On April 29, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) will be launching the first episode in a new quarterly podcast series, "New Era of Smarter Food Safety Tech Talk," which will focus on the development and use of new technologies to strengthen the ability of FDA, regulated industry, and others to accelerate prevention, increase the speed of outbreak response, and more swiftly adapt to crises that may affect human and animal food supply.

Every quarter, FDA will examine a different aspect of the Core Elements in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint, for which there are novel technological approaches and solutions.

The podcast will feature top experts involved in food safety and technology. The goal is to talk about current and emerging technologies and solutions, as well as their opportunities and challenges, and explore how they may facilitate and enhance food safety.

The first podcast will be posted on April 29 on FDA's website, and the subject is Tech-enabled Traceability in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety. Andrew Kennedy, M.B.A., operations research analyst, FDA's Office of Food Policy and Response, and Kari Irvin, M.Sc., deputy director of the office of coordinated outbreak response and evaluation in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition will speak with top technology and food industry experts on the role they envision new technology playing in improved traceability. Perspectives on how FDA can help facilitate adoption of new technologies will also be discussed. Registration for the podcast is not required.

The experts:

• Institute of Food Technologists: Alison Grantham, Ph.D., Global Food Traceability Center
• FMI: The Food Industry Association: Hilary Thesmar, Ph.D., RD, CFS – chief food and product safety officer and senior vice president food safety
• GS1 – Angela Fernandez – vice president, community engagement