for stores to pull the items off the shelves and place the products in the stores’ medical hold areas. This area is sequestered in the warehouse section of the store. An employee is assigned to account for these products by number and ensure the recalled items don’t reenter the sales area until notified by DeCA’s public health staff.
•Alert patrons. Public health issues instructions to notify patrons through store signage, and the headquarters corporate communications office produces food safety alerts posted under “Food Recalls” on the DeCA website, http://www.commissaries.com/press_room/press_release/breaking_news_07/index.cfmw.
•If in doubt, send it out. If a recall is announced through widespread media channels ahead of a systematic notice, store managers can pull items off their shelves for public health concerns.
“We take the health of our commissary patrons very seriously,” Buley said. “Our ultimate responsibility is to ensure the products sold in our commissaries are safe for our customers to consume.”
-DeCA-
About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment. Commissaries provide a military benefit and make no profit on the sale of merchandise. Authorized patrons purchase items at cost plus a five percent surcharge, which covers the costs of building new commissaries and modernizing existing ones. By shopping regularly in the commissary, patrons save an average of 30 percent or more on their purchases compared to commercial prices – savings amounting to thousands of dollars annually. A core military family support element, and a valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life for America’s military and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their country.
| Date Taken: | 08.28.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.28.2015 10:41 |
| Story ID: | 174530 |
| Location: | FORT LEE, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 144 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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