[avatar user=”chrislamond” size=”160″ align=”left”]Chris Lamond
Consultant for IPIA[/avatar]

[avatar user=”dannades” size=”160″ align=”left”]Dan Ades
Public Affairs Committee Chair[/avatar]

How Will the Trump Administration’s View of Government Regulation Impact the IPIA?

The title of this article poses a question that is critical to the success of the IPIA’s Public Affairs program. As you will recall from the last edition, I listed the IPIA’s public affairs goals for 2017. At the top of the list was our goal to improve the regulatory structure in which all packaged ice is produced. But what does that mean?

Some in the packaged ice industry have mistaken our goal for stronger federal regulations for packaged ice would mean a greater burden on IPIA members. That, as our President may say, is “Fake News.” In fact, the truth is consistent standards for wholesalers and retailers is our goal. FSMA of which the IPIA had no part in advocating for has now impacted all packaged ice wholesalers, IPIA members AND Non-members and our efforts will focus on consistent oversight. The federal regulations we are working towards are specifically designed to hit the “backroom baggers” not IPIA members. Moreover, our efforts as mentioned are focused on more oversight (not as much new regulations) over the retail community and the FSMA bound wholesale environment.

With that background in place, we are certainly operating in a different regulatory environment with the Trump Administration. In fact, the President has already created an executive order requiring that for every one new regulation imposed by his Administration, two must be removed. This will have an impact on our strategy, for sure, but the facts are on our side and shining a brighter light on the retail/backroom baggers is the right policy to pursue and when we meet with the new Food and Drug Administration officials, I am hopeful they will see it our way.

Confidential IPIA Survey Underway

In an effort to better understand the IPIA’s positioning within the packaged ice industry and in response to inquiries over the years regarding the financial footprint of the overall industry, we are asking IPIA members to complete a brief confidential survey that will allow us to create a more accurate picture of the industry. We are utilizing Survey Monkey to make the survey as easy as possible to complete and to ensure confidentiality for all members.

To maintain confidentiality, I alone will administer and record the results of the survey. The results will be reported to the Board of Directors and Executive Director of the IPIA without attribution from specific companies.

The progress we have made within the food safety community (at the Conference for Food Protection, FDA and Congress) has created many more opportunities to discuss our concerns over non-PICQS-produced ice and it is important that the facts we provide are accurate. Being able to more accurately report this information will have numerous benefits, including:

• Protecting the IPIA’s credibility – this will allow us to more accurately report the IPIA’s presence in the package ice industry, and
• It will allow us to track industry trends before they impact our members

I am looking forward to sharing the results with everyone and I appreciate everyone’s participation in this important endeavor.