The CDC estimates that 48 million people get sick due to foodborne illness each year – but what if they didn’t have to? Can you imagine a world without foodborne illness? That’s the dream, right? Well, these four emerging technology companies are working hard to make that dream a reality.

IBM

Block chain is a buzz word in Food Safety right now – and there is no bigger company in blockchain technology than IBM. But what exactly is this technology? Blockchain is a record keeping technology. Every time an event takes place, blockchain writes it down and puts it inside a very secure block. When you put those blocks together, you have a secure, verifiable, chain of events. IBM has taken this technology and developed a new software solution specifically for food safety called IBM Food Trust. “IBM Food Trust™ is a cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution built on the IBM Blockchain Platform. It provides the highest level of commercially-available, tamper-resistant protection for food transaction data.”  With this technology, IBM is setting the new standard for food traceability.Using the Food Trust software, companies are able to speed up recalls by identifying the issue early and minimizing the time consumers are exposed to an outbreak. Food Trust has the ability to gather real-time data on all you company’s food products, providing a data-based approach to managing recalls. Frank Yiannas, Vice President of Food Safety at Walmart, describes it as “the equivalent of Fedex tracking for food.”

KANKAN

In 2017, KanKan developed an Artificial Intelligence-Powered solution for improving personal hygiene among food workers. This data intelligence program has facial AND object recognition technology that help improve food safety practices. In English? If a restaurant owner installed this software in their kitchen, the software would be able to detect food safety violations, who committed them, and record images of the violation for review. Essentially, it’s a red-light camera for the restaurant industry.

HYPER AI

In May of this year, Hyper AI won a machine learning hackathon sponsored by Madrona Venture Labs. How did they do it? With an ingenious pitch to help the food industry using hyper-spectral imaging technology that can detect any anomalies in food – such as foreign object OR deadly bacteria. HyperAI is looking to secure funding from Madrona Venture Labs to develop the ai-based food scanning technology, which could be a game changer in improving the safety of our food.

GENOMETRAKR

GenomeTrakr is a pathogen identification network created by the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Office of Regulatory Affairs. The goal? Whole Genome sequencing on over 200,000 common foodborne pathogens. Every day we see cops use radar guns to easily catch people speeding on the highway by separating them from the cars going the speed limit. Whole genome sequencing works like a radar gun – surveilling the food supply for pathogens and allowing public health agencies to detect an outbreak early and act appropriately.

Technology is changing fast, and it shows no signs of slowing down. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Each month, we will bring you a new article on how technology is impacting the food industry. Want to find out more about how technology can improve efficiencies and help your company succeed? Click herefor more great articles from the tech team at Safe Food Alliance.

 

This article was written by Hillari Bynum, of the Safe Food Alliance

https://safefoodalliance.com/newsletter/2018-09/four-companies-shaking-up-the-food-industry/

Don’t Get Behind

As with many of FDA’s new rules that are part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the Intentional Adulteration rule sets a standard for the industry that’s similar to what many food processors already have in place.  Companies which have a GFSI certification, like SQF or BRC, already have something called a “Food Defense” plan that includes consideration of facility security measures such as locking doors, fences, security cameras, protection of digital resources, design of processing equipment, and even mail controls.

However even if this is you, don’t assume that your programs already meet the requirements of the rule; there are some new requirements to consider.  And of course, if your company still doesn’t have a food defense program you should take a serious look at what this rule expects from processors.

First, the Basics

This rule, as with the Preventive Controls rule, applies to most companies who are required to register with FDA as a food processor –the majority of the food processing industry.  This includes both domestic companies, and those foreign companies whose product is sold in the U.S.  For readers that import products into the U.S., take note!  Part of your “Foreign Supplier Verification Program” may soon need to include verifying that food defense controls are in place at your supplier’s facility.

 

In true FSMA fashion, compliance dates are staggered based on Company size:

Company Size	Compliance Date
Very small businesses: Less than $10 Million in total manufactured, processed, packed, or held	July 2021
Small Businesses: Less than 500 FTE Employees	July 2020
All Others	July 2019

 

The rule’s requirements can be summarized as follows:

• Develop a food defense plan
• Conduct an assessment of potential risks to product from intentional adulteration. Adulteration may be committed by trespassers, visitors, or even employees.
• Determine mitigation strategies (controls to reduce risk)
• Implement the plan
  • Train employees
  • Implement mitigation strategies
  • Monitor control measures
  • Apply corrective actions where needed
  • Verify the plan and its controls
• Reanalyze the plan periodically

What’s New or Different from GFSI?

In previous years food defense has been managed much like GMPs: companies would use a standard checklistto assess their facility controls, much like the tool from FSIS used by many manufacturers. While these tools are helpful, they don’t meet the new requirements that FDA has developed.

Under this rule, FDA will expect to see a more robust program, similar to a HACCP-based approach.  A full assessment of the facility and each process step will need to be done just like a HACCP plan:

1. Assemble a food defense team
2. Describe the product under evaluation
3. Develop a process flow diagram
4. Describe the process steps
5. Assess risk at each step based on 3 factors:
   1. Severity of potential public health impact
   2. Degree of access to product
   3. Ability to successfully contaminate product
6. Identify & implement mitigation strategies
7. Monitor mitigation strategies
8. Apply corrective actions as needed
9. Verification of the program

 

With regard to processing steps, the FDA has already provided guidance that there are a few key activity types considered high risk, which they will expect food processors to focus on in their facilities:

• Receiving and loading of bulk liquid ingredients / raw materials
• Liquid storage and handling processes
• Secondary ingredient handling (any point where dry or liquid ingredients are handled or manipulated)
• Mixing, grinding, and similar activities

 

As you can see based on the above, FDA’s perspective is that when ingredients or products are handled and processed in bulk there is a greater risk.  But aside from this, it is each processors’ job to conduct a full assessment of all their processes and identify controls needed at any step.

Available Guidance and Tools

There are a variety of tools that FDA has made available for the industry; the difficulty is sifting through all of the information they’ve provided, as it can be overwhelming.  Here are a few key items we recommend:

• FDA has published an excellent guidanceon the rule and has more guidance planned in the future. You can sign up for email updates on FSMA on their website.
• The FDA’s “Food Defense Plan Builder” is a piece of software that can be downloaded and used to build a compliant program.
• FDA has provided a short trainingthat can be taken by front-line employees to help them understand regulatory requirements andassist their company in meet the training requirements.
• The Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) has various types of trainingavailable in various formats, for members of management involved in developing food defense programs.

 

This article was written by Jon Kimble of the Safe Food Alliance.

https://safefoodalliance.com/newsletter/2018-09/fdas-intentional-adulteration-rule/