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The issue of "food safety" has grown in the American public's
awareness in the past few years. I would like to share with
you how Rock Garden has responded to this issue.
First, my background is in Biochemistry and our Quality Control
program head is a professional specializing in Agronomy. Most
of our farms and resources are managed by personnel with similar
technical backgrounds and understand the scientific issues.
We have a third party audit program run by the most capable
agricultural laboratory and consulting service in Florida
that evaluates us on 200 critical production and processing
points.
Second the farms grow, spray and wash all of our products
with well water that is regularly tested by accredited laboratories.
Our farms have restrooms with hand washing sinks and lettuce
farms have additional locker rooms where all employees must
shower before entering the packing area. We stress the importance
of clean water and clean hands.
Years ago we used animal products like composted manure and
earthworm castings as soil fertility amendments. While they
did enhance "organic" style of production, we have phased
them out in response to government initiatives to reduce practices
that "may" introduce microbes. Two of our farms now steam
their soil before growing, as an added precaution. Since many
of our products are minor crops, there are few labeled pesticides
available for use, the ones used are quite mild and pose no
human risk. I participate in an advisory group for the EPA
on minor crop chemical registration.
The cold chain has proved to be a major factor in keeping
perishable products free of troublesome organisms. Our farms
have on-site refrigeration and offshore airport facilities
all have holding coolers. The air shipments are insulated
and packed in ice. We leverage the freight resources of the
Miami cut flower industry with superbly outfitted coolers
for holding shipments at optimum cold temperatures during
fleet transport.
Our packing facility, located 1000 yards from the Miami airport,
previously housed a subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company
and was outfitted as a kitchen and frozen food factory. We
have one of the best facilities in the industry to pack our
products. Our workers wear sanitary, protective outfits and
practice safe hygiene. Our in-house laboratory routinely monitors
tabletop sanitation, pesticide residue, microbial culture
counts, and water quality.
Food safety is a key issue since Miami handles more perishables
than all other North American ports combined. Frequent inspections
by the State of Florida health department officials check
our procedures. Our tracking system traces products from our
customers back to where they were grown for accountability.
We have taken proactive steps and pushed our organization
hard to deliver the safest and highest quality products to
you.
Federal and state governments have a vested interest in filtering
out any product that may affect public health. As a result
of increased awareness and attention to food safety these
agencies thoroughly examine and test both our domestic and
imported product. In fact, offshore farm products are more
strictly monitored than domestic product. The FDA and State
of Florida have conducted over 250 random samplings of our
various products over the last two years. These samples are
analyzed in their laboratories, and penalties are swift and
severe should problems be encountered. Although the agencies
do not have resources to sample and test everything, potential
penalties raise awareness and keep safety consciousness very
high in the industry.
The point I am trying to make is that our industry has received
a great deal of scrutiny and pressure in the last two years
to make food safer. We as part of that industry are proud
to state that our organization has proactively responded and
our products are the best that they can be. You can feel good
about using them.
Thank you, for supporting us.
Charlie Coiner (founder and president) | 
