Milling & Baking News - November 6, 2018 - 33

Industry Activities

where the members are not just willing to attend, but eager to participate
in the activities and endeavors of the
association, whether it means giving
of their own time or the resources

of their companies," he said.
After the 2018 annual meeting of the
Home Bakers Association in Minneapolis, Mr. Harper took advantage of the
trip to call upon representatives of other

McCarthy sees food safety to new
heights in importance to milling

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ensure cross contamination between
wheat and allergens does not occur
in rail transportation," he said.
NAMA in June joined representatives from the N.G.F.A., the American Bakers Association, the National
Oilseed Processors Association and
the Pet Food Institute in forming an
industry working group to develop
best practices for sanitary clean-out
of rail cars/tankers and trucks. Four
NAMA member companies are represented on the working group.
Also emblematic of the importance
of food safety to the group, NAMA

SOSLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY

SEA ISLAND, GA. - Food safety issues held center stage over the past
year at the North American Millers'
Association in a fundamental shift
from how the topic has been considered the issue in the past, said
James A. McCarthy, president and
chief executive officer. When he first
joined NAMA in 2013, Mr. McCarthy
thought food safety as an agenda
item would be limited principally
to compliance with the Food Safety
Modernization Act.
"It's a low-moisture product - I
didn't expect we would have recalls," Mr. McCarthy said. "The first
recall in 2016 was an allergen recall,
peanut and wheat. The second recall
was for a pathogen. That has really
changed our focus."
Mr. McCarthy spoke with Milling
& Baking News Oct. 20 during the
NAMA annual meeting at The Cloisters, Sea Island.
"NAMA is really doing education
on food safety, going out, educating fellow associations like the Food
Marketing Institute, the Grocery
Manufacturers Association, the National Restaurant Association, making organizations aware you need
to employ safe food handling techniques with flour," he said.
He said in the aftermath of the
2016 recalls, particularly the contamination of family flour with E. coli,
a technological breakthrough that
would make flour safer remains an
industry aspiration.
"But if there will be a zero tolerance, that will be very difficult to
achieve," he said. "Our education
is on not eating raw flour, cookie
dough or cake batter."
NAMA has urged millers to print
food safety information on bags of
family flour, instructing consumers
that flour contains a raw commodity
and should be treated as such.
The contamination of flour with
trace amounts of peanuts is being
treated more as a supply chain issue,
Mr. McCarthy said.
"We are working with the National Grain and Feed Association to

James A. McCarthy

has established food safety and nutrition subcommittees beneath the
Technical and Regulatory Committee. A full-day meeting dedicated to
issues related to glyphosate has been
scheduled.
The glyphosate issue grew in importance in the summer of 2017
when the compound was added to
the Proposition 65 list of California,
requiring labeling warnings to be issued for compounds that are believed
to be carcinogenic. The carcinogenicity of glyphosate is a matter of considerable disagreement within the
scientific community. Concerns about

NAMA members in the Twin Cities.
"I have been out to visit fellow
members when I've been in their
neighborhood, and I plan to continue
that," he said. MBN
glyphosate residue in the wheat supply (the chemical is sometimes used
as a pre-harvest desiccant for wheat)
were heightened when a jury awarded $289 million to a plaintiff who said
the chemical caused his cancer (the
award was later reduced).
Also new at NAMA is a supply
chain committee.
"When I started five years ago,
there were problems getting grain
to mills by rail," Mr. McCarthy said.
"With the supply chain committee, a
new standing committee of the association, we are bringing in members
with expertise in rail and trucking.
Trucking costs have gone through
the roof. We are trying to gather support on the hill to allow for more
opportunities for young drivers to
learn the ropes and get on the road.
We think that might be part of the solution. We will work in Washington
on the issue in coalitions."
Mr. McCarthy said NAMA had
been deeply concerned by the possibility that NAFTA negotiations over
the course of the summer would fail,
leading to a cancellation of the agreement. Within the group, the greatest
potential damage would have come
to oat millers, he said, noting the vast
majority of oats milled in the United
States are imported from Canada.
A trade war between the countries
could have adversely affected the
pricing and availability of Canadian
oats, Mr. McCarthy said.
Smaller, but also of concern, were
flows of flour, in both directions, between the two countries.
Looking back over the past year,
Mr. McCarthy took particular pride
in the continued progress the organization has made toward building its
influence in Washington regarding
policy matters.
Examples he cited from the past
year and earlier included active comment writing for the Food Safety Modernization Act; lobbying for improved
transportation resources, including an
adequate rail fleet; and, more recently,
policies that encourage young people
to consider careers as truckers; making the case that food aid should be in
the form of in-kind versus cash grants;
and fighting efforts that would have
changed the definition of oat fiber in
Milling & Baking News

November 6, 2018 / 33

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Milling & Baking News - November 6, 2018

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