Saffron News from Kashmir

Kashmiri Saffron declines as Iran now has 80% of the market. This article indicates that modernization of the Iranian Saffron business has hurt the Kahmiri markets.

The FDA Mismanages Employee Pay And Benefits // Pharmalot

The FDA Mismanages Employee Pay And Benefits // Pharmalot: "The FDA Mismanages Employee Pay And Benefits
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By Ed Silverman // November 5th, 2008 // 10:06 am

The FDA may be on a hiring spree and snared 1,300 new faces, but consider the working environment - a suffocating bureaucracy, ever-changing leadership, compensation that lags industry pay and, as it turns out, woeful record-keeping that shortchanges employees.

In a letter to FDA commish Andy von Eschenbach, Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the US Senate Finance Committee, writes that “high-level FDA officials and others have complained” about paycheck errors that resulted in “legal fees and sloppy record keeping.” The errors have “shaken confidence” in the FDA’s personnel management.

“Based on the reports that have come to me, it looks like there is more than isolated incidents of mismanagement, and it could have significant repercussions for the quality workforce that the public deserves to have at the Food and Drug Administration,” he writes.

A few examples: an FDA employee went to the emergency room in the middle of the night with a sick child, but discovered the FDA had incorrectly fired him, which meant there were no health benefits. Two employees may have been mistakenly overpaid by several t"

FDA So. California... What's Wrong?

I have had a shipment held by US FDA since July 2008 of our famous Novia del Sol Stuffed Olives. Why? There was an error on the commercial invoice that caused an inspector to think the olives were "low-acid".

Foods that are low acid, as most of you know, need additional information filed with FDA. Low acid is defined as foods with a pH above 4.6. Here are some links that explain:

Cornell's Low Acid Fact Sheet
or
US FDA's Fact Sheet

We have shown several compliance officers all needed documents showing that the product is NOT LOW ACID. FDA has taken samples that clearly prove these olives are NOT LOW ACID. FDA have in other ports and even in the port of LA approved prior and SUBSEQUENT shipments as NOT LOW ACID.

The FDA in So. California, long overworked, has been consolidating and moving people around between offices. As this takes place, our case has fallen through the cracks and now nobody wants to put their name to a release in this day of FDA fear of mistakes... Our shipment is lost in this twilght zone...

One officer to whom we were told to use for compliance freely admitted not having knowledge of foods but expertise in other areas, asked us for more information to add to the growing file...Then passed this hot potato to another investigator...

There is no direct dialogue between importers and compliance.

"Change" is not just political phrasing... It is real world... We all need to participate openly and honestly.

Without the proper environment to improve things, government risks being part of the problem & not the solution... If these olives held hostage are any example.

So Much Going On

I am told by some friends that I can be pretty arrogant but it seemed really irrelevant for me to be posting over these last days as the political and economic fireworks were going off all around us.

What is left in the wake to say?

The US $ is up (except against the Japanese Yen) as the Euro Zone is in full job loss recession (Spain is a disaster!) but we seem to be at the 1.26 to 1.29 range for now...

The inflationary effects of the costs to produce (tin plates for cans, etc) are driving prices beyond any FOREX savings though and we will be lucky to stay the course (whoa, there's a post political term).

I promise to try and update with pertinent details more regularly [but don't count on it] as my computer is up again and so am I!