Global ID Group has announced the North American launch of HorizonScan, a Web-based information system that monitors food safety and integrity issues worldwide. HorizonScan gathers detailed reports on a daily basis from more than 70 national inspection agencies involving over 490 food commodities from 180 countries. The system offers customizable alerts on the latest incidents as well as searchable historical data going back over 15 years.

Developed by UK-based Fera Science, Ltd., HorizonScan gives food safety professionals global visibility into a wide range of incidents. Reports on contaminants such as mycotoxins, allergens, microbes, heavy metals, pesticides, veterinary drug residues, and dioxins, as well as food fraud and authenticity events are updated daily.

A hypothetical example might be a food manufacturer that is considering importing peanuts from China. A quick search in the HorizonScan database reveals there has been an upward trend in the incidence of aflatoxin contamination in Chinese peanuts during the past 3 years, including 108 documented incidents in the last 12 months alone. Armed with this knowledge the manufacturer could prepare an appropriate testing and risk management plan to control this issue. The manufacturer could also use HorizonScan’s Supplier Check function to research which suppliers have a history of reported issues.

As of July 2016, the HorizonScan online database contains over 63,000 incident records and includes 15 years of archival data. Subscribers to the service can search by commodity, type of incident, country of origin, date range, supplier, etc., and tap into a wealth of analytical data, statistics, trend line graphs and original incident reports. In addition, Fera food safety specialists provide an analytical priority/risk rating for each reported incident as well as alerts on emerging issues that could signal the beginning of new trends.

Global ID Group | GlobalHorizonScan.com