OPINION
Opinion FEBRUARY 26. 2020 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS
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Improved communication needed for food recalls BY ADAM GARBER AFN Guest Writer
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s consumers, we rely on the food safety system when we buy groceries. And, we expect that if one of our purchases has been recalled our grocery store will warn us. However, a new report by the Arizona PIRG Education Fund states that Americans are not hearing about food recalls, and that communication breakdown can have serious repercussions for public health. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 48 million Americans continue to get sick from the food they eat every year.
Foothills resident happy with board
A big thank you to Sandy Salvo for her factual response to the half-baked letter from Rob Doherty on a number of topics. Her response was published in the AFN on Feb. 5 under the heading “Foothills board member: The sky isn’t falling.” In case you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so. On a personal note I have lived in the Foothills since May of 1995, attended countless Foothills HOA monthly board meetings and numerous annual meetings. I have always found the board to be professional and easy to do business with. I am proud to call The Foothills home. -Jim Jochim
Foothills residents seek board changes
Readers of the Ahwatukee Foothills News are aware that a team of concerned homeowners in the Foothills Community Association HOA is circulating a petition aimed at strengthening the management of the HOA,
Although the food safety system focuses on getting recalled food out of stores, individual consumers may be unaware they have contaminated food in a pantry, refrigerator or freezer in their home. Effective communication about recalls is critical to combat foodborne illness. Although they might not be the cause of a recall, grocery stores are access points in the food safety system in which consumers frequently interact. Grocery stores often have unique information about us and our purchasing habits making it easy to improve transparency about recall notification efforts. And they should. Based on publicly available information, the Arizona PIRG Education Fund recently assessed whether the nation’s 26
largest supermarket chains tell customers about recall policies, in-store notification, and direct customer notification. Eighty percent of the nation’s 26 largest supermarket chains – including Albertson’s, Safeway and Whole Foods – received a failing grade for recall information. Only Harris Teeter, Kroger, Smith’s and Target received a passing grade. To avoid consumers needing to go on a scavenger hunt to find out if food they recently purchased was recalled, we recommend the following:
including increasing transparency, accountability, and responsiveness to the interests of the Association’s members. This petition drive to reform the Bylaws has received great support from the Association’s homeowners, and even from a number of the corporate members. We are pleased to write that we are approaching the target number of 1,300 signatures, and we hope to be able to turn the petition in to the board at its meeting on today, Feb. 26. Once we have submitted the petition in compliance with Arizona law and the association’s governing documents, the board will be required to convene a special meeting of all association members to vote on the reform package. The petition calls on the board to convene this special “members meeting” within 30 days. If the board complies with the petition (from more than 25 percent of the total members), it will schedule this meeting in late March. One of our main goals is to ensure that the board spends the association’s money wisely. In this regard, in November we began ex-
plaining to board directors a way they could save the association thousands of dollars on the bylaws reform package election. The board could bundle the mailing of the notice and absentee ballots for the reform package along with the standard notice of the annual board election and solicitation of candidates. Hopefully, the board will heed this suggestion and avoid the expense of conducting two mass mailings to all association members within a period of weeks. Ideally, the board will also utilize this March members meeting as the opportunity to hold a pre-election meeting where the candidates for the board can introduce themselves to the members. Given the overwhelming support for our reform package, we are confident that the membership will vote to approve the reform package. While the reforms will not solve all the association’s problems, they will help set it on a course that will facilitate the resolution of these problems. Two aspects will take effect immediately, and they will apply to the May board election:
FDA and USDA should: • Require stores to make recall notification policies available on their website and upon request. • Require stores to post signs about
LETTERS
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recalls at the cash register and on the store shelf where the product would normally appear for at least two weeks for perishable food and for at least one month for frozen foods. Require stores to create direct customer notification programs that alert consumers of recalled products within 48 hours of a recall.
Grocery stores should: • Post food recall notification policies on their website and provide a copy upon request. • Post signs for recalls at the cash register and on the store shelf
see FOOD page 32
Authorization to use electronic voting (which should enhance homeowner participation); Term limits for board directors (no more than two consecutive terms). We want to state that it has been a pleasure meeting so many homeowners over the past few months. This experience has underscored the welcoming, interesting and diverse nature of our community. We invite all association members to attend the board meeting at 6 p.m. today, Feb. 26, at the Foothills Golf Club, 2201 E. Clubhouse Drive. Thank you again for your support, and please contact us if you have any comments or questions: heFoothillsInfo.com. David Randolph and Rob Doherty
Club West resident pens ‘Ode to Edge’
I dedicate the following, “Ode to the Edge” to all the residents of Club West who stopped this development from proceeding. (Sung to the tune of “The Witch is Dead” from the “Wiz-
see LETTERS page 31