April 2017CONTENT LINKS:

PROGRESS ON CODEX RTE PROPOSAL

BLANCHED PEANUT TARIFF CODE ISSUE

ADVERTISE IN THE APC NEWSLETTER

CANADA CONTINUES ITS LOVE AFFAIR WITH U.S. PEANUTS

FOOD SAFETY UPDATEFDA COOPERATION

PREVENTIVE CONTROLS COURSE FOR NUT PROCESSORS, JULY 18-20, UGA

2018 INTERNATIONAL PEANUT FORUM - OPPORTUNITIES TO SPONSOR, ADVERTISE & EXHIBIT

NPB REPRESENTS GROWERS AT INTERNATIONAL PEANUT GENOMICS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

NATIONAL PEANUT BOARD APPROVESNEW STRATEGIC PLAN, BRAND MARK

49TH APRES ANNUAL MEETING TO BE HELD JULY 11-13, 2017 IN ALBUQUERQUE, NM GEORGIA PEANUT COMMISSION RELEASES VIDEO SERIES “THROUGH THE EYES OF A FARMER”

NUTRITION NEWS YOU CAN USE - DR. ANDREW CRAIG

PEANUTS AND HEALTHY ARTERIES

THE PEANUT FOUNDATION - STEVE BROWN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

BLANCHED PEANUT TARIFF CODE ISSUE

PROGRESS ON CODEX RTE PROPOSAL

APC staff met with the attorneys from Customs and Border Protection in Washington who rep-resent the United States at the World Customs Organization. The WCO erroneously voted last September to create a blanched peanut tariff code and put it under Chapter 20 (20.08) of the Harmonized Tariff Code which is reserved for processed goods rather than under Chapter 12 (12.02) which is for raw products. The result of this action is that blanched peanuts, which are in fact raw and not processed (roasted), will then be subject to import duties in many countries, including the EU. We have worked hard since to reverse this action, including help to get five countries to submit objections to the WCO. Ironically, our own government voted against our known industry position since it classifies peanuts under its own HS tariff code as processed and under Chapter 20 and was statutorily required to vote for Chapter 20 classification. CBP

cannot change the U.S. code until the WCO acts to move blanched peanuts to Chapter 12, but they are working with us to influence other countries to vote in favor of classifying blanched peanuts under Chapter 12 where they should be. Fortunately, the EU is in favor of the U.S. position and we are working with various EU trade groups and peanut pro-ducing countries, including the collection of technical data, to make the case to reverse this bad decision at the next meeting in September.

The Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF) met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil recently. One of the issues on the agenda was the establishment of a Ready to Eat (RTE) aflatoxin standard. Currently there is no standard for RTE, only a standard of 15 PPB for peanuts “destined for further processing” which means additional pro-cessing to reduce aflatoxin. Originally, the Indians had proposed an RTE level of 10 PPB, but after the release of the risk assess-ment (requested by APC) which showed no health benefit below 15 PPB, they and Codex changed their recommendation. Working through our U.S. Government Codex dele-gation, coalitions, and direct contact with our peanut industry counterparts in other countries, the U.S., Canada, Japan, and some African and Asian countries supported the level of 15 PPB while the EU and some Latin American countries opposed it. Because of various outstanding questions from some members, the issue has been referred for further study. We will continue to work to influence the upcoming comment letter and bring more countries on board prior to the next vote on this issue.

In 2016, China became the top export destination for U.S. peanuts, a spot held by Canada for many years. However, exports to Canada have continued to grow; increasing 7% over 2015 to a record 118,937 metric tons for all peanut products, maintaining its importance as a top export destination. APC con-tinues to promote U.S. peanuts in Canada, not only by communicating with consumers through social media and influencers (such as dieticians), but has also by partnering with the retail trade to encourage

CANADA CONTINUES ITS LOVE AFFAIR WITH U.S. PEANUTS

ADVERTISE IN THE APC NEWSLETTER

tomra.com/foodfood.us@tomra.com

DISCOVER TOMRA’S AFLATOXIN SORTINGSOLUTIONS FOR THE PEANUT INDUSTRY

Advertising opportunities are available in APC’s monthy newsletter. Don’t miss your chance to gain more exposure to the industry marketplace. For just $60 per issue or $500 for the entire year (that’s 11 issues), you can have a half page advertisment in APC’s monthly newsletter. Also, if you so choose, we can link your ad back to your company’s website. For more information, please contact Christina Tay-lor at ctaylor@peanutsusa.com or (703) 838-9500.

CANADA CONTINUES ITS LOVEAFFAIR WITH U.S. PEANUTS (continued)

FDA COOPERATION

PREVENTIVE CONTROLS COURSE FOR NUT PROCESSORS, JULY 18-20, UGA

FOOD SAFETY UPDATE

tomra.com/foodfood.us@tomra.com

DISCOVER TOMRA’S AFLATOXIN SORTINGSOLUTIONS FOR THE PEANUT INDUSTRY

more sales of pea-nuts and peanut butter.

Using incentives for in-store ads, APC encourag-es retailers in Canada to buy U.S. inshells. More ads mean more sales and In-shell exports to Canada were up 25% in 2016, a year when

inshell exports were down elsewhere in the world. In

2017, APC added activities to promote private label peanut butter at retail as well. Thirty-four major food retailers featured peanut butter for 7 weeks or more during the first quarter of the year. Though sales data for 2017 is not yet available, Nielsen research commissioned by APC shows that peanut butter sales inside Canada topped $235 million in 2016, a 3% increase from the year prior. Smooth peanut butter remains the favorite, with 69% share, but crunchy preference is grow-ing. Canada is the number one export market for processed peanut butter. Kraft remains the most popular brand in Canada, but Jif re-entered the market after a few years’ hiatus in 2017 and has already seen success as the products are being added to shelves nationwide. APC will continue to promote peanuts using USDA/MAP funds through the rest of the year.

APC continues its food safety efforts and facilitat-ed a visit by top FDA officials from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), Office of Food Safety, to visit a peanut shelling plant and peanut butter processing facility last week as part of their efforts to learn more about the nut industry and its unique approaches to food safety. It is The Office of Food Safety that has written the FSMA regulations that are now being phased in and are responsible for issuing guidances and interpretations on all manner of food safety issues. We were happy to have the opportunity to showcase our industry’s strong food safety practices.

Does your company have someone on staff who is PCQI certified overseeing your food safety manage-ment? Do you have new operations staff that need food safety management training designed specifically for the nut industry? APC in cooperation with the University of Georgia Department of Food Science & Technology is co-sponsoring the annual Preventive Con-trols Course for Nut Processors, July 18-20 at the UGA campus in Athens. APC Members and three or more participants from the same company get a discount. For more information on the course, including registra-tion, please go to: https://estore.uga.edu/C27063_us-tores/web/store_cat.jsp?STOREID=42&CATID=183

Make sure your company com-plies with the new FSMA regula-tions and has a PCQI on staff.

2018 INTERNATIONAL PEANUT FORUM - OPPORTUNITIES TO SPONSOR, ADVERTISE & EXHIBIT

Plans are underway for the International Peanut Forum (IPF), to be held at the Hilton Hotel, Athens, Greece, April 11-13, 2018.

If you would like to promote your company/services to the world’s peanut industry, you might want to consider spon-soring, advertising or exhibiting at the 2018 IPF – the ONLY dedicated conference for the worldwide peanut indus-try. Details of the opportunities are available here. These items will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, so if you are interested, please complete the form included in the brochure and return it to me by e-mail as soon as possible to secure your booking. We are inviting sponsorship early so that sponsors’ logos can be included on all 2018 IPF mailings, the first of which will be sent out this May inviting delegates to take advantage of the ‘Early Bird’ registration fee and providing a link through which to book their hotel accommodation.

We know that some companies like to book rooms for private meetings during the Forum. We have negotiated a daily rate of €450 (ex tax) for April 12-13 for the hotel’s Santorini meeting rooms. The hotel is keeping these rooms for us until 31st May 2017. If you are interesting in hiring one of these meeting rooms please let Louise McKerchar, lmckerchar@peanutsusa.org.uk, know as soon as possible and she will put you in direct contact with the correct person at the hotel. If you would like to see the layout/dimensions/capacities of these meetings rooms you can do so at http://www.cvent.com/rfp/athens-hotels/hilton-athens/venue-d242290ffbd8412aa5f72511e0bfdfee.aspx Please note that there is no direct access to Santorini rooms 4 & 5, access is only available via Santorini 6.

If you have not attended an IPF event recently, you may wish to view a short video on the 2016 Forum, which is available at http://www.peanutsusa.com/industry-topics-events/international-peanut-forum.html

NATIONAL PEANUT BOARD APPROVES NEW STRATEGIC PLAN, BRAND MARK

NPB REPRESENTS GROWERS AT INTER-NATIONAL PEANUT GENOMICS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

Per capita peanut consumption is at an all-time high. Groundbreaking research is providing hope for millions everywhere, after years of a steady drumbeat of negative peanut allergy news. Overall, the future looks bright for peanut growers and the entire industry.

The International Conference of the Peanut Research Com-munity was held mid-March in Cordoba, Argentina. Dan Ward, NPB member (N.C.) and chair of the research com-mittee; along with Bob Parker, NPB president and CEO, attended the conference to support the board’s research commitment to the International Peanut Genome Initiative (IPGI). NPB has allocated $400,000 per year since 2012 to peanut genome research as part of an industrywide funding effort for IPGI.

“I am always amazed at the high-quality and level of expertise I see displayed by researchers who work on peanuts,” said Ward. “My reason for going to Argentina was to interact with those geneticists, plant breeders and researchers so they know they have the face of a grower to associate with the projects they work on for peanuts. I’m confident our grower funds are being well-utilized and there is no better investment we could be making.”

The international conference fosters scientific exchange between members of the international peanut research community and strengthens collaboration among scientists who study peanut genome structure and function. The pro-ceedings will be published in an annual report.

Overall, National Peanut Board has allocated more than $29 million to production research projects since 2001.

To make sure that positive momentum continues into the future – and to keep growers prepared for potential challenges that could arise – the National Peanut Board approved a new strategic plan at its quarterly meeting April 5-6 in Starkville, Miss. The plan establishes mea-surable goals and strategies for the organization’s work through the end of FY20 in October 2020, and ensures it focuses on the most important opportunities and needs ahead. Led by Andy Bell, Georgia’s representative to the board, the committee has been working together since late 2016 to develop the plan.

“If you remember nothing else about the new strategic plan, remember this: the National Peanut Board exists to improve the economic conditions for peanut farmers and their families,” said Ed White, NPB board chair and Al-abama grower. “Grower economics has always been our focus. But we took this opportunity to revise our mission statement so it is as measurable and strong as it can be.”

With a new mission statement in place, the strategic planning committee updated NPB’s values and guiding principles. Those values all point to continuing to find innovative ways to grow a wholesome, healthy and sus-tainable product to feed a growing planet and operating with openness and transparency.

“At the end of the day, we’ll know we’ve been successful when people are thinking about peanuts differently, talking about peanuts positively and engaging with peanuts more often,” Bell explained. “Ultimately, they’ll be buying more peanuts overall – and the per capita con-sumption will move from 7.4 pounds today to 8.0 pounds at the end of 2020.”

Bell added that to reach the per capita goal, the board will focus on five key strategies: (1) increasing peanut relevance among millennials, (2) maximizing the value of production research dollars, (3) removing barriers to consumption and advancing food allergy progress, (4) increasing understanding of the board’s value among all growers and (5) expanding exports through targeted opportunities.

To see the strategic plan, visit here.

49TH APRES ANNUAL MEETING TO BE HELD JULY 11-13, 2017 IN ALBUQUERQUE, NM

GEORGIA PEANUT COMMISSION RELEASES VIDEO SERIES “THROUGH THE EYES OF A FARMER”

APRES President Corley Holbrook, Program Chair-man Pete Dotray, Technical Program Chairman Todd Baughman, Local Arrangements Chairman Gary Schwarloze invite you to attend the 2017 APRES Annual Meeting. The 49th meeting of the Society will be in Albuquerque, NM at the historic Hotel Albuquerque, near the heart of Old Town. Planning for this year’s meeting has been underway for several months and the Committee is putting the finishing touches together.

Registration Info:Members can register on-line for the discounted rate of $250 until June 15, 2017. Your registration includes access to all general sessions, technical sessions, com-mittee meeting, and planned activities (ice cream social, receptions, meals, fun run). The registration also includes passes to these functions for your spouse or significant other and your children.

Non-members can get all the benefits of APRES membership by joining APRES for $100 and (early bird) register for $250…… the same price as register-ing as a non-member, plus you get all the perks of being an APRES member.

Complete meeting details can be found here.

Tim McMillan, farmer from Enigma, Georgia. McMil-lan is a seventh-generation family farmer from Berrien County, Georgia. He farms with his brother, Steve, and their farm is a typical diversified row crop farm with peanuts, cotton, cows, timber and some specialty crops.

Donald Chase, farmer from Oglethorpe, Georgia. He farms with his dad, Glen Lee, and their farm consists of peanuts, corn and poultry.

Through the Eyes of a Farmer is a video series that visits with Georgia’s hard working peanut farmers.

Look for these videos and more in the series on the Georgia Peanuts Facebook page or the Georgia Peanut Commission YouTube page.

Be sure to share it with your friends and use the hashtags - #throughtheeyesofafarmer and #farmer-watch.

PEANUTS AND HEALTHY ARTERIESThere’s more truth than you might think in the old saying “you’re only as healthy as your blood vessels”. A recent clinical intervention study (randomised crossover trial) conducted at Penn State University and supported by The Peanut Institute and other funding bodies high-lighted this in a dramatic way by linking healthy arteries with peanut consumption. Fifteen men (age range 20 – 65) who were all over-weight/obese (BMI range 28 – 31), but otherwise healthy, consumed a “peanut shake” meal containing 85grams (3 ounces, about 1200 calories) of ground peanuts including peanut skins, or an alternative non-peanut shake, matched for macro-nutrient profile, in a randomised fashion This was repeated after a seven day interval. The results of blood samples and other measurements taken from each participant were then compared. What the researchers found in this small but robust study has important implications for health risk reduc-tion in this group of men. They looked at two things: the effect of the peanut and non-peanut meals on blood fat levels (postprandial lipids especially triglycerides) and the meals’ effect on the dilation and degree of stiff-ening of blood vessels (endothelial function). They also

NUTRITION NEWS YOU CAN USE:

Dr. Andrew Craig

measured glucose and insulin levels in all participants. The different effect on triglycerides which they observed was particularly important because other research has shown that rises in the level of these blood lipids sever-al hours after eating are an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease and are linked with increased risk of atherosclerosis and ischaemic stroke. The import-ant finding was that the peanut meals blunted the rise in triglycerides several hours later compared with the non-peanut control meals. The researchers found that “acute peanut consumption attenuated postprandial TG responses (31.9% reduction in TG iAUC) compared with a calorie and macronutrient-matched control meal.” Help-ing to stem triglyceride rises is important in this group of overweight men because many of them would have ab-normal baseline lipid levels to begin with which put them at higher risk of heart disease. So in that sense the peanut meals became cardioprotective. The second big factor investigated after the consumption of the peanut and non-peanut meals was endothelial function, meaning how dilated or constricted blood vessels became after eating. This was assessed by high-frequen-cy ultrasound imaging of the brachial artery in the right arm which is a standard procedure to measure endotheli-al function. It is well established that endothelial dysfunc-tion is a precursor for atherosclerosis and an independent predictor of cardiac events. What the investigators found was that four hours after consuming the non-peanut meal, there was a significant constriction and stiffening of the brachial artery, but that the peanut meal had no such effect in the men consum-ing it. Their brachial artery remained normally dilated and elastic, thus conferring an element of cardiovascular risk reduction. The investigators believed that the nature of peanut protein may be the key to this. Protein is abun-dant in peanuts - 25% by weight - and rich in the amino acid arginine (more than any other nut) which is involved in the body’s synthesis of nitric oxide. Together with other bioactives like polyphenols in the peanut skins, this con-tributes to damping down inflammation in blood vessels and maintaining the dilation of the endothelial cells lining blood vessels. But more work is now needed to confirm how this mechanism might actually operate.

In summary, the authors of this important study said: “In the present study, the consumption of a high-fat control meal significantly decreased en-dothelial function, whereas it was maintained af-ter the consumption of a macronutrient-matched meal with peanuts, and was accompanied by a blunted postprandial TG response.” Taken together, that is a good news message which is as simple as eating peanuts. Ref: Liu, X (2017). “Acute Peanut Consumption Alters Postprandial Lipids and Vascular Re-sponses in Healthy Overweight or Obese Men.” Journal of Nutrition published online ahead of print. A PDF of the study can be downloaded free at http://jn.nutrition.org/content/ear-ly/2017/03/29/jn.116.246785.full.pdf+html .

A media release “Eating peanuts may lead to supple arteries and healthy hearts” from Penn State University is at http://news.psu.edu/sto-ry/458500/2017/03/29/eating-peanuts-may-lead-supple-arteries-and-healthy-hearts

THE PEANUT FOUNDATION - STEVE BROWN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

After a career of research and education (and admin-istration of research and education), I assumed the role of Executive Director of The Peanut Foundation in Jan-uary of 2015. I think I have a pretty good perspective on the value of research and how research is funded. So, when you hear me say that the research funded by the Foundation is of the highest quality and value to the peanut industry, I hope you realize that is not just a biased, self-serving opinion. Rather than simply rely-ing on universities and USDA to fund the research we need, the peanut industry has chosen to fund their own research through the Foundation, the Peanut Institute, grower organizations, and other entities. That will-ingness to have skin in the game has helped us make government more willing to support peanut research and leverage our money. Just this month, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) released a call for research proposals that will be funded through a cost sharing program with the National Peanut Board, in which the Foundation participates. What a great way to maximize our efforts!

The Peanut Foundation is approaching a funding crossroad. Thanks to widespread industry support, we have been working on the Peanut Genome Initiative (PGI) through a five-year funding commitment. That program has been a huge success, but by the end of the year, the funding commitment expires. The PGI has laid the foundation for advanced breeding techniques that promise to deliver amazing new varieties, but there is more to do. We’re already working on a final PGI re-port that will outline the phenomenal accomplishments of the past five years and where we stand going into the future of marker assisted breeding (MAS). What is the future role of the Peanut Foundation? Many of you will soon get a letter asking your company or organi-zation to consider a funding commitment beyond the previous five-year PGI project. The Foundation Board of Directors and I see a huge return on investment from peanut research for all segments of the industry. I hope you do as well. As always, let me know if you have questions.