Table Of ContentFood Safety and Quality Systems
in Developing Countries
Volume One: Export Challenges and
Implementation Strategies
Edited by
André Gordon
Technological Solutions Limited, Kingston, Jamaica
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON
NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
125, London Wall, EC2Y 5AS, UK
525 B Street, Suite 1800, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA
225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and re-
trieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission,
further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organi-
zations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found
at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the
Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience
broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treat-
ment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating
and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such
information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, includ-
ing parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume
any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability,
negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or
ideas contained in the material herein.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN: 978-0-12-801227-7
For information on all Academic Press publications
visit our website at http://store.elsevier.com/
Publisher: Shirley Decker-Lucke
Acquisition Editor: Patricia Osborn
Editorial Project Manager: Jaclyn Truesdell
Production Project Manager: Julia Haynes
Designer: Matt Limbert
Typeset by Thomson Digital
Printed and bound in the USA
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Orane Blake
A. T. Kearney Inc, Dallas, Texas, USA
André Gordon
Technological Solutions Limited, Kingston, Jamaica
Jose Jackson-Malete
Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI), Gaborone, Botswana
James Kerr
Retired from the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
Joyce Saltsman
Retired from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), US Food and Drug
Administration, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
George Ware
Retired from the Southeast Regional Laboratory (SRL), US Food and Drug Administration,
Atlanta, USA
PREFACE
The importance of developing countries as providers of an increasing
percentage of the food being consumed globally is receiving growing
recognition. This is because these countries remain an undeniably im-
portant source of key food items for developed-country consumers, in-
cluding increasingly sophisticated food product offerings. Consequently,
the status of the food safety and quality systems in these countries is
no longer a matter of local interest only; a food safety challenge in
Asia or Africa can have repercussions as far away as Paris, Frankfurt,
Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, or Vancouver. Recognizing this, we felt it
was timely to provide a different perspective on food safety and qual-
ity systems with a focus on exports from developing countries, and
with important lessons for many stakeholders in the global food supply
chain, regardless of origin.
The approach we have taken is to focus on practical trade and market
access-related considerations and to underpin the analysis and proposed
solutions by sound science. This we have presented using a case-study
approach, providing historically accurate details of how very difficult
export challenges with a fruit have been successfully addressed using
food-science-based approaches, including research, where appropriate.
This is augmented by several other examples of specific food safety con-
cerns for a range of nontraditional fruit and vegetable products of in-
creasing economic importance that are being imported into developed-
country markets. While we have largely focused on the United States in
this volume, we do also discuss general principles and look at examples
involving the United Kingdom and Canada.
We start the book by examining the food science and trade-related
technical considerations in exporting traditional fruits and vegetables to
the United States and end it with a comprehensive look at the US Food
Safety Modernization Act, 2011. In between this, we develop the concept
of applying food science and technology – including risk analysis, research
and, where appropriate, the adaptation and implementation of hazard
analysis critical control points (HACCP)-based food safety systems – to
addressing export challenges. We present detailed descriptions of very
xii Preface
specific market access challenges of a technical or scientific nature for
selected products and examine the use of science and research to miti-
gate these. Also, for the first time, we provide a detailed scientific treat-
ment for the production, commercial handling and processing, culinary
and consumption information, biochemistry, and export of the fruit
Blighia sapida from multiple countries. The use of this information in
solving multiple market access challenges in three markets is one of the
highlights of this book.
This volume is targeted at practitioners of food safety and quality
in regulatory bodies, food handling and exporting firms, other export-
ers, policy makers in governments and their international development
agency partners, market access specialists, and food science and technol-
ogy students and academia. It is expected that people within the target
audience in both developing and developed countries will gain valuable
insights into the nature of export challenges and potential implementa-
tion strategies. The editor has been at pains to ensure that, while dealing
with foods from developing countries and the associated challenges, the
information presented gives a holistic picture from both the importing
and exporting country/firm perspectives. This is reflected in the compo-
sition of our authors, who are associated with firms and organizations in
both developed and developing countries and are from the private sec-
tor, academia, and regulatory institutions. Their backgrounds include
strong analytical, applied research, regulatory, and market access and
trade expertise, a unique mix for this unique treatment of the subject
at hand. As a group, our authors have over 160 years of experience in
research, academia, industry, export, trade, and regulatory affairs in
North America, Africa, the European Union, and Latin America and
the Caribbean. Collectively, they have dealt with fruit and vegetable
products from all parts of the world.
This book has arisen from a fortuitous meeting with Ms. Patricia
Osborn, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Food Science & Technol-
ogy, at Elsevier at the International Association for Food Pro-
tection (IAFP) Meeting in 2013, where I was an invited speaker.
We hope that readers will find in this volume a treasure trove of
information, approaches to assessing export market access challenges,
and effective collaborative ways to meet them. We also hope that scientists
Preface xiii
and trade practitioners will get a clear understanding of how food sci-
ence and technology are playing, and will continue to play, a role in
expanding food choices globally while assisting emerging markets to
transition into prosperity.
André Gordon
February 20, 2015
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been created through the collaboration of many people
who have worked together to make it happen. It would perhaps never
have been written at all if Ms. Patricia Osborn, Senior Acquisitions Edi-
tor, Food Science & Technology, at Elsevier Books Division had not
had the confidence to give me an opportunity to create what we hope is
an important contribution to the literature on food safety and quality
systems. It certainly would not have been completed without the sup-
port, guidance, and encouragement first of Patricia, then Carrie Bolger,
Editorial Project Manager, Life Sciences, and finally of Marisa LaFleur,
Editorial Project Manager, Elsevier. Marisa added the element of fo-
cused time management to ensure that all of the contributors and, criti-
cally, the editor, stayed on track.
This volume has been blessed to have the contributions of some very
special people, my coauthors on various chapters, who bring to it their
significant practical and academic knowledge, as well as their unique
perspectives. I have worked with each of them individually and col-
lectively on a range of important projects, including research, systems
implementation, and training, and particularly on aspects of the trans-
formational work used as a case study in this book. I am deeply hon-
ored that they accepted my invitation to participate in this project. I am
highly appreciative of the collaboration and contributions of Drs. Jose
Jackson, Orane Blake, and Joyce Saltsman, and Messrs. James Kerr
and George Ware, who have helped to make this work the unique and
informative volume that it is.
Thanks to the people that proofread the book to ensure the identi-
fication of areas needing attention. Thanks also to my support team at
Technological Solutions Limited (TSL), my company, who took some
of the pressure off me, allowing me the time to complete this volume.
Finally, I must express my deep gratitude to my immediate and extend-
ed family who supported and encouraged me throughout this process,
particularly my mother Cynthia Gordon, and my wife Dianne Gordon,
xvi Acknowledgments
both of whom reviewed aspects of the manuscript and gave invaluable
feedback. This work would not have been possible without the support
provided by all concerned.
Thank you all.
André Gordon, PhD, CFS
February 18, 2015
1
CHAPTER
Exporting Traditional Fruits and Vegetables
to the United States: Trade, Food Science,
and Sanitary and Phytosanitary/Technical
Barriers to Trade Considerations
André Gordon
Technological Solutions Limited, Kingston, Jamaica
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 IMPORTS OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES INTO THE UNITED
STATES: COMPOSITION AND SELECTED TRENDS
1.3 NONTRADITIONAL TROPICAL FRUIT IMPORTS TO THE
UNITED STATES: SPECIFIC EXAMPLES
1.4 NONTRADITIONAL VEGETABLE IMPORTS TO THE UNITED
STATES: SPECIFIC EXAMPLES
1.5 SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY/TECHNICAL BARRIERS
TO TRADE ISSUES
1.6 SUMMARY
ABSTRACT
Despite the challenges that have to be overcome by exporters from
developing countries seeking to send traditional foods into developed-
country markets, current world trends provide significant opportunities
for growth in this area. This chapter shows that the demand in developed
countries for traditional fruits and vegetables from developing countries
is very favorable and is expected to continue to be strong, including in
the United States, the market of major focus. This chapter examines the
growing trade in fruits such as soursop (Annona muricata), scotch bon-
net peppers (Capsicum frutescens), and June plum (Spondias dulcis) and
vegetables such as Amaranthus sp. and the reasons for this growth. The
increasing demand has been very positive for the growth of the food
industry in developing countries and this has widened and deepened the
Food Safety and Quality Systems in Developing Countries. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801227-7.00001-9
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 Food Safety and Quality Systems in Developing Countries
options for food industry professionals who have, in turn, further accel-
erated the development of the sector. The importance of sanitary and
phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBT) to
exporters and the need to comply with them is discussed, as is the role
of industry specialists in enhancing the ability of emerging economies
to actively and successfully participate in trade with their developed-
country partners.
Keywords: developing countries; SPS and TBT; fruits and vegetables;
Spondias dulcis; Amaranthus sp.; Annona muricata
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Globally, the demand for fruits and vegetables has increased significantly,
with developed-country staples such as grapes, melons, citrus fruits,
apples and other tree fruits, and fresh tomatoes, peppers, potatoes,
onions, and cucumbers being among the many items now being routinely
imported, a growing percentage of these from developing countries. This
greater focus on exports by developing countries, the opening up of
developed-country markets, and the better positioning of many develop-
ing countries to supply the increasingly diverse dietary and culinary needs
of their more developed trading partners have become the driver for eco-
nomic growth and development in many emerging economies globally.
This has also provided opportunities for many in the areas of agriculture,
exports, and trade, as well as for a wide range of food-industry profes-
sionals in both developed and developing countries to work to further en-
rich the diet of the more developed countries while contributing toward
enhanced diversity and security in the global food supply. This trade has
also opened the door for the export of what are now being called non-
traditional agricultural exports (NTAEs) from emerging economies to
developed countries (Hallam et al., 2004), which has seen an accelera-
tion of what was an already robust rate of diversification of the trade
in fruits and vegetables. Products such as dried and canned mushrooms,
cassava (Manihot esculenta), eggplant (aubergine; Solanum melongena),
bok choy (Brassica rapa subspecies chinensis), sorrel (Rumex acetosa),
callaloo (Amaranthus dubius), and mangoes (Mangifera indica), and even
relatively unknown fruits such as mammee apple (Mammea americana)
and ackee (Blighia sapida), have become a part of this trade.
