US food retailer Costco is requiring all suppliers to test their fresh produce for the six main E.coli strains to ensure food safety for shoppers.
However, major retailers Wal-Mart and Supervalu are not demanding the tests, instead relying on Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certifications and good agricultural practices requirements.
Costco’s vice-president of quality assurance and food safety, Craig Wilson, said the mandatory testing procedure was introduced “a couple of months ago”, according to a report by The Packer.
But Wilson added that the requirement was expanded “in the past two or three weeks” to include the rare strain O104:H4 which affected over 3,900 people in Europe.
“The tests don’t make the food safer, but they do tell us if the vendors’ food safety programs are working,” Wilson explained.
Despite the move by Costco, the report said that many large suppliers are already conducting the tests, including Earthbound Farm and Ready Pac Foods who supply produce to Costco.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart and Supervalu –two of the largest food retailers in the US – are not demanding finished product testing by their suppliers.
“Although testing is an important part of our program, we also understand the limitations of testing as a prevention strategy. No sampling can prevent, nor ensure, the absence of pathogens in produce,” Wal-Mart’s vice-president of food safety Frank Yiannis, told The Packer.
“That’s why Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club … require our produce suppliers to achieve prevention-based certification using one of the GFSI internationally recognised food safety standards.”
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