It’s good to have friends in high places, and with the appointment of Jim Gorny as a Food and Drug Administration adviser, fresh produce interests can rest assured their needs and concerns will not go unheard in Washington, D.C.
Gorny, executive director of the Postharvest Technology Research and Information Center at the University of California-Davis (and whose resume also boasts time spent at the United Fresh Produce Association and the International Fresh-cut Produce Association), will function as a liaison to the produce industry.
His appointment isn’t the only welcome news for the produce industry:
- Jenny Scott, of the Washington, D.C.-based Grocery Manufacturers Association, will also join FDA in early August.
- Kathy Gombas, formerly of Dean Foods and a prior stint at FDA (as well as wife United Fresh senior vice president of food safety and technology David Gombas), also has signed on with the agency.
All three will serve as senior advisers in the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Office of Food Safety.
These informed voices for fruit and vegetable interests should help ensure that if and when an outbreak like last summer’s Salmonella Saintpaul crisis hits, the FDA’s response and handling of the event will be more timely and well considered regarding public health and safety as well as the industry’s public image and financial realities.
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