The Food Safety Authority of Ireland recently published an audit report that focused on food businesses’ levels of compliance with food law as it relates to traceability and labeling for meat products.

Food companies that prepare fresh food items often source individual ingredients from primary suppliers. The food safety risk is typically controlled at primary supplier plants or farms; however, the food safety stakes are high. In response to this higher risk, FDA included requirements for supplier food safety management in the Food Safety Modernization Act. While the Preventive Controls Rule applies to FDA-regulated ingredients, the principles and importance of effective supplier food safety management programs cuts across all food, regardless of who regulates it and who sells it. It is necessary to have "boots on the ground" to assess how food safety and quality programs are integrated with the front-line operation for those suppliers who mitigate food safety risk on the behalf of a receiving company.

Food safety has always been an important issue, but like workplace health and safety, its profile is growing and must be viewed as a business essential.

The Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) aims to explore how technology can enhance traceability solutions in the produce sector with a new working group.

Continuous intelligence can help transform your supply chain by adding critical context to your data and advancing traceability. In this exclusive eBook from Food Safety Magazine, you’ll learn how Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing the food and beverage industry through advanced traceability and automation to improve yield, safety, quality, and compliance. Harnessing the power of continuous intelligence will help you better manage complex supply chains, increase your productivity, and drive growth in your operation.

Supply chain is critical to any food safety program. Having full control and traceability of raw materials and end products is no longer an option, but rather a requirement. In the past two years, the pandemic has exposed new weaknesses and made visible the business risks posed by an unstable supply chain.

Improving food traceability is a key objective for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) as demonstrated by the initiatives in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint to create a safer and more traceable food supply chain. 

Here we discuss the results of a pilot study that explored enhanced data sharing in the seafood supply chain.

Cargill has joined U.S. CattleTrace, with the goal of developing a national infrastructure for tracing animal disease in the U.S. cattle industry.