Safeway ups safety standards

Increased safety measures by Canada Safeway could make it harder for area farmers to get their goods stocked on the store’s shelves.
Effective immediately, Safeway’s suppliers must show proof that their production process meets federal food health and safety standards.
For local producers, that means paying to bring in an inspector–and it could cost a pretty penny.
“I was out in Calgary at [Safeway’s] head office and was talking to their produce men out there,” noted Mark Gerber of Gerber Farms, a long-time Safeway supplier.
“This man . . . I think he said it would cost about $1,500 for each product,” he said, noting he sells at least a dozen different produce items to Safeway in the summer.
“It’s not my cup of tea to do all that,” he said.
Gerber’s main products to Safeway have been eggs and potatoes for the last 35-40 years. Right now, the flow of produce has come to a halt while Gerber waits for his audited approval.
“As far as safety, I don’t think we’d have problems,” he said. “We do mostly organic farming. I always go by the rule–if I don’t like to eat the stuff I grow, I don’t want to sell it.”
John Graham, public affairs co-ordinator for Safeway out of Winnipeg, said this policy is being enforced on a national level what with an “increasing awareness in food safety” across North America.
“One of the reasons we require audited statements now is so we have full disclosure of products,” Graham said. “How it’s grown, processed, and delivered to our facilities.
“If we’re not requiring these audited statements, we’re blindly putting products on the shelf,” he remarked.
A good example of this, Graham said, is when a supplier to a Winnipeg-based store sold Safeway a genetically modified product while telling the store that the product was not genetically modified.
Having audited statements would avoid future situations like this, he said.
“We want to make sure those higher safety standards exist,” he said. “If they’re not able to provide a guarantee to our customers, then we’re no longer doing business [with them] until they’re able to.”
Meanwhile, Gerber has sent some egg cartons away for testing, and he’s contacted some people in Thunder Bay about doing the inspection.
He said it was a bit of shock to have everything come to a stop this way. Still, he doesn’t hold any ill will towards Safeway, especially the people at the store here who are just following national policy.
“We have a good relationship, even with paying,” Gerber said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a big problem.”