Industry News

Washington Recycled Plastic Content Rulemaking

Washington’s new plastics law requires producers of products sold in Washington to have a minimum amount of recycled material in their containers. With respect to food processors, this applies to all beverages for human consumption, except infant formula. Brand owners must register with Ecology by May 18. On April 14, Ecology held the first of four Rule Advisory Committee meetings to provide input on its draft rule WAC-173-925Chris Cary, Sustainability & Environmental Manager at Tree Top, serves on the Committee. Food Northwest’s Sustainability Committee and staff will participate in the rulemaking process. For more information see the PCR rule website.

 

New USDA Bioengineered Food Disclosure Rules

As of January 1, certain food manufacturers and others are required to disclose the presence of bioengineered food or ingredients on products labeled for retail sale in the U.S.-- National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard. USDA has a “List of Bioengineered Foods” but even if the food or ingredient is not on the list, if the manufacturer has knowledge that it is bioengineered it must be disclosed.

Manufacturers are exempt if (a) annual receipts are less than $2,500,000; the product does not intentionally contain a bioengineered substance or has unavoidable presence of up to 5% for each ingredient; or the food is certified under the National Organic Program.

USDA cannot issue a recall or impose penalties for noncompliance, but it can investigate and publish its findings. However, manufacturer who fail to comply can be subject to false advertising lawsuits by consumers or unfair competition suits by competitors. For more information see Litigation Minute: New Bioengineered Food Disclosure Rules and Litigation Risks, National Law Review

 

Simplot Acquires Ontario Ore-Ida Plant

The Kraft Heinz Company and Simplot Food Group, a division of the J.R. Simplot Company, announced today that the two companies have signed a long-term agreement naming Simplot as the exclusive manufacturer and supplier of Ore-Ida. Kraft Heinz will continue to own the Ore-Ida brand. Read the full article from Business Wire here…

 

Addressing Potential Cyber Security Risk

The latest developments in Ukraine have highlighted the need to stay on top of your organizations cyber security. In an effort to best reduce your organizations risk, we have compiled documents with helpful information and links from the Oregon Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Homeland Security below:

Department of Homeland Security

Oregon Department of Emergency Management 

 

Implementing the CDC Revised COVID-19 Isolation, Quarantine and Testing Protocol

The CDC made significant revisions to it’s COVID-19 isolation protocol in December. Since then many employers have struggled to understand the new protocol and how to implement it in their production facilities. To help you understand that process, a member of Food Northwest has shared the following information on how they have implemented the new protocol. They have agreed to allow us to share this with the membership with the hope that it helps you evaluate your own company guidance.

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After a thorough review of the most recent CDC recommendations, we have made a decision to update our COVID-19 Isolation, Quarantine & Testing Protocols to reflect the latest CDC guidance, effective immediately.

Notable updates to our protocols include:

  • A shortening of isolation from 10 days to five days (from the positive test) for positive COVID cases, so employees may return to work after five days as long as they no longer have any symptoms.
  • When it comes to quarantining individuals exposed to someone who has been infected with COVID:
    • Fully vaccinated employees who have also received their booster shot (if it has been the right amount of time) can now continue working masked if they are identified in contact tracing with an exposure, as long as the fully vaccinated and boosted employee remains symptom-free.
    • Unvaccinated employees and vaccinated employees who received their last dose of J&J more than two months ago or Pfizer/Moderna more than six months ago and have not yet received a booster shot, will still need to quarantine and test after five days if they are still symptom-free.
  • Any employee (vaccinated or unvaccinated) who is identified in our contact tracing as having been exposed to a positive case will be required to get tested on or around day five after their exposure.

Please be assured that, even though we are reducing our required quarantine timeline to be in line with current CDC guidelines, we will continue to closely monitor each individual employee case to help ensure that employees do not return to work while still sick. Additionally, all of our existing protocols remain in place for mask wearing, social distancing, sanitation/hygiene and daily temperature checks and symptom screening for those working in our facilities in person.

We strongly encourage all employees to get vaccinated and boosted. Boosters are now recommended for all fully vaccinated people age 12+ as the best defense to help protect you, your co-workers and your community from serious illness as a result of the COVID virus.

 

 
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