Sara Bratager

This article discusses the challenges facing the food industry with only one year left until the FSMA 204 compliance deadline.

Of all the key features of FDA's Traceability Final Rule, the Traceability Lot Code (TLC) stands out for its criticality and understated complexity. This crucial code serves as a breadcrumb trail, highlighting every step a product takes through the supply chain. To meet the TLC requirements, industry actors will need to make significant modifications to current lot coding practices. 

Robust food traceability systems serve several roles in advancing food safety and sustainability. Traceability systems are inherently collaborative and require all members of a product supply chain to collect, store, and share data.

The IFT FIRST event offered several key takeaways impacting food safety, from topics and issues surrounding supply chain disruption and innovation to data standards and contaminants.