Addictive Foodsalnadph.info

Madrid Foods

NORTHFIELD, Ill., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Everyone hates traffic. It eats up time, wastes energy and emits harmful carbon dioxide. As population and urbanization increase, experts say traffic is only getting worse. Kraft Foods is addressing this challenge by finding alternatives to trucking and making its distribution network more efficient. Since 2005, innovative sustainability projects have saved the company more than 50 million miles (80 million km) in its global transportation and distribution network. That's the same as driving from Madrid to Beijing more than 8,500 times!

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090420/KRAFTLOGO)

"We think about miles, piles and idles when moving our product," said Steve Yucknut, Vice President, Sustainability. "We're finding ways to drive fewer miles, reduce inventory piles and eliminate idling trucks. We're collaborating with customers and suppliers. And we're using a number of high-tech innovations for our trucks and warehouses to reduce energy and CO2 emissions."

Following are examples from Kraft Foods operations around the globe:

Riding the Waves (and Rails) to Environmental Efficiency

• In North America, Kraft Foods saved more than a million miles (1.6 million km), replaced 10,000 truck shipments and reduced 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions by shipping wheat via waterways to its Toledo, Ohio, flour mill. Now, ships make bigger deliveries less frequently.
• In Brazil, employees saved nearly 250,000 miles (390,000 km) and reduced 300 tons of CO2 emissions by using boats to send products to distribution centers. In just six months, the change saved more than 125 truck shipments.
• In Germany, Kraft Foods transports coffee beans from Bremen to its Berlin roasting plant, saving about 1.8 million miles (2.8 million km) and eliminating 2,300 tons of CO2 emissions. And the project took 7,000 trucks off the road.
• In Austria, Kraft Foods saved more than 150,000 miles (nearly 250,000 km) by sending products in refrigerated containers on railcars, eliminating 400 truck shipments and reducing 250 tons of CO2 emissions.
• In the United Kingdom, the company now sends products to one of its key customers by train instead of truck, saving more than 40,000 miles (nearly 70,000 km) and eliminating 120 truck shipments.

Fewer, Faster and More Fuel-Efficient Deliveries

• In Europe, Kraft Foods is modernizing its transportation network by establishing a single hub in Bratislava, Slovakia to make 20 percent fewer trips between its European plants and distribution centers. And in the Philippines, the company now uses a national distribution center so customers receive shipments 20 percent faster than before, saving miles and fuel.
• In North America, Kraft Foods has purchased 11 hybrid direct store delivery vehicles for frozen products. The hybrid power train and electric refrigeration technology use up to 30 percent less fuel than a traditional truck. And in Mexico, the company has pioneered a double-decker transport system that allows trucks to safely carry up to 56 pallets in one load - twice as many as before.

Deploying Smarter Technology

• Kraft Foods has been working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to benefit from the latest technology and share best practices. Earlier this month, the EPA awarded Kraft Foods for its environmental excellence, innovation and creativity. As part of its participation in the EPA's SmartWay Transport Partnership (www.epa.gov/smartway), the company has adopted no-idle engine policies at its shipping locations, piloted a hybrid frozen delivery truck program and increased its use of intermodal (rail and barge) transport.
• Using Oracle®* Transportation Management to create Project MOST (Management of Optimized Sustainable Transportation), Kraft Foods measures truck movements and designs new trip segments to minimize "empty miles," eliminating more than 500,000 miles (800,000 km) last year. Now, Kraft Foods' private fleet and its top 50 carriers use the software and Oracle has recognized the company for its work with its 2009 "Enable the Eco-Enterprise" award. *Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
• Kraft Foods' 20 largest plants and distribution centers in North America use software from Transportation/Warehouse Optimization to maximize product per truckload, taking the equivalent of 1,500 trucks off the road and more than a million miles
• (1.6 million km) off the highway system.

About Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods (www.kraftfoodscompany.com) makes today delicious in 150 countries around the globe. Our 100,000 employees work tirelessly to make delicious foods consumers can feel good about. From American brand icons like Kraft cheeses, dinners and dressings, Maxwell House coffees and Oscar Mayer meats, to global powerhouse brands like Oreo and LU biscuits, Philadelphia cream cheeses, Jacobs and Carte Noire coffees, Tang powdered beverages and Milka, Cote d'Or, Lacta and Toblerone chocolates, our brands deliver millions of smiles every day. Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) is the world's second largest food company with annual revenues of $42 billion. The company is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor's 500, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Ethibel Sustainability Index. For more details on the company's sustainability focus and progress, please visit www.kraftfoodsbetterworld.com.

-- make today delicious --

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

Steve Yucknut

https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=90658

SOURCE Kraft Foods

“Whole Foods will stop selling raw milk in Florida on Sept. 30th

The Glades Ridge Dairy, one of 19 dairies in Florida licensed to sell raw milk for pet food, was recently temporarily suspended from selling its raw milk and cheese at the Alachua County Farmers Market.

The market’s Board of Directors will decide in October whether to make the ban permanent.

Maybe, just maybe, the pet milk scheme for selling raw milk as “pet food” is coming apart in the Sunshine State.

Just why now is not entirely clear.  Maybe the grocery store workers have a new contract protecting them from doing all that winking and nodding that it must take to sell raw milk with pet food labels when the intended market for the product is human consumption.

Maybe the best scientific and legal advice is not to put one’s market or grocery store at risk by selling unpasteurized dairy products.   Best not to accept that liability.

But not all is clear yet because not everybody is talking.   Briana Madrid, who speaks for Whole Foods in Florida from offices in Ft. Lauderdale, refused to speak with Food Safety News “due to the competitive nature of the grocery industry.”

About the only competition Whole Foods has for selling raw milk in Florida is health stores and niche markets.   Large national grocery store chains won’t touch the stuff.

It is illegal to sell raw milk in Florida for human consumption.  Milk sold for human consumption must be pasteurized.  Without pasteurization, a heating process that kills bacteria, raw milk can be ripe with potentially deadly pathogens like E. coli, Listeria, and Campylobacter.

Raw milk can be sold when labeled as “pet food” and there are no laws against drinking it.  And, raw milk has a “cult-like” following of advocates who swear by its positive health benefits.  These customers are willing to pay a price for raw milk that is consistent with the “whole paycheck” reputation of the pricey Whole Foods stores.

In the last year, the price for milk going to regular dairies has plummeted to as low at $1 a gallon. Raw milk can fetch as much as $15 a gallon.

Wendy Mathias, who maintains a website called Miami Real Food, has launched a campaign to persuade Whole Foods to stay in the raw milk business.   Mathias wants to be able to continue to get her two-liter bottles of raw milk from the corner of a cooler that is mostly stacked with eggs.

Florida law prevents Whole Foods from displaying raw milk beside pasteurized milk.

“Please do not stop offering raw milk to your customers,” Mathias writes in an open letter to Whole Foods.  “Your commitment to continue to offer this important nutrient-dense food is a market of your commitment to serving the community with the healthiest foods they can’t easily access anywhere else.”…”

Read the whole story on Food Safety News blog.

Some background on the story from David E. Gumpert’s “The Complete Patient” blog:

“The five members of the board of the Alachua County Farmers Market in Gainesville, FL, all love to drink the raw goat’s milk sold at the market by one of the farmers, Joe Pietrangelo of Glades Ridge farm.

But now that same board has banned Glades Ridge from the farmers market, at least temporarily.

The problem, Helen Emery, one of the farmers market board members, tells me, is plain old fear—fear by the board of legal problems should a consumer become ill from the milk. The board has already been told by its insurance company that if the market is sued for any reason, the insurer will pull coverage in the future, she says.

There’s been no problem at the market with the Glades Ridge milk or cheese since the farm began selling its products at the market last May. Indeed, the milk and cheese have become popular items at the market, and helpful money makers for Joe Pietrangelo.

But a farmers market customer, who also happens to be a lawyer and pathologist, planted the seeds of doubt and fear in the board when he pointed out that the market could be liable for damages if someone became ill. In Florida, it’s legal to sell raw milk only as pet food, and indeed, it is sold via retail stores like Whole Foods clearly labeled as such. The Glades Ridge stand at the farmers market similarly has labels posted on the milk and on its stand re-affirming the point.

But, says Helen Emery, “We all know people are buying it for themselves. One of our customers said everyone is drinking it.”

So the board made the decision a few days ago to temporarily suspend Glades Ridge from selling. In the meantime, the board members have been doing research about raw milk—speaking with medical people, lawyers and (uh-oh) the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “It’s a huge issue for us,” says Emery.

She even went out to the Glades Ridge farm to do an inspection. “The place is gorgeous,” she tells me. “the goats are clean, the facilities are clean.”

The problem? “It’s illegal to sell dairy products for human consumption in Florida.”

“If Joe were to get sued, we (the market) would get sued. That would force us to close, which would close out 30 other farmers. It doesn’t just affect him. It affects another 30 farmers, plus 30 additional farmers that come in on a daily basis.”…”

Get the whole story from The Complete Patient blog.