3 keys to the future of food safety in poultry

Ensuring a safe food supply for consumers depends on poultry companies collaborating, educating consumers and leveraging new technologies, according to Frank Yiannas, vice president, food safety, Walmart.

(Nadia Jasmine | Freeimages.com)
(Nadia Jasmine | Freeimages.com)

The poultry industry has seen many changes in food processing over the last century, but as food safety issues like Salmonella continue to make headlines in 2018, it can be argued that the industry is still not “winning the battle” on food safety. In the future, three factors will play a critical role in the poultry industry being able to provide and ensure a safe source of chicken for consumers, according to Frank Yiannas, speaking on July 23 to attendees of the 2018 Chicken Marketing Summit.

Walmart Frank Yiannis 1507 P Iwalmart

Frank Yiannas | Photo courtesy of Walmart

“What’s got the poultry industry to the state it is today in terms of food safety, while there has been progress no doubt, it's not what is going to get the poultry industry there, and we have to do things differently,” Yiannas commented about the poultry industry's future related to winning the battle on food safety.

Yiannas is Walmart's vice president, food safety.

What’s next for food safety in poultry?

1. Accelerate prevention and be more collaborative

Yiannas said that while the poultry industry does much product testing regarding food safety, in actuality, these test results are leading to more questions that require more collaborative work to be done across the entire poultry production chain.  

“Each and every one of you in the room today are in this race, and that race is between your ability and your company's ability to prevent poultry-related illnesses and our ability as a society to detect them. ...I believe that public health detection is outpacing industry prevention," Yiannas said, emphasizing that the industry has a duty to accelerate prevention of food safety issues related to poultry products. 

He advised the industry to take a more holistic view of food safety when it comes to poultry and work with all stakeholders, from suppliers to government agencies to academic institutions to public and private sector companies, to try to solve food safety challenges related to poultry meat.

“A lot of challenges in the future will require collaboration between all stakeholders," he said. 

2. Educate consumers

Food safety, Yiannas said, is a shared responsibility; it depends on poultry companies educating consumers. He gave the examples of something as simple as providing bags to double bag raw chicken that include food safety tips on them to launching a social media or advertising campaign.

"I think as an industry, the poultry group could certainly step up and get more involved in consumer education," Yiannas said.

3. Leverage technology and insights from data

New technologies continue to improve companies' ability to be more transparent when it comes to food production and safety. Yiannas encouraged the poultry industry to take advantage of these new technologies, specifically blockchain, in order to ensure a safer chicken supply. 

"We're interested in blockchain not because we're chasing the new shiny coin, but we believe blockchain could be the enabling technology that will bring in the new era of food transparency," Yiannas said of Walmart's philosophy of using this technology to improve food safety.

He advised poultry producers to assess the role that blockchain technology can play in improving traceability in their operations and letting brands tell the stories about their products.

“We can’t assume that what we've done in past is good enough," Yiannas said. 

Join us in 2019

The 2018 Chicken Marketing Summit was hosted July 22-24 at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World. Included in the record attendance at the 2018 Summit were attendees from 11 countries. The 2019 Chicken Marketing Summit will be held July 21-23, 2019, at the Belmond Charleston Place Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina.

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