ACH Food Companies, Inc., B-286794, February 12, 2001

B-286794 Feb 12, 2001 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Solicitation requirement that a specific manufacturing process be used and that the product being delivered be a commercially-labeled product and have a history of successful distribution. Consumer acceptance in domestic commercial channels is not unduly restrictive where record demonstrates that the requirements reasonably reflect agency needs to obtain product acceptable to cereal recipients. Rice crisps) and the requirement that vendors provide commercially-labeled products that have a history of successful distribution and use in domestic commercial channels. /1/ We deny the protest. The FNS domestic feeding programs that use the cereals are the Commodity Supplemental Feeding Program. View Decision Matter of: ACH Food Companies, Inc. File: B-286794 Date: February 12, 2001 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION ACH Food Companies, Inc. protests the terms of invitation for offers No. 550, issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This invitation seeks offers subject to the terms and conditions of Fortified Cereals Announcement FC6, as amended, for the purchase of ready-to-eat (RTE) fortified cereals for use in the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) domestic feeding programs. The protester objects to the prohibition on the use of the expanded/extruded manufacturing/cooking process for certain cereals (corn flakes, bran flakes, and rice crisps) and the requirement that vendors provide commercially-labeled products that have a history of successful distribution and use in domestic commercial channels. /1/ We deny the protest. The FNS domestic feeding programs that use the cereals are the Commodity Supplemental Feeding Program, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations. Contracting Officer's (CO) Statement at 1. These programs provide food for all age groups, from the very young to the elderly. The types of cereals currently purchased for these programs are corn flakes, corn squares, crisp rice, oat circles, and wheat bran flakes. Invitations requesting offers for the cereals have been issued every 3 months since October 4, 1996, with the option to furnish the product in either a USDA-labeled package or a commercially-labeled package. Id. The agency reports that since early 1999, it has received complaints that the protester's cereal was hard, did not soften in milk, and tasted bland. Id. at 2. Due to the complaints, the agency evaluated all cereal products provided under the feeding programs for feedback and participant acceptability. Id. at 3. The agency conducted a review of the complaints, and issued a report, "Review of Ready-To-Eat Cereals Procured for Domestic Household Food Assistance Programs, Summer 2000" (referred to in the record as the Ramsey Report). This report reviewed the complaints and verified that there was a "significant level of dissatisfaction with some of the cereal provided, in particular [ACH's] product." AR, Tab 8, Ramsey Report at 11. Among the report's recommendations was that the agency require that "only commercial labeling be allowed for RTE cereals. This simple step would change the perception that commodity cereals are somehow different or lesser quality than cereal in the retail grocery stores." Id. The agency also evaluated the requirements of Announcement FC6 and conducted market research. CO Statement at 3. The agency subsequently decided to specify the technical manufacturing process known as the "batch process" in the solicitation because this change to the specifications would address the hardness and other cereal quality issues associated with ACH's products. The agency's conclusion was based on information on cereal manufacturing processes contained on an Internet site of a professor from Cornell University's Department of Food Science. As relevant here, the site discusses the extrusion and batch processing methods for producing cereals and states as follows: It appears that at present the continuous extrusion process may offer some economic advantages, while the conventional batch process results in a superior product. You can probably test this for yourself by taste testing a generic store brand cornflake, which is probably extruded and a Kellogg's cornflake, which is batch cooked. Notice the color, texture, and surface blistering of the products. You probably also notice that either one of these becomes fairly soggy in milk in a matter of seconds. However, consumers can apparently detect the difference. . . . .