Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/110595
SPECIALTY FOOD NEWS THE NEWS UPDATE FOR SPECIALTY FOOD PROFESSIONALS ® BY ROBYN PFORR RYAN A look at industry happenings, store and restaurant openings, legislative and regulatory updates and more Owner of Baldor Specialty Foods Passes Kevin Murphy, owner and CEO of Baldor Specialty Foods, died on January 31 at age 58. Murphy's food career started at Balducci's in New York's Greenwich Village in the 1980s when he married Ria Balducci, daughter of owner Andrew Balducci. He was trained in every department, learning the food business from the ground up. He expanded and eventually took over Balducci's small wholesale division, called Baldor, in 1991. Murphy moved his new company to a tiny warehouse in Queens, N.Y., and ran the operation with one van and a couple of delivery trucks. He grew Baldor over the years, moving to larger facilities in Queens, then the Bronx. Today Baldor has branches in Boston and outside of Washington, D.C., delivering throughout most of New England, all of the tri-state area and the mid-Atlantic region. Today, Baldor employs more than 800 employees and operates a fleet of more than 200 delivery trucks. FINE DINING COMES TO TORONTO PEARSON AIRPORT Local chefs have begun to take over the culinary landscape at Toronto's largest airport, with the opening of celebrity chef Massimo Capra's near-fine-dining, freshfood restaurant, Boccone, in Terminal 1. In an ongoing makeover of the airport's eateries, other new hot spots have added technology to the menu, including iPads for diners to order from and play with while they eat. "Cake Boss" Boards Norwegian Cruise Line Boss" and "Next Great Baker," has opened a shop on the new Norwegian Breakaway of the Norwegian Cruise Line, featuring the treats and confections sold in the original Hoboken, N.J., bakery. Dubbed Carlo's Bake Shop, after Valastro's family business, the shop will also give guests the opportunity to preorder custom specialty cakes for celebrations such as birthdays and anniversaries, and offer cupcake-decorating classes. VT FARMERS MARKET GETS NATIONAL PRAISE Martha Stewart Living magazine cited The Woodstock Farmers Market, Woodstock, Vt., in its January issue for a vigilant commitment to naming its food sources. The article's writer, Fan Winston, wrote, "Shop the Woodstock Farmers Market year-round. Detailed signage ensures you know the exact source of your food." & FSMA Public Meetings in Three Cities... The FDA is holding public meetings about its proposed rules for preventive controls in human food. The meetings will include consideration of the proposals about produce safety standards. The FDA expects comments about its proposals for revised current rules on good manufacturing practice and for hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for human food. The meetings will take place in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Portland, Ore. The Specialty Food Association (formerly NASFT) will have a presentation at the Washington, D.C., meeting and will comment on the definitions of small business and very small business as well as facility registration, among other issues. Several expected FDA proposals have not been released for public comment, including proposals about importers and importing. The dates of the current series of public meetings are: February 28 and March 1, Washington, D.C.; March 11 and 12, Chicago; and March 27 and 28, Portland, Ore. LEGISLATIVE REGULATORY NEWS Administrative Detention Rule Finalized... The FDA issued its final rule about the administrative detention of foods. Administrative detention—holding food products off the market—is one of the strengthened enforcement tools given to the FDA under the Food Safety Modernization Act. Among the other tools are the suspension of facility registration, mandatory recalls and increased inspections. In some cases, especially when a facility has been documented for repeated sanitation or safety problems, the manufacturer and the FDA have agreed to a court-monitored consent decree. U.S.-Canada Raw Milk Cheese Report... The U.S. and Canada have published their joint risk assessment of listeriosis from soft-ripened cheese consumption in the two countries. A risk assessment is a science-based process that is one part of risk analysis, the way regulators determine whether a safety concern related to a food exists and whether or how to regulate for it. Risk assessment involves hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment and risk characterization. A cruise ship is the newest retail location for the Cake Boss. Buddy Valastro, star of the popular TLC television series "Cake 12 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE ❘ specialtyfood.com Marsha Echols, Specialty Food Association's legal advisor in Washington, D.C., is available to counsel members. Reach her at 202.625.1451 or echols@marshaechols.com.