Monthly Archives

April 2017

The Secret of Quality. Something to learn from a small company.

By | Agrofood | No Comments

D a ragazzo ho lavorato in campagna con mio fratello e mio padre. Conosco quindi la fatica di chi lavora in piccole realtà dell’agroalimentare, ma ne conosco anche i piccoli piaceri. Uno di questi è sempre stato fare una chiacchierata con Daniele Carbini. Spesso con argomenti impegnativi. Lui, dopo una decina d’anni di brillante lavoro nel settore dell’informativa, laureato in filosofia, è tornato a casa, a Tempio Pausania (Sardegna) per impegnarsi nelle attività del Molino di famiglia.Ci univa la passione per il filosofo Nietzsche e tanti sacchi di crusca e farinetta da caricare.

Purtroppo, a causa del mio lavoro, non passo molto tempo in Sardegna, ma ho avuto l’occasione di osservare il contributo organizzativo e strutturale (non l’unico) dato da Daniele al Molino dove lavora.

Lo porto ad esempio, e condivido con il lettore questo ragionamento, perché penso che qualsiasi Manager, Imprenditore o chi ha a che fare con l’agroalimentare, può trarne vantaggio.

Il Molino Carbini non è certificato: non aderisce a nessun standard in particolare. Il suo Mercato non glielo richiede. Tuttavia ha creato un proprio sistema qualità, non partendo dall’adesione ad una serie di requisiti e richieste, ma dalla vera base fondamentale di un sistema qualità moderno ed efficiente: il modello di business e la proposta di valore.

In questo modo il Molino Carbini, non solo propone qualcosa di nuovo e ben definito: semolati di grano duro provenienti solo ed esclusivamente da frumento sardo; ma vista la natura “di alta qualità”, sta trainando il comparto verso nuovi livelli di efficenza e qualità. Quella vera. Ripudiando l’assurdo concetto che prodotto tradizionale equivalga a prodotto di Qualità, si impegna, in relazione alla relativa forza economica, a fare innovazione, ricerca, irrobustire la filiera e creare delle ottime farine che rendano degli ottimi prodotti da forno. Ma non tanto per dire o per fare quello che maldestramente viene definito “marketing”. Si impegna a creare un mercato per sé, per i propri clienti e fornitori. Fare Marketing con la Qualità e di qualità, nella sua accezione genuina ed originale, significa creare Mercato: per il tuo cliente, per il tuo fornitore e di conseguenza per te.

Il Sistema di Qualità del Molino Carbini ci insegna che il fine di un SQ non è la Check-List della norma a cui aderire. Ci dimostra che il faro guida deve essere il tuo Modello di Business e ciò che vuoi proporre al tuo Mercato. Ci insegna che tenendo sotto controllo i corretti parametri, misurati oggettivamente, la crescita della Qualità del processo e prodotto è garantita.

Il Modello di Business di tipo B2B e B2C del Molino Carbini ci insegna che se non cerchi di rafforzare la tua filiera, di creare mercato anche per il tuo cliente e per il tuo fornitore, prima o poi corroderai la ricchezza di quel mercato. Se crei ricchezza per il tuo cliente, lui non ti abbandonerà mai.

La Proposta di Valore del Molino Carbini (solo prodotto sardo..di eccellenza) ci insegna che diversificare e distinguersi è il primo passo e che fare della comunicazione ingannevole non paga nel lungo periodo e che dietro alla comunicazione deve esserci serietà, innovazione e cultura. Promettere ciò che puoi mantenere vale soprattutto nel mondo degli affari.

Come hanno fatto tutto questo? Nell’intervista ce lo spiega proprio Daniele Carbini: il “Filosofo Mugnaio”, come è stato definito dallo scrittore Francesco Abate. Io la chiamo Qualità Strategica

What is the resilience in the agri-food sector?

By | Food Safety | One Comment
What is the resilience in the agri-food sector?
T

his article is about the Resilience concept and the fresh vegetable business.

Resilience is in vogue at the moment as a conceptual frame for the development community. There are lots of new initiatives and new projects designed to improve resilience—mostly in the context of the recent and ongoing food crises in the Horn of Africa and the Sahelian region.

Resilience has many sense:

“the power or ability of a System to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched”; this is a generic definition.

What this the relation between the Resilience and the Food Safety System in the fresh food business?

Industrialized agriculture increasingly emulates the production, processing, and distribution characteristics of large-scale manufacturing. Agriculture has become more uniform and mechanized, while post-harvest processing offers more ‘‘value added’’ and packaged goods. We are packing everything: Lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, etc.

In this way the Food Industry wants to increase the illusion of control over the agrifood system propagandizing their imagine..like..”we have everything under control”. Food companies need consumers to believe that their products are safe. When outbreaks occur, the companies often deny responsibility place blame on others, and resist changes in their production or processing procedures. This seems to be the agrifood resilience: do not understand the need to change to avoid the same problem.

Outbreaks of food-borne illness from fresh produce are significantly more prevalent in recent decades. This could be related to four factors, as reported by University of Arizona

  • 1) changes in farming or processing practices
  • 2) the overall increase in consumption of raw fruits and vegetables or minimally processed
  • 3) the increase in trade and international distribution
  • 4) the increase in immunosuppressed consumers.

In addition, the general lack of efficacy of disinfectants in the elimination of pathogens in raw fruits and vegetables has been attributed, in part, to their difficulty in penetrating the leaf surface and the foliar tissue that may harbour pathogens.

When firms are found at fault, in the Food Safety System, or in the disinfectant inefficiency as well they often advertise new technological fixes, increasing the complexity of the production system as well as its reliance on synthetic substances and controversial measures (e.g. irradiation).

It is unclear if those technologies increase actually the food safety but industry may succeed in temporarily perpetuating the image that food is now safer.

A clear example of resilience has been the outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 from raw ‘ready to eat’ bagged spinach during autumn 2006.

This incident resulted in over 200 illnesses and at least three deaths in 26 US states and Canada.

In this case, the leafy greens industry was unable to control a strain of bacteria that spread though the pre-packaged salad production system

In an attempt to regain control, or the appearance of control the industry is actively fighting back against nature in an attempt to sterilize production sites, segregating the open field with net and fencing, controlling the wildlife activity exploring possible vaccines for humans and for cattle to treat E. coli O157:H7. Many of these control- measures do not seem to make sense.

One day I will make a video on this topic:”The craziest control measures” (as title).

Well, what have been the results of these measures?

In the 2011 a food borne infection of E. coli caused about 50 deaths in Germany and France, 3000 infected people and millionaire losses in the agricultural sector.

And without having a clear explanation of the cause.

First were the Spanish cucumbers, then the German soya, then the Egyptian seeds. In 2016, last year, the same toxiinfection caused 2 deaths and 151 people in UK affected by E. coli. Resilience? Yep! I return to the definition..

The power or ability of a System to return to the original form, position, after being bent, compressed, or stretched.

Dictionary by Googling

3 consequences about the Maximum Residue Levels after Brexit.

By | Agronomy, Food for thought, Food Safety | No Comments

T he departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, will impact the agriculture of all European horticultural companies and in particular the export of the Mediterranean Countries.You can hear several rumours about what will happen, some of these with a catastrophic perspective.

On the other hand, we need to don’t think that everything will remain the same. There will be changes and I will tell you the two scenarios that could occur and the three consequences from the point of view of the relationship between the  Food Safety and the fruit and vegetable market, especially with regard to maximum residue levels of the pesticides.

Hypothesis #1. Probably the trade relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union will follow the same course of the countries as Iceland and Norway: outside the Union, but with a foot within the European economic area.

Therefore, majorities of European laws and regulations will remain unchanged and the UK will continue to respect the same European standards like today.

The second hypothesis is that the United Kingdom will completely withdraw from the European market so that it can be supplied by other world markets, such as the United States, North Africa and developing countries.

Both scenarios are a bit extremes. It is true that the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU does not imply that the exports are terminated, but that they will be carried out under different conditions.

The most evident consequence is the fall in the price of the pound against the euro.

From a technical point of view we can speculate that one of the most important changes will be the relationship between EFSA, European Food Safety Authority, and the UK. EFSA’s main objective is to provide scientific methods for alerting and detecting all problems affecting food safety. EFSA, for example, establishes the residue limits of plant protection products. Currently in force is the Regulation 396/2005 on maximum residue levels of pesticides in or on food and feed of plant and animal origin.

Accordingly, in the interest of free movement of goods, equal competition conditions among the Member States, as well as a high level of consumer protection, it has been considered appropriate that maximum residue levels (MRLs) for products of plant and animal origin be set at Community level, taking into account good agricultural practice.

These maximum residue limits (MRLs), which are set by the European Commission, include:

Specific MRLs for certain foodstuffs intended for humans or animals and an overall limit applicable where no MRLs have been established (a ‘default limit’ of 0,01 mg / kg).

 

What will happen after Brexit?

Hypothesis # 1: Britain will continue to collaborate with the EU and EFSA on common food safety issues. This also involves collaboration from a financial point of view. In this case, nothing change. .

Hypothesis #2: The United Kingdom does not collaborate with Europe on this issue, using the proper Food Safety Agency (FSA). This is quite likely. Of course, there are things the British want to change: not surprisingly, there was a clear desire to move from Hazard-based regulation to a Risk-based approach, strongly science-based and proportionate, whilst maintaining or improving current human and environmental safety standards and taking account of socio-economic benefits.

Hypothesis #3. United Kingdom is homologated to the United States. The British wants to stop unnecessary expiry of authorisations and routine reviews and introduce a US EPA-style data ‘call in’ system. They  should simplify or remove efficacy requirements, and onerous assessments for minor uses and low risk products including bio-pesticides – and have an emergency approvals/essential uses system for unforeseen problems, that we do not have in Europe now.

What will happen on the subject of MRLs could also change the viewpoint of Europeans and bring the European Union closer to the American market

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The Agronomy Field Walking will be assisted by the radar

By | Food for thought, Sin categoría | No Comments

This is an interview to Alessio Cantone, an international expert about radar application in agricolture. It seems that we should not wait for the future to have the technology that can help farmers and agronomists in the field walking: the monitoring operation to control the crop health . The radar technology is able to produce a specific risk maps so that you can also monitor the production into the greenhouses or tunnels.