APC NewsletterNovember 2015

75 YEARS

DOMESTIC NEWS

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the APC, the staff has put together a hard cover book of photos and text that

span the organization since its founding in 1940. This look back through time highlights the major events of the Council and industry over this time and the people who made these accomplishments happen. This book will certainly be a collectors’ item.

The book will sell for $75 and any profits will be donated to Peanut Butter for the Hungry. Copies may be purchased at the registration desk at the Winter Conference in Atlanta. They will also be available for mail order after the conference as long as supplies last.

We invite you to extend your stay in Atlanta for APC’s annual winter meeting next month to help us make 2,000 PB&J sandwiches! Peanut Butter for the Hungry, National Peanut

Board and Which Wich are partnering to make PB&J sandwiches for the local Atlanta charity, Action Ministries.

We need 50 volunteers to help us with this effort and would greatly appreciate your help. The spreading party will be held from 9:30 – 11:00 am on Friday, December 11 at Colony Square (just next door to the W Atlanta-Midtown). If interested in volunteering, or for additional information, please email Erica Hansford at ehansford@peanutsusa.com.

MEMORY BOOK COMMEMORATES 75 YEARS OF OUR HISTORY

PEANUT BUTTER SPREADING PARTY - CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

CONTENTS

DOMESTIC NEWS

1 MEMORY BOOK

1 VOLUNTEERS

2 SPG SHOW

3 PB LOVERS MONTH

4 DAN SWEIGART

5 TIFTON FACILITY

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

5 APC IN JAPAN

6 TPP

7 THE PEANUT FOUNDATION

8 NUTRITION NEWS YOU CAN USE with Dr. Andrew Craig

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

9 INTERRA

10 PISTON TANK CORP.

11 AMERICAN PEANUT COUNCIL: The Movie

12 MEETING SPONSORS

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Southern Peanut Growers and Alabama Peanut Produc-ers promoted peanuts to about 30,000 people at the

Southern Women’s Show in Birmingham October 8—11. The following week, SPG and Florida Peanut Producers promoted peanuts to about 32,000 people at the South-ern Women’s Show in Jacksonville, Florida.

Peanuts were featured on the cooking stage each day with a cooking demonstration entitled “Power Your Cookout with Peanuts and Peanut Butter.” Leslie Wagner and Caleb Bristow (in Birmingham) and Ken Barton (in Jacksonville) made and sampled Beef Kabobs with Indonesian Peanut Sauce and Asian Peanut Slaw while discussing peanut farming and the nutritional ben-efits of peanuts and peanut butter.

The peanut booth space was busy as guests sampled the new Peanut Butter Toffee Dip and Grilled Peanut Butter & Jelly sand-wiches. Plenty of peanuts, individual samples of peanut butter from the National Peanut Board, recipe cards, nutrition infor-mation and promotional items such as peanut butter spreaders were available for attendees.

Attendees were invited into the booth space to get their picture in our peanut field! Southern Peanut Growers’ #myPBjoy

SOUTHERN PEANUT GROWERS, ALABAMA PEANUT PRODUCERS AND FLORIDA PEANUT PRODUCERS PROMOTE PEANUTS AT SOUTHERN WOMEN’S SHOWS IN BIRMINGHAM AND JACKSONVILLE

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CELEBRATE PEANUT BUTTER LOVERS MONTH BY SHARING EXPRESSIONS OF PURE PB JOY: Instagram Contest Seeks Pictures that Show How PB is Enjoyed as an American Favorite

November is Peanut Butter Lovers Month, a time to honor the sticky staple found in nearly every pantry. This year, rather than keeping that love to yourself, Southern

Peanut Growers is encouraging PB fans nationwide to share their love with its #myPBjoy Instagram contest.

The contest poses questions to PB fans:

Is peanut butter your ultimate comfort food? Do you always have a jar at arm’s reach “just in case”? Do you daydream of chocolate chips falling like snowflakes on a big spoon-ful of creamy PB? Post a pic to Instagram with the #myPBjoy hashtag that shows and tells of your PB love.

“Peanut butter holds a special place in most everyone’s heart and taste buds,” says Leslie Wagner, executive director for Southern Peanut Growers. “We’re encouraging everyone to bring this joy to life by sharing the unique ways that different people enjoy peanut butter throughout social media this month.”

Here’s how #myPBjoy works:

1. Eat peanut butter – by the spoon, paired with a snack or combined into a favorite dish!

2. Snap a photo and Instagram it using #myPB-joy.

3. Win PB prizes when you follow @peanut.butter.lovers on Instagram. Southern Peanut Growers will randomly pick one winner each week of November beginning Nov. 9, featur-ing a mixed bag of exciting new PB products.

“Think pictures showing the best ways to enjoy PB, from crazy combos to swoon-worthy indul-gence,” Wagner added. “Or, the best places to enjoy PB, from a cozy couch to an ambitious hike. We look forward to everyone sharing #myPBjoy for Peanut Butter Lovers Month… and beyond!”

For more information, recipe ideas or peanut butter facts, visit www.peanutbutterlovers.com, or view contest participation by following the In-stagram feed on www.peanutbutterlovers.com/mypbjoy

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Increasing demand for blanched peanuts led Tifton Quality Peanuts LLC (TQP) to add a blanching operation. Making it only one of three blanching operations in the southeast.

Bill Park, President of TQP, has said that the new blanching facility will provide the peanut industry with more room to grow. “Our European customer base has increased and they prefer blanched peanuts. So that’s increased our volume,” he said. “Due to larger peanut crops as a result of the current Farm Bill, we have more peanuts and we’re getting a better

Dan Sweigart, a Hershey Fellow in the Chocolate Research group, R&D at The Hershey Company has recently retired af-

ter 32 years with the company. Dan has been an active member of the American Peanut Council and Peanut Foundation and has made many contributions over the years.

Dan Sweigart started working for The Hershey Company (then Hershey Foods Corp.) in 1983 as an analytical chemist in the Divi-sion Quality Assurance Department. One of his first assignments was the development of an improved HPLC method to quantify aflatoxin in raw peanuts and peanut butter as a replacement for the TLC method, which was the standard method used to quantify aflatoxin in raw pea-nuts at that time.

After the drought of 1990, Dan’s career focus at Hershey transitioned from being an ana-lytical chemist to becoming a peanut sourcing, quality and processing expert. He led a number of teams at Hershey to develop optimized roasting processes for peanuts sourced from different geographic origins to maintain consistent flavor and stability in addition to implementing in-line color measurement systems at all of our plants to control roast lev-els.

Dan’s primary areas of focus at Hershey was peanut and tree nut sourcing, quality and processing, high oleic peanut purity and chemistry characterization, peanut stability char-acterization and nut roast optimization. He is a member of the American Peanut Re-search & Education Society and has traveled to peanut growing regions around the world, including Argentina and India. He also served as a member of the Joint AOAC/AOCS/IUPAC Mycotoxin Committee. Dan led a research team at Hershey to develop a rapid sin-gle kernel refractive index method that differentiates regular from high oleic peanuts and presented a paper on the method at the 2011 APRES Meeting. He co-authored a number of other publications including Peanut Oil Stability and Physical Properties Across a Range of Industrially Relevant O/L Ratios – APRES, 2013 and Refractive Index and Density Mea-surements of Peanut Oil for Determining Oleic and Linoleic Acid Contents – JAOCS, 2013

Dan Sweigart graduated from Lebanon Valley College with a B.S. in Chemistry. Outside of work, Dan has been involved in farmland preservation and land conservation efforts for the past 25 years. He served on the Senior Advisory Council of Lancaster Farmland Trust for 12 years and has been a member of the Lancaster County Conservancy for the past 17 years. Dan plans to stay busy with consulting and other activities.

All of us at the American Peanut Council thank Dan for his many years of service and con-tributions to the industry.

NEW BLANCHING FACILITY OF TIFTON QUALITY PEANUTS BOOSTS LOCAL ECONOMY

DAN SWEIGART RETIRES

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

APC TEAM VISITS JAPAN

NEW BLANCHING FACILITY OF TIFTON QUALITY PEANUTS BOOSTS LOCAL ECONOMY, continued

price for them as a blanched product. We also ship to Mexico and Canada, but our primary customer base is in the United States.”

The cost of adding the blanching facility to its shelling plant was around $8 million, which they expect to pay off in about five years. The blanching facility now operates 24 hours a day, four days a week. TQP only blanches peanuts that come through their sheller and Park estimates they will blanch around 30,000 tons this year. The sheller handles anywhere from 120,000 to 150,000 tons per year and generates 160 to 200 million pounds of edible shelled goods.

The new blanching operation has created 25 new jobs. Much of the construction and new equipment was purchased from local companies, such as Nolin Steel for the blanching equipment.

TQP was formed by peanut farmers in South Georgia to ensure the success of its farmers. Today, it is made up of 140 growers and has issued 100,000 units of stock for the blanching facility with no more stock to sell. As part of the membership, each farmer must guaran-tee one ton of peanuts for each unit of stock per year so there is a large in-house supply. Annually, TQP typically returns an additional $8 to $10 million above market prices to its members and to local economies through the shelling operations.

Brian Marlowe, President and CEO of the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce and the Tift County Development Authority, said Tifton Quality Peanuts has done a tremen-dous job mixing sound business practices with the area’s strong agricultural base.“Bill and his team continue to succeed and, with the addition of the blanching operation, we’re going to see even more success there,” he said. “What is unique about their opera-tion is that it directly benefits the farmers since they are the stockholders. And that suc-cess has a huge economic impact on our area with so many other businesses that depend on agriculture for their business.”

For more information, please contact Bill Park, CEO, at bpark@tqpeanuts.com(story reprinted with permission from Peanut Farm Market News)

On November 4, 2015, small group of rep-resentatives from the U.S. peanut industry

met in Tokyo with the Japan Peanut Association, which includes nut buyers, importers and manu-facturers of peanut products in Japan. The meet-ing was set up to discuss the 2015 crop and oth-er issues with our important trading partners. The American Peanut Council has been working to solidify relationships with Japanese importers

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that had languished during the late 90’s due to increased imports from China. As China appears to be exporting less and less product, the U.S. is in a position to pick up additional market share. Japanese buyers, however, are cautious and reluctant to change suppliers. The U.S. must continue to exhibit interest in the market to build our share.

As part of a week long mission, the industry also visited the U.S. embassy and met with representatives from the Agricultural Trade Office and the Ag Affairs office in Tokyo.

The APC team also visited Kameda Seika, one of the most important peanut manufacturers in Ja-pan. The APC members donned protective gear and toured the rice cracker factory, where Ka-meda mixes locally made rice crackers with oil-roasted and salted peanuts. As part of all meet-ings, the two sides discussed the potential for the Trans Pacific Partnership in improving sales of U.S. peanuts to Japan.

APC TEAM VISITS JAPAN, continued

TPP AGREEMENT GOOD FOR U.S. PEANUTS

The American Peanut Council welcomed the conclusion of the negotiations to establish the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which links the United States, Japan and ten other

Asia Pacific nations through one of the most important trade accords ever developed. This agreement brings substantial, unprecedented progress in opening the markets of Asia to exporters of U.S. peanuts and peanut products.

The APC staff has worked closely with U.S. Government officials to pursue TPP results that would be commercially meaningful for the U.S. peanut industry. We thank the Of-fice of the U.S. Trade Representative and the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service for their cooperation and the excellent agreement they achieved for U.S. peanuts.

Among many other benefits, implementation of the TPP agreement will bring significant improvements in access to the Japanese market for U.S. peanuts and peanut products. Japan has been one of the top export destinations for the U.S. peanut industry, surpass-ing $20 million in sales annually, and the TPP agreement will offer outstanding opportu-nities to further develop this market.

• The current Japanese 10-percent tariff on shelled peanuts inside the 75,000 MT Tariff Rate Quata, the largest category of U.S. peanut exports into that market, will be elim-inated immediately upon TPP implementation. The quota will be phased out over eight years.

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TPP AGREEMENT GOOD FOR U.S. PEANUTS, continued

• The Japanese tariff of 12 percent on U.S. peanut butter, with its uniquely high peanut content, will be reduced to zero in six years.

• Japan is a huge market for snack foods, and Japanese tariffs on U.S. processed pea-nuts, now as high as 23.8 percent, will be reduced and eliminated in eight years or less for U.S. products such as honey roasted peanuts and fried peanuts.

The TPP benefits will extend well beyond Japan. Vietnam has a young population of more than 90 million people and a rapidly growing economy, and its current tariffs ranging up to 30 percent on U.S. peanuts and peanut products will be eliminated within eight years. Other TPP countries such as Malaysia and New Zealand will immediately eliminate all of their tariffs on U.S. peanuts and peanut products.

The U.S. Congress must now approve or reject the agreement and a vote is expected in the spring.

THE PEANUT FOUNDATION

The 2015 Advances in Arachis Genomics and Biotechnology (AAGB) conference was held in Brisbane, Australia from November 5-8. Steve Brown, Rich Wilson and Howard

Valentine represented The Peanut Foundation which served as a co-sponsor and funded most of the research presented. Researchers from all over the world presented informa-tion that confirms there is an organized consortium making real progress in peanut ge-nomics. The mood was positive and there was good discussion about where we should focus our efforts in the near future. Everyone agrees that we are close to having a work-ing genome for cultivated peanut. Refinement of that working model of the genome will continue for some time, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t begin to reap benefits from this research now. Indeed, we have already benefitted from genomic research. Nema-tode resistance is an excellent example of a peanut trait that we would not have without genomic research. That trait and many others will undoubtedly be improved in the fu-ture and the entire peanut industry will benefit from improved, non-GMO peanut culti-vars. Marker assisted breeding programs will still take years to deliver final products, but breeders will soon have the tools to utilize known genes and “stack” them into custom made cultivars that give the industry and the consumer what they want. At the AAGB we heard about peanut smut, a new and extremely dangerous peanut disease that is impact-ing Argentina. Researchers there have already successfully introduced resistance from a wild peanut species into cultivated peanut. The trait is still being tested in the field, but that kind of rapid response would not be possible without genomic research.

On December 8, in conjunction with the American Peanut Council winter meeting, re-searchers funded by The Peanut Foundation in 2015 will provide progress reports. Ev-eryone is welcome to attend. The Foundation Board of Directors will also hold a meeting at 5:00 that day. The Peanut Foundation strives to fund research that benefits the entire U.S. peanut industry. Please let us know what you think.

Steve Brown, Executive Director

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NUTRITION NEWS YOU CAN USE with Dr. Andrew Craig

The European Union’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) investigated the question of peanut oil in cosmetics and possible sensitisation leading to peanut allergy.

Having reviewed the evidence base, the SCCS found that there was no agreed or known safe threshold currently defined at which the skin of already peanut allergic people can safely be exposed to peanut proteins. It also concluded that there was insufficient data to define a safe level of skin exposure in the non-sensitised population.

Neither finding is really surprising. Such thresholds, however, were available for oral intake. So what the SCCS has decided is that in view of the documented safe levels of oral intake of peanut protein in sensitised individuals and in view of the industry’s capability to refine peanut oil below a protein level of 0.5 ppm, the SCCS can accept this value as maximum al-lowable concentration in (refined) peanut oil for cosmetic use.

This is a positive result and widens the potential safe uses of refined peanut oil (but obvious-ly not for cold pressed or crude oil which still has appreciable protein levels present). Based on this EU conclusion, there is no reason not to use refined peanut oil in cosmetics, though in the EU all peanut oil still has to be labelled as a potential allergen. It is significant that the EU expert body used the data for the oral threshold of peanut protein as its comparator to make its decision. This advances the possibility that this data may inform progress on thresholds for allergen labelling of foodstuffs.

Ref: European Commission, 2014. Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety. Opinion on Peanut Oil (sensitisation only) http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/consum-er_safety/docs/sccs_o_155.pdf

The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) meeting in Telford from September 4-6, 2015, had a number of interesting presentations involving peanuts –

particularly in the wake of the ground-breaking LEAP trial results announced earlier in the year. One of the most intriguing could give yet another twist to the complicated story of peanut allergy, especially the vexed question of food safety in ethnic restaurants when a customer requests a “peanut free” meal but still has an allergic reaction to it. Nuts, includ-ing peanuts and peanut butter, are widely used in the preparation of Indian meals but not all curries and other dishes contain nuts.

The conventional answer to why this sometimes happens revolves around poor commu-nications, lack of staff training, cross contamination in the kitchen and sometimes even fraudulent ingredient adulteration or substitution. These are all valid, but could there be another explanation in some cases? That’s what Dr. Prashantha Vaitla of Nottingham Uni-versity Hospitals NHS Trust in the UK set out to investigate in her study “Allergy to nut-free curry in peanut allergic individuals: Are chefs to be blamed for contamination or is there another cause in some?”

EU DECIDES REFINED PEANUT OIL IS SAFE TO USE IN COSMETICS

BSACI CONFERENCE HEARS ABOUT A POSSIBLE NEW TWIST ON PEANUT ALLERGY - FENUGREEK

APC Newsletter

MEMBER NEWS

BSACI CONFERENCE HEARS ABOUT A POSSIBLE NEW TWIST ON PEANUT ALLERGY - FENUGREEK, continued

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Interra International, Inc. and PS International, LTD, a subsidiary of Seaboard Corporation, have agreed to combine their respective businesses into one company. The resulting en-tity, Interra International, LLC, will include all of Interra’s meat and poultry businesses, as well as Interra Food Marketing, LLC, a subsidiary delivering consumer packaged goods to the US grocery industry, and PS International’s dairy, rice, sugar, protein and nut business units. The com-pany will serve the supply chain needs of processors, wholesalers, food service and retail customers in over 100 countries. Interra International, LLC begins operations November 2, 2015.

Dr. Vaitla presented the case of a 22 year old woman with a history of immediate allergic re-actions to Indian foods. She was allergic to peanuts from age 3. At age 15, she also developed a lupin allergy (lupin allergens are related to peanut ones). From age 16, she had allergic re-actions on consuming “nut-free” Indian foods. Skin prick testing with a commercial solution of curry mix was strongly positive. Of the spices in the curry mix, she tolerated coriander, turmeric, mustard, cumin, pepper, garlic, poppy seeds andcelery. The woman herself wondered if fenugreek, another of the curry mix spices, might be the culprit. The clinical team did a specific IgE test for this which turned out to be strongly positive to fenugreek, so the lady in question was indeed allergic to fenugreek.

What has this to do with peanuts? Dr Vaitla argued that this was a case of progressive de-velopment of allergy to various related legumes over the years. Fenugreek belonged to the legume family, but its main use was as a spice. It had wide applications, ranging from artifi-cial maple syrup, confectionery and baked goods. However, fenugreek was not on the Food Standards Agency regulatory list of fourteen allergens which must be labelled, which meant it could be – unintentionally - a hidden allergen.

The published literature on fenugreek allergy is limited, with majority of cases identified through the Norwegian Food Allergy Register. But Dr Vaitla pointed out that potential fenu-greek allergens (Tri f1, Tri f3, Tri f2 and Tri f4) are homologous to peanut allergens Ara h1, h2, h3,h4, h6, h7 and h8 with potential for high risk of cross reactivity. This is the same phenom-enon seen with lupin allergens and major peanut allergens.

This case illustrates the need to suspect fenugreek allergy in peanut allergic individuals ex-periencing reactions despite avoiding peanuts, especially if having reactions to Indian foods which are “nut free”. In some cases, it may not be the fault of the chefs at all. So is it time for fenugreek to be added to the EU’s “List of 14 allergens”? It would be interesting to hear the views of food allergy organisations on this new twist in the story.

Ref: BSACI Annual Meeting 2015, Abstract P.28 http://bsacimeeting.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/bsaci_abstracts_full_text.pdf

INTERRA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND PS INTERNATIONAL, LTD, COMBINE THEIR RESPECTIVE BUSINESSES

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“This is a truly exciting opportunity to bring to-gether two successful and recognized companies creating one dynamic organization,” says Stephen Isaf, Interra’s CEO. “Interra has been planning for diversification of commodity and service offer-ings to better serve its business partners. We are very fortunate to have found the right partner in PS International to realize these goals.”

“Bringing two companies together which share the same values and focus on the same priorities of satisfying customer needs is an exciting prospect for us. Combining comple-mentary strengths and an expanded portfolio of products will give us additional scale and reach into the marketplace. We are thrilled to be partnering with Steve Isaf and the entire Interra team,” says Dave Dannov, CEO of Seaboard Overseas Group, the reporting division of PS International.

Background:PS International, LTD, is a subsidiary of Seaboard Corporation, a diversified conglomerate that operates agricultural and ocean transportation businesses worldwide. PS International operates as a trader and marketer of dairy, grains, pulses, edible oils, sugar, rice and nuts. PS International will continue to operate the pulse, grains and edible oils business units, which will not be contributed to the combined entity.

Interra International, Inc. is a multinational food trading and distribution company fulfill-ing the supply chain needs of partners in 85 countries. Interra’s commodity business unit primarily focuses on pork, chicken, turkey, beef and sugar. Interra Food Marketing, LLC, a subsidiary, provides the largest retail grocers with a managed supply chain delivering high quality consumer packaged goods. All of Interra’s businesses will be contributed to the combined entity.

November 2015Page 10 INTERRA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND PS INTERNATIONAL, LTD, COMBINE

THEIR RESPECTIVE BUSINESSES

NEW MEMBER: PISTON TANK CORPORATION

Piston Tank Corporation combines over 110 years experience in the moving of viscous materials, and is the leader in the industry with its patented tech-nology. When it comes to moving peanut butter in bulk, no other company is better equipped to do so!

Piston Tank Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Schilli Corporation located in St. Louis, Missouri. Our mission is to service the transportation needs of viscous material producers and users.

Piston Tank Corporation offers various lease options and programs. Our reach is world-wide with Piston Tank Trailers currently operating in North America, Europe and Asia. Pis-ton Tank Corporation can be contacted at 636-717-2653 or at sales@pistontank.com.

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AMERICAN PEANUT COUNCIL: The Movie

Stay tuned here in the days leading up to our anniversary celebration for previews of our 75th Anniversary video,

which will be a featured presentation at the Winter Conference in Atlanta this December.

Click here to Play

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APC THANKS ITS WINTER CONFERENCE SPONSORS

National Peanut Board