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The Fourth Space?

Posted by admin on May 24, 2013   |   No Comments

The coffee shop has become a paradigm of the “third space” – neither home nor work or school, but a place where you can relax, socialize, be productive and have some fun. In a new twist, you can take the shop on the road and “remote in” to the experience.

MyVirtualCoffeehouse.com brings the coffeehouse experience online. The site delivers the sights, sounds and accoutrements of the coffee shop to your desk or mobile device. It’s an interactive platform where you can revel in coffee culture and its many elements – culinary, social, and cultural.

Learn more about coffee, get the scoop on new trends and tastes, listen to original music, get tips and bargains on unique coffee-related items, interact with fellow coffee enthusiasts, share content, find recipes, and enter contests.

And, there’s more. MyVirtualCoffeehouse.com has a strong presence on social media as well. Daily posts on Facebook (www.facebook.com/iVirtualCoffee) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/iVirtualCoffee) share a potpourri of fun, informative, quirky and always entertaining tidbits on coffee, as well as content from the MyVirtualCoffeehouse website.

The virtual coffeehouse community is growing rapidly. Facebook “likes” have jumped from none to nearly 8,000 since the page was launched in February. User-initiated activity is up by about 6000%, and unique visitors by 1000%. Twitter followers total nearly 27,000, up 20,000 over the last eight weeks alone.

A lot of good stuff pivots around the coffee experience. Don’t miss out on the fun:
• Visit www.MyVirtualCoffeehouse.com
• Log on and “like” www.facebook.com/iVirtualCoffee
• Begin following www.twitter.com/iVirtualCoffee.

Could MyVirtualCoffeehouse be coffee’s new, “fourth space?” Be part of the wave that is quickly turning that question into a phenomenon.

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Coffee v. Kidney Stones

Posted by admin on May 17, 2013   |   No Comments

Scientists have confirmed an association between coffee and a reduced risk of kidney stones. Examining the effects of liquids on kidney stone development, they found varying impacts among different liquids. Integrating results from three large clinical trials, their analysis showed that some sodas and punch appeared to increase the risk, while coffee and wine reduced it.

The coffee effect appears to increase with consumption. Participants who drank one or more cups of coffee a day had a 26% lower risk of developing kidney stones, as compared with those who drank coffee less than once a week. The protection was incremental, with relative risk reduction increasing with consumption levels: 3% for those who consumed coffee once a week, 6% for those who drank two to four times a week, and 16% for five to six times a week.

The effect remained steady for decaffeinated coffee as well. Decaf drinkers who consumed one or more cups of coffee per day showed a 16% lower risk compared with those who drank it less than once a week. While risk levels were higher by 3% for those who drank decaf just once a week, reductions were significant for other consumption levels: 8% for two to four times a week, and 23% for five to six times a week. Although caffeine is known to reduce kidney stone risk, the decaf results suggest that there are independent sources within coffee that contribute to the risk reduction.

For comparison, red and white wine also appears to deliver significant protection, culminating with a 31% reduction in daily consumers for red wine and 33% for white. Beer and liquor also exhibited protection levels for daily consumption at 41% and 12%, respectively, although protection levels for less frequent consumption did not increase incrementally with levels. Sugar-sweetened colas and non-colas did not fare as well, with daily consumption yielding respective 23% and 33% risk increases. Artificially sweetened colas and non-colas did better, with a risk reduction in colas of 9% albeit only for daily consumption, and for non-colas risk changes ranging from a 2% reduction to a 17% increase, depending on frequency. The researchers point to the fructose in the sugared beverages as the possible cause of the increased risk levels.

The study was conducted by Drs. Pietro Manuel Ferraro, Eric N. Taylor, Giovanni Gambaro and Gary C. Curhan. Subjects totaled 194,095 followed over a period of time ranging from eight to 13 years. That puts the combined reach of the study, integrating subjects and time followed, at 2,643,708 person-years. The study was published on May 15 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

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Weak Anti-Proposition 65 Measure Gets Weaker

Posted by admin on May 6, 2013   |   1 Comment

A California bill to open a narrow escape path from frontal assaults under Proposition 65 has faltered in the committee review process. A bill introduced by Los Angeles-based Assemblyman Michael Gatto would have given defendants a 14-day period during which they could “remedy” alleged violations and avoid threatened lawsuits by plaintiffs’ attorneys.

The bill passed the legislature’s Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee in a unanimous, bipartisan vote. However, the political realities of confronting an uphill battle in the Judiciary Committee compelled Assemblyman Gatto to water down the bill. As presented for review by the Judiciary Committee, the bill is now restricted to allowing a 14-day remediation period where a listed substance is presented to the public in alcohol, tobacco smoke, or engine exhaust, or where formed on the premises in the process of food preparation.

Band-Aid Measure
To put the measure and its surrounding issues in perspective, here’s a typical scenario that the original bill was drafted to address. A plaintiffs’ attorney files a 60-day notice to sue, as required by law for private actions. (The state’s Attorney General does not have to give such advance notice.) The attorney then approaches the prospective defendant and proposes a settlement in lieu of filing the lawsuit. Particularly for small businesses, such as local coffee shops, the prospects of the cost of defending a lawsuit are unthinkable, and in many cases so are the sums demanded as a settlement. Moreover, the vendor is also typically required to comply with the “injunctive relief” of the statute, that is putting up a warning sign or labeling the product.

The Gatto bill, as originally drafted, would have given the prospective defendant 14 days to come into compliance by issuing a warning to customers along with paying a $500 fine. That would give a relatively easy out to the accused, saving the outlays of money that could make or break the business.

However, it should be noted that the relief would have been merely a temporary band-aid at best to provide a short-term “out” to the immediate, untoward circumstances. In many cases, such as with coffee, the industry maintains that no such “injunctive relief” – that is, posting a warning sign or label – is necessary at all. In the case of coffee, the traces of acrylamide formed from naturally occurring components in the roasting process do not trigger the statute’s requirements. That position is being put forward in the defense of two major lawsuits against the industry.

While the posting of signs or affixing of labels by some vendors does not create a legally binding precedent for others, it puts into play an unnecessary and unwarranted example that is out of step with the industry’s position. In other words, it muddies waters that should be clear. And, it subjects the defendants to burdens and costs associated with warning measures they should never have had to incur.

Toxic Climate
The scenario targeted by the Gatto bill is part of a larger, unfortunate picture. Proposition 65, or the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, was passed in 1986 to prevent businesses in the state from exposing individuals to certain chemicals without first giving warning. It was supported by a number of environmental groups, and passed as a public referendum garnering 2/3 of the popular vote.

However, the measure included a provision for private citizens and groups to bring suit under the statute. The reasoning was that the state may not have adequate resources to enforce the measure. This provision has given a green light to the plaintiff’s bar in the state to turn Proposition 65 into a cottage industry. Setting up shell organizations ostensibly devoted to environmental causes, they file suit against industries whose products contain trace amounts of Proposition 65-listed chemicals. (From the original 29, there are now over 800 chemicals on the list, designated by the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, or OEHHA, as causing cancer or reproductive harm.) Most of the suits never go to trial, but are settled out of court. Historically, about 75% of the proceeds go to plaintiffs’ attorneys, rather than to the state for environmental uses as intended.

Alternatively, the plaintiffs’ attorneys approach prospective defendants, demanding out-of-court monetary and injunctive penalties, as described above. The Gatto bill aimed to give vendors an out, even though it did nothing for the industries struggling under such suits. The watered-down version will do even less, and nothing at all for coffee companies of any size, shape or form.

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And the Science Says . . .

Posted by admin on April 19, 2013   |   4 Comments

Scientific studies on coffee and caffeine emerge virtually every day from laboratories around the world. In 2012 alone, NCA has tracked about 300 such studies and continues to uncover new ones on a regular basis. Since 2000, a large majority of those studies have reached conclusions that make up a long menu of health benefits in America’s favorite beverage.

Here are just a few of the most recent findings.

Scientists in New Zealand have found that the antioxidant in coffee, chlorogenic acid, is the only one that delivered the benefits of protecting essential DNA from damage from “oxidative stress,” or the daily onslaught of cell exposure that generates “free radicals” that cause bodily inflammations. This finding, by Dr. Manisha A. Rathod and team at the University of Auckland, could be at the core of the benefits observed in other studies that have associated coffee with a reduced risk for liver damage, certain cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and other neuro-degenerative maladies.

A study by Japanese scientists has concluded that coffee holds special anti-bacterial properties for the digestive system. Specifically, Dr. T. Nakayama and K. Oishi at the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases at Osaka University, found that there was far less E. coli and Clostridium in the colons of test mice that were fed coffee. The researchers also hypothesized that coffee’s antibacterial activity could contribute to dampening outbreaks of E. coli poisoning, such as 2011’s severe cases in Japan and Germany.

A large roundup study – or “meta-analysis” – was completed by Chinese scientists to examine the wider literature on coffee’s perceived benefits on reducing the risk of breast cancer. Drs. Wenjie Jiang, Yili Wu and Xiubo Jiang concluded that there is a clear “inverse relationship” between coffee and breast cancer incidence among women with a certain pre-disposing gene mutation (the BRCA1 gene) and post-menopausal women. The authors found that the risk of breast cancer decreased by 2% for every 2 cups of coffee consumed per day. Something special about coffee’s impact also became clear in their finding that caffeine administration alone appeared to result in a smaller risk reduction.

As its scientific committee continues to track studies on coffee, caffeine and health, NCA keeps its finger on the pulse of current research. Stay tuned as NCA continues to keep you informed.

An Affair to Remember

Posted by admin on April 12, 2013   |   No Comments

NCA took its annual convention west this year, visiting San Francisco for the first time. Momentum was in the air, with excitement and enthusiasm that rivaled the city’s legendary hills.

More than 700 people descended on the Palace Hotel in the downtown South of Market neighborhood for NCA’s 102nd convention and surrounding events. Convention registrations surpassed the record numbers of NCA’s 2011 Centennial convention in New Orleans, setting a new record stretching back over 20 years.

New this year, NCA kicked off the convention’s educational offerings with a pre-program symposium, Coffee at the Crossroads of Science and Law, to address a growing industry need. The last few years have seen a spate of legal and regulatory challenges that hinge on scientific knowledge and technical know-how. NCA brought together prominent litigation and regulatory attorneys and industry scientists to explore three pressing issues that call for both legal and scientific expertise to unravel – Proposition 65 lawsuits in California, the federal Food Safety Modernization Act, and health claims on food labels. About fifty participants took advantage of this half-day event.

The convention experience continued with the NCA tradition of giving back to its convention host city. This year, NCA Day of Service participants partnered with the Salvation Army at three sites in the city to help the organization with its multifaceted efforts to help provide food, shelter and clothing to the city’s needy. The Day of Service volunteers made sandwiches to be distributed to the homeless, sorted donated goods for distribution to low-income families and restocked clothing whose proceeds help support the organization’s drug and alcohol recovery program participants. A popular convention feature, the event attracted the maximum number of participants, “selling out” weeks before the event.

The Convention’s educational program covered the breadth of industry topics and concerns, with a special emphasis on sustainability. Topics covered the field, with relevance to all links in the coffee supply chain. Among them, sessions covered the single-serve format phenomenon, differential coffee contracts for single-origin coffees, certifications, climate change, legal and regulatory devlopments, top-line results of NCA market research, and consumption promotion. Three sessions were devoted exclusively to sustainability with distinct perspectives, covering agricultural initiatives, leadership practices and differentiated coffee supplies.

The table-top exhibition, an important feature of the NCA convention introduced in 2003, was the largest ever, with nearly 40 display tables featuring products ranging from single-origin coffees to equipment and packaging manufacturers to certification and sustainability organizations. Essentially an executive trade show, the exhibition is designed to bring exhibitors into contact with the senior coffee executives who attend the NCA convention. The exhibition has grown by 20% over each of the last two years and by 179% since 2010.

The 2013 NCA Convention was clearly an affair to remember for many in the coffee industry. Attendee responses to the convention were exceedingly positive, and the momentum is likely to keep climbing. Will NCA see you at next year’s convention in New Orleans?

Proposition 65: Health Measure or Cottage Industry?

Posted by admin on March 9, 2013   |   No Comments

In 1986, California voters passed a public referendum that offered security against toxins in their drinking water. Who could argue with keeping contaminants away from the kitchen faucet? You didn’t need to be a rabid environmentalist to support a measure aimed at protecting your health.

Today, Proposition 65 bears little resemblance to what Californians voted into law. Protecting water has morphed into hunting down chemical traces in everything people eat, drink, touch or breathe. Procedural steps designed to give science the upper hand in tagging substances that cause cancer or reproductive harm have been distorted by political agendas. Worst of all, the business of protecting health has given way to a cottage industry of legal actions by plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Acrylamide
Acrylamide is one of the chemicals on the list of substances deemed a carcinogen by California’s Office of Health and Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). Acrylamide arises spontaneously when foods containing certain sugars and asparagine, a protein building block, are cooked at high temperatures. It is found in many foods including bread, breakfast cereals, crackers, potato chips and crisps, cooked asparagus, olives, and to a much lesser degree coffee.

As a natural cooking byproduct, acrylamide has been in these foods since humans began cooking with fire. Levels increase as the cooking process proceeds, and then drop off. If you made your toast darker this morning, you created and consumed more acrylamide than if you ate light toast instead.

In these foods, a sheer accident of chemistry gives rise to the basic chemical makeup of acrylamide in its singular form. What is formed in this way is something different than polyacrylamide, which is comprised of many acrylamide molecules linked by special chemical bonds. Polyacrylamide is an industrial chemical used in grouts, sealants and permanent press clothing.

As one of the 1,000 chemicals on the Proposition 65 list, acrylamide can trigger the statute’s consumer warning requirement when over certain threshold amounts. Similar applications of Proposition 65 have resulted in consumer warnings on fast-food walls for acrylamide in French fries, in supermarket aisles due to mercury in fresh fish, and even on souvenirs bearing lead paint.

Coffee under Siege
Coffee’s involvement with Proposition 65 provides a strong example of how the once popular health measure has become a cottage industry for plaintiffs’ attorneys. Two lawsuits are currently pending against roasters and retailers based on the absence of consumer warnings prior to making coffee available for sale. The industry has mounted a vigorous defense, with a well-supported position that acrylamide in coffee does not call for Proposition 65 consumer warnings.

In both cases, plaintiff Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT) brought suit under Proposition 65’s provision for private actions. Originally part of the law because of concern that the state lacked adequate funds for enforcement, private actions have become a common tactic to secure the statutory fines. Reaching as much as $2,500 per day per sale, a significant percentage of any judgment goes not to the state, but to the attorneys who bring the suit. This dynamic is what has turned the once well-intentioned health measure into a cottage industry for the plaintiff’s bar.

Beyond those who have been sued, moreover, many additional coffee proprietors are finding themselves ensnared by Proposition 65. Attorneys around the state are approaching individual shops and small chains with the threat of a lawsuit unless they agree to monetary settlements. For large companies, the sums involved would be minimal, but for these proprietors they can pose a significant burden. However, the significantly larger amounts threatened by Proposition 65 penalties and legal fees court could be a make or break proposition for their businesses.

Growing Problem
Coffee is not the only consumable under the Proposition 65 sword. Breakfast cereal makers also face lawsuits based on acrylamide, while orange juice manufacturers are fighting allegations based on lead from the soil in which the oranges were grown. Nor will future suits be limited to acrylamide, mercury or lead given the statute’s ever-growing litany of listed substances.

Adding fuel to the fire, as science methodologies become more sophisticated, ever tinier traces of substances can be isolated in foods. As science “chases zero” in its detection capabilities, the number of substances that may be newly detected could be limitless.

With plaintiffs’ attorneys on the prowl for Proposition 65-listed substances on which to hang new lawsuits and settlement offers, the dangers for food manufactures increase exponentially. It’s a challenge that can easily spin out of control. While legal relief may be in the wings for the coffee industry, a comprehensive solution may need to emerge from the chambers of the California legislature.

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In the Field

Posted by admin on February 3, 2013   |   No Comments

There’s something exciting going on. It happens each year around this time, but gets little fanfare or attention. It goes on quietly behind the scenes, but causes quite a stir when it’s done. The buzz begins in six weeks, when some key outcomes become public information.

What’s going on is an annual consumer survey that measures the U.S. coffee quotient like no other study. It tracks American coffee consumption across the category and on a pre-competitive basis. Conducted for 60+ years, it compiles the longest running historical record of changes in American coffee attitudes and behaviors.

The study is the NCA National Coffee Drinking Trends, or NCDT, which is currently in the field. Key findings are revealed at the NCA Annual Convention, taking place this year on March 21-23 in San Francisco.

NCDT
The NCDT takes the pulse of American coffee consumption like no other market research study. Key measures of consumers’ overall relationship with coffee are determined through a sophisticated questionnaire administered online to a demographically correct sampling of American consumers. Results are tabulated, analyzed and presented in targeted NCA Market Research Series reports.

Many variables are tracked and logged consistently across the years, while other questions are newly developed or rotated in. In this way, the research preserves unique continuity while engaging important new data to jump on important developments and trends. The goal is to provide the type of information that will enable senior strategists, marketers and executives to market their brands and plan for future products.

Reports
The NCDT Report provides a broad range of key data and analysis – average daily consumption for the past day, week and year; how, where and when coffee is consumed, including both home and workplace consumption; how often coffee is consumed, during which times of day, and in what quantities; consumption by life-stage and age, and more. Also in the report are assessments of consumer attitudes about various coffee drinks, flavor additives, and the effect of the economy on U.S. coffee consumption. A full data set is also available.

Other reports in the NCA Market Research Series take deep dives into targeted areas of interest. The Single Serve Format: Evolving Perceptions, Continued Growth presents a deep analysis of consumer behavioral and attitudinal data with regard to the exploding single-serve format. Recent analysis reveals significant changes in consumer adoption and continued opportunities for growth.

The NCA Ethnicity and Coffee Report zeroes in on the fast-growing Hispanic-American population to determine distinct attitudes and behaviors. To get an accurate profile of this large and complex population, NCA selected a research sample that matched the U.S. population distribution, offered the questionnaire in English and Spanish, and further separated out data based on acculturation levels. Data on African-American consumption are also included.

Convention Sneak Peek
While the NCDT Report is published in late Spring, top-line data are pulled and fully analyzed for a sneak peek during the NCA Annual Convention. A general session graphically presenting key findings from the year’s survey will take place on Friday, March 22 at 11:10 a.m.

With this preview, along with later reports, marketers can devise brand and marketing strategies calibrated to match consumers’ preferences in real time. With the added perspective of years of consistently tracked NCDT data, they can also glean shifts and patterns that can sharpen their forward-looking strategies and competitive edge.

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Science + Law = New Breed of Business Challenge

Posted by admin on January 27, 2013   |   No Comments

Business challenges wax and wane – sometimes stiffer, sometimes less tough. They come in many forms and from different sources. After all, they’re part of, well, business.

For coffee, though, there’s a new breed of challenge that’s upping the ante. It’s a hybrid of sorts, kind of a cross between food safety and product liability.

Like most consumables, coffee comes from an agricultural product that must be processed into a safe and wholesome product. The process involves import/export, transportation, cooking, packaging and delivery. Problems can arise in one or more of these areas, and each step attracts government oversight and action in the interest of protecting public safety and health.

Recently, however, steady advances in scientific methods are fueling new legal and regulatory attention and action, giving rise to the new breed of business challenge. Science and law are becoming flip sides of the same regulatory coin, creating new potential liabilities and more complex compliance demands.

This conflation of law and science is putting serious pressures on coffee companies. They are getting sued under California’s Proposition 65 for a previously undetectable substance, acrylamide, which is naturally formed in the cooking process. They are struggling to comply with unfolding new federal regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to prevent foodborne illness, taking them into the weeds of food science and technology. And, with advancing techniques, scientists continue to “chase zero” to find minute molecular structures that happen to spell out still new chemical compounds in many foods.

Law & Science Symposium
It’s a mounting issue that will only get bigger over time. How can industry members prepare? By gaining at least a working knowledge of the science and the law, and how these two otherwise disparate disciplines overlap to challenge business. An MBA alone will no longer go the distance without at least some a little Ph.D. and Esq. blended in.

NCA works hard to keep its members and the entire U.S. coffee industry up to speed and ahead of the curve. That’s why we’re prefacing the 2013 NCA Convention with a special Symposium to help bridge the gap. Coffee at the Crossroads of Science and Law will bring together prominent industry scientists and attorneys to help attendees understand the essentials of science and law for navigating the new challenges.

Coffee at the Crossroads of Science and Law will cover challenges arising from California’s Proposition 65 and its application to acrylamide as well as other heat-formed toxicants already uncovered and still others yet to be detected and regulated. The symposium will also detail the complex new requirements of the Food Safety and Modernization Act, such as recently released draft regulations on hazard assessment and preventive controls that many say go beyond the original statutory mandate. The symposium will also cover how and to what extent health claims run afoul of legal and regulatory dictates.

Coffee at the Crossroads of Science and Law will be held on Thursday, March 21, 2013 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The 2013 NCA Convention carries on from March 21 to 23 also at the Palace. Registration is now open.

Knowledge as Guide
The challenges posed by science-based legal and regulatory action will only increase over time. Scientists will inevitably uncover more heat-formed toxicants and other chemical traces in foods, and public policy will undoubtedly keep pace with laws and regulations to uphold food safety and integrity. For coffee companies and other food manufacturers finding their way around the crisscrossing maze of compliance, knowledge will be their most sure-footed guide.

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The World’s First Online Coffeehouse

Posted by admin on January 18, 2013   |   No Comments

What can’t you do online these days? You can buy new shoes. Pay your bills. Order the week’s groceries. Watch old sitcoms and new movies. Maybe even meet a spouse.

So what about your coffee? While sip-cams would be the stuff of science fiction, soon you will be able to enjoy the coffee experience on your desktop or mobile device.

That’s right. The world’s first Online Coffeehouse will soon be launched by the National Coffee Association. NCA’s new MyVirtualCoffeehouse.com© will be a celebration of the coffee culture, lifestyle and experience within the interactive frame of an online coffeehouse environment.

While the coffee experience revolves around America’s favorite beverage, it’s also much more. Coffee’s a staple not only of our daily diets, but also of our daily lives. It’s a multi-faceted beverage that improves life in many distinct and complementary ways. It fills many roles – cultural icon, conversation starter, social vehicle, taste sensation, healthful food choice, companion to artistic expression, driver of good times, socioeconomic provider, and many others.

MyVirtualCoffeehouse.com©
MyVirtualCoffeehouse.com is designed to capture and celebrate coffee’s multi-faceted contributions to an active, committed, fulfilled and enjoyable life as they echo in the culture and lifestyle that revolves around the beverage. The site will evoke the flavor and experience associated with the coffeehouse setting – the coffee, the company, the environment, the occasion.

Presented in a crisp, compelling writing style, the site will feature the many compelling attributes that make up the overall experience – conversation, shared interests, specially licensed music, coffee-centric quizzes and contests, recipes and recipe contests, steals and deals on coffee-related paraphernalia, cause-related information and discussion, and all types of “coffeeana©” – like blend and flavor favorites, facts and figures on coffee research, coffee history and trivia, brewing techniques and equipment, cultural icons, and much more.

So, next time you stay in to do your shopping, don’t forget to take a break and enjoy your coffee, too. Stay tuned for the grand opening of MyVitrualCoffeehouse.

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Federal Food Agency Tests Waters on FSMA Food Safety Plans

Posted by admin on January 10, 2013   |   No Comments

The wheels of government often grind slowly, but can still deliver a hefty pinch. After a yearlong delay, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft regulations that put significant new responsibilities on manufacturers for ensuring food safety.

Last week, the FDA issued a “proposed rule” to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) provision for “preventive controls,” essentially a series of backstops against potential contamination. Generally speaking, the 680-page document is the regulatory equivalent of an operating manual, spelling out proposed regulations implementing the statutory provision.

FSMA, which became law in January 2012, introduced a requirement that manufacturers of food for consumption in the U.S. develop a formal safety plan to prevent foodborne illness. However, just what compliance would entail is left up to the FDA to craft in accompanying regulations. The law provided for an automatic trigger of the preventive controls provision on July 3, 2012, but without the rules in place, the FDA had adopted temporary “discretionary enforcement” of the provision.

The newly issued proposed rule is now open to a 120-day public comment period. Following receipt and analysis of comments, the FDA will issue a final rule. Thereafter, the Agency says, it would make the preventive controls provision effective after one year. Small business are expected to be given additional time.

NCA will study the proposed rule carefully and consider filing formal comments if appropriate to advocate for the best interests of the U.S. coffee industry. NCA has already filed comments with the FDA on prior FSMA rulemaking proposals.

Preventive Controls
The FSMA preventive controls provision will require domestic or foreign manufacturers of food for sale in the United States to develop a formal plan to prevent foodborne illness. The provision also requires food makers to conduct analyses of reasonably foreseeable hazards, including acts of terrorism, and deploy preventive controls to minimize those risks. The proposed rule also requires food makers to put plans in place for correcting any problems that may spring up.

Preventive controls are one of many new provisions deployed by FSMA to improve U.S. food safety. FSMA itself signaled a fundamental shift in the nation’s approach to creating a safer food supply. Rather than the prior approach of remediation of problems after they arise, FSMA adopts an approach focused on prevention. The statute also emphasizes accountability for domestic and foreign food producers throughout the supply chain.

The first major revamp of federal food safety laws since the 1930s, FSMA grants new powers to the FDA and imposes added responsibilities for food safety throughout the supply chain. Passed by Congress in late 2010, the statute also calls for more frequent inspections of domestic and foreign facilities, re-registration by food companies, presumptive liability that companies that pack, receive or hold foods “knew or should have known” of problem conditions, a reduced threshold for administrative detention of food, and protections for whistleblowers.

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