Industry Compliance Ensured and Risk Reduced

Client: J. Quattrocchi & Co.

Founded in 1922, J.Quattrocchi & Co. began as a small family owned business in Canada. Three generations later, Quattrocchi continues to supply their customers with fresh fruits and vegetables while maintaining high levels of customer service as well as competitive pricing. They attribute their success to their ability to keep up in a fast paced market place and their flexibility in adjusting to market trends.

Quattrocchi has been a client of Food Decision Software Inc. since 1989.  Their last update was in March of 2008 and they are currently using WinFDS Version 5.0.

Most recently, Quattocchi managed a food recall of spinach using WinFDS. In September of 2006, several cases of E.Coli were traced back to fresh spinach that was distributed in at least 26 U.S. States. There were no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of spinach in Canada itself, however spinach is regularly imported into the country from across the border. Due to uncertainty in the source of contamination, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a spinach recall as a precautionary measure.

Being the middle men in the food distribution process, food distributors like Quattrocchi play vital roles in the success of recalls like this one. As restaurant retailers and foodservice operators make efforts to minimize harm to consumers by getting possibly contaminated products out of their inventory, food distributors face pressure to produce any relevant information to the regulatory agencies that are managing the recall. For Quatrocchi, the capabilities of WinFDS played an instrumental role in being able to access and reproduce all the records containing the information requested by the CFIA in a timely and efficient manner.

Using WinFDS, Quattrocchi was able to quickly obtain a product history for all the baby spinach that was being recalled. The recalled spinach was also distributed in a “spring mix” package but because WinFDS tracks products though all its manufacturing and distribution stages, Quattrocchi was able to quickly identify and recall the packages that may have been contaminated. The software provided them with the ability to work in cooperation with regulatory agencies to safeguard the safety of consumers by getting the recalled produce out of store’s inventories.

In addition to the track and trace features, WinFDS offers lot control management and HACCP reporting to assist in compliance with the Bioterrirism Act of 2002.  With WinFDS Quattrocchi was able to work collaboratively with Canadian and American regulatory agencies to protect consumers from potentially harmful produce items.  Their ability to manage, maintain, and reproduce records were essential to the success of the spinach recall.

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