Traceability
The Key Ingredient For Food Safety And Quality
The Key Ingredient For Food Safety And Quality
Food borne illnesses are more than an occasional upset stomach.
Each year
Food fraud is a real threat to human and animal health.
Traceability is the most important defense against food borne illnesses and food fraud.
Traceability allows the consumers to:
Traceability helps producers:
Traceability allows the regulators to identify the source of the problem and:
These are the reasons the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 requires full traceability in the food supply chain.
Unfortunately trace back investigations are lengthy and cumbersome processes. Today's technology is not capable of effectively tracing produce from the grower to the dinner table. In the event of an outbreak, it can take up to six weeks to identify the origin of tainted food and very frequently these investigation are inconclusive. Common knee-jerk reactions are recalls of massive scope - it is not unusual for a very small amount of tainted produce to trigger recalls of hundreds of million of dollars. In some occasions, under-reactions rule with very significant impact on public health. Due to listeria tainted cantaloupe, 33 people died in 2011.
So why does it take so long to complete a trace back investigation and what can DNATREK do about it? Trace back investigations involve the painstaking collection of records, followed by employee interviews and investigator observations at every single node in the supply chain with the purpose of identifying the node that preceded it. The process requires 100% adoption and 100% compliance from all parties in the supply chain. In practical terms this means that supermarkets need to retain every single empty box or case after they move produce to display cases and consumers need to maintain all receipts and records for produce they purchase. Sometimes there are as many as 10 or more nodes in the produce supply chain and with the globalization of the food supply, trace back investigations are becoming an exercise in futility.
Watch the video below and click the button to learn about the future of traceability.
Each year
- 3,000 people in the US die due to food borne illnesses
- 125,000 people in the US get hospitalized due to food borne illnesses
- Cost of food borne illnesses to the US economy is estimated at $70 billion
- Worldwide cost is estimated at over $150 billion
Food fraud is a real threat to human and animal health.
- A US study found that at least 33% of all seafood sold is mislabeled.
- Milk, honey, olive oil, juices and other food products are frequently adulterated with less expensive ingredients, clouding agents and sometimes with dangerous ingredients such as melamine, formaldehyde and toxic dyes.
- Food fraud costs the food industry over $15 billion each year and the cost is rapidly rising.
Traceability is the most important defense against food borne illnesses and food fraud.
Traceability allows the consumers to:
- Be certain that their food is organics, GMO free, pesticide free, kosher, etc.
- Protect their families from food borne illnesses
- Support responsible and sustainable farming
Traceability helps producers:
- Gain access to retailers who demand product traceability
- Protect their reputation and avoid undue recall costs
- Respond effectively to problems and implement effective improvements
Traceability allows the regulators to identify the source of the problem and:
- Respond and contain the outbreak
- Protect public health
- Minimize economic impact on producers and retailers
- Implement long term measures to prevent recurrence
These are the reasons the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 requires full traceability in the food supply chain.
Unfortunately trace back investigations are lengthy and cumbersome processes. Today's technology is not capable of effectively tracing produce from the grower to the dinner table. In the event of an outbreak, it can take up to six weeks to identify the origin of tainted food and very frequently these investigation are inconclusive. Common knee-jerk reactions are recalls of massive scope - it is not unusual for a very small amount of tainted produce to trigger recalls of hundreds of million of dollars. In some occasions, under-reactions rule with very significant impact on public health. Due to listeria tainted cantaloupe, 33 people died in 2011.
So why does it take so long to complete a trace back investigation and what can DNATREK do about it? Trace back investigations involve the painstaking collection of records, followed by employee interviews and investigator observations at every single node in the supply chain with the purpose of identifying the node that preceded it. The process requires 100% adoption and 100% compliance from all parties in the supply chain. In practical terms this means that supermarkets need to retain every single empty box or case after they move produce to display cases and consumers need to maintain all receipts and records for produce they purchase. Sometimes there are as many as 10 or more nodes in the produce supply chain and with the globalization of the food supply, trace back investigations are becoming an exercise in futility.
Watch the video below and click the button to learn about the future of traceability.
