Issue View | Council I | 2023 Biennial Meeting

This is a brand new Issue.

Creation of a Committee - E-Commerce Best Practices

During COVID, grocery stores saw a drastic spike in how consumers obtained their foods. Stores in Wisconsin reported 5 years of growth in 6 months' time as well as E-Commerce sales increasing 4 times greater than normal. Stores were not equipped for shopping the increase in orders and did not have storage areas to hold shopped items while they were in the queue for pick up. Since then, E-Commerce shopping has become a routine way of feeding families. Concerns regarding E-Commerce shopping have arisen including cross contamination of raw proteins bagged with ready to eat foods, TCS foods not properly held refrigerated or frozen, surface characteristics in storage areas and equipment concerns. Questions have also arisen on who is the responsible party for the purchased items that have not been yet picked up by the consumer.

The creation of guidance on how to address food safety requirements for E-Commerce would provide benefits for both regulators and industry. It would detail how to safely handle foods as well as construction requirements for areas used for holding shopped items. It will also benefit industry in providing training when employees are shopping for items as well as what to do with foods that might not be picked up by the consumer and responsible parties during the process.

that an E-Commerce Committee be created and charged with the following:

1. Identify best practices and existing guidance that pertain to E-Commerce shopping at retail.

2. Develop a comprehensive guidance document for retail food establishments with best practices specific to E-Commerce shopping to ensure general Food Code recommendations are followed. These recommendations would include proper handling during the shopping process to ensure adequate temperature control and cross contamination, construction and equipment requirements for areas where shopped products are held, procedures to address items that were shopped but not picked up by the consumer and any other concerns that may arise during guidance development.

3. Determine appropriate mechanisms for distributing the committee's work.

4. Report the committee's findings and recommendations at the next Biennial Meeting.