Emerging digital technologies will improve the traceability and transparency of the supply chain, creating a better food safety culture in the U.S., Frank Yiannis, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy Response at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said.
“We are in the midst right now of a food revolution. Some people predict that we're going to see more changes in the food system in the next 10 years than we saw in the last 20 or 30,” Yiannis explained during A New Era of Smarter Food Safety.
“But I believe that these modern times are going to require more modern approaches. So we're talking about it at the FDA as a new era of smarter food safety as it relates to food safety.”
A wide range of possible solutions
The future of food safety will increasingly rely on technology, Yiannis noted. A few digital solutions are already available for use in food production.
For example, blockchain can be used to trace the history of a food product from farm to fork. The technology links “blocks” of information to form a permanent, unalterable record.
In the poultry industry, blockchain has shown the greatest promise for specialty markets, such as organic and free-range eggs. In 2017 and 2018, Cargill piloted a program with “traceable turkeys” that provided consumers with information on how the animal was fed, raised and processed.
Other emerging digital technologies that can help enable better supply chain traceability and transparency include sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence.
“If we can give the facilities that make food themselves access to these digital footprints, we can move from a world where we have to rely on rules and hope for compliance to one where you can move toward real-time monitoring,” he explained.
COVID-19 highlights need for transparency
The FDA focused on leveraging these digital technologies to keep the food supply chain running smoothly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Data and insights are critical during the normal course of business, but in a time of crisis we saw that. We wanted to know more about where foods were coming from, were there shifts and changes in the supply chain, where was the virus,” said Yiannis.
“Early on we made what a bet that leaning in and investing in data and technology would be useful to combat the pandemic.”
View our continuing coverage of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
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