Purchasing Association of Private Clubs

The Convenience of Accepting Electronic Payments

Accepting electronic payments is an essential way of managing a successful business in today’s environment. Not only can it streamline cash flow, it will also ensure you are able to accept all forms of payment, removing any limitations or inconvenience to a customer.

PAPC’s partnership with National Processing Company (NPC) is in an effort to provide all PAPC members with a sophisticated, reputable, cost-friendly program, exclusively priced for PAPC members. Those payment forms primarily encompass credit & debit cards and checks.

There are many ways to accept payments. The most economical and least risky is through a face-to-face transaction where you are able to swipe a card and receive the merchant’s signature at the time of sale. Another popular method is when your customer submits payment via telephone or mail. The majority of the time, your products and/or services have already been provided and you are anxious to receive your money. Should your business not offer electronic payment acceptance, you are limiting your customers to only paying by paper check or cash. Businesses offering payment by credit card typically receive their monies in a quicker time period, as it is a convenience to the customer.

A third popular method is to allow payments to be made via your website, through an online gateway. All methods have unique benefits, dependent upon your environment.

Many merchants find that a terminal device works effectively when the customer pays in a face-to-face environment, as well as by payment over the phone, where the transaction can be key-entered into the terminal. NPC offers an array of terminal devices, all customizable to fit your business needs.

Additionally, with technological advances over the last several years, payments can be accepted & processed through your PC or MAC by simply using software or an online gateway, which a large number of merchants find is a better method for managing payments. Using an online gateway provides many benefits to you. Unlike using a terminal device at the counter, online gateways offer recurring payment features, where you can setup customers on scheduled payment cycles, automatically collecting payments from their credit card or bank account on a routine cycle, based on the schedule you agree to with your customer. The gateway solution handles all the administrative work, allowing you more time to manage your business operations.

NPC offers a gateway solution, NPC Secure, which is a web-based payment application enabling merchants and other business types to process & manage payments accepted face-to-face, over-the-phone, and transactions via the web if you chose to allow customers to go to your website to pay.

Regardless of the solution that best fits your payment acceptance needs; NPC has a dedicated team to assist you in ensuring you are being effective and efficient at handling electronic payments, as well as processing in a cost-effective way.

PAPC has teamed with NPC to provide low-cost credit card and payment processing solutions. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, NPC has longevity and experience in the payments industry and provides services to more than 420,000 businesses. Partner with NPC and feel confident with an experienced payment processor!

Materials that Will Impact the Pricing of Lighting Products

Recently, rare earth materials (17 elements that are mined from the ground) have become an important worldwide concern. Rare earths are widely used in energy and lighting technologies -- any type of fluorescent lighting. They are currently undergoing extreme cost increases due to unprecedented market forces. In less than 12 months, the costs of some rare earth materials used in lighting products have experienced increases ranging from 500 percent to more than 2,000 percent, and they continue to climb. Pricing into the units will begin to show in the cost of lamps by Sept 1, 2011.

Our key vendor partner, General Electric, is now proactively providing tools to learn more about rare earth materials. To learn more about how rare earth elements impact lighting, frequently asked questions, and GE’s point of view, visit:

http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/education_resources/rare-earth-elements/.

This article was provided by PAPC partner Entegra. We have partnered with this company to provide you with customized procurement and distribution services for food and related supplies. With more than $3 billion in food and related supply purchases in the U.S. alone, PAPC/Entegra can provide competitive pricing, extensive product selection, leading brands and responsive service to the customers we service throughout the country.

Ants: More Than a Nuisance Pest
By Karen Voracek, Ecolab Pest Elimination

You may notice an ant or two inside your facility, stomp them out and then go back to work. But ants are a significant issue. Because of their potential to damage your business and guest satisfaction, ants should be handled with the same level of importance as any other pest issue.

The Problem
Ants are social insects. They live in colonies usually in the ground and enter your facility looking for shelter or food. If they make their way indoors, they are typically looking for sweets and/or protein-containing substances. Once an ant finds food, it lays down a scent so other ants can follow the trail back to the food source.

With their potential to bite, sting and contaminate food, ants are more than a nuisance. Ants can seriously jeopardize your business. Ants can cause costly damage to your facility and jeopardize food safety. Also, because customers view ants as a sign of unsanitary conditions, they can jeopardize your reputation.

The Solution
The best way to protect your business is by taking proactive measures to keep ants out. By sealing off possible routes of entry such as openings around pipes, window and door frames and other cracks and crevices, you limit the opportunities for ants to gain access to your facility. Also, removing bushes, plants, flowers and other landscaping which are up against your facility helps prevent harborage sites from forming.

If you notice ants in your facility, contact your pest management company. Your pest management service provider will provide a thorough inspection outside and inside your facility to locate nests and entry points. They can also identify the specific species of ants so that proper preventive measures and treatment plans are taken. You and your pest management provider can discuss additional measures to take to keep ants out such as:

• Proper sanitation to remove food sources
• Removal of plants attractive to ants (nectar producers)
• Changing landscaping to discourage ants
• Reducing sources of moisture such as dense vegetation

Ant issues are not easy to eliminate without partnering with your pest management provider. Depending on the species of ant, different prevention and treatment plans may be required to keep these pests from damaging your facility and harming your reputation. But, working together, you can keep your facility pest-free.

This article was provided by PAPC partner Ecolab. With sales of $6 billion and more than 26,000 associates, Ecolab is the global leader in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection prevention products and services.

Food Safety Q&A: Part Two

How will changes in the 2009 FDA Model Food Code affect your operation's cleaning and sanitation procedures? Check out the following scenarios and see the correct responses according to the new requirements:

Scenario #1: A party of 2 is seated at a restaurant table preset for 4 persons. They order their food; the extra place settings remain there for the duration of the meal. Is this sanitary?

2009 Food Code: No. Preset table items must be removed if not to be used by the party, or if not removed, they must be cleaned and sanitized before use.

Scenario #2: You wash your hands in the restroom and the air dryer blows out cool air to dry your hands. Is this safe?

2009 Food Code: Yes. "Cool air" hand dryers are now approved.

Scenario #3: You have mop water (or other material) that needs to be disposed of and you don't want to use the service sink. You use the toilet or urinal to dispose of this material. Is this allowed?

2009 Food Code: No. Urinals and toilets cannot be used as "Service sinks."

Scenario #4: Your establishment has some rodent droppings and you've noticed some cockroaches in the past. But the current Food Code doesn't say anything about establishments having to be "pest free." Are you okay?

2009 Food Code: No. The food code now specifies that establishments must be "pest free."

Some might question the need to spell out these changes in the Food Code — aren't these good practices obvious? One food safety professional raised this very point in a national listserv. "Is it really necessary to specify in the food code that urinals and toilets may not be used as service sinks?" he asked. Responded one colleague, "Unfortunately, yes."

This article was provided by PAPC partner Ecolab. With sales of $6 billion and more than 26,000 associates, Ecolab is the global leader in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection prevention products and services.

Food Safety Q&A

Q: How should I handle a customer who complains that they got sick from a meal they ate at my restaurant and how do I know if it was even my food that made them sick?

A: It may not be. Always treat the customer with respect, and gather as much information as you can, including their name and phone number, types of foods that they ate, date of the meal and the date they got sick. If 2 or more unrelated persons experienced the same symptoms after eating the same foods, it would be considered an outbreak. If the local health department receives complaints of an outbreak nature, they will most likely do an investigation to identify the cause and any information you collected could be helpful. Keep in mind that it often takes time for symptoms to develop in case of an infection - this person's illness might be from something that was eaten days earlier at a different establishment or even at home.

Q: What does the term "zero tolerance" mean, regarding bacteria?

A: This term means that there is no acceptable bacterial count in this product, and any presence of bacteria is considered an adulteration. USDA currently maintains a "zero tolerance" policy for visible fecal contamination on poultry carcasses and listeria monocytogenes in certain ready-to-eat foods; FDA retains a zero tolerance policy for E.coli in bottled water.

Q: Where can I get information on recent recalls of products?

A: FDA posts information on products recalled due to contamination, adulteration, or undeclared allergens, including press releases of recent voluntary recalls.
Visit: www.fda.gov/safety/recalls/ucm254548.htm

Q: What is the labeling requirement for food allergens by manufacturers?

A: In 2006, FDA instituted FALCPA (Food Allergen Labeling Consumer Protection Act,) requiring manufacturers to include the 8 major allergens to be listed on an ingredient label. These 8 foods are: eggs, dairy, soy, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish. Allergens must have their simple name listed in parentheses after the ingredient, or in a "contains statement" at the end of the list.

Striving for Safety

An overview of America’s sweeping new food-safety mandate

In early 2011, a shipment of frozen fish coming into New York from overseas set off an alert in a new technology system operated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), revealing that the importer had previously violated U.S. food-safety standards. The shipment turned out to be contaminated with Salmonella bacteria and was blocked from U.S. commerce.

Increased ability to target such high-risk imports is just one of the powers granted to the FDA by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law by President Obama on Jan. 4, 2011. FSMA shifts the focus of federal regulators from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it. The new law expands the reach and regulatory powers of the FDA, which oversees production of all food products except meat, poultry and dairy—these products fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Our food-safety system hadn’t had a significant facelift for decades,” says Dan Roehl, Public Affairs Specialist and spokesman for the National Restaurant Association (NRA), which advised Congress on FSMA. “It was originally created to improve sanitation. A lot of those issues have been addressed, and today we’re looking at pathogens.”

Highlights of the new law include:

More Inspections. The FDA must increase the frequency of its inspections of registered facilities, both domestic and overseas. Inspections will be based on risk, with foods and facilities that pose a greater risk to food safety getting the most attention.
Mandatory Recalls. For the first time, the FDA now has the power to issue mandatory food recalls.

Produce Standards. FSMA gives the FDA about two years to set nationwide science-based standards for safely producing and harvesting fresh produce.

Tracing Products. The FDA must create a pilot system to trace products as they move through the supply chain, to ensure that contaminated products can be rapidly located and recalled.

Imported Foods. The U.S. currently imports foods from more than 150 countries and 300,000 foreign facilities. The FDA has new tools to ensure that those imported foods meet U.S. standards.

Above and Beyond
The food-safety standards set by entegra and its distributors are in line with current and anticipated new federal regulations, says Mike Dunn, entegra’s Director of Product Quality Assurance.

For instance, he says, entegra requires annual third-party inspections and/or certification for high-risk suppliers, which meets the requirements of the new FSMA inspection schedule. Additionally, entegra’s offshore manufacturers and distributors undergo the same third-party inspections and/or certification process.

In short, entegra does not rely on the minimum standards of regulatory law. “Our objective is to provide a safe food product that continuously meets and exceeds the expectations of our customers and clients,” says Dunn.