He's Baaaaaack! (with comments on Japan)

Back from my hiatus!
After taking a long break from blogging, I’m back at it. My summer was filled with chasing my daughter’s travelling softball team, flying the Bellanca all over, taking a brief vacation in Nevada. Then came fall- my work schedule went crazy busy, and more softball trips to boot. I am ready to get back to business as usual… will someone please tell me how to get back there?
By the way, if you wish to follow me on Twitter, my username is TimReardonWW.
I just spent a couple of days touring some potato processing plants in Japan. I am ashamed to admit that I have not done so before. The difference between Japanese plants and the rest of the world is striking, in one primary facet: focus on product quality.
In Japan, any product discoloration at all is considered unacceptable. So they use lots of automation and even more (expensive) labor to get practically every defect out of their potato products. All that machinery and labor costs a lot, and the product that is removed represents quite a bit of yield cost as well. But they seem to be willing to pay the price for what their culture demands.
One other difference I saw was something I think the rest of the industry would do well to imitate: extreme attention to detail regarding hygiene and the presence of humans in the plants. Most every plant I visited required the following to enter their production areas:
· Head-to-foot “bunny suits” with elastic cuffs, full head covering (no bump cap!), with mask.
· Special shoes to be used only in the production area (no steel toes!)
· Lint removal of all clothing, even though the bunny suits seem lint-free
· Air showers
· Of course, hand-washing and sanitization
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I expect the food industry to move toward the kind of sanitation control you see in the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries. I think we put too much stock in the kill step of frying. Product is commonly exposed to humans after that, and such exposure will be subject to scrutiny regarding potential sources of pathological contamination.
More comments on Japan next time.
Tim

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