Carmen Rottenberg and Paul Kiecker, USDA’s top food safety executives, met last Sept. 4 with Corey Rosenbusch and Lowell Randel of the Global Cold Chain Alliance about export issues.
Rosenbusch and Randel’s expertise in temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics.

According to the public calendar issued by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, it was the first of several meetings held during September by top FSIS officials with persons outside the federal government.

Rottenberg and Phil Bronstein, FSIS executive associate for regulatory operations, met on Sept. 14 with the Wall Street Journal’s Julie Wernau about Siluriformes or as they are more commonly known catfish.

Siluriformes inspections was also the subject of a Sept. 18 meeting that Rottenberg and Bronstein held with Matt Fass with the Maritime Seafood Processors, Sang Phang with Coast Beacon, Nancy Yang with H&N Group, Jennifer Champagne with Piazza’s Seafood, and Allen F. Johnson and Juan Pio Hernandez, both with the U.S. Seafood Distributors Association.

Moreover, Rottenberg and Bronstein met with Ingrid Mezo from Food Chemical News on Sept. 18 with catfish also on that menu.

On Sept. 24, Rottenberg, Bonstein, and Kiecker meet with 22 members of the Catfish Farmers of America. The Indianola, MS-based CFA is an association of U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish producers, suppliers, processors, and marketers. It successfully lobbied Congress to assign domestic and foreign catfish inspection to FSIS, removing the responsibility from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Rottenberg and Senior Advisor Mary Stanley discussed export issues with Lisa Wallenda Picard and Damon Wells from the National Turkey Federation on Sept.20.

Rottenberg talked about food safety innovation and technology with Tony Dreibus with Successful Farming Magazine on Sept. 21,

Also, Rottenberg and Kiecker spoke about inspection modernization with OFW Law’s Betsy Booren on Sept. 25 Rottenberg addressed the Accredited Lab Program with Randy Russell of the Russell Group on Sept. 26.

The FSIS leaders also meet with a large delegation from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union on Sept. 26 about worker safety.

On Sept. 26, Rottenberg and Kiecker meet separately with consumer and industry stakeholders. Both meetings included in-person and teleconference attendance.

September’s last meeting involved Rottenberg and Kiecker. The pair met with Ingrid Mezo of Food Chemical News about line speed waivers.

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