When it comes to managing food safety, the adage "When America sneezes, the world catches a cold" could not be more accurate. The importance of food safety regulation events and their effects on the rest of the globe may be seen if we examine the history of food safety in the United States. The establishment of food safety systems based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), and more recently the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) have all had a significant impact on how food safety is seen and managed around the world.
Many people wonder what the future of food safety holds. The "New Era of Smarter Food Safety," as the US FDA has dubbed it, is currently underway. a new age that is certain to have a significant impact on global food safety. The FDA states that there are four main components to this new blueprint:
End-to-end traceability across the whole food supply chain is the goal of technology-enabled traceability.
Aiming to improve and increase root cause analysis and predictive analytics to assist the industry in changing current procedures to avoid recognised hazards and deliver more reliable data, smarter tools and approaches for prevention and outbreak response are being developed.
Modernizing retail and new business models. The FDA is investigating the best approaches to further modernise and support ensuring the safety of foods served at restaurants and other retail venues while taking a closer look at more conventional business models.
Effective food safety management requires a strong food safety culture. The FDA thinks more has to be done to change people's ideas, attitudes, and—most importantly—behaviors and organisations' actions if we want to see significant reductions in the incidence of foodborne illness.
The FDA thinks that these fundamental components will contribute to the development of a safer, more digitally connected, traceable food system in the future and that tech-enabled traceability will have a significant impact on the world's food supply chain.
Current state of food supply chain traceability
The Codex Alimentarius Commission defines traceability, also known as product tracing, as "the ability to follow the movement of a food through defined stages of manufacturing, processing, and distribution." Traceability is used as a technique in food hygiene control systems to reduce food dangers, offer trustworthy product information, and ensure product authenticity.
No comments yet