Topics covered in this issue--

• It's Time for a Taste of FIBR
• FIBR Graduates 5th HAACP Class!
• Welcome New Members!
• Member Profile: Uncle Darrow's
• Congratulations to Prosy Delacruz and Denise Fairchild
• A Message from San Diego County: A Journey to Excellence
• CDTech Announces 10th Anniversary Celebration!
• LAEDC Proves Invaluable
• LAEDC Supports Attraction of Food Businesses To Lanzit Industrial Site
• Have You Taken the FIBR Survey?
• Join FIBR Today!

It's Time for a Taste of FIBR

Yes!  It’s that time of year again!  Join us for A Taste of FIBR:

WHEN?  WHERE?
Wednesday, October 26th!  *  6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Southern California Gas Company
Energy Resource Center
9240 Firestone Boulevard, Downey, CA 

WHO?
FIBR members who will be exhibiting this year include:  California Chips, El Burrito Mexican Food Products, Red Shell Foods, Felbro Foods, Julia’s Produce, Cabo Chips, Casa Herrera, Dandy Don’s Homemade Ice Cream, Soy Foods of America, Quon Yick Noodle Company, Juanita’s Foods, Pasta Mia, Gaytan Foods, Royal Produce Sales, Flanigan Farms, California Specialty Farms, Global Trade Experts, Money Saver’s Meats, Mochi Ice Cream, Kikka, Uncle Darrow’s, Mamma Bella, LuLu’s Desserts, Tomodachi Sushi, Wing Hing Noodle Company!

MASAAKI HORI NAMED COMMUNITY PARTNER OF THE YEAR!
Also that evening, three awards will be presented.  Masaaki “Mas” Hori has been selected as the FIBR Community Partner of the Year!  Many of you know Mr. Hori as your HACCP Lead Instructor in the Food Safety with FIBR Program, or maybe you know Mas from his days as an inspector with the California Department of Health Services, or you might know his as the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Division Chair for the American Society for Quality.  What ever your relationship with him, you know why FIBR has chosen him as our Community Partner of the Year.  His leadership and unselfish dedication to promoting the safety and quality of food products in Southern California are qualities that could not go unnoticed.  As a member of the FIBR Training Council, Mas has dedicated countless hours to the program’s development and demonstrated great leadership.   Please come and join us as we honor a very special person!

At A Taste of FIBR, we will also be announcing and presenting two additional awards, the FIBR Food Processor of the Year and the FIBR Food Safety Achievement Award.  But, you must be present to see who gets these ones!

RAFFLES!
Of Course, we will be raffling off our famous FIBR Baskets where you can win a basket full of our member’s products!  You could also get raffle tickets for other great prizes that will be given out throughout the evening.

THE FUTURE OF THE FOOD INDUSTRY
Did you know that one of our FIBR members is Dorsey Culinary Arts, a local Los Angeles High School that is educating future food industry professionals?  Dorsey students will be presenting a dish made from FIBR member products!  Also exhibiting are FIBR members, the Los Angeles Local Development Corporation and the Community Development Technologies Center who will have information about their programs that can benefit your company and your employees.

EAT, DRINK AND NETWORK!
There will be lots of yummy things to taste and a great opportunity to network with your fellow food industry Colleagues!  Networking is the number one reason companies choose to join FIBR – Networking gives you power, by sharing information and ideas with people in your industry, you gain knowledge, friendships and possibly business partners! 

Will we see you at A Taste of FIBR?  Where was the last place you were able to taste an ice cream sundae, sushi and chicharones, win a raffle and make business connections all in one evening? 

RSVP TODAY!
You should have received your invitation in the mail.  If you are not on our mailing list, well…you can come anyway!  But, please RSVP ASAP to Yvette Nunez at ynunez@fibr.info or by calling 213/763-2520 x227.  Please tell us your name, company name and how many will be attending.  Everyone is welcome!  See at the 2005 A Taste of FIBR!

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FIBR Graduates 5TH HACCP Class!

On September 20th, FIBR graduated its 5th Food Safety with FIBR Class at Southern California Edison.  Presented by the FIBR Training Council and generously Hosted by Southern California Edison for the 5th year in a row, the 2005 HACCP Class made their HACCP presentations and received their certificates of completion.

Graduating students included: Lizandro Cisneros of California Specialty Farms, Joel Perez of ConAgra Foods, Marwan Wright-Robinson and Carlos Granados of Flanigan Farms, Robert Luis-Mendoza and Erica Namba of Fuji Natural Foods and Vicki Huang of Tawa Supermarkets.

This year’s FIBR Training Council included Lead Trainer Masaaki “Mas” Hori, Prosy Delacruz, John N. Pesce, Melissa Calicchia, Lyndon Ong Yiu and Sri Hortono-Pfuntner.
Guest speakers on graduation day included Ofelia U. Baretto who spoke on the Future of ISO and Joy Joseph who addressed Strategies for Marketing your HACCP Plan.  Thank you to all our FIBR Training Council members who continue to stay dedicated to presenting quality programs for our students.

Look for announcements for our 2006 training schedule which will include the Food Safety With FIBR training presented in Spanish.

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Welcome New Members!

CABO CHIPS
www.cabochips.com

COMERICA BANK
www.comerica.com

THE CORPROATE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
kmehta@tcdg.net

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Member Profile: Uncle Darrow's

Normally we start our member profiles by telling you how someone started their business, what they make, how to reach them.

However, in light of the recent events of Hurricane Katrina, it would be best to start this article telling you about Norwood Clark, the man.  Mr. Clark is a long-standing member of FIBR and owner of Uncle Darrow’s Cajun Creole Eatery in Marina del Rey, California.  When I interviewed Norwood, whom I’ve known for years, he wasn’t focused on promoting his business, he was more interested in telling me about his efforts related to Hurricane Katrina.  When the tragedy first hit, Norwood and a number of other FIBR members stepped up to the plate to do what they could for the Hurricane Victims*.

In the midst of worrying and locating lost family members, Mr. Clark began an effort to collect supplies and support to hit the streets of New Orleans.  With 90 tons of supplies, over 7 days, 12 men, lead by Mr. Clark, arrived in the Hurricane devastated area to help from the ground up.  Norwood shared stories of torn and lost families and had tears in his eyes from his experience.  “We've had hurricanes before, but no one ever expected anything like this”.  After the Hurricane, lots of media came to Norwood for quotes and stories, he was in the Los Angeles Times, the Fresno Bee, the Channel 5 news, CNN – but he was only concerned in getting the message out to help the victims.  Even as we interviewed, his mind was spinning the idea of a benefit jazz concert, something the community was asking for – because he had spearheaded other benefit concerts before.  Where could he hold it that was big enough?  Norwood also shared ideas about galvanizing communities and finding ways to fund on-going assistance to the “invisible” citizens who might not get enough help.

His passionate connection to his roots can also be seen in his business.  We met before lunchtime so that we would not be disturbed by the customers who started pouring in as I was leaving.  So, you might be asking yourself, why is a restaurant owner a member of FIBR?  As the story goes, in 1988, Norwood started manufacturing and selling Cajun style candies to Nordstroms and duty-free airport shops.  Uncle Darrow’s also supplied Starbucks with fresh pastries for four years.  But as business environments changed, so did Uncle Darrow’s.  Looking to expand business, Norwood opened and operated his first retail establishment for 8 years on Venice Boulevard.  Due to circumstances beyond his control, Mr. Clark was forced to relocate.  He opened his current establishment in Marina del Rey in December, 1999.  And the food is great!  The best testament is that Uncle Darrow’s has been named the “Best of” Cajun/Creole for the past 5 years!

Norwood says the most valuable part of being a FIBR member is the “access to knowledge and resources FIBR provides”.  “My first love is manufacturing and I hope to get back into it someday” and that is why a restaurant owner is a member of FIBR.  He was manufacturing when he first joined and stays involved because he continues to learn more about the thing he likes to do best.

Uncle Darrow’s is located at 2560 South Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey at the northeast corner of Washington and Lincoln Boulevards.  The phone number is 310/306-4862.  Opened for lunch and dinner on the weekdays and on the weekends you can also get a great southern breakfast.  To see menu’s and to get more information, visit their website at www.uncledarrows.com

FIBR would like to acknowledge and praise the efforts of so many during the Hurricane Katrina Disaster. 

Many thanks to:

• Norwood Clark of Uncle Darrow’s
• Ozabe Banks of Money Saver’s Meats
• Henry Leong of Quon Yick Noodle Co.
• Horacio Bellofiore of California Specialty Farms
• Grace Low of Harvest International 2000
• Maria de Lourdes Sobrino of LuLu’s Desserts
• Mark Roth of El Burrito Mexican Foods

Everyone listed here dedicated time, money and food to help the Hurricane Victims.  These are only the ones we know of – knowing our FIBR Family, we are assured many reached out to help those in need.  Again, a million thanks.

Congratulations to Prosy Delacruz and Denise Fairchild

FIBR is excited to announce that two of its members, Prosy Abarquez Delacruz and Denise Fairchild have received appointments in City of Los Angeles’ Mayor Villaraigosa’s Administration.

Ms. Delacruz, a retired public heath – law enforcement professional for the California Department of Health Services, Food and Drug Branch, co-founder of the Food Safety With FIBR program and FIBR Board member was appointed to serve on the Civil Service Commission.

Denise Fairchild, President of the Community Development Technologies Center has been appointed Senior Advisor for South Los Angeles Investment Initiatives.  Ms. Fairchild will spearhead investment initiatives to create a comprehensive approach to bring public and private investment to South Los Angeles with the aim of creating quality jobs and improving the quality of like in the area.

Again Congratulation!  FIBR is proud of your accomplishments!

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A message from San Diego County: Journey to Excellence

San Diego County Department of Environmental Health
Food and Housing Division
A Journey to Excellence

What do a vision, an iron will, a fierce determination and a velvet glove all have in common?  They all arrived in San Diego County in 2001 and each of them was to play a major role in transforming the food inspection program of The Department of Environmental Health (DEH) into a nationwide leader in the field.   Our commitment is enveloped in our vision statement, “Public and Environmental Health through leadership, partnership and science.” The goal of bringing the Samuel J. Crumbine Award to San Diego in three years became our mantra.  And so our journey to excellence began. 

San Diego County had several very positive components already in place, notably a talented and dedicated staff, a stable funding source and a program that had long ago established a food-handler education procedure and numeric grading system for food facilities.  Like so many other tired food safety programs, San Diego’s Food and Housing Division (FHD) had become entrenched in an archaic and adversarial inspection methodology that focused on violations rather than correcting behaviors and practices that contribute to foodborne illness.

The regulated community saw FHD inspectors as adversaries rather than partners in preventing foodborne illness.  This was basis for changing our approach to inspecting to a risk factor and intervention-based system.  FHD’s primary focus is now to reduce foodborne illness.  The food facility inspection program shifts inspectors’ efforts to controlling the risk factors identified by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as the most prevalent contributing factors to foodborne illness or injury.

The TEAM Excellence Performance Measures System
The Food and Housing Division strengthened our food safety program through the development and implementation of a model “TEAM Excellence Performance Measures System” and retooled our inspection methods with input and support from the industry we regulate.  There are four main principles of our TEAM Excellence program:  assessing risk, communicating risk, managing risk and verifying the quality of service.  This innovation has improved the over-all effectiveness of the food safety program.  FHD has a strong partnership with our stakeholders; active managerial control programs that include risk control plans for operators; strong educational programs and outreach to operators and educational institutions to help us to cause long-lasting employee behavior changes.  For this model program the San Diego County Food and Housing Division achieved our goal when we were awarded the prestigious Samuel J. Crumbine Award for excellence in food protection this year.

The Center for Disease Control has identified five risk factors that are commonly identified as the causes of a foodborne illness.  These risk factors include food from an unsafe source, improper holding temperatures, inadequate cooking, contaminated equipment and poor personal hygiene of foodhandlers.   An intervention is an action or behavior that minimizes the risk factors.  They include a demonstration of knowledge, employee health controls, controlling hands as a vehicle for contamination and time and temperature parameters to control the growth of pathogens.  The Food and Housing Division recognized that we could do very little to prevent contamination of food in a retail facility if the wholesale operation that supplies the retailer has no control of the risk factors within their facilities.  In 2003, FHD developed an inspection program for wholesale food warehouses.  As with all of FHD’s other programs, the inspection emphasis is on the risk factors and public health interventions to minimize them. 

FHD believes that using positive reinforcement during an inspection may help increase the occurrences of positive actions and behaviors on the part of the foodhandlers.  Numerous studies have shown that the use of positive reinforcement promotes long-term positive change in human behavior.  For this reason, the inspection form is structured to document when an establishment is in compliance with items related to the risk factors and interventions.  An example of positive reinforcement is the use of a chart where temperatures can be recorded.  Temperatures that are both in compliance and out of compliance are recorded.  The inspectors are acknowledging the good along with the bad.  By identifying and recognizing the positive behaviors and actions in a food establishment, employees are likely to continue these behaviors.  This shifts the inspections focus to compliance rather than only identifying violations as was the past practice of most inspection programs.

While recognizing positive behavior is important, it is still necessary to identify and change negative behavior that can lead to foodborne illness.  It is essential that the inspector check the source of food throughout the warehouse.  When a facility cannot provide documentation of the source of a pallet of food, then the inspector must reinforce this practice as unsafe.  It is crucial that the inspector work with the person in charge to ensure that changes are made so that critical items are in compliance when standard procedures are used.

A Unique Voluntary Grading System
One unique feature of the wholesale food warehouse inspection program is a voluntary grading system.  A wholesale food warehouse may request to be graded during an inspection.  The warehouse is given a letter grade card to display reflecting the facility’s commitment to food safety training and the enactment of a risk control plan to keep food safe.  A risk control plan helps the operator to identify and mitigate food safety and security risks.  It also helps operators to quickly and efficiently respond to recall, should that become necessary. 

The first wholesale food warehouse to be graded in San Diego County received an “A” in June of 2005.  The operator of the facility developed an extensive risk control plan and recall procedures that will be a model in the event of an emergency.  His plan included procedures for controlling temperatures; verifying approved sources; food storage procedures; receiving, transportation and delivery procedures; food security procedures; employee training procedures; sanitation operating procedures; pest/vermin control procedures; documentation and recordkeeping procedures and most importantly, a recall plan.  This historic event was witnessed by television cameras and the operator reports that his sales have increased due to the grade card that is now part of his advertising.

In San Diego, the Food and Housing Division’s  journey to excellence did not end with the Samuel J. Crumbine Award, it has only just begun.  Our challenge now is to apply all of the TEAM Excellence principles to all of our environmental programs which include public swimming pools, housing, and body art facilities.  If the inspector’s time in a facility is focused on identifying and reducing risk factors and in improving the interventions that minimize them then we should see a reduction of the dangerous behaviors and actions within the facility.    With a reduction in risk factors and an improvement in interventions, we expect to see long-term behavior changes that enhance the quality of life by promoting public health and safety for the three million residents of the County, as well as the nearly 15 million visitors that visit “America’s finest city” each year.

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CDTech Announces 10th Anniversary Celebration!

The Community Development Technologies Center (CDTech) announced it will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary November 11-12, 2005.

CDTech will present:  Creating Communities that Work: Working Capital, Working Democracy and Working Families.  The program and reception are scheduled to begin  on Friday, November 11th at the Skyline Room at the SBC Tower in Los Angeles.  Awards, presentations and dialogue with Storm Cunningham, Author and Futurist on Creating a Restoration Economy will run from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m., which will be followed by a reception from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.

The anniversary celebration will continue on Saturday, November 12th from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with a Community Treasure Hunt!  Teams of corporate, community and youth representatives will compete for Cash Prizes and Awards in a Community Treasure Hunt focused on three Los Angeles Neighborhoods.

For more information or to RSVP for this event, please call 213/763-2520, extension “0” or visit their website at www.cdtech.org

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LAEDC Proves Invaluable

LAEDC PROVES INVALUABLE RESOURCE TO LA AREA BUSINESSES
BUSINESS ASSISTANCE TEAM OFFERS FREE SERVICES

For companies throughout Southern California with an interest in expanding their businesses to Los Angeles and for businesses in Los Angeles County seeking assistance to grow (and add employees), the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) can prove to be an invaluable resource, and partner, for your business.  And if, for some reason, you’re thinking about defecting from the LA region, the LAEDC is able to work with you to identify possible solutions before you make such a move.

Formed in 1981, the LAEDC has become the premier region-wide business and economic development organization serving the business community throughout LA County.  Its mission is simple – to attract, expand, and retain businesses throughout LA County and support private sector job growth throughout the region.  Since the business assistance program was started in 1996, the LAEDC can proudly say that it has worked with hundreds of companies, large and small, and its efforts have supported the attraction or retention of over 100,000 jobs, having hit that milestone in April 2005.  Those jobs, in turn, had a huge impact on economic activity, mainly due to salaries, and generated over $65 million in annual tax revenue to LA County.

The LAEDC has various departments, offering services that can be of value to area companies seeking to grow their business.  Most widely known is the Economic Research and Information, led by its Chief Economist, Jack Kyser.  Known as the “guru” of the LA area economy, Kyser and his economics team produces a wide range of reports and compiles data that any business doing its due diligence should know.  All reports are available at no cost on the organizations website at http://www.laedc.info.

Economic Consulting is another strong area for the LAEDC.  This team provides “for fee” economic impact analysis and consulting services for a wide range of public and private clients, including some of the areas large railroad companies involved in goods movement such as BNSF and Union Pacific.

The Business Development and Assistance team, headed by Vice President Greg Whitney, however, continues to operate the core mission of the LAEDC---working with companies in an effort to attract and keep jobs in the LA area. With a team of 10, including 7 regional managers covering the entire County of Los Angeles, the LAEDC seeks to identify companies not currently in the County and help facilitate their identification of the best community for them to establish a presence and to work with the local municipality to streamline permitting and other governmental processes so that business can get started.

Key services offered by the LAEDC business assistance staff includes:  site location; identification of incentives that may be available; facilitation of introductions to local regulators and officials so you can fast track your business needs; identifying local and state programs that your business can take advantage of; workforce identification and training; identification of nontraditional financing programs; and labor market information.

As a private, not-for-profit corporation, the LAEDC is funded by businesses throughout the region that care about growing the regional economy.  As a result, the organization is here to service and support the business community here in LA.  Given the size and growth and importance of the food sector to the LA area economy, the LAEDC looks forward to establishing even closer working relationships with FIBR and its individual member companies.

For more information about the LAEDC, please visit our website at http://www.laedc.org and if your company has a specific issue or concern, please contact Dwayne Gathers, Regional Manager, who covers the LA Metro area (Downtown and East side) as well as South LA.  If your business isn’t located in these areas, Dwayne will be happy to forward the information on to the appropriate regional manager.  He can be reached at dgathers@laedc.org or 213-680-1888.

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LAEDC Supports Attraction of Food Businesses To Lanzit Industrial Site

The Administration of new LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hopes to fast track the final development of the Lanzit Industrial site (1.1 MB PDF), located in South LA. As a result, the City of LA will see the first major new industrial development in a very long time. The Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation strongly supports this new development and seeks to promote the Lanzit site to companies seeking to establish a presence and be closer to this huge market. In addition, the LAEDC wants to find those food industry companies that require space for expansion.

The Lanzit site, located roughly at 111th Street and Lanzit Avenues, in South LA, is a unique 9 acre site that will become a Master Planned Development, offering build to suit opportunities up to 80,000 sf in a secured, gated, environment. The site is located just north of the 105 freeway, is situated within both the state enterprise zone and federal empowerment zone (offering numerous incentives to manufacturers) and will have ample parking.

For more information on the Lanzit project, and to discuss your company's site location needs, please contact Dwayne Gathers, LAEDC Regional Manager, at 213-680-1888 or dgathers@laedc.org.

Click here to view the Lanzit Industrial site (1.1MB PDF).

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Have You Taken the FIBR Survey?

FIBR has been conducting an on-line survey focused on international trade.  Do you import raw materials for your processing?  Are you interested in exporting your product?  These are some of the short questions that are part of the survey.

Please take a moment to answer the survey.  The information you provide with help with research about the benefits of Free Trade Zones, to identify potential group purchasing opportunities and give us some insight into future international trade programs for our members.

Every response helps us serve you better, click here to take the survey.

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Join FIBR Today!

New business opportunities like the ones described above are just some of the benefits of membership. The FIBR Sampler will profile member companies and individuals to help you grow your business. For more information about membership, contact Yvette Nunez at ynunez@fibr.info.

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