Quiznos founder Rick Schaden has been named chief executive officer of the sub sandwich chain, following the resignation of Dave Deno. Quiznos’ previous CEO, Greg Brenneman, will continue in his role as executive chairman.

“Rick’s amazing entrepreneurial skills were perfect for building Quiznos from the ground up and are ideal to grow the company in this tough economic environment,” Brenneman said. “The marriage of Rick’s passion for the brand and new products, along with the world class management team we have brought in over the past two years, will enable us to maximize franchise owner profitability going forward.”

Schaden has helped build the brand since 1991, starting with 18 franchises to more than 5,000 locations world wide. "Moving forward," he said, "our strategy will be exactly as it is today. Our primary focus will be on increasing restaurant profitability for our franchise owners by bringing value and convenience to consumers so that they frequent Quiznos more often.”

Source: Quiznos

The meat industry is preparing for the implementation of the country-of-origin labeling guidelines that are set to be implemented on March 16. Several industry associations spoke out about the guidelines, particularly the voluntary guidelines that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is asking meat processors to implement. Those voluntary guidelines include labeling product from animals raised in one country but slaughtered or processed in another, labeling processed foods such as cured or smoked items.

“Now that we know that there aren’t going to be very many changes; it’s going to be based on January 15, we can get this thing implemented, get the ball rolling and truly understand what country of origin labeling means not only for the consumer, but more importantly for those producers out there,” said Colin Woodall, executive director of Legislative Affairs for the NCBA. However, according to Brownfield news, parts of the voluntary labeling were not part of the previous Farm Bill compromise.

“Having where that animal was born, raised and processed was not a part of our conversation, so we don’t believe that his point right there was part of the intent of Congress,” he said, adding that the additional implementation may have other effects. “… any time that you add additional steps in the processing and packaging of meat products, you’re going to add cost,” he says.

American Meat Association President J. Patrick Boyle said in a statement that he was “gratified” by the final COOL implementation, as AMI and its member companies participated in the six-year rulemaking process. “When the final rule becomes effective, we anticipate that almost 95 percent of beef and pork products eligible to bear a ‘Product of the USA’ label will bear such labeling,” he said.

However, Boyle added, “To the extent that companies are able and elect to go beyond these federal labeling requirements, as requested today by Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, is an individual company decision, which will have to be made in collaboration with a company’s retail grocery customers, which ultimately are the entities that provide country of origin information to their consumers.”

Source: brownfield.com, American Meat Institute 

Canada’s new set of guidelines for organic production will restrict cloned meat from being marketed as organic. The guidelines go into effect on June 30.

The new rules require all foods, beverages and other organic products to be certified by a nationally recognized body and carry a new organic label introduced by the Canadian government. The contents of any product carrying that logo must by at least 95 percent organic.

A spokesman for Health Canada said that there are no foods derived from cloned animals in Canada, Scripps Howard reports. The United States passed similar guidelines about organic labeling and foods derived from cloned animals last year.

Source: Scripps Howard News Service

The North American Meat Processors Association’s Meat Buyer’s Guide will be available on a CD-ROM, featuring hundreds of color photographs and a fully searchable format. The disc will allow users to search by NAMP/IMPS number, poultry number or product name, making it easier to locate information.

The Association will also make available Meat Buyer Guide charts and posters in Spanish, due to many requests from the meat industry in both Mexico and the United States. To order a Meat Buyer’s Guide CD-ROM, go to www.wiley.com/go/namp, and to purchase the Spanish-language materials, e-mail Sabrina Moore (smoore@namp.com) to be notified when they are available.

Source: North American Meat Processors Association